First Net Zero Energy Retail Store

Proposed Walgreens Design (Courtesy of Forbes)

While researching information on net zero energy buildings (NZEBs), I came upon some very recent articles that talked about how Walgreens has plans to build the United States' first net zero energy retail building. The company has already taken steps at other store locations to be more sustainable such as using solar panels at 150 stores and providing electric charging stations at over 400 locations. And a few years ago they began a pilot test for electric fleet delivery vehicles. The company has made a chain-wide commitment to reduce their energy consumption by 20% by the year 2020 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge.

Walgreens Electric Station (Courtesy of GRD)

 I thought it would be interested to read more about this new project, their second entry into the Better Buildings Challenge, since corner pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS are very commonplace in communities all across the United States. And hey, if we can make one of them a net zero energy building, than why can't work we work to make the rest of them this way as well?

The new Walgreens building will be located in Evanston, Illinois. The new building is expected to generate approximately 256,000 kWh yearly while only using approximately 200,000 kWh. Power for the building will be generated from over 800 solar roof-mounted panels, two wind turbines, and geothermal wells. In addition, the store will use LED lighting and energy efficient building materials. Walgreens hopes to achieve LEED certification with this building.

Sounds great, right? Well, the only problem I have with this project is that it is going to replace an already built Walgreens on this exact same parcel of land. The articles I read do not give much detail about the existing Walgreens and why it might be being demolished and replaced. I could understand if the existing store was in a completely dilapidated state and there was no chance in saving it but, to demolish an already existing store seems very wasteful of resources and time. Why not just give the existing store a sustainable make-over?  Sure, it will not be net zero but, isn't the first rule of sustainability to "reduce," as in, reduce the amount of resources used? I might feel a little bit better about this project if I knew some of the existing materials such as the bricks will be reused and incorporated into the new net zero building. However, as I mentioned earlier, there really are no details on the existing site or any mention of reuse.

Since the articles on this project have been published, I imagine that CVS and other similar corner pharmacy stores are already in the works to build their own net zero energy buildings so that they can keep up with their competitors. From what I've read on CVS' current sustainability efforts they have implemented LED lighting in stores and have plans to reduce storm water pollution but a lot of the descriptions seems very general on their website.Hopefully, they have a lot more efforts in the works that I just wanted able to find online.