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Design and Construction

GI Energy has been selected by Walgreens, one of the world’s leading retailers, to help design and install the most energy efficient retail outlet in the company’s history, in Evanston, Illinois.

Executive Summary

Walgreen’s approached GI Energy with the desire to grow their investment in sustainable energy solutions and inquired into creating their first retail net zero store.

Challenges

Walgreen’s Green Initiative began to take precedence in their corporate sustainability strategy.

Walgreen’s was looking to decrease its reliability on the electrical grid while lowering long term maintenance costs.

Walgreen’s Net Zero: Evanston, IL

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How Our Service Helped

GI Energy reviewed their energy consumption at a standard store and put together a plan to create a net zero design using multiple distributed energy resources. By the end of the process, Walgreen’s andGI Energy developed a plan integrating geothermal, a solution that generates more energy thanit consumes.

Solar PV and Wind to provide

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans

With an abbreviated time table, GI Energy coordinated all HVAC trades for an optimized construction timeline, including LED lighting, heating, cooling, refrigeration and controls.

The project is on track to being certified Net Zero and LEED Platinum. GI Energy continues to monitor and evaluate performance through our remote monitoring system as well as continue to collaboratewith Walgreen’s on other projects.

Considered Walgreen's first ever 100% CO2 refrigeration integrated with geothermal in the US. Integration also includes natural ventilation, solar PV, and wind turbine.

Additionally, the building is pursuing LEED Platinum, and GI Energy is acting as the primary LEED consultant toward achieving this goal.