These fast-growing retailers and banks can open more than 100 stores a year and many have or would like to construct green buildings, even if it means shouldering the modestly higher cost to install solar panels, build from recycled materials and the like. But the administrative costs to get dozens of buildings certified as green have proven to be a potent deterrent to retailers.
PNC Bank, a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh, is trying to speed up and cut the cost of the certification process by getting a bulk approval for all its new branches. The bank will apply to have 90 new branches approved at once by the U.S. Green Building Council, the private partnership of environmentalists and industry that promotes and regulates the construction of green buildings.
PNC will cut the ribbon on its first new green branch next month in East Bradford, Pa. The brick-and-glass structure captures rainwater from the roof for toilets and for mopping the floor. Countertops are made from recycled cardboard. Photovoltaic cells atop the drive-through canopy provide 10 percent of the electricity. Three-quarters of construction waste will be recycled.
As it rolls out the new branches, PNC wants to change the green building rules so it doesn't have to submit an application for each new building. The bank is working on getting a bulk certification to reduce costs.
The Green Building Council is listening. A committee within the group made up of retailers such as Target Corp. and Starbucks Corp., and environmental activists, is negotiating a process that would entice fast-expanding retailers to build green by streamlining the application process and reducing the application cost.
Since the Green Building Council began certifying green buildings in 2000 through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, retail stores have accounted for less than 10 percent of buildings that apply for a green stamp of approval. Each year 21,300 new stores are built in the U.S., according to industry tracker McGraw-Hill Construction, representing 23 percent of new buildings, not counting homes.
Rick Fedrizzi, the Green Building Council president wants retailers to join the green movement, calling their stores the modern "meeting places for humanity." But he is cautious about letting the rules get too lax. A building might look the same, but it will have different impacts in different locations, depending on local factors such as wind and sun, he says.
Getting certified requires putting together a 2-inch-thick binder that verifies green building attributes. The price to get the Green Building Council to certify a building varies based on size and cost of the structure. A typical bank branch costs $2,200 to $2,800 to certify.
When PNC decided to launch a major branch expansion, it created a prototype green design that could be rolled out across the Midwest and Northeast, where it does most of its business. The New York office of Gensler, an architecture firm, designed the branches. Seattle's Paladino & Co, an environmental building consulting firm, advised PNC.
Each new green branch will cost $1.45 million and be the size of a large house, 3,650 square feet. About 25 to 30 will be built a year for the next few years. Saulson says there is no added cost compared with its old prototype branch and that any investment in more expensive equipment such as efficient heating and cooling systems or triple-glazed windows, will pay back quickly — in about two years.
The new branches are constructed largely of 7-foot-wide, 14-foot-tall concrete and epoxy panels that will be built in a factory in Detroit and trucked to the site. The new branches will be built five weeks faster than the old prototype, potentially the biggest savings of the design.
