Retailer Successfully Creates Model Store to Achieve Ambitious Sustainability Goals

Challenge: Makro ICA is a cash-and-carry wholesaler that sells high volumes of food and non-perishables at low prices to professional customers. It features a portfolio of 160 retail locations across Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia.   

As a leader in the industry, Makro decided that it would pursue and commit future stores to the ambitious LEED  v4.9 certification, which has been designed to “up the ante with a more flexible, performance-based approach that calls for measurable results throughout a building’s life cycle.” Certification requires a minimum of five percent energy efficiency improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2010.

Makro identified its new store in the province of Ica, Peru, to be the first location in its portfolio to achieve LEED v4.9 certification, making the lighting design of the facility, in addition to other sustainable areas, the most efficient in the history of the company. 

Being a large facility, more than 48,000 square feet, with a significant interior and exterior footprint, the lighting had to meet non-negotiable uniformity standards while being extremely efficient and compatible with sophisticated lighting controls.

Challenges included the fact that the lighting would be powered by solar panels, translating to a significant learning curve for the installation team. Additionally, the contractors that partnered with Mako were not familiar with the installation of cables that accommodated 0-10V dimming capabilities.

Solution: The experts at LP LED were tasked with developing a lighting solution that would achieve the energy savings stipulated in the LEED v4.9 certification without any sacrifice to target foot candles and uniformity. Every luminaire specified for use at the store was intensely evaluated through a formal audit to ensure it was flexible, powerful and dependable in each application.  

The criteria for fixture selection included life span, a minimum of 80 CRI, Lumen per Watt metrics and target uniformity. LP LED proposed a lighting solution that included a portfolio of Current Lighting’s DesignLights Consortium® (“DLC”) qualified luminaires that met all the prerequisites.

Interior

Columbia Lighting’s CSL and LXEM were selected for specific interior locations and the loading bay. The CSL LED strip light offers significant value and high performance with 0-10V dimming standard. The team chose the 4,480 lumen model, which uses 112 Lumens per Watt. The LXEM is a multi-functional enclosed LED product which serves rugged to severe conditions, making it the ideal fixture for Mako’s outdoor loading bay. The team chose the 7,870 lumen model, which uses 143 Lumens per Watt. Both the CSL and LXEM are DLC qualified and feature a CRI of 80.

The LCAT with standard 80+ CRI from Columbia Lighting was selected to illuminate the office areas. The LCAT is a DLC Premium listed LED troffer luminaire that offers the perfect marriage of both design and value with an architectural appearance.

Exterior

On the exterior, the team understood that while energy savings and uniformity were important, it was critical to keep customers and employees safe during nighttime hours. The team selected specific luminaires featuring optic technology that would optimize light task efficiency by focusing intensity on the desired areas.

The Airo and LNC3 LitePak from Current Outdoor Lighting are used throughout the parking lot and the exterior of the facility.  

The sleek and compact design of the Airo site luminaire features individual acrylic lenses that deliver IES Type II, III, IV and V distributions that are field rotatable for job site fine tuning. A combination of the medium and large versions were used. The medium (16L) provides 113 Lumens per Watt and the large (24L) provides 93 Lumens per Watt.

At 7,288 lumens, the Litepak LNC3 features TIR optics and four different lumen packages, multiple distributions and CCT for maximum light level and mounting height flexibility. The DLC Premium certified product operates at 82 Lumens per Watt with a high performance lens that optimizes photometric performance.

Benefits

The selected luminaires from Current Lighting contributed to Makro ICA’s achievement of developing its first LEED certified store in Peru. This store is 60 percent more energy efficient when measured against stores with similar square footage footprints in the Mako portfolio.

The comprehensive lighting solution is averaging 133 Lumens per Watt across the entire facility. By using DLC certified luminaires from Current Lighting, Mako was able to achieve its ambitious energy saving targets without sacrifice to lighting performance.

Operational benefits of the lighting solution include daylight harvesting of the dimmable fixtures, additional savings attached to the use of occupancy and vacancy sensors, four unique settings for wireless dimming and a time schedule for exteriors and interiors.

Makro ICA anticipates payback on the lighting to be achieved in less than 18 months.

Testimonial

“When we began this ambitious project, we knew the lighting would play a significant role in successfully achieving LEED v4.9 certification. The team at LP LED partnered with us to develop a lighting solution that accomplished our expectations and requirements for the LEED Certification v.4. They identified products that were ideal for the applications, met the targeted specs and ensured that customers and employees in the store would enjoy a safe, comfortable shopping experience.”

-Juan Carlos Gonzales, project manager, Makro