Page 175 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

154 CHAPTER 5

A LEED Gold McDonald’s

A McDonald’s restaurant had been at the old Abercorn Plaza center since 1974. The
original location was demolished at the end of the original lease to make room for
the Shops 600 out-parcel, and a new out-parcel was created to make room for the new
McDonald’s (4,800 square feet). The story behind this franchise becoming the first
LEED McDonald’s in the country could take up a chapter in its own right.
In a nutshell, our company was simply not going to put up a non-LEED building
anymore, even for the largest fast-food chain on the planet. McDonald’s, for its part,
wanted to hold on to this location. We weren’t budging, and they weren’t going else-
where. It’s a story of location, location, location meeting green, green, green. The local
franchisee actually embraced the process, though corporate was less enthusiastic. In
fact, at the time we received LEED certification on the facility and wanted to do a
major public relations campaign, we were threatened with a lawsuit by corporate if we
made any public statements about the LEED certification. Our guess is that the over-
all profitability of this location, fed in part by reduced operating expenses, will encour-
age more franchisees to seek LEED certification. That’s our hope, in any case.
So what makes the McDonald’s at Abercorn Common better? Lots of things. Over
75 percent of the restaurant’s floor space receives daylight, allowing McDonald’s to
reduce its lighting costs. Clerestory windows flood the two-story dining room with
light, inviting diners to sit and linger. About 90 percent of the interior space has a view
of the outdoors. (Management has noticed more people choose to eat at tables in this
McDonald’s than they do at most other fast food restaurants. Perhaps that’s why.)
When working with the McDonald’s design team before construction began, one
glaring shortfall we noticed in their plan was the absence of daylight in the kitchen so
we suggested a design change. Now windows in the kitchen areas provide workers with
desired daylight, reducing the tunnel effect so common in restaurant kitchens. Window
canopies on the west side of the building provide shade from the afternoon sun.
A bright yellow metal roof, with overhangs on both gable ends that shade the win-
dows, covers the two-story part of the building. The rest of the roof, like other roofs
at Abercorn Common, is covered a bright white membrane. The roof membrane, tight
building envelope, and high efficiency HVAC and lighting fixtures all work together
to reduced energy consumption 20 percent based on our energy models.
Like the main part of the shopping center, McDonald’s has walk-off mats at
entrances to enhance indoor air quality and help keep the HVAC system cleaner. Using
low-VOC paints, sealants, and adhesives throughout the building helps reduce indoor
air pollution. Outside there’s high albedo reflective concrete to combat the heat island
effect and porous paving to reduce stormwater runoff, racks for bicycles, and preferred
parking for hybrid vehicles. In addition, the restaurant operates on 100 percent green
power through the purchase of wind power credits.
Other restaurants in the chain have incorporated some of these innovations into
their own building designs. When McDonald’s constructs a more sustainable building,
it strongly demonstrates the mainstream potential of green building.