Taking the LEED
Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Elaine Misonzhnik
Few design and construction professionals will quibble with the notion that U.S. retail operators have largely eschewed green design techniques. To date, office and multi-family developers and tenants have led the charge in the practice of securing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (GBC). Retailers and shopping center developers have been slower to adopt environmentally sustainable features. The lag, however, has not been because the retail industry is not interested in green design. Instead, the industry has found achieving existing LEED standards — developed with homes and offices in mind — too onerous for the retail world.
The rare operators willing to go green have found the rules of the LEED guidebook for commercial properties provided by the GBC, the nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable building design, to be a bad fit for retail because of stringent occupancy, transportation, water and energy requirements that are easier to apply to offices than they are to stores or shopping centers, according to Kate Costanza, a sustainability coordinator with MulvannyG2 Architecture, a Bellevue, Wash.-based architecture firm. What's more, the certification process, which currently requires extensive documentation and thousands of dollars in registration fees for each property, is too overwhelming if all you're trying to do is get a 5,000-square-foot location certified. The requirements clash with the retail business expansion model, which dictates building dozens of new stores in a matter of months. “When you have a rapid construction schedule to open up in time for the holidays and you have to make sure that all of the [necessary] information is being gathered and documented, that speed can be daunting,” Costanza says.
However, some retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Kohl's Corp., have chosen to work with GBC and convinced the agency to tweak its rules. Those efforts are now contributing to the creation of new retail-specific LEED standards that are in the pilot stage. When finalized, they may open the door to widespread adoption of sustainable design techniques within the retail sector. Currently, the GBC is conducting pilot programs that will tailor the LEED certification process to retail, including core and shell construction and store interiors. The changes will affect only a handful of certification credits, according to Marc Heisterkamp, director of commercial real estate with GBC, but are expected to have a significant impact on the retail sector. The agency will also make it possible for business owners across all sectors to certify a prototype property and then build all subsequent projects according to that model, eliminating the need for building-by-building certification. All three programs, including LEED for Retail: New Construction, LEED for Retail: Interiors and LEED Volume, are scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2009. “I have worked with a lot of retailers who were interested in beginning to look at sustainability and they were frustrated because there hasn't been LEED certification available for them,” says Dawn Clark, a principal with NBBJ, a global design firm. “This is all very new and they are very motivated.”
New programs
When it comes to LEED for Retail: New Construction, the points retail developers will be able to earn to qualify for certification won't differ significantly from other commercial buildings, says Teresa Burrelsman, director of the sustainability program with Seattle-based architecture firm Callison, which has been working with Wachovia on rolling out 300 LEED-certified regional banking branches by 2010. The program rewards the use of brownfield sites, recycled building materials and daylighting techniques. Where the changes will really come into play will be within LEED for Retail: Interiors, which will rework GBC's existing standards for commercial interiors to fit with retailers' unique energy, water use and transportation requirements, according to Don Grainger, associate principal with Perkowitz + Ruth, a Long Beach, Calif.-based architecture firm. Perkowitz + Ruth has been working with Wal-Mart, which is participating in the LEED for Retail pilot program along with about 40 other retailers.
