Jewel-Osco is seeking LEED® certification for its first green grocery and drug store. The store opened on September 26, 2008 at 370 N. Desplaines St. in Chicago’s Fulton Market District. The store has been in development for 5 years due to the complexity of the design and pre-qualification requirements for LEED® Certification. The completed building features energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, water-saving features, energy-efficient lighting, and even an on-site chef who cooks with locally-grown and produced foods.

With its first LEED®-Gold restaurant, Max Carmona, Senior Director, Restaurant Design, McDonald’s USA along with the McDonald’s design team hopes to learn which technologies provide the most energy savings and environmental benefits and how they can be incorporated into future store designs. In August, the fast food chain opened its first targeted LEED®-certified restaurant in Chicago. The new fast food eatery is located at 4158 S. Ashland Avenue, just outside the Stockyards Industrial Corridor. The site was home to an older, corporate-owned McDonald’s which was torn down to make way for the new, greener establishment. John Rockwell, the lead quality manager for McDonald’s U.S. Restaurant Group (and a LEED®-AP) calls the new site a “learning lab,” intended to help the company’s design team understand how new green technologies can be employed in both new restaurants and existing ones.