Portuguese retailer Continente has announced that its Matosinhos hypermarket was named the 'greenest' hypermarket in the world by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
LEED was created by the U.S. Green Building Council that evaluates buildings that are being planned, in construction, or already in operation, certifying their level of environmental sustainability.
The store in Matosinhos, which was opened in 1985, was Portugal’s first hypermarket and is now LEED certified to the Platinum level - the highest level of certification within the program.
Sustainability Certification
Currently, there are only six buildings in the world with the same level of certification, three of which are in Europe. LEED has so far evaluated 150,000 buildings from 150 countries.
The certification process evaluates around 60 sustainability indicators, which together give a maximum of 110 points. These relate to the construction of the building, water and energy efficiency, use and reuse of materials, environmental quality of space and innovation.
The results are then translated into four certification levels - Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
This distinction comes one year after the remodeling of the store, based on Sonae MC’s concept of the 'hypermarket of the future'.
This is the second time that a Continente store has received the highest LEED certification – the Continente Bom Dia store in São João da Foz, Porto, received the accolade in 2013.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
