Coca-Cola in South Brunswick Achieves LEED Silver Certification

Forsgate Industrial Partners’ 226,000-square-foot distribution center for Coca-Cola Refreshments in South Brunswick, NJ has achieved LEED Silver certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Designed by KSS Architects, of Princeton and Philadelphia, the distribution center sets a new standard for the sustainable design of industrial buildings and serves a model for this building type throughout New Jersey and the region.

“Due to its monumental and vital role in national and worldwide trade, industrial real estate has significant impact on the environment,” said Edmund Klimek, partner at KSS and leader of Commercial and Industrial Architecture at the firm. “Though some people thought ‘industrial’ and ‘sustainable design’ would never appear in the same sentence, the unique nature of projects in this market presents substantial green opportunities.”

Forsgate Industrial Partners’ distribution facility for Coca-Cola Refreshments features a fully day-lit interior and a rooftop photovoltaic array to produce 1 megawatt of energy. The combination of perimeter clerestory windows and daylighting tubes with daylighting sensors virtually eliminates the need for artificial lighting during daytime building operations. 

It uses 20 percent less energy than a similar warehouse facility and water efficient plumbing fixtures have reