Secrets of Sustainable Store Remodels – Part 2
As we discussed in part one, adding sustainable practices to your store remodel is a win-win-win, because it benefits you, your customers and the environment. One of the benefits to your organization is a way to cut costs as you save on your energy bills and reduce waste.
Sustainable = Operational Efficiency
Remodels present a great opportunity for retailers to minimize energy consumption. One of the top companies – not just in retail but in the country – driving the sustainability movement is Walmart. They do it for business reasons. After examining every part of their operations, from their supply chain to their stores, they’ve come up with a number of ways to enhance their energy efficiency. Walmart now saves $1 billion a year on fleet efficiency alone, and they’ve replaced the parking lot lighting at 1,900 stores and 260 Sam’s Club location with more energy efficient LEDs.
Give The Green Light To Leds
You can reduce your store’s energy consumption by up to 75% by switching to LED lighting. And LEDs last up to 50 times as long as incandescents, drastically cutting store maintenance needed. There are LED bulbs for spotlight or can lights, tube lights for fluorescent light fixtures, LED strips or puck lights for display cases and shelf lighting, LEDs for signs, canopy lights and parking lot lights.
If your floor plan is changing, your lighting should too. But there’s more to effective LED lighting than just swapping out the bulbs. You want an efficient system that lights your product well, makes customers feel comfortable and gives you the most bang for your buck. A good store remodel design team will use lighting to set the mood and draw attention to different areas of your store. They will also make sure the color is true so the hue and tone of the light emitted makes your products look appealing.
GSP’s project manager Linton Terry says simple, well-designed, green changes can yield significant energy savings. As with the Walmart example above, switching to more efficient LED lighting can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money while also reducing your maintenance costs. Linton recalls one recent remodel where he changed the store’s overhead fluorescents for LED lights. Because the LEDs cast a brighter cone of light, the client needed less to light the entire store. He decided to remove the drop ceiling to make the store feel more open and raise the lighting up higher for even more brightness.
Less Waste
Waste is a problem for retailers on many levels. From marketing to operations to facilities management, you can probably count the ways. It comes down to wasted resources when material is thrown away and wasted money on overage. Every store remodel should start with a thorough store survey to ensure you’re working with accurate specs. That information can be stored for your teams to use for future planning and store-level decisions.
Reusable displays and fixtures are another way to save money and practice sustainability. GSP has designed several permanent fixtures that can be changed up easily to look completely different. We believe these permanent in-store elements effectively capture the customer’s attention while maximizing your investment.
Don’t Build New – Remodel
Rather than build a new ground-up store to replace an old legacy store, GSP’s VP Creative Steven Cohen says a cost-effective and efficient remodel can bring it up to date. We rely on the 3R’s: reduce, re-use and recycle.
Did you know that debris from construction and demolition makes up the largest part of the U.S. solid waste stream, according to the EPA? Before you select a store remodel team, ask them about best practices when it comes to waste. GSP looks for ways to optimize what you currently have in store. If your equipment is in good working condition, there’s no need to send it to a landfill and replace it. For some clients, we’ve created a clever shroud to cover fountain equipment and rebrand it.
It goes back to the old adage of “measure twice, cut once.” GSP aims for less waste before, during and after construction. Using advanced store profile technology, we can reduce material waste by 30% – 40% because we know exactly what is needed for the store. When working with material, we meticulously select the most efficient layout to reduce waste. We rely on 3D renders to ensure buy-in upfront and reduce costly remakes. We even save on total transportation costs and fuel efficiency during the remodel process by shipping as much as possible from the plant that’s closest to your store.
In the end, all of these little steps towards sustainability in store remodels add up to a step in the right direction.