LEED Certification in the Restaurant Industry
By Kathleen Seelye, FFCSI, LEED AP, Managing Partner, Ricca Newmark Design -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 12/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
Most of us in the foodservice equipment and design profession spend significant time developing, manufacturing, distributing and specifying equipment that meets the requirements of numerous U.S. building codes. Yet many energy researchers believe that the code-compliant energy-efficient buildings under construction today are, in fact, the most inefficient structures that can be legally built.
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By Kathleen Seelye, FFCSI, LEED AP, Managing Partner, Ricca Newmark Design |
For example, when comparing energy use, existing commercial buildings rated at 100 kBTU per square foot per year commonly use 90 percent of that amount. By contrast, buildings under construction to meet current codes will use approximately 70 kBTU per year, while facilities using maximized technical efficiencies will consume less than 40 kBTU per year. Only through years of volunteer efforts by design and construction industry market leaders has the extent of this discrepancy been recognized, which lead to the development of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). This non-profit organization espouses environmentalism in every phase of building design, construction and operations, and has defined the latest sustainable design principles affecting most building types.
The USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program has become the vehicle through which many building projects have gained equity in the sustainability movement. Though LEED is not the only way that building owners and planners can create efficiencies through design, it offers a managed process through which an established rating system provides inducements for standards and objectives that otherwise might not be achieved by economic and social incentives.
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| The Dunster/Mather dining facility at Harvard University was the first commercial kitchen in the U.S. to achieve LEED CI Silver Certification. Re-using and refurbishing existing materials played a key role in achieving LEED status. |
To better understand the LEED certification process, one must first learn the prerequisites that qualify a project for the most basic level of certification. Preliminary requirements range from preventative construction activities that avert stormwater runoff and soil erosion to internal building features that support the collection of recyclables and reduction of waste hauled to landfills. As a result, a building developed according to LEED prerequisites is designed to enhance both human life and the community.
Stormwater Criteria
In the first criteria of Site Selection, USGBC works with property owners and developers to avoid the use of unsuitable land that may include sensitive resources or restricted uses on site. Limitations may include areas that are inhabited by endangered species, wetlands or primary farming resources as designated by federal mandate. An important site consideration for foodservice operators is the Stormwater Design – Quality Control, in which the objective is to limit disruption of natural water hydrology by reducing impervious cover, such as large asphalt parking lots that cause excessive runoff and contaminants that adversely affect natural waterways and ecosystems. Through this site development objective, the single LEED credit promotes the infiltration and capture of stormwater runoff from 90 percent of the average annual rainfall by using strategies such as native vegetation and permeable surfaces.
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| Boulder Community Hospital was the first LEED Silver certified Hospital in the Country to our knowledge. Certified in 2002. |
McDonald's recent LEED Gold restaurant project in Chicago was constructed as an eco learning lab. The 24-hour operation includes multiple strategies in environmentally responsible design. For stormwater planning, permeable pavers in the parking lot were used to reduce runoff and site drainage expenditures, while improving the quality of water entering the sewage system. The project helps McDonald's reduce stormwater pollution by including a rain garden that uses sheet draining. The drainage allows rainwater to recharge a natural aquifer below the site and reduce automobile contaminants from drive-through lanes that pollute both drainage and landscaping.
Water Efficient Landscaping, Innovative Wastewater Technologies and Water Use Reduction are fast becoming priority credits for achievement of LEED certification. In these sustainable practices, equipment is used to collect resources, such as rainwater for site and landscape maintenance. At Chipotle Mexican Grill, which recently became the first QSR chain to construct an outlet that has achieved LEED Platinum certification, the USGBC's highest rating, such technology was widely applied. The design includes rainwater harvesting using a 2,500-gallon underground cistern and a six-kilowatt wind turbine to provide approximately 10 percent of the restaurant's energy.
In a century during which the world population doubled but water consumption rose by 600 percent, maximizing use efficiency and minimizing consumption are vital. For foodservice operators seeking sustainable initiatives, fundamental requirements are the purchase of low-water-use warewashing equipment, low-spray nozzles, water re-circulating pulpers and collector systems in lieu of disposers, nugget ice in lieu of cubed ice and low- or no-flow fixtures in restrooms.
Indoor Environmental Quality
Indoor Environmental Quality is another LEED category that greatly affects dining and kitchen areas. LEED strategies develop design connections between indoor and outdoor spaces by requiring the introduction of daylight and exterior views into regularly occupied areas. Credits given for daylight and views include goals to achieve a minimum glazing factor of 2 percent in no less than 75 percent of all occupied areas. Creating a simulation that demonstrates a minimum daylight illumination level of 25 foot-candles in a minimum of 75 percent of all occupied spaces provides another way of obtaining this credit. Extending this daylight strategy into kitchen areas also can improve worker productivity by as much as 15 percent.
For example, Vanderbilt University's new Commons Center is a LEED Gold project that included both natural lighting with sun tracking shades to eliminate glare and reduce solar gain while maintaining external views from the dining room. The west side of the building was designed to have an extra-deep curtain wall with added horizontal elements to maximize passive shading features that act as light shelves. Daylight-harvesting switches reduce energy usage on sunny days by automatically turning off light fixtures when daylight levels reach preset points. Low-energy CFLs and LEDs are found throughout the building's lighting system and often have a service life of 10 to 20 times that of average incandescent bulbs. Additional natural lighting at Vanderbilt flows through the roof monitor and skylights in the dining room and lounge. Skylights also reduce electricity demand and increase outdoor views. To create a homey environment, the building's eco-sensitive fireplaces use flue-less alcohol-burning structures that produce no carbon dioxide.
