Green buildings are designed to minimise environmental impact throughout their lifecycle, from construction to demolition. This involves using sustainable building practices, eco-friendly materials, energy-efficient technologies and design principles that reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions.
An array of technologies can help this to be achieved. For example, heat pumps can reduce emissions from heating and cooling buildings, running on electricity rather than fossil fuels. This makes them far more efficient than traditional boilers and air conditioning. Similarly, green buildings can incorporate systems for water conversion, such as rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling, reducing overall water usage. Buildings may also be made with blue roofs, which store water from storms, stemming flow to the ground in urban areas where concrete or tarmac cannot absorb it. In turn, this prevents sewage flooding.
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Organisations often seek certification from recognised bodies such as the Indian Green Building Council or the US Green Building Council to validate their efforts in sustainable building practices. Many green buildings need 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 strides in the green building space across Europe. The company’s 22nd full-size store in the UK was built in Greenwich and has multiple green features: 4,000m² of green roof, a blue roof and a roof garden. It has seven green roof bike shelters and wildlife gardens on the ground level. Each bike shelter has integrated nesting for solitary bees and nesting birds to create a miniature ecosystem, and water stored from the blue roof is reused in the wildlife gardens. The building uses solar power, LED lighting and renewable construction materials.
IKEA has also built its Vienna, Austria store with sustainability in mind. The Vienna shop is a seven-story grid made of glass cubes with trees on every floor, alongside 160 trees on its roof to offset emissions. The store uses solar panels and hyper-efficient heating and cooling. The impact of the building is so great that it changes the microclimate of its surroundings, with computer simulations demonstrating pedestrian-level temperature cooling by 1.5°C.
Sustainable materials start-ups
Sustainable materials are as crucial to green buildings as technologies such as heat pumps. These include low-volatile organic compound paints and wood treatments, recycled and bio-based materials such as hemp, and renewable building materials such as wood, recycled plastic and bamboo. Retail start-ups in the UK and Europe have built stores with such materials at the forefront.
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By GlobalDataIn 2023, Big Beauty’s first retail shop, based in Hackney, London, was created in partnership with design studio Nina+Co featuring waste materials and biomaterials. Mycelium was grown to form plinths and legs using reishi mushroom, and seaweed biotextile and hemp fabric was used for curtains, both of which were dyed with clay pigment.
In 2022, Nina+Co also worked in collaboration with bioplastic eyewear brand MONC for its London store. Shelves in the store were made from cornstarch foam, which can be reused for packaging or dissolved in water. Much like Big Beauty’s shop, display plinths are made of mycelium, yet also feature concrete salvaged from nearby roadworks. Walls were painted with VOC-free paint to minimise the impact on air quality.
In 2023, Madrid-based sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf partnered with Spanish design studio Nagami to create a shop interior that is 3D printed entirely from recycled plastic. Nagami created plastic panels using a robotic arm with an extruder that can print complex 3D forms. All parts of the interior can be disassembled and reused or recycled for future projects.
Retail companies need green buildings
According to the Climate Group, 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings – a figure set to double by 2050 if left unchanged. With Sago estimating that 51% of shoppers still prefer using a physical store as opposed to 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.
