Greening retail

Greening retail

With more retailers creating environmentally-friendly stores, green retail may be the wave of the future

By Sree Roy, Associate Editor

Aug 1, 2005

DDI continues our three-part series on The Coming Green Boom this month with a look at green retail design. Environmentally-friendly design techniques, such as daylighting, low-water use fixtures and green roofs, are manifesting themselves in the industry, resulting in improved aesthetics and brand images and lowered energy costs. In October, we will look at developments in environmentally-friendly design products—from flooring to lighting to fixturing and more.

When supermarket Giant Eagle first opened its doors in June 2003 in Brunswick, Ohio, everything seemed to indicate a normal grand opening day. Appetizing food awaited the first customers; furniture and fixtures were all in their proper positions; and the cash registers were ready to ring up sales. But one aspect of this new retail space distinguished it from all other new supermarkets—its lack of the familiar "new store smell." Essentially the same as the "new car" odor that greets recent car buyers, new store smell reveals the usage of "volatile organic compounds," or VOCs, which are dangerous chemical compounds that damage the environment, causing serious health problems. The Brunswick Giant Eagle, the first-ever certified "green" or environmentally-friendly grocery store, managed to all but eliminate these harmful compounds. "When you realize the smell represents nothing but VOCs, you realize that it's something you really don't want to be smelling," says Matt Majeed, project director at MCG Architecture, Cleveland, the design firm who worked on the Giant Eagle.

As the first supermarket to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (commonly known as LEED; see sidebar, "Getting certified") certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the 80,000-sq.-ft. store incorporates renewable wheat and straw boards in place of wood for most of the cabinetry, paneling and casework in the space. The store also uses carpet and sealant with low VOCs.

More than 50 percent of the location's electrical energy is supplied through wind generation, and 50 large daylight systems allow for an efficient balance of fluorescent lighting and daylighting. Sensors installed in each skylight measure the daylight throughout the day and adjust the local fluorescent fixtures. "Daylighting harvests the light that is outside and, through reflective screens, brings it into the store," Majeed says. "Even on a cloudy day, it allows for diminished use of the standard fluorescent lights."

Energy efficiency is also accomplished through a reflective, white roof that prevents the heat-island effect. "A black roof absorbs all outside heat and translates it into the store, causing the retailer to increase air conditioning to compensate for the excessive heat that is entering through the roof. The Giant Eagle roof has a highly reflective membrane, which reflects more than 50 percent of that heat," Majeed says. "It's similar to the logic behind wearing light clothes in the summer. Here, the AC will not work as hard to cool the stores, theoretically saving thousands of dollars a month."

The store even uses some of its food products in an environmentally-friendly way. A unique waste disposal system uses the stored juice from the fruits and vegetables it shreds to lubricate the process and keep waste flowing to the grinder, potentially saving 100,000 gallons of water every year.

Planting the seeds for green retail

Supermarkets are not the only retail sector in which green design is taking root. Green retail design can be found in such ubiquitous retailers as Starbucks and Wal-Mart.

Membership in the nonprofit industry group USGBC has grown more than 1,000 percent in the past four years, currently including more than 5,500 member companies and organizations. Further, the annual U.S. market in green building products and services has grown to $5.8 billion, representing 34 percent growth from the previous year. During the past four years, more than229 million sq. ft. of commercial building space, which includes retail builds, has been registered or certified under LEED.

"Sustainable retail is something that is really just beginning," says Laura Curry, a trend analyst at NBBJ, a Seattle-based design firm that is emerging at the forefront of green building techniques in retail design, building and construction. "We first recognized this trend about two years ago and identified it as a trend that A) was going to happen, B) needed to happen and C) that NBBJ should be a part of and lead." Teresa Burrelsman, a green building consultant at Paladino & Co. Inc., a Seattle-based firm that serves as a technical consultant to the USGBC's Retail Development Committee, has also noticed a growing green retail trend. "I have more and more retailers contacting me about green building, who are asking questions like, 'How does it apply to me?' and 'What is LEED, and can I use it?' We're really in the first wave of this movement, and we're seeing all the early adopters now," Burrelsman says.

