Georgetown Safeway to Get Award for Environmental Friendliness

The is scheduled to receive an award Friday for being the District’s first grocery store to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Environmentally-friendly features of the store at 1855 Wisconsin Ave. NW include low-flow water fixtures, LED lights and parking spaces reserved for low-emission vehicles. The building was designed by Silver Spring-based Torti Gallas Architects.

The award is another sign Georgetown is doing its part in a city that leads the nation for “green,” or environmentally-friendly, buildings.

“Washington, D.C. topped our list of states, including D.C., with the most LEED-certified green buildings per capita,” Jennifer Easton, U.S. Green Building Council spokeswoman, told Georgetown Patch.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, refers to standards from the U.S. Green Building Council, an architectural industry group headquartered at 2101 L St. NW, that qualify buildings as being environmentally-friendly.

“As a historic community, Georgetown contributes to the city’s overall success and, perhaps most notably, has demonstrated that modern green building methods can easily and seamlessly be incorporated into traditional community spaces,” Easton said.

Examples she mentioned include the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, the Hickok Cole office at 1023 31st St. NW and the Group Goetz Architects building at 2900 K St. NW.

The District’s Department of the Environment reported recently that Washington has179 buildings certified as meeting LEED standards and about 600 more planned.

The Georgetown Safeway’s most notable green characteristic is its roof.

“The roof on the Georgetown Store is a white TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) roof, which is a ‘cool’ roof that minimizes heat gain,” said Gregory A. Ten Eyck, Safeway spokesman.

“Safeway combines this with stormwater management techniques, which slow the rate of run-off and treats the stormwater. The way the new system is designed, no rainwater is allowed to run into Dumbarton Oaks Park, which is behind the store.”

Washington has about 30 acres of green roofs.

The number of environmentally-friendly buildings is about to surge upward as a result of the District’s Green Building Act of 2006, according to Department of the Environment officials.

The law requires all new major building projects to meet LEED standards. It also requires owners of large buildings to report their energy consumption to the city as an incentive for them to retrofit with materials and techniques that cut energy use.

In addition, the federal government requires any of its new buildings to be made environmentally-friendly.

A recent example was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters at 99 New York Ave. NE that opened in 2008.

It won Silver LEED certification for its green roof, windows and atriums that maximize natural light and low-emission interior materials like the carpet, adhesives and paint.

Other materials and techniques the U.S. Green Building Council encourages include installing solar panels, reinforcing insulation and providing incentives for employees to use mass transit.

The Council’s LEED ratings range from certified on the low end to silver to gold to platinum, which is the highest rating.