Walgreens officials and guests marked the grand opening of this eco-drugstore with a tree planting ceremony, followed by a store tour.
The Logan [image-nocss] Square Walgreens, nestled in an urban area, features a "green roof" with plants growing on it. The roof also has a white coating to help reduce heating and cooling costs. The store will save nearly 34,000 gallons of water a year with efficient water fixtures. During construction, 85% of waste was diverted from landfills. The site was a brownfield that was cleaned up and redeveloped for this project. Coolers, freezers and exterior signs all use LED lights, reducing energy use by 50% over fluorescent lighting.
The store will save enough electricity to power more than five homes a year. In addition, there is special parking for hybrid vehicles, bike racks and nearby public transportation.
"It may look like a regular Walgreens from the outside, but once you take a closer look it really is green from the ground up," said Walgreens district manager Steven DiLullo. "Customers can find informational signs inside that highlight these features so they can feel good about what we're doing and where they shop."
"On behalf of the City of Chicago, I congratulate Walgreens for their leadership in building a green store," said chief environmental officer for the city of Chicago Sadhu Johnston. "The environmentally friendly features of this store will contribute to making Chicago a greener city while reducing Walgreens impact on the planet. We encourage all Chicago businesses to consider ways that they can be more environmentally friendly and save electricity."
After the grand-opening ceremony, guests sampled eco-friendly products and giveaways for the community. The company made a $5,000 donation to the Christopher House, a non-profit organization helping low-income children and families.
Christopher House's Environmental Club recently held a program to teach area children about the importance of gardening and being good to the environment. "Christopher House not only creates hope and opportunity for these families but also teaches them early on that you can make a difference," said DiLullo. "Walgreens is part of this neighborhood and we want to do what we can to improve educational outlets here."
The Logan Square Walgreens is registered under the LEED Green Building Rating System. It will be reviewed by the USGBC and given a specific level of certification in four to six months.
This is the second LEED registered Walgreens to open. The first opened in June in Mira Mesa, Calif. The next LEED registered Walgreens store is planned to open in Normal, Ill., early next year with two more locations to follow. The company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint also include the use of solar panel systems on 74 of its locations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Oregon.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2008 sales of $59 billion. The company operates 6,943 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health & Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health & Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
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