The Audacity of Sustainable Hope

Looking at the winners in the Association for Retail Environments’ (A.R.E.) inaugural Sustainability Awards, I was reminded of a conversation the editors of VMSD had at the start of 2009 about how the economy might dampen the green building design movement. We even posed this question to designers and fixture manufacturers during roundtable discussions. Most said that as retailers continued to watch every nickel and dime they spent, green initiatives (which still have a perception of being more expensive) could become less of a priority and LEED certification may drop off some radar screens.

Maybe some of that stands true today. But if eco-minded design has lost some steam, it certainly hasn’t evaporated completely. Scan the headlines and you’ll learn that beauty retailer Sephora and grocery giant Kroger are both opening their first LEED-designed stores this month. Walgreens is working on its first eco-friendly drug store and fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. is greening its operations in California. Starbucks, Walmart and McDonald’s are still announcing environmentally minded store design plans, while concurrently adjusting every aspect of their business models to help them survive the recession.

Surely, there’s some inspiration in these stories. But don’t feel you have to go all-out to make a difference. A.R.E., which reserved the highest honors in its Sustainability Awards for projects that demonstrated comprehensive sustainability programs, also honored six specific project elements for making strides in such areas of efficiency or creative materials usage. The group applauded Smith & Hawken’s water reclamation system that captures rainwater for watering all the plants for sale inside its Roseville, Calif., store. Timberland, which won a number of awards, got special recognition for its Westfield Shopping Center store in London, where 85 percent of the materials used served other purposes before being turned into store walls and displays.

Meaningful design elements like these can still resonate with shoppers, while proving that hard times don’t have to mean less eco-friendly times.