The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
February 20, 2008

By Michael Pearson

The words "green" and "big box" don't naturally roll off the tongue together.

The cavernous retail stores are often the target of environmentalists aghast at their energy consumption and heat-inducing, stormwater runoff-causing parking lots.

At first glance, Brandsmart USA's stores would seem to fit that description • big, gaudy spaces crammed full of energy-consuming electronics.

But the company plans a store near the Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County that will break some of those stereotypes. This Brandsmart would be metro Atlanta's first retail big box to carry the U.S. Green Building Council's seal of approval.

Although the store is still being designed, Larry Levine, the company's vice president of operations, said he is considering skylights equipped with computer-controlled mirrors that track the sun, capturing daylight and directing it into the store's inerior far longer each day than conventional skylights; landscaping that doesn't need much water and a huge cistern to capture rainfall for use when it does and low-flow and waterless toilet fixtures.

Brandsmart has actually been leaning green for a while.

The Florida-based regional retailer claims it recycles 65 percent of the waste produced at its stores. Part of the Kennesaw location's parking lot is made of grass-filled pavers meant to help rainwater soak back into the ground instead of rushing into storm drains. And the Doraville location sits atop the crushed remains of a 700,000-square-foot building previously owned by General Motors. The concrete was reused to fill and level the lot.

But don't think Brandsmart is run by a bunch of flower-bedecked hippies bent on spending all the company's profits just to make the world a better place.

"In designing this building, what we want to do are things that are not environmentally friendly for the sake of being environmentally friendly, but the things that make sense, that have a payback," Levine said.

Consider that the company recently purchased machines that will compress foam packaging for pickup by a recycler who will pay 11 cents a pound for what would otherwise go to waste, and you've got an idea of what Brandsmart is after.

According to the Green Building Council, a private, non-profit group made up of building industry and environmental advocates, the decision to build green is still relatively rare in the retail sector, which accounts for a quarter of all construction in the United States each year. The retail certification program is only just now getting started.

But as consumer awareness of environmental issues increases, so too will corporate interest in adopting green building and sales techniques, according to Justin Doak, a Green Building Council staffer working to develop the group's standards for retail stores.

"You're going to see customers demanding it, not only demanding it but expecting it from the companies they shop and do business with," he said.

Consumer opinion surveys back Doak's view.

According to the 2007 Green Gauge report prepared by retail consulting firm GfK Roper, 79 percent of Americans view a company's environmental practices as important in making purchase decisions and 74 percent in choosing where they shop.

That Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has entered the environmental fray will only help hasten such changes.

Wal-Mart is nearly three years into an effort to significantly reduce energy use and waste — both at its stores and in consumers' homes.

According to Doak, a number of retailers have already agreed to make all of their future locations environmentally friendly. Doak said some of the stores include Kohls, Best Buy and Starbucks.

If Brandsmart proceeds with its plans, it would be required to meet a stringent set of requirements before getting the Green Building Council's designation for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" at its new store, which is proposed for a piece of land next to I-85 at Buford Drive, near the Mall of Georgia.

Green construction efforts can cost more, but don't have to be prohibitively expensive, according to the Building Council and Savannah-based developer Melaver Inc.

That company built a LEED-certified shopping center in 2006 and 2007 that included a "green roof" covered in plantings to help hold down heat and reduce runoff. The center also features a cistern that captures rainwater runoff for irrigation purposes. That feature alone is expected to save 5.5 million gallon of water a year, said marketing manager Cathy Rodgers.

The company has done eight LEED-certified projects so far, including the Crestwood office building in Duluth and the Oakland Park condos in Atlanta.

"It doesn't really cost more," "It just makes good business sense."

Brandsmart's project still needs regulatory approvals from Gwinnett County to exceed the county's building height limit and some other issues. Hearings on the company's propossals are scheduled before the Planning Commission on March 18 and again in April.