The new face of retail

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) newest rating system—set to launch in 2008—could have significant impacts on the retail building market.

Since 1998, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards have transformed the design, construction and operation of high performance sustainable buildings. The LEED for Retail program offers certification opportunities for retail spaces that are either new construction (NC) projects or commercial interior (CI) projects.

LEED for Retail-NC encompasses new and newly renovated standalone buildings while the LEED for Retail-CI classification allows tenants of shopping centers, malls or other adjoined space to certify a face-lift or build-out of their retail space. The system’s evolution. A consensus-driven organization, USGBC realized from member feedback that credits for LEED-CI certification didn’t fit retailers’ varied needs, prompting the organization to launch the LEED for Retail pilot program.

While office buildings have long-term employees, fairly consistent water usage, and office-specific lighting, the energy and resource use in retail spaces are typically irregular: Customer traffic and water use varies, and some spaces, such as restaurants and grocers, often use refrigeration or other high-energy equipment. In particular, the lighting needs of retail—vastly different from offices—are critical for business.

In developing the LEED for Retail-NC rating, UCGBS recognized that equipment with high energy consumption unique to restaurants and grocery stores, including commercial kitchen equipment, refrigeration units, commercial dishwashers and washing machines—even the ventilation and hoods above a cooking area— needed to be incorporated in the rating system. Unique to retail, the components (which contribute to “process energy loads”) hadn’t been considered in any LEED rating before.

Similarly, retail stores pose a challenge in terms of what falls under the certification’s purview and what doesn’t. “If you took the roof off and turned the building upside down, whatever didn’t fall out is part of the certification,” says Ralph DiNola, principle at Portland–based consulting firm Green Building Services, which USGBC contracted to help manage the LEED for Retail pilot program. More than 80 project teams joined the pilot in 2007 to create and test the new ratings.