Make mall eco-friendly?

Question

What are some ways that you can make a one-stroy mall eco-friendly besides like solar panels on the roof and obvious things like those?

Answer 1

I agree with the first answer

Answer 2

1) Adequate insulation of all exterior walls to reduce heating and cooling costs.

2) Adequately insulate and weather-strip all windows and exterior doors.  Preferably two-door entrances to help minimize loss of heating/cooling energy.

3) For shopfitting and fitout of common spaces, use the most sustainable materials available.  Minimize use of melamine, carpeting, and other materials which offgas volatile organic compounds.  Concrete, bamboo and linoleum are all durable, attractive and fairly sustainable flooring materials.

4) Get a properly designed heating and cooling system with energy recovery technology.  This will be expensive, as it's a BIG part of the construction cost, but a properly designed system will help minimize heating and cooling expense and will significantly improve indoor air quality.

5) If the mall not yet been built, consider using pre-fabricated modular panels for the exterior walls.  These are often made with some recycled material and tend to be better insulated and more sturdy than built-on-site walls.

6) If you have a choice of building sites, it is somewhat more eco-friendly to build near existing development than to put up a stand-alone mall in the middle of nowhere.  If your building is within walking distance of residential areas, this will reduce traffic impact (and may also reduce your overall construction cost, as many towns will require road/signal/curb/parking improvements to address increased vehicular traffic!).  If it's within easy walking distance of other retail locations, at least you may encourage people to make fewer trips, thus reducing overall traffic impact somewhat.

7) Exterior lighting should be targeted and oriented downward, rather than upward.  (Up-lighting is dramatic, but it provides much poorer general illumination than down-lighting-- consider the difference between a good overhead light and a torchiere lamp!)  Using well-targeted down-lighting will reduce your energy usage and will help control light pollution.  Set outdoor lighting on a timer-- there's no need to illuminate the entire parking lot at 2 AM.  

8) Encourage all tenants to recycle and to contract for waste removal by a contractor who provides waste separation and recycling.

9) If building, consider passive solar design-- orienting the building and making use of windows and thermal mass to collect and distribute heat and light energy from the sun.

10) Incorporate lots of green plants into the interior decor of the building.  This will improve air quality and may also reduce your winter heating costs, as they will help humidify the air.  To reduce watering costs, you might consider greywater recycling (for instance, routing used water from sinks or dishwashers in the building into an irrigation system for the plants).

11) Select tenants who are committed to sustainable or fair-trade business practices or whose products are manufactured locally (admittedly, this may not be economically feasible--since I assume the financing bank is going to want big-name, big-budget anchor tenants!)

Answer 3

Install a grey water system for the toilets.

Recycle.

Use CFL bulbs.

Plant plants inside and outside the mall.

Install a green roof.

N.&J.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

Answer 4

Useing the waste to power the mall (The food wraps, soda bottles etc)  They have a system were you only need some power to start it but after that it can fuel is self the mall and homes around the mall. Its used in some states in the Usa and provnice in Canada. Thats all i can think of Mabye a two flusher system