MADISON, Wis. — Now that Hy-Vee has begun construction on its first planned LEED-certified (Leadership in Environmental Design) store here, the second one should be much easier, according to Jeffrey Markey, assistant vice president of engineering and construction at the West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain.
“The biggest challenge has probably been the increase in paperwork, and the time in managing the design and construction process to make sure that we will receive all the credits from the U.S. Green Building Council for everything that we are doing in the facility,” he told SN. “It's been a large learning curve over the course of the last 12 months to get up to speed learning about this process.”
Three members of the Hy-Vee design and construction staff have become LEED-accredited in the process. All the design work for the store has been done in-house.
The store, which will have to meet strict criteria for its energy efficiency in order to be certified, is slated to open by October or November.
Now that a second LEED location in Madison is in the works, Markey said he expects considerable time savings. Although there have been a few delays getting the store started, he expects construction to begin later this year.
The decision to begin building stores that could apply for LEED certification came from Ric Jurgens, Hy-Vee's chief executive officer, Markey explained.
“He wanted us to look at ways we could look at construction and design a different way, and to do something that would benefit our customers and our employee-owners,” Markey said. “We always believed that we were on the cutting edge of energy efficiency in our design, and we are very environmentally responsible, but going through this LEED process provides for an independent, third-party verification that we are doing this in an environmentally and energy-efficient manner.
“We wanted to make this the most energy-efficient store that we practically could.”
Markey said based on an initial review of the store's design, he expects energy use to be trimmed by 34% compared with a Hy-Vee that meets the current energy code. The new store includes such features as a heat-reflecting roof, an energy-efficient building envelope, skylights, a self-dimming lighting system, and a system that captures heat generated by equipment.
The company worked closely with the U.S. Green Building Council and with local utility companies, both of which he said were very helpful in providing information.
Hy-Vee also took an aggressive stance on reducing waste generated during construction. Markey said that by using a local resource, Waste Cap Wisconsin, the chain was able to slash the amount of construction scrap being sent to landfills by 75%.
In addition to paying close attention to energy use, Hy-Vee also sought to curb its use of water for the store as much as possible. A LEED-accredited landscape architect who is on the Hy-Vee staff specifically designed the landscape not to use irrigation as a measure of water conservation. The store also will use water-efficient faucets and low-flow toilets.
Markey said he would not have a full picture of the costs for building the store for a few months, although he pointed out that much of the cost for the first location has been in employee hours invested in the learning process.
“In some respects we have already seen some success, because we have educated so many employees,” he said. “Besides getting some LEED accredited, there is a lot of knowledge that has been accumulated by our company just by going through this process.”
