Green McDonald’s Opens on Kildaire
The replacement McDonald’s on Cary’s Kildaire Road is now open. The new store features many updates to the McDonald’s design including double drive-thru and a new look,
but this location is only the third “green” McDonald’s store
(.pdf brochure) in the country (Savannah and Chicago being sites for the first two). The restaurant is applying for Gold LEED-certification and features:
- Around 50 Solatube daylighting fixtures (pictured) supplemented by on-demand LED lighting.
- Water efficient restroom and kitchen fixtures
- Rapidly renewable materials for insulation and decoration
- Building materials from high-recycled content (such as existing concrete fragments to fill the building’s slab)
- Drought tolerant landscaping
- Education touch-screen in the dining area
- On-site NovaCharge vehicle charging stations
The owner and operator, Ric Richards, bought the store in 2007, but wanted a structure dedicated to “sustainability”, which would result in significant cost and energy savings.
6 Comments
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July 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Well that’s cool. Too bad I just don’t like McDonald’s food. I just can’t eat there nerf ball burgers. There fries are good though, but I am looking for healthy options. Mickey D’s probably has more healthy than most fast food chains but the lack of good taste in those options keep me cooking at home or heading to a sit down restaurant.
Anyhow props to the owner for deciding to build something sustainable.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
“Green” building with two drive-throughs, and based upon corporate farming and just-in-time shipping…
I guess it’s gotten them free advertising on at least one blog though… sure there will be more to come. Maybe they’ll give you a free small drink if you drive your SUV ten miles across town to pick it up.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Amen Jeff! I was going to post something similar but you summed it up really well.
Thanks!
July 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I believe the LEDs are of the local Cree vareity
July 15th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
So they shouldn’t have done anything sustainable?
July 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I am inclinded to second TSnow’s point - while McDonald’s all a sudden does not earn the right to proclaim itself GREEN - doing something is a step in the right direction. If each time a corporation does something it is jumped on for all its continued failings, where is the incentive to make the first step.
They should be kept honest - in that what they can still do needs to be kept on the radar, but at least give them some credit.
Walmart is a good example of a company that can be ripped to shreads for some of its policies on the environment, yet it has lead the way to smaller packaging and concentrated detergents by demanding them from its vendors. It has also done a lot with LED lighting (I think they may be one of the first retailers to truly embrace it).