Stop & Shop Energy-Saving Building Design
Introduction
The average American family visits the grocery store 2.2 times a week, stopping on the way home to pick up a few items or making that regular pilgrimage to stock the pantry. Chances are, the last thing they think of at the store is how much it costs to keep that container of milk, butter or of ice cream at the ideal temperature.
But behind the aisles of fresh produce, chilled meat and refrigerated coolers, the electric bills represent one of the most significant costs for the industry, where the trend is to build ever-larger super stores. And because supermarkets, operate at miniscule profit margins, savings on those bills can translate into significant improvements to the bottom line. In a typical scenario, new energy- and money-saving equipment is introduced incrementally, and total gains grow over a period of years as individual systems such as lights, building controls and freezer cases are upgraded when stores are renovated.
Faced with a 17% jump in electric rates, highly volatile natural gas markets, and with a goal of being socially responsible, New England’s largest grocery chain, Stop & Shop Supermarket, chose to take a different approach. The Quincy-based company set out several years ago to design and build a pilot superstore that would use significantly less energy and be more environmentally friendly then existing facilities. The company believed that reducing energy costs could significantly improve profit margins and increase the competitiveness of its stores.
The Project
Stop & Shop designed the new prototype to use between 25% and 30% less electricity than comparable designs in the region, while also including a number of earth-friendly features. The store, dubbed Low Energy Superstore (LESS), was built in Foxboro, MA; it opened November 8, 2001. The company and its parent, Netherlands’ based Ahold, consider this experiment a success: It matched the initial goal by achieving a 27% electricity savings while successfully demonstrating building techniques that could be adapted to Ahold supermarkets globally. The reduction of energy use at the LESS, translates to an annual savings of 8,000,000 kWh and has eliminated emissions of 987 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to leaving in the ground 374 tons of coal or 650 barrels of oil each year. What’s more these savings are likely to extend over the full life of the new store.
The process leading to the Low Energy Superstore began back in 1998, when the company formed a special project team bringing together representatives of Stop & Shop, sister divisions (Giant Food-MD, Albert Heijn-Netherlands, Ahold USA, Royal Ahold Netherlands, Argentina’s Disco and Bompreco of Brazil), joint-venture partners, and leading suppliers of the supermarkets heating, ventilation, and cooling equipment. In the eyes of vendors such as Carrier, Carlisle, Hill-Phoenix, Luftron, Holophane, and Seasons4, this represented a unique opportunity to forge a closer relationship with a key player and establish themselves as leaders in the design of cutting-edge retail equipment. In return for their participation in this experiment, the suppliers would have access to valuable real-world data from the operation of the new store.
In 1999 the team convened a two-day brainstorming session that helped develop an ambitious list of ideas and implementation techniques for more detailed consideration. The goal was to focus on three criteria associated with green building: Indoor environment / air quality, energy conservation/efficiency, and the reduction of waste/damage to the natural environment. The renowned Rocky Mountain Institute facilitated this “Design Integration Workshop,” and encouraged architects, engineers and consultants experienced in green building practices from across the nation to generate a list of design options for consideration. Over the next 12 months those options, including light tubes, solar panels, fuel cells, and building materials featuring a high recycled content were evaluated and refined until a number were ultimately incorporated in the design for the new Foxboro facility.
According to Steve Krupski, senior vice president of Construction and Engineering at Stop & Shop, there was strong interest in pushing the envelope with this project, by considering state-of-the-art solutions. “We wanted to try something revolutionary, which would represent a great leap forward as far as energy efficiency, while maintaining the company’s standards for providing customers with a positive shopping experience,” he said, noting that a two-day charette in Quincy helped launch the project, with participants tossing around ideas including light tubes, solar panels, fuel cells, and building materials featuring a high recycled content.
The Stop & Shop team labored over design decisions concerning the building envelope and materials, interior and exterior lighting, the general heating and cooling systems, product refrigeration, and water usage. At each step, the group compared the current practices employed by the chain with state-of-the-art alternatives, some of which were new and relatively unproven in a retail setting. This design process continued with monthly meetings for nearly three years, until an architectural/ engineering team and a potential building site were selected. Next, the designers took the most viable suggestions and integrated them into a complete blueprint for the building and site. The team
