Group Votes New Rules to Make Retail Buildings Eco
“Green is the new black” has been the slogan of eco-fashion fans for the past couple of years, and soon, buildings for their favorite boutiques might be as eco-friendly as the best organic-cotton fashion labels.
The Washington D.C.–based U.S. Green Building Council is scheduled to wrap up balloting to approve its new guidelines for retail buildings on May 1. If its retail guidelines are approved, the nonprofit organic-certification group will be ready to give retail buildings the organization’s much sought-after LEED rating in August, said Nick Shaffer, USGBC’s manager of commercial real estate.
Retailers face different environmental challenges than other groups for which USGBC created guidelines, such as developers constructing new buildings. Retail buildings are unique because they must take into account not only use by retailers and their employees but also how waves of customers will use the retail building, too. Since 2000, developers and building owners have submitted USGBC documentation to prove a building is eco-friendly. If the documentation is sound, the USGBC will certify the building with a LEED rating. (LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.”)
Shaffer said 1,800 representatives of USGBC’s retail members’ companies must approve the guidelines. That number is 10 percent of the 18,000 fashion retailers, restaurants and other retailers that claim membership in the USGBC. Retailers Kohl’s, Coldwater Creek, REI and restaurant chain Chipotle have worked with USGBC to make some of their buildings eco-friendly.
The guidelines have been available for public comment since 2006 and have been changed a few times since then. The guidelines span five different subject areas:
Sustainable Sites: This guideline asks if the area around a store lends itself to what the USGBC believes to be eco-friendly practices. For example, is it located close to a stop for mass transit?
Water Efficiency: This guideline checks if a retail site uses too much water. The USGBC recommends using low-flush toilets to cut down on water usage.
Energy Efficiency: Eco-friendly guidelines cut energy usage from 24 percent to 50 percent, according to the USGBC. This guideline gives extra points for building managers creating their own energy through means such as solar power.
Indoor Environmental Quality: This guideline checks for the quality and potential health hazards in a building’s heating and air-conditioning system.
Materials and Resources: This guideline checks for use of recycled materials in a building’s materials, such as concrete. It also checks if the retailer or store participates in a recycling program.
Retailers will get extra points for innovation (creating new programs or ways to make buildings eco-friendly).
USGBC also plan to tailor its guidelines—ranging from retailers doing business in stand-alone buildings to retailers who can control building interiors in malls. Details on guidelines are available online at www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1734.—Andrew Asch
