retail

Shop Green ‘Til You Drop! Is sustainable retail development an oxymoron? Not according to the many retailers and retail developers profiled in Jerry Yudelson’s latest green building book, Sustainable Retail Development: New Success Strategies (Springer, October 2009), written for the 70,000-member International Council of Shopping Centers. For the past two years, Yudelson has been ICSC’s Research Scholar for Retail Real Estate Sustainability. In the book, he profiles retail sustainability efforts worldwide and presents a solid business case for greening retail operations and shows how leading companies are advancing sustainable retail businesses.

Sustainable Retail Development maintains that green retail buildings and retail development that will grow significantly in importance over the next half-decade, a trend being seen throughout the developed world.

This book is a practical and comprehensive guide to greening retail real estate, featuring green building and marketing strategies, corporate sustainability programs and features a 10-point “action program” for greening any retail real estate portfolio.

While it’s aimed at professionals in design, construction and operations of shopping centers and retail stores, it provides a good read for anyone interested in how sustainability thinking and green building design are changing this huge commercial sector. With projects and concepts featured in full color, the book features more than 30 green retail developments from North America, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, as well as interviews with 25 leading industry experts.

You can order the softcover version of the book from the ICSC or from Amazon.com.

Testimonials:
Mary Lou Fiala, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, Regency Centers:
“Sustainable Retail Development does an excellent job of discussing the opportunities available to retail developers for adopting high-performance building design. Addressing and understanding the split incentives between retail developers and their tenants is the first step to finding solutions that reward both sides.”

Martin Townsend, Director, Building Research Establishment, U.K.
“An authoritative book which is not only a pleasure to read from cover to cover, increasing the knowledge of the reader with the turn of every page, but also a book that can easily be used for quick reference. A must for all wanting to know about the current state of sustainability in the retail sector.”

“Jerry Yudelson has done a first-class job in collecting constructive initiatives, examples and ideas from all over—not only from the USA—to assist retailers and retail property owners everywhere in pursuing a more sustainable business model.”
—Milton Cockburn, Executive Director, Shopping Centre Council of Australia

“In good economic times, or in bad, green buildings and operations are here to stay. Jerry Yudelson provides a glimpse of some of the best industry practices worldwide, strategies to implement an effective green business plan and an invaluable road map for sustainable retail real estate.”
—Arco Rehorst, Technical Director, Multi Asset Management, Gouda, The Netherlands

“[To think, feel and act sustainably, companies need to be able to draw on best industry practices and] Sustainable Retail Development provides an excellent source for such practices in retail real estate. With examples from Austria to America and from Australia to Portugal, it gives a practical view of sustainability and what green shopping centers and retail stores can contribute to the corporate bottom line.”
—Prof. Dr. Filipa Fernandes, Spar European Shopping Centers, Salzburg, Austria

“Jerry Yudelson provides powerful insight into both why and how retail shopping centers should design and build green.”
—Romily Madew, Chief Executive, Green Building Council of Australia, Sydney

“Sustainable Retail Development is a very impressive work. Undoubtedly, it will be an invaluable resource for architects and other professionals involved in the design, construction and renovation of shopping centers and retail stores."
—Lauren Yarmuth, Principal, YRG Sustainability, Denver/New York

"Sustainable Retail Development" is a great snapshot of the transformation that the professional and consumer market will begin to witness in the retail industry. Jerry Yudelson provides a solid overview of what retailers should know to position themselves for the green transformation.”
—Justin Doak, Founder, Ecoxera retail consultancy, Austin, Texas

Environmentalists have been becoming increasingly concerned recently that the economic slowdown may impede businesses from adopting more sustainable business practices, and that the drive towards greening our world is losing momentum. This week saw some encouraging signs to the contrary, with two major retailers forwarding significant initiatives to put their weight towards sustainability.

The first is Walgreen's, which cut the ribbon on its first LEED certified store in San Diego, as announced in June. BGTV member ecologism covers the opening here with a detailed description of the building as well as Walgreen's approach towards sustainability which includes merchandising its almost 7,000 stores with more environmentally products.

The other major announcement came from Wal-Mart, that behemoth retailer that generated over $400B in sales last year, and whose moves shape and influence the entire retailing ecosystem. The initiative involves a labeling system which requires every one of its 100K suppliers to calculate and disclose the environmental impact of its products, including environmental costs of production, transportation, and longer term effects. These labeling systems are considered incredibly complex, and while Walmart's system has been in the works for years, it will still take more time to implement (2011 is the earliest estimate).

Environmental labeling systems aren't an entirely new idea. Several models have existed in Europe and Asia for some time, and in 2007 UK Supermarket chain Tesco launched a "carbon labeling" program. But when Walmart gets involved, the ripple effects will be massive given the company's size and influence over how products are made distributed (it comprises 50% of some retail indexes). Of course the labeling is only one aspect of driving actual change in the production cycle, but Walmart believes that transparency is the first step.

You can find more on the topic and even follow the Twitter stream here on BingTweets.

I work for a retail supercenter in the midwest called meijer. We have approximately 200 retail outlets each about 100,000 square feet. I was wondering if it would be feasible to convert our stores to solar energy? I am not in charge of undertaking such a large project and I've bounced the idea off a couple collegues and they seem to think It's a great idea. The one we spoke with said that he doesn't believe it would be enough power to run our freezes units and HVAC units in a retail environment. I don't believe any of this has been attempted on this large of scale and was hoping to get feedback from people who know better than i. Thank you for your time and i would appreciate anything you can give so that i can get some more insight.

Beginning in early to mid-2008, Best Buy intends to build only eco-friendly stores, certified by the USGBC through LEED Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal reports. Best Buy announced the plan in its recently released corporate responsibility report. According to the USGBC, if all Best Buy stores were LEED certified, the retailer would cut its energy use by approximately one-third.

Best Buy’s announcement is made possible by its inclusion in a group of 20 retailers - including Starbucks, Target, and Lowe’s - that have been working with the USGBC since mid-2006 to test-pilot a new bulk certification program. The program allows chain stores to get their prototype buildings certified by the USGBC, rather than each individual location. The USGBC would then test each certified store for quality control through surprise visits and random efficiency testing.

The Best Buy prototype will have some combination of energy-efficient lighting, rainwater recycling, recycled or otherwise eco-friendly building materials, a high-efficiency HVAC system and some type of day-lighting system.

REI recently announced that its Boulder, Colorado prototype store has reached the second phase in its expansion and renovation.

Last year, Wal-Mart released results on the energy efficiency of its experimental stores.