Of course, all the feel-good talk about green retail design is nice, but one of the important elements that retailers and retail designers want to ensure is that green building is consistent with store environments and brand stories. "Retailers are looking for the green building features that will connect to their products, so when they're talking about the brand and the experience, it will complement those aspects," says Burrelsman. PNC Bank, a subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh, and a Paladino client, has successfully achieved this goal. "PNC has really used green building strategies as a way of connecting to the community," Burrelsman says. "[Its branding involves] transparency and a welcome feeling, so the buildings are very light, open and airy. The signage is recycled-content materials, so the whole green building concept has a nice synergy with [the bank's] brand story." (See DDI's upcoming October issue for additional coverage of PNC Bank's greening efforts.)

Success stories

REI

Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Co. is another company in which corporate responsibility is woven into its brand image. The retailer even has a director of environmental affairs, Ben Packard, who spoke to attendees at a recent industry tradeshow about sustainable retail. "There is a definite business reason for LEED," Packard told the audience at GlobalShop 2005 in March. He detailed Starbucks' efforts, which include using paints with lower VOCs, energy-efficient lighting, reduced-flow fixtures that conserve water and cabinetry made in part from post-industrial material with no added formaldehyde.

The coffee retailer also takes advice from its "green team," a group of employees who serve as the retailer's internal champions of environmental initiatives, such as recycling, waste reduction and energy and water conservation. Recent green team projects include advocating the use of reusable commuter mugs (by providing a 10-cent discount to customers who bring their own mugs), offering its nitrogen-rich coffee grounds to gardeners to add into composts and promoting Earth Day activities.

Outdoor gear and clothing retailer REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), Kent, Wash., is also enhancing its in-store experience through green design. Its Portland, Ore., store holds the distinction of being the first retailer to have earned a LEED for Commercial Interiors "Gold" rating. The 37,500-sq.-ft. store, designed by Seattle-based design and architecture firm Mithun, uses fixtures constructed of non-formaldehyde composite wood. Low-water use fixtures in restrooms reduce consumption by 32 percent. Natural lighting, which is brought into the store through high windows, combined with photo cells that can turn off electric lighting, help realize a 26 percent reduction in energy usage.

The store also boasts low VOC emissions. Where paint is necessary, only non-VOC emitting types are used. The VOC emissions from the carpet are also below traditional levels. And, during construction, 96 percent of waste was recycled as the store was built.

Some retailers are seeking a lighter environment footprint mainly for ethical reasons, after years of seemingly unbridled expansion. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unveiled its "Acres for America" program this year, which pledges to conserve at least one acre of wildlife habitat for every acre the retail giant develops. The retailer has committed $35 million to the initiative. "Giving back to the communities was the right thing to do," says Tara Stewart, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. "We're a developer, and as we grow we wanted to give back to the communities we serve."

Wal-Mart also recently began incorporating efficient lighting in its stores, including using daylighting in its new builds and retrofitting old stores with more efficient lamps and ballasts. Beginning in 2000, Wal-Mart began retrofitting its discount stores, supercenters, SAM'S Clubs and distribution centers with T-8 low-mercury fluorescent lamps and electronic ballasts, reducing the amount of electricity used in each store by about 15 percent.

And, in perhaps its boldest move of all, Wal-Mart was scheduled to open an environmentally-friendly experimental store in McKinney, Texas, on July 20 (after press time). The store incorporates cutting-edge green technologies, including alternative energy sources. "The store houses a variety of experiments that will be studied over three years to determine best practices for the industry as a whole," Stewart says.

Pros & cons

Retailers that go green can reap many advantages, in addition to the respectable sense of ethics and an enhanced public image. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that green design can reduce operating costs, improve occupant productivity, enhance and protect bio-diversity in the ecosystem and improve the overall quality of life.

Many retailers and designers also note a sort of Holy Trinity of sustainability when discussing its benefits. The newly dubbed "triple bottom line" (a phrase commonly attributed to John Elkington, co-founder of U.K. firm SustainAbility) refers to the triad of economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. "Without economic sustainability, a practice will obviously not continue; without environmental sustainability, the planet won't support it; and without social sustainability, which means it supports human systems and social structure, it won't continue," says Margaret Montgomery, a sustainable advisor at NBBJ. "These three components are what makes something succeed over time."

Despite its devout and growing following, this concept leaves room for skepticism, at least for now. With the green retail movement still in its infancy, many of the kinks have yet to be worked out. "It scares some retailers," Burrelsman says. "They don't want to be the first fast-food retailer to go green, even if other types of retailers have tried it. Retailers prefer to look at other similar retailers and then extrapolate the results to their own stores."

