Why waste a ribbon when you can plant a tree …
San Diego, CA- Walgreens celebrated the opening of the nation’s first green pharmacy yesterday, not with a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony, but with the planting of a native tree.
“We felt that planting a tree was much more appropriate than cutting a ribbon and then throwing it away,” said Jamie J. Meyers, an architect for the LEED AP Project who was there for the celebrations.
Walgreens, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, is once again changing the landscape for the American consumer, this time for the greener. The store in question was designed from the ground up around the dual mission of efficiency and sustainability. Not only is it the first pharmacy in the US to meet the stringent USGBC LEED design standards, but the 24-hour store also sells a host of green products.
By exceeding LEED requirements and integrating green product lines into their inventory, they have taken steps that cannot simply be attributed to common corporate “greenwashing.”
A serious commitment …
With this project and future plans for many more like it, Walgreens has made a serious commitment to sustainability. These are just some of the things they have built in this store from an architectural point of view;
-Take for example landscaping- They used all the native plants that will not require any watering once they have adapted to transplanting. Here in San Diego that is a big problem since we are in the middle of a level two drought emergency …
-They went to great lengths to reduce lighting energy waste by using 75% of natural sunlight during daylight hours. This was achieved with the installation of solar tubes and skylights that shine from the roof. This, combined with LEDs in your signs and refrigerators, reduces lighting-related energy use by 50%.
-They are mitigating stormwater pollution from surrounding buildings by collecting and filtering the water as it flows into your lot.
-Water use is estimated to be 50% below LEED standard levels.
-75% of the materials were architectural salvages of the previous structure that existed on the lot.
-A white roof was included to reduce energy use related to cooling, as well as to mitigate the urban heat island effect.
-There are plenty of other eco-friendly touches too, like hybrid car parking spaces, a bike rack, and a site chosen in part for its proximity to public transportation.
While other companies like Wal-Mart and Target have made symbolic gestures toward the green movement, Walgreens really seems to get it. While there is still room for further improvement, the significant steps they have taken to “go green” far outweigh the typical dog and pony show that goes green today in many companies.
At some point the question was seriously posed: “How can we become more efficient and sustainable?” And someone took the time to find some awnsers. Yet here we find the question that all modern businesses will grapple with as energy prices skyrocket and the public becomes more aware of its own effect on the planet. Whether it is the product they produce, the service they provide or the goods they sell, companies large and small cannot escape the changes that are taking place in our environment. Those who don’t respond to these changes will end up as Walgreens competitors like Eckerd; just struggling to keep up with the package.
A history of constant progress
“Walgreens is making great progress on our environmental initiatives in stores across the chain. We are reducing our use of electricity and water, recycling tons of cardboard and shrink wrap each year, and upgrading equipment for maximum efficiency,” said the Walgreens vice president of market, Matt Sesto.
Walgreens has never been a trendy or flashy company. On the contrary, it is an all-American family business with a long history of steady progress. In many cases, they have been among the first to implement innovative strategies such as the switch to barcode scanning technology and the expansion to film development in the 1970s. They were also at the forefront of adapting to a more modern format. Convenient and customer friendly at a time when pharmacies were fairly limited in scope. However, through all these changes, they have always remained true to their identity as the “corner pharmacy of the Americas.”
So when a company like Walgreens outlines a wide-ranging green strategy, it really means something in terms of its future intentions. As Jim Collins (author of ‘Built to Last’ and ‘Good to Great’) mentioned in an article titled Best Beats First;
“They (Walgreens) may be slow, following a crawl, walking, running, a trajectory, but when they run, they will run over companies that believe that being first is the only thing that matters.”
So when Walgreens tells me they plan to build many more new green locations, as well as make additional green modifications to their 6,857 existing locations, I believe them. This store alone is saving enough energy to power more than 19 homes a year. Imagine what the combined effect will be!
Bringing Green Products “to Every Pharmacy in the United States”
Walgreens’ unique position as a national leader in its industry provides them the opportunity to offer and support green products at their extensive network of 24-hour store locations. It also allows them to persuade their competitors to do the same. That says nothing about the opportunities available to them in terms of offering organic, green and holistic health products. Again, for the sake of fairness, this is an area where action has been taken … but there is still room for improvement. While certain green products have been featured and given prominent positioning on display, much of their inventory is the same old landfill that clogs … “stuff” that plagues America today.
This reminds me of the reason why I decided to write this article. Walgreens, like many other long-standing companies, is in an awkward position today. As they struggle to wrap their strategy around the idea of sustainability, they are still plagued by a long legacy of conventional, polluting and unsustainable business practices. Unfortunately, that is something that no company can change overnight. This problem can only be addressed through consistent long-term efforts. No radical initiative or “change program” is going to generate significant differences in the behaviors that have developed over many generations.
The good news, though, is that under pressure from retail giants like Walgreens, major manufacturers (like current Walgreens suppliers) will naturally “follow their legacy” and begin offering more green product alternatives. These are some of the product lines currently available at your Mira Mesa (SD) location;
Healthy Times- Organic Baby Food- Definitely a worthwhile green product, especially if you are sick of paying for water and starch! Organic baby food should be in every grocery / drug store in the United States. I would recommend this product to any parent trying to get their baby off to a green, healthy start. They have many options, all organic, all formulated to nourish children’s skin, hair, growth, and overall well-being. This baby food does not contain refined sugars, preservatives, or artificial additives.
Biofusion – This is Walgreens’ hair care brand that incorporates natural ingredients into formulas. Nothing is known yet about the sustainability or social responsibility of the manufacturing process, however the formulas are less based on chemicals with too many syllables to pronounce.
Burt’s Bees: Here’s a great example of a family-owned cottage industry manufacturer that became a national success … and is now using that success to leverage environmental progress. Not only are your personal care products naturally based (beeswax), but your entire business philosophy is focused on supporting “the common good” from your charitable contributions to encouraging personal growth opportunities for your employees.
Clorox Greenworks – This is Clorox’s brand of eco-friendly cleaning products that use, in their words, ‘environmentally preferable chemistry’ to achieve similar cleaning results to Clorox’s flagship toxic / harmful products. Clorox also contributes to the Sierra Club on behalf of this product line. (Get coupons here)
Natures Source- SC Johnsons green plant based cleaning products are eco-friendly and versatile in their selection. Visit their website to learn more about these products and what SC Johnson is doing to help the environment.
WaterU- It is another product manufactured by Walgreens. A BPA-free reusable water jug that comes in a variety of different sizes. It is reusable and recyclable and does not contain harmful traces of BPA in typical bottled water containers.
So while green products have been made available at this location, there is a distinctive emphasis on the architectural end of sustainability. I imagine it is difficult to walk away from long-term relationships with distributors, however, there really is no good reason why Walgreens cannot offer more environmentally friendly product alternatives for some of its best-selling items.
A green pharmacy is a healthy pharmacy
An often overlooked (but very important) part of ecology is the healthy choices we can make each
days like eating right, exercising, and choosing the right over-the-counter health products. Consider the medical industry to be a major landfill and polluter of toxic waste. Just look around you the next time you’re in a hospital and it’s not hard to see why. If Walgreens can take its commitment to the next level by promoting natural and green health products in its stores, then it would be quite an amazing achievement by any environmental standard.
Going green is as much about the lifestyle you live as it is about the home you live in. By extension, it’s about both the products you sell and the building you sell them in. Sometimes that is forgotten in the world of business and industry. I hope Walgreens will be able to employ the same wise judgment in this area that it is currently practicing in the design and energy policy of its new buildings. For photos of the grand opening, see the full my Go Walgreens article!