Nearly a year after opening its first restaurant built to U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification standards, Chick-fil-A has received LEED Gold certification.
Located in Montgomery Plaza in Fort Worth, Texas, it is reportedly the first LEED Gold-certified restaurant in the city and is Chick-fil-A's first sustainable restaurant project. The unit's sustainable features include low-flow water fixtures in restrooms and the kitchen; an underground cistern for rainwater collection and natural landscape irrigation; skylights and windows in the dining room for natural light; and energy-efficient appliances. Twenty percent of the unit's building material budget was spent on products with recycled content and more than 50 percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill. All cardboard and foam cups used in the everyday operations of the restaurant are being recycled.
Chick-fil-A plans to incorporate energy conservation measures and recycled materials into all new restaurant construction activities, and by the end of 2012 more than half of its more than 1,600 restaurants will receive energy and water retrofits. The company has committed to building four restaurants designed to achieve LEED certification in 2012, the first of which will open in California this summer.