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LEED-certified style, showers are available if employees want to refresh themselves after an energized ride to work.
For the future, Gibbon is experimenting with the concept of fuel efficient vehicle parking for employees...essentially a bank of recharg- ing stations in the employee parking lot. “It’s more apt for employee use than for customers because customers don’t stay around long enough to really take advantage of it,” he says, noting, “The cost of the energy for recharging a car for five hours is something like fifty cents; it’s really cheap.”
A third party would control the energy box and charge the people directly for using it, in Gibbon’s scenario. When the car was fully charged, the system would be set up to call the employee cell phone number to tell him to move his car. “When one of our upper managers says, ‘Now it’s time to experiment,’ this is the store designed to do it in.”
Safeway’s attention to its employees’ well being is reciprocated. “Our managers, sub-managers and all the people who work in our departments are so proud to be part of our first green store,” says Gib- bon. “Look at the perfection,” he points to a cornucopia of beautifully appointed fresh produce displays that highlight local and organically grown fruits and vegetables.
In the open area of the produce department, wooden tables support well merchandised displays of fruits and vegetables, subtly highlighted above by energy-efficient lights. “We decided we didn’t need a flood of light; what we needed was light
that was focused,” says Gibbon.
Light level in the center of a
typical store may be one-foot
candle per square foot. Here it
is half the light load, but you
still see the product because the
light is concentrated on the
product and creates a more
soothing setting.
“We’re committed to sustainability integration in the way we build buildings. LEED and USGBC give us the mechanisms to measure common sense greeness. Eventually, we’re just going to be green all the time.”
— JIM GIBBON
Store windows are thought-
fully placed to take advantage
of natural lighting. “We’re mea-
suring the energy use of the
lights. We may start putting in
some LED lights to see the
incremental reduction,” Gibbon corporate construction and design
Jim Gibbon, architectural coordinator,
MAY 2010 • PRODUCE BUSINESS 31


































































































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