Retail Profile Category: A Closer Look

We chose to examine the Retail section of the profiles due to the fact that there was only one example in this section.  The business is Chipotle Mexican Grill (which the U of I campus also has one in the Old Capitol Mall) located in Gurnee Mills, IL.  The highlights of this project include 33% energy use savings, 43% water use savings, and an astonishing 86% of the waste from construction was diverted from landfill endpoint.  The score allotted to this project was 53 (though it was only out of 71), making it a Platinum rated facility.  A breakdown of the rating categories is as follows:  

                Sustainable sites:  10/16

                Water Efficiency:  4/5

                Energy and Atmosphere:  13/17

                Materials and Resources:  7/13

                (Indoor) Environmental Quality:  14/15

                Innovation and Design (Bonus):  5/5

Chipotle was able to achieve this platinum status due to innovative and energy efficient ideas that were put to use in the construction and implementation of the business.  There is an outdoor rainwater collection basin that holds over 2500 gallons, which is used for ALL outdoor uses.  There is also an excellent energy management system that controls when lighting, HVAC, water heating, wind turbine, and exhausts need to be used and at what percentage of full-output is needed.  Innovation like this helped obtain a high status of “green building” and will hopefully set precedent to others in the future. 

Core and Shell Construction

Core and Shell construction is the basics of the building structures.  These basics may include (but not limited to) building structure, foundations, as well as heating and air systems.

Profile Categories

The categories of profiles include:  New Construction, Existing Buildings, Commercial Interiors, Core and Shell, Schools, Homes, Retail, Neighborhood Development  (Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum levels).

LEED Rating system

The LEED rating is based on a 100-point system that weighs each component of question number two to the environmental impact it may have.  For example, Energy and Atmosphere make up 37% of the total due to the large effect it has on the total “green” building.  There are ten bonus points available which come from the components of Innovation and Regional priority.  A score of 40-49 gets ‘Certified’ status.  A score of 50-59 gets ‘Silver’ status.  A score of 60-79 gets ‘Gold’ status.  A score of 80 or more obtains the ‘Platinum’ status. 

LEED Components

The components of LEED include Sustainable sites, Water efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor environmental quality, Locations and Linkages, Awareness and Education, Innovation in design, Regional priority.

LEED is...

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a certification system that recognizes and promotes sustainable building practices.  LEED is an international system that uses a group of rating systems aside with committees in order to promote “green building” through many building types (refer to post about profile categories).