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New distribution center seeks top sustainability honor
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Beezer Molten has high environmental hopes for a North Charleston building he is renovating.
Molten, owner of Half-Moon Outfitters, a Charleston-based retailer of clothing and gear for outdoor lovers ranging from backpacks to windproof jackets, is transforming a 60-year-old building on East Montague Avenue into a new Half-Moon Outfitters distribution center to replace his existing King Street distribution facility.
The new distribution center will not be a garden-variety building. It will be completely green—not necessarily the color but an environmentally friendly, ecologically healthful and energy-efficient facility. In other words, the essence of sustainability.
Such an environmentally friendly building is only fitting for a retailer devoted to the pleasures of the outdoors, Molten said.
Molten is shooting for the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest sustainability star—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Platinum certification, a distinction reserved for commercial and industrial buildings and held by 10 buildings in the United States. No building in South Carolina has the lofty LEED rating.
In fact, Molten wants his building to compete with the National Resources Defense Council’s Robert Redford Building in Santa Monica, Calif. Named for the famous actor and environmentalist, the 15,000-square-foot facility, completed in 2003, is among the most celebrated LEED Platinum buildings, Molten said.
“Why can’t we be the greatest of them all?” Molten asked about his new 9,600-square-foot distribution center, which is twice the size of his existing one.
In addition to setting a green example for other businesses, the new distribution center’s green reputation should help boost Half-Moon Outfitters’ online sales among 18- to 25-year-olds, an environmentally conscious group and the outdoor-gear retailer’s target audience, Molten said.
Getting there
To achieve LEED Platinum status, the distribution center must score at least 52 (Molten is aiming for 54) of 69 points in categories that include water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation and design, and site sustainability.
The site is located near Park Circle, a part of North Charleston that is being revitalized into a thriving, pedestrian-friendly business and residential community. The Sustainability Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting sustainable communities, is within a mile of the site. Such surroundings could help the distribution center score Platinum points, Molton said.
Molten paid roughly $800,000 for the building. He estimates that the green renovations will cost at least $300,000, and in five years, he might begin seeing energy savings offsetting that cost.
Renovations include the installment of cisterns for rainwater collection to irrigate a garden and fill the building’s toilets, solar energy panels, skylights for natural lighting, paints and carpets free of poisonous chemicals and a system that measures the amount of electricity the building consumes. Desks, file cabinets and other furnishings will be made from healthful, recycled materials.
“This building could and should change the way people feel about work,” Molten said, adding that the distribution center will employ between 12 and 15 people.
Skylights and windows will offer a view of a garden, which will occupy half of the building’s current parking lot, Molten said.
Former Half-Moon Outfitters employee Nathan Gauthier, coordinator of the High Performance Building Service for Harvard University’s Green Campus Initiative, will be the distribution center’s LEED consultant. Charleston-based builder Reavis-Comer Development will do the renovation. Mount Pleasant engineering firm DWG Inc. will handle the heating, lighting and power installations.
Molten hopes to have the distribution center operational by mid-summer. He estimates the LEED rating will begin about six months after the building’s completion.
The new distribution center could be a model for new Half-Moon Outfitters stores built green from the ground up, Molten said. The retailer has stores in Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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