Green Perspectives: This Time, It’s Personal

Pedal Pusher
Todd Taylor, director of design, Darden Restaurants Inc.

Does one bike rack equal an eco-friendly company policy? Well, why not? To make a difference, you have to start somewhere. Sustainability begins with the simplest and often smallest change. A single bike rack represents a step onto the field of play. Providing the reminder, no matter how simple, may be enough to change someone’s habit of driving to work every day. The bike rack represents not just an eco-friendly company policy, but the symbol of the first step toward a sustainable future.

Smart Before Sexy
Vanan Muregesan, mechanical engineer, Store Design Services, a subsidiary of SuperValu

To be successful, the concept of sustainability must not only benefit the environment, but also the retailer’s bottom line. Unfortunately, in the rush to sustainability, some retailers invest in green practices that may adversely impact their business – especially in their flagship “spare-no-expense” green stores. For instance, LED lighting is the product du jour among retailers keen on sustainability. While it’s a fantastic solution for certain applications, like refrigerated cases, it may not be the right solution for every aspect of a store. Should an owner install LED lighting exclusively in one high-profile store or invest in efficient T-8 lighting or intelligent lighting controls in multiple stores?
Eventually, the phrase “green design” may disappear, and what will remain is smart design. My suggestion is to exercise common sense when practicing green design – stick to what’s proven and beware of the hype.

Behold the Humble Skylight
David Birnbaum, LEED AP, architect, design development, Chute Gerdeman

I feel the modern skylight is the single greatest innovation for creating green store design. Skylights in one form or another have been used for years, but using them in a retail environment can reap many benefits. Products and their packaging look better under natural light, which makes merchandise more attractive to customers.

Studies have shown that people shop more under daylight, as well. During daytime, when a store is supplemented by natural light, light fixtures can be fitted with sensors that will automatically turn them off or down, reducing power consumption. Less lighting means less heat load, which brings down the store’s cooling costs and may allow for smaller, less-expensive HVAC components. Some of the more technologically advanced skylights can rotate to track the sun and maximize the amount of lighting into the store.

Then and Now
Nancy Everhart, LEED AP, studio principal, Little

Marvin Gaye’s song “Mercy Mercy Me,” released in 1971, shows how “ecology” has been a concern for decades. As kids, we built projects for art class from trash found in local streams and were reminded of the crying Indian commercial if we so much as thought about leaving a 10-cent milk carton on the playground. From songs to commercials to discussions in social studies, living with an environmental conscience is not new.

Not surprising, the first wave of retailers exploring green technology to its fullest is made up of those whose brand positions parallel environmental issues. As an architect, I have a great opportunity to show clients how they can use sustainable products to their social and economic advantage. Retailers are faced with tough economic issues every year – not just during a recession. They repeatedly have to be on the mark with product offerings and marketing efforts so the financials allow them to continue to the next quarter. So let’s not dismiss small efforts toward sustainability just because they’re not cradle-to-cradle. As taught back way back when, a penny saved is a penny earned.

The Green Dream
Lisa Russell, LEED AP, president, Ecoxera

Retail design has the power to change our buying habits and affect our senses like no other design genre. But what if retail design could also play a restorative role? What if, instead of clear-cutting a site to build a new building with virgin materials, a retailer selects an existing building and site that restores commerce to a blighted area, while also repairing green space and wetlands? What if we designed stores that gave back more energy than they consumed? What if we designed stores and products with the clear intention: “We will own this forever and be responsible for its impact”?

 These “what ifs” aren’t as far from reality as you might think. We need to move past the discussion of sustainable design into the realm of regeneration. The way we’ve designed stores and products to date is wholly “unsustainable.” Innovative, restorative and regenerative practices need to be feathered into current sustainability strategies to create a holistic, life-cycle platform for retail design.

Greening the Supermarket Sector
Vanan Muregesan, mechanical engineer, Store Design Services, a subsidiary of SuperValu

My favorite green design project is the Giant-Eagle supermarket in Brunswick, Ohio. It was the first supermarket in the nation to receive LEED certification. Since then, there have since numerous LEED supermarkets, including a LEED Gold-certified Cub Foods store in St. Paul that I helped design. However, I feel that Brunswick Giant-Eagle paved the way for embracing LEED design principles.

With an increasing population and expanding residential areas, the number of supermarkets is expected to rise. The EPA states that an average supermarket consumes 51.3 kWh and 38000 BTUs per square foot. Compared to a typical office building (15.5 kWh and 27000 BTUs per square foot), you can see why it is crucial for this industry to embrace sustainable design.

Supermarkets also hold a special place in a community. It is the place where the community gathers to obtain the most basic of necessities – food. With educational in-store signage, a green supermarket has the unique opportunity to educate the local population on the importance of sustainable design.

To Design Sustainably You Must Live Sustainably
Dan Hones, creative director, 2Hemispheres

More than a dozen years ago, I had the opportunity to design a tradeshow booth for an athletic shoe manufacturer. When the client and I realized that we both were concerned about the environment and committed to sustainability, we decided to build the booth completely of recycled cardboard, found steel and rubber waste from the company’s manufacturing process. While the booth won an award for its sustainable design, the experience confirmed my belief that sustainability must be a way of life for a designer. At home, for example, I use plants for shading; energy-efficient bulbs for lighting; and rain water to irrigate my plants.

Professionally, we should think about sustainability in everything we do for a project. Yes, we can specify exotic woods for store fixtures to make them visually striking. Or, we can recommend locally available woods to minimize shipping costs and preserve the exotic species at the same time. We can avoid using non-sustainable adhesives or specify flooring that insulates and reduces heat loss?. Sustainability is a way of life that should permeate everything we do.

Construction Waste Saves the Day
Stephen Jovicich, LEED AP, ceo, partner, Heights Venture Architects

A few years ago, our contractor had the opportunity to learn the true value of the construction waste recycling program we required for our LEED-CI Gold-certified retail project. Our design specified formaldehyde-free, FSC-certified plywood core for both millwork and general use in lieu of conventional plywood. The contractor made his takeoffs and placed his orders allowing for the wood’s six week delivery schedule.

Materials arrived and at long last, the work began. The contractor pushed forward keeping a diligent pace to get the store open. As the months went by and the store neared completion, the carpenter began the final task of installing the protective plywood wainscot in the back halls. Days away from grand opening, he reported to the general contractor that there wasn’t enough plywood to finish the back hall.

Since there wasn’t enough time to order more plywood and the design intent was to minimize ecological impact, he sent the carpenter deep into the recycling container to pull out scraps of the approved material and proceeded to create a mosaic of scraps to cover the wall.