From the Editor

From the Editor
Green: Still not a passing fad in retail

By Alison Embrey Medina, Executive Editor
October 01, 2009

Green is still slowly leaking in to the retail store. A recyclable sign here, a fixture made of repurposed material there. Lighting that saves more energy than what may have been used before, or an HVAC system that prioritizes efficiency. Perhaps the company has instituted a recycling policy, or perhaps has even dabbled in LEED certification. Or perhaps—has not. And, hey, that’s okay, too.

For retailers, sustainability is not a passing fad, but rather a strategic initiative being employed by some of the best-performing brands across the industry. Whether green initiatives are at the heart and soul of the organization’s core, or simply a means of saving money, the end result—a reduction of waste and energy use—is the same.

Despite economic concerns, retailers remain more committed than ever to environmental issues, according to a July Retail Systems Research (RSR) report. While the initial investment might be a hefty chunk, the significant cost savings and long-term benefit to the brand image can often validate the dollars spent. An overwhelming number of the report’s respondents view a reduction in energy consumption at the store level (92 percent) and throughout the supply chain (88 percent) as key opportunities to realize additional cost savings. Other examples of high-ROI, environmentally sustainable opportunities identified in the survey include packaging (89 percent), product design (84 percent) and—you guessed it—new store construction (79 percent). While cost savings is the dominating motivator behind retailers’ investment in green strategies, RSR research found retailers place equal weight on brand-building opportunities, positioning themselves to capture demand from consumers seeking environmentally friendly companies—not just in the products they sell, but as a member of their community.

Green retailing has become a differentiator in the brand equation. “Those retailers whose sales are already outperforming their peers have a much different approach to green retailing,” says Steve Rowen, RSR managing partner and report co-author. “They view environmental sustainability holistically, as a baseline component to any new or existing practice throughout the enterprise. Their underperforming peers still tackle green efforts on a project-oriented basis.”
Take REI’s store in Round Rock, Texas, which was awarded Project of the Year in the Association for Retail Environments’ (A.R.E.) inaugural Sustainability Awards this summer. The store design marries a holistic, comprehensive sustainable approach with outstanding design aesthetics and functionality. A.R.E. reported that the store’s green measures also provide operational savings for the retailer, meeting triple-bottom-line objectives. But the store was not a one-off test project to see whether green was in the company’s future. REI is green. The brand and its environmental roots are one and the same.

In this issue, you’ll find of range of not only LEED-certified projects, but LEED Platinum-certified projects. These are some of the most efficient, energy-conserving retail environments out there, and we are happy to share with you some of their green tricks of the trade. Take a browse through Chipotle’s new LEED Platinum store design (page 10) or Hannaford Bros., the first Platinum-certified supermarket (page 28). The Bardessono inn in Napa Valley (page 32) is also pursuing Platinum certification, as is Green Depot on the Bowery in Manhattan (page 34).

In many of these stories, you’ll discover how the design teams didn’t necessarily set out to achieve Platinum status, but their devotion and dedication to simply creating a better, more efficient and less wasteful environment led them to realize certification might not be a bad side-effect. The moral is: it doesn’t take a USGBC stamp to make your store a smarter building. It just takes a little research—and a little dedication.
Green is the future, and it’s not going anywhere.

Alison Embrey Medina
Executive Editor
aembrey@ddimagazine.com