Sam?s Showcases New Sustainability Methods

Although celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck will be on hand when the new Fayetteville Sam’s Club opens on Sept. 13, the real star of the show is the building itself.

The City of Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas have embraced and emulated the sustainable efforts of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., so it is only natural the newest store in the Bentonville retailer’s backyard incorporates the latest “green” construction methods.

Located off Arkansas Highway 112 at its intersection with Interstate 540, the 136,000-SF Fayetteville Sam’s Club utilizes prototypical sustainability features both inside and out.

Kyle Engler is Wal-Mart’s liaison between design and operations and he credited the multitude of store innovations to the team led by Charles Zimmerman, Wal-Mart’s vice president of prototype and new format development.

“Those folks have been doing this for years,” Engler said. “They’ve done a lot of new things here and it’s just awesome.”

Managing, filtering and harvesting stormwater runoff are the biggest exterior achievements.

The interior sustainable methods reduce energy use through LED lighting, motion-controlled lights and a closed-loop CO2 system in refrigerated cases and an advanced daylight harvesting system of more than 200 skylights.

The store will be managed by Shane Holtrey, who has been with Wal-Mart for 16 years, three of them at the Springdale Sam’s Club which will close to make way for the new Fayetteville location.

The entire staff from Springdale will take jobs at the Fayetteville location, which will need another 100 employees with the expanded format that includes, among other things, a 6,500-SF liquor store available to the general public and walled off from the rest of club.

Other new features available at the Fayetteville Sam’s include:

n A member’s only gas station with a car wash that reclaims approximately 60 percent of the water used.

n A pharmacy, optical center, one-hour photo, expanded café and tire/battery center.

n Recycling services for tires, batteries, cardboard, single-use cameras, food waste, plastic waste and building materials.

“We are delighted to be coming to Fayetteville,” Holtrey said. “This is an exciting time in our club’s history and for our company.”

Fayetteville mayor Dan Coody, whose city has been suffering through declining sales tax revenue through the first three quarters of 2007, is pumped about the expected cash flow bump and the environmental showcase the new Sam’s Club will bring as Fayetteville polishes its image as a center of sustainability.

“Sam’s Club will be a huge asset to Fayetteville in so many ways,” Coody said.

The stormwater management construction is particularly fascinating.

Conventional runoff methods involve curb and gutter systems designed to move water as quickly as possible, which creates a scouring effect that deposits parking lot pollutants directly into the ground water.

The Fayetteville Sam’s has a complex bioswale to remove sediment from water before it enters the stormwater system, which has an inlet that removes debris before it enters the retention pond.

It also has a pair of huge above-ground tanks in the back that harvest rainwater from the roof to supplement irrigation systems on the grounds as well as provide water for the cooling tower serving the refrigeration system.