PORTLAND, Ore. — The Green Building Initiative here, which oversees the Green Globes building certification process in the U.S., will release revised building certification tools this year that will incorporate refrigeration standards developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill partnership.
In April, GBI will issue the revised tool for new building construction, followed by the tool for existing buildings in July. “We have worked with GreenChill to incorporate many GreenChill requirements into Green Globes,” said Sharene Rekow, vice president of business development, GBI, during a GreenChill-hosted webinar yesterday. The new tools, she added, will be “totally indicative of [the supermarket] industry.”
The GreenChill program has partnered on a voluntary basis with roughly 8,000 U.S. supermarkets, including retailers such as Food Lion, Target and Meijer, to reduce refrigerant leaks, transition to refrigerants that are better for the environment and test new refrigeration technology. It has developed a host of best practices around leak prevention and reduced refrigerant usage.
Read more: The Green Globes Difference
GBI positions Green Globes as a less expensive alternative to the more established LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, managed by the U,S, Green Building Council, Washington. To date, Whole Foods Market, Austin, Texas, has collected Green Globes certifications at 12 stores, the most of any food retailer. Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y., is expected to receive its first Green Globes certification at a store in Germantown, Md., this June, and Publix Super Markets has begun the certification process with its first store, according to Rekow.
“With the GreenChill criteria being added to the Green Globes process, we anticipate getting higher ratings,” said Tristam Coffin, energy and maintenance project manager for Whole Foods’ Northern California region, during the webinar.
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