Maine Hannaford Grocery Store Earns LEED Platinum

A Hannaford's store in Augusta Maine, which is opening tomorrow, is a model example of a green grocery store in our northeastern climate. It recently received LEED for New Construction Platinum Level certification for it's efforts to redesign supermarket retailing in an environmentally, socially and financially sound manner. It has all kinds of innovative design features including a green roof, a super-insulated building envelope, 50 skylights, healthy non-toxic building materials, interior finishes, exemplary daylighting and I believe 41 KW of solar electric panels, likely including some solar hot water. For those of you who wonder if Solar panels are useful in northern climates for energy generation this is yet another example reinforcing it's possible to do so.

Hannaford's Website has alot of information about store, you can go on a virtual tour of the building to see for yourself. Please let other's know, especially your retailers in your area. You can learn about Hannaford's efforts to further it's goals in taking care of people, planet and profits, part of it's triple bottom line approach to business.

Apparently Hannaford's is using this store to be a test bed for innovation and environmental exploration for it's other existing stores and a model for new store in other locations. So if you are traveling in Maine near Augusta, perhaps check it out for yourself and patronize the store!

I will post a picture of the store once I contact Hannaford's and get their permission to do so. But remember, with all of the green features aside, the number one thing you can do to your new and existing buildings is tighten up your building envelope, reduce air leakage and upgrade your insulation. That's your best upfront investment for the best payback.