There is a steep learning curve for retailers and design firms who are creating their first green prototype. "It took quite a bit of effort from all the members of the design team," says Majeed of Giant Eagle's Brunswick store, the design firm's first LEED-certified project. "We had to find vendors, suppliers and installers that provided green materials and were able to work with green products. We weren't just specifying materials, but actually researching them on our end."

In addition, aggressively expanding retailers can be turned off by the USGBC's certification process, which currently does not effectively accommodate volume builds. However, the retail development committee of the USGBC is working on a solution to this problem and has adopted an interim solution, which allows a retailer's subsequent LEED applications to be shorter than the original, documenting only the credits that change between store sites.

Still, many retailers and designers who have dabbled in green initiatives say the seeds are in place for this trend to become entrenched in retail design. "When we started talking to some of our standard vendors about green materials, many showed a lot of interest and curiosity," Majeed says. "It was as though they were appreciating something good, and it was becoming contagious." For the sake of both the environment and the quality of retail design, many retailers and designers hope he's right.

SIDEBAR: Getting certified

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit coalition, developed the industry's best-known green building certification process. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system awards credit points to green buildings, including retail interiors, based on 1) sustainable sites, 2) energy and atmosphere, 3) water efficiency, 4) indoor environmental quality, 5) materials and resources and 6) innovation in design. If a building scores the required number of points, it will achieve one of four progressive levels of certification: certified, silver, gold and platinum.

Based on a project's square footage, the registration fee can range up to $3,750. The certification process usually takes about three months from submittal. Certification is available for new constructions (LEED-NC), existing buildings (LEED-EB), commercial interiors (LED-CI), core & shell (LEED-CS, to be released this year), homes (LEED-H, to be developed this year) and neighborhood development (LEED-NC, in development). In addition, the USGBC recently piloted a LEED Application Guide for Retail, which specifically addresses LEED certification for retailers. To view an early draft of the guide, visit the USGBC's Web site, www.usgbc.org.

Green Globes, licensed by nonprofit organization The Green Building Initiative, is an interactive, online assessment for green building. This system rates 1) project management, 2) site, 3) energy, 4) water, 5) resources, 6) emissions and effluences and 7) indoor environment. Certified buildings, which must be verified by a third party, must receive at least 35 percent of the total possible points, and are rated on a progressive scale. An online building assessment costs $500 and involves answering about 150 questions. To use the system or for more information, visit www.thegbi.org/commercial/greenglobes/index.htm.

—Sree Roy, Associate Editor

SIDEBAR2: Up on the rooftop
greenroof

Imagine a city where roofs are transformed from sweltering, barren, tar-topped eyesores into a healthy, lush, living network of gardens and greenery that help sustain all life. Earth Pledge, a New York nonprofit, already has.

With its Greening Gotham project, part of Earth Pledge’s Green Roofs Initiative, the organization is raising awareness about the benefits of green roofs. “Green roofs mitigate the urban heat island effect, by cooling down a roof’s surface and the air directly above it,” says Leslie Hoffman, executive director at Earth Pledge. “Also, because they’re designed to capture storm water, they prevent sewage overflow. Green roofs also extend the life of the roof, by protecting its underlying waterproof membrane.” Greening Gotham uses New York as its example, showcasing both the environmental and aesthetic benefits of a city that, if greened, would reap these benefits. The initiative’s Web site (www.greeninggotham.org) encourages users to help make this vision a reality.

Some retailers have also taken steps to embody this vision. In 2003, Apple opened a store on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago that features a 2,400-sq.-ft. sedum roof made of pre-grown modules. The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver features a green roof. And both The Home Depot Inc., Atlanta, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark., have green roofs that will soon open atop stores in the Chicago area.

Green roofs essentially are roofing systems that are covered with vegetation, such as grass and flowers. There are two types: extensive, which require only 2.5 in. to 6 in. of growing medium (usually organic matter and lightweight mineral aggregate), and are lighter weight and less expensive; and intensive, which require at least 8 in. of growing medium.

To retrofit an existing roof—or to build a new one—the roof must be engineered to carry a load of at least 10 pounds per sq. ft., the minimum weight of a green roof. If the roof will be a public space for customers or employees, it must also follow building codes for occupied spaces.

—Sree Roy, Associate Editor

REI Photo by Eckert & Eckert, Portland, Ore.