Northern Illinois Food Bank wins acclaim for 'green' building
Doing things that conserve resources is nothing new to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
“It goes to the core of who we are,” Pete Schaefer, the food bank's chief executive officer and president, said Tuesday morning.
Charity food banking was founded by a guy in Arizona 45 years ago who thought it was a shame stores, farmers, manufacturers and restaurants were throwing away good food. It was a waste of the food and of landfill space.
“So this idea of saving the landfill, it is part of our DNA,” Schaefer said.
He was speaking to food bank workers at a ceremony where the bank received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It is the first new construction food bank in the United States to be so certified.
LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The nonprofit council encourages “green” building design and construction techniques.
It judges projects on several dozen criteria, including heat island effects, water-efficient landscaping, water use reduction, refrigerant management, optimized energy performance, use of low-emission materials, and use of recycled content.
For example, the NIFB headquarters at 273 Dearborn Court in Geneva, which opened in 2011, reuses heat thrown off by the condensers in its refrigerated and freezer rooms, to heat Volunteer Hall, where people sort food donations. It also runs below the floor of the freezer, to keep the floor from freezing and heaving.
“We have a bigger freezer, a bigger cooler, and it is costing us less” to operate them, than at the old headquarters in St. Charles, said Ed Disler, the project manager.
There is motion-control lighting, a white roof, and preferred parking for people who use low-emission or fuel-efficient vehicles. And it outfitted the offices with refurbished furniture.
Besides being good for the planet, the effort benefits the hungry, according to Schaefer.
“When we save money, we can buy more food. This (the savings) is 300,000 meals for hungry neighbors,” he said.