Is Whole Foods' Gowanus Store Really That Green?

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Whole Foods Gowanus rendering

Before there was Whole Foods Gowanus, there was wetland.

Photo by Robert Guskind.

Whole Foods Gowanus site under water during Hurricane Sandy

photo credit: Urban Divers via Martin Bisi

Photo by Martin Bisi

Photo by Martin Bisi

Photo by Martin Bisi

As everyone knows by now, Whole Food Market's Gowanus store at 214 3rd Street at 3rd Avenue is slated to open on December 17.
According to the company, the 56,000-square-foot store is the most sustainably-designed building ever constructed by the chain. Besides organic produce, the store will include the nation’s first commercial energy-efficient scale greenhouse farm operated by Greenpoint-based Gotham Greens. The roof will also house a pub that will serve locally brewed beer.   In addition,  a landscaped shoreline promenade will be installed along the edge of the Gowanus Canal.
Its parking lot has been paved with permeable pavers and outfitted with solar panels.
In other words, Whole Foods went to great length to appeal to a health-concious, environmentally aware clientele and was, according to the Observer "determined to fulfill every Brooklyn stereotype."

It all sounds pretty awesome, for sure, but is Whole Food's Gowanus store really all that green?
Yes, the company has remediated the former industrial site under New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Brownfield Clean-Up program.  However, the store is built on wetlands, prone to frequent flooding.  During Hurricane Sandy, the site was completely inundated.

According to the National Wildlife Federation, "only about 5 percent of the land area in the continental United States is composed of wetlands. But these transitional zones—neither completely dry nor entirely liquid—are enormously valuable, especially when it comes to controlling floods. Wetlands act like natural sponges on the landscape, absorbing and then gradually releasing storm waters and lessening flood damage."
The organization warns that filling and building on wetlands is never a good idea. As developers have been nibbling away at wetlands, they have created big problems, according to NWF.
"Wetlands are superb at purifying polluted water, replenishing aquifers and harboring wildlife. But they are almost always terrible places to build houses."
Further, "when wetlands are filled, the water that made them wet has to go somewhere. If it isn't seeping back into the basement of the house built on the former wetland, the water likely is leaking into formerly dry homes of downstream property owners."

Another point to consider is that Whole Foods Gowanus property sits squarely in a FEMA Flood Zone and that the building required extensive waterproofing. Above are a few photos of the new store at the Gowanus Canal's Fourth Street Basin taken by Gowanus resident Martin Bisi .
One can clearly see the high water mark and how close to the canal the building sits. If the last major storms have taught us anything, it is that we should be pulling away from waterfronts, instead of getting closer. Hopefully, WF's waterproofing is sufficient to keep the next flood at bay.

One last point. It must have become clear to many by now that this particular store is a 'destination' store. Otherwise, why would there be the need for such a huge parking lot. Whole Foods' own Traffic Impact Study indicated that the company expected 68% of the store's customers to arrive by car.
That's a lot of additional car traffic at a time when we should be encouraging people to walk and to leave their vehicle at home.

So, yes, Whole Foods may have bent over backwards to build a green store, but an argument can be made that placing their store at that location was not so green at all.