The Green Shopping Center

A shopping center can employ the same sustainable building design concepts that any other type of building uses. These would include, without limitation:

• Rooftop HVAC units using full outdoor air economizers to reduce the need for cooling when outdoor air is cool.
• Solar and wind power to help meet its energy needs.
• Regenerating heat from the refrigeration racks.
• Radiant floor heating.
• Burning waste-recycled cooking and motor oil to heat water.
• LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs.
• Green roofs with drought-resistant vegetation.
• Reusing treated water, captured from rooftops and parking lots, for irrigation purposes.
• Use of reflective roofs.
• Use of low VOCs such as those found in sealants, paints and furniture.
• Minimization of light pollution with exterior wall-mounted fixtures in the parking lots to promote “dark-sky” and minimize upward lighting.
• Addition of a heat exchanger to minimize spring and winter cooling requirements from the chiller and the inclusion of a system of water flowing from the cooling tower back into the chiller, converting it into chilled water.
• Commissioning and re-commissioning of all systems.
• The use of BAS, which turns off equipment during low load and unoccupied times.
• Using indoor photocells connected to the lighting control systems so that the lights turn off when the natural light level exceeds a base level.
• Individual tenant-controlled HVAC units.
• Green cleaning.
• Green pest control.
• Automatic flush urinals, toilets, sinks.
• LED digital screens with shopping center maps to avoid the printing of paper.

Benefits

The benefits of going green abound ' not only in direct economic cash-on-cash terms, but also in indirect ways. Studies have consistently shown that employees in a sustainable building take fewer sick days per year than their counterparts in non-green buildings. Furthermore, employee productivity is a by-product of occupancy in a green building. In a recent Notre Dame study, it was reported that bank employees are more productive in a sustainable premises. “Over the years, there have been lots of studies that show employees are more satisfied and productive when they work in green buildings, but this is the first study to show that banks actually bring in significantly more revenue. Researchers found that bank branches generate more revenue ' $461,300 per employee ' even though they offer the same products and services as others.”