Gowanus Whole Foods #2: We Have a Green Roof...In Madison Wisconsin

The resourceful people at the Green Roof Whole Foods Market blog have dug around and collected a bunch of links to articles about how the grocer's big store in Madison, Wisconsin came to have a green roof. The chain's execs flatly dismissed the idea for their proposed Gowanus market at a meeting of the Park Slope Civic Council in January. Residents, however, have launched a petition campaign to try to convince Whole Foods to build a green roof, curtail parking to discourage driving and to develop a transportation plan. It is all very interesting in that Whole Foods cultivates an image as a progressive purveyor of wholesome products and has incorporated environmentally-friendly elements into some of its stores. Yet, it has rejected such proposals for its Brooklyn store. Most of the chains stores have to go through the local zoning and planning process, whereas the Gowanus store is skirting public review because it is being built below street level. Building the stores as a big basement, in effect, allows the grocer to build "as of right" on the parcel. Clean up plans for the heavily polluted site have yet to be approved.

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