With 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from buildings, retail businesses must leverage green building technologies to adapt
Green buildings are designed to minimize their impact on the environment throughout their life cycle, from construction to demolition. This includes the use of sustainable construction practices, environmentally friendly materials, energy-efficient technologies and design principles that reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions.
A number of technologies can help achieve this. For example, heat pumps can reduce emissions when heating and cooling buildings because they run on electricity instead of fossil fuels. This makes them far more efficient than traditional boilers and air conditioning systems. Likewise, green buildings can integrate water conversion systems, such as: B. Rainwater harvesting and gray water recycling, which reduces overall water consumption. Buildings can also be constructed with blue roofs, which store water from storms, preventing it from flowing into the ground in urban areas where concrete or asphalt cannot absorb it. This in turn prevents wastewater flooding.
Organizations often seek certification from recognized organizations such as the Indian Green Building Council or the US Green Building Council to validate their efforts in sustainable building practices. Many green buildings require certifications such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).
Ikea's low-carbon stores
Ikea has made significant progress in green building across Europe. The company's 22nd major store in the UK was built in Greenwich and features several green elements: 4,000 m² of green roof, a blue roof and a roof garden. It has seven landscaped bicycle shelters and wild gardens on the ground floor. Each bike shelter has built-in nesting areas for solitary bees and breeding birds to create a miniature ecosystem, and water stored by the blue roof is reused in the wildlife gardens. The building uses solar energy, LED lighting and renewable building materials.
Ikea also built its store in Vienna, Austria with sustainability in mind. The Vienna store is a seven-story grid of glass cubes with trees on each floor and 160 trees on the roof to offset emissions. The store uses solar panels and high-efficiency heating and cooling. The impact of the building is so great that it changes the microclimate of its surroundings. Computer simulations show that the temperature at pedestrian level cools by 1.5 °C.
Start-ups for sustainable materials
Sustainable materials are just as important for green buildings as technologies such as heat pumps. These include low-volatility organic composite paints and wood treatments, recycled and bio-based materials such as hemp, and renewable building materials such as wood, recycled plastic and bamboo. Retail startups in the UK and Europe have built stores using such materials.
In 2023, Big Beauty's first retail store based in Hackney, London, dedicated to waste materials and biomaterials, was created in collaboration with design studio Nina+Co. Mycelium was grown using reishi mushrooms to form bases and legs. Algae organic textiles and hemp fabrics were used for curtains, both dyed with clay pigments.
In 2022, Nina+Co also collaborated with bioplastic eyewear brand MONC for its London store. The shelves in the store were made from cornstarch foam, which can be reused for packaging or dissolved in water. Similar to Big Beauty's store, the display bases are made from mycelium, but are also made from concrete salvaged from nearby roadworks. The walls were painted with VOC-free paint to minimize the impact on air quality.
In 2023, Madrid-based sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf collaborated with Spanish design studio Nagami to create a store interior 3D printed entirely from recycled plastic. Nagami made plastic sheets using a robotic arm with an extruder that can print complex 3D shapes. All parts of the interior can be dismantled and reused or recycled for future projects.
Retail businesses need green buildings
According to the Climate Group, 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings – a figure that will double by 2050 if trends remain unchanged. With Sago estimating that 51% of shoppers still prefer to shop in a physical store rather than online, and GlobalData estimating that in-store shopping will account for 83% of sales in 2024, retail companies must adapt their buildings to use green technologies and materials .
This article was written by GlobalData Thematic Intelligence