The intent of the LEED Indoor Chemical & Pollutant Source Control requirement is to limit occupants' exposure to potentially hazardous particulates and chemical pollutants. To earn LEED points in this area, chemical and detergent storage areas must be fully enclosed between floorplates. The facility should provide sufficient exhaust to create negative pressure with the door closed.
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| Vanderbilt University’s new Commons Center is a LEED Gold project that included natural lighting with sun tracking shades that eliminate glare and reduce solar gain while maintaining external views from the dining room. |
Optimizing Energy Performance
When addressing the LEED category Optimize Energy Performance, foodservice operators have the greatest opportunity to maximize energy savings through the specification and purchase of Energy Star-qualified equipment in the eight categories currently available. These categories are refrigeration, ice machines, steamers, fryers, hot-holding carts, griddles, ovens and dishmachines.
Beyond the LEED credit for using of Energy Star-qualified foodservice equipment, operators can incorporate many other sustainable practices to earn other credits. For example, it is possible to earn a LEED credit in Enhanced Refrigerant Management when CFC-free refrigerants, hybrid refrigerants, scroll compressors and remote parallel or multiplex systems are specified wherever possible.
Commercial kitchen ventilation systems consume the greatest percentage of energy after appliances. Specification and purchase of variable speed fans that work with on-demand ventilation systems that control exhaust hoods can reduce exhaust volume by as much as 50 percent. Such systems adjust volume of exhaust to heat-load demand.
Other LEED credits, such as Building Reuse, Materials Reuse, and Construction Waste Management, include criteria to extend the life of existing buildings' materials and reuse salvageable and safe resources for new construction projects. Operators can gain additional points by reducing the amount of construction and demolition debris that goes to landfills via recycling or salvaging non-hazardous waste.
Harvard University's Dunster/Mather dining facility, the first commercial kitchen in the U.S. to achieve LEED CI Silver certification, reuse and refurbishment of existing materials was significant. Kitchen equipment was shipped to Spanish Town, Jamaica, for use in orphanages and more than 95 percent of construction and demolition waste was diverted from landfills. Harvard also purchased 508,000 kilowatt hours of Renewable Energy Certificates equaling two years of energy use and offsetting more than 700,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Recycled Content and Regional Materials are criteria groups that support certification of buildings incorporating re-purposed recycled materials, such as rubberized flooring for commercial kitchens. Locally extracted and/or manufactured materials and products will reduce fossil fuel expenditures. The USGBC defines local as been produced within 500 miles of a project site.
In Maine, Bates College's new Commons building achieved LEED Silver standards by using recycled and regional materials throughout the building and its dining operations. Administrators decided to reuse and refurbish many existing materials, including tables that were dispersed throughout the dining-services serving platforms and two-level dining rooms. Seeking to further promote sustainability, the college purchases 100 percent renewable electricity for main campus buildings and has multiple strategies to reduce HVAC loads.
Another example of recycled and regional products that reflect the culture of the community is found in Hope Commons at the University of Rhode Island, a LEED Silver facility. This 42,500-square-foot, two-level retail dining facility includes a 600-seat marketplace and a 110-seat café open extended hours. This facility features more than 25 percent recycled materials, and 75 percent of components were purchased from regional sources.
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| Grinnell College’s Silver LEED certified project has achieved significant measures of sustainability, such as improved water and energy efficiency. |
Renewable Materials
The USGBC also provides credits for using Rapidly Renewable Materials. These products reduce the depletion of finite resources such as hardwood flooring by replacing them with materials such as bamboo, which renews rapidly. In conjunction with renewable materials, “Certified Wood” is credited for encouraging use of lumber products certified by environmentally responsible forest management organizations, such as the Forest Stewardship Council.
Quick-service restaurant chain Pizza Fusion has made a long-term commitment to build its restaurants to LEED standards. Pizza Fusion units contain environmentally sensitive products such as counter tops of recycled glass, bamboo flooring, furniture made from reclaimed wood and even insulation containing recycled blue jeans. Working with the chain's extensive search for the most energy-efficient equipment and LED lighting systems, these products have allowed Pizza Fusion to reduce electricity consumption by 20 percent systemwide.
Beyond the point available for LEED accredited professional participation on the design team, up to four credits may be awarded by the USGBC for Innovation in Design, when unique building qualities contribute to its overall success and operation. In foodservice operations these credits might come from an integrated system design for food waste through pulping and composting.
Within the next few years the USGBC will release both LEED for Retail and LEED for Hospitality certification programs, both of which provide greater opportunities for efficiency and sustainability in foodservice. For foodservice equipment manufacturers and facility designers, the savings bar will continue to be raised, especially regarding the periods of building use in which 50 percent or more foodservice operating equipment is not in use. Foodservice operators will increasingly challenge manufacturers to provide equipment-based utility monitoring systems, auto-on consumption controls during idle periods, peak demand limiters that shave utility costs, and natural refrigerants and heat reclamation alternatives.
From the perspective of a foodservice consultant specializing in sustainable design, even LEED buildings and the most energy-efficient products cannot by themselves achieve the U.S. Department of Energy's 2025 goal of realizing marketable zero-energy buildings, whose energy savings exceed the cost of buildings' energy featureson a cash flow basis. Only through our ability to redirect utility consumption via renewable fuels and alternative energy sources, such as concentrated solar photovoltaics, wind energy, biomass and geothermal fuel generation, will we be capable of creating commercial kitchens and restaurants that do not mortgage the future environmental health of these buildings and our communities. Richard D. Lamn, former governor of Colorado writes in the foreword to Herschel Elliott's “Ethics for a Finite World: An Essay Concerninga Sustainable Future” (Fulcrum, 2005): “We cannot know with absolute certainty, so we do nothing ... [Ken Boulding observed that] the essential human dilemma is that all our experience is in the past, yet all our decisions relate to our future.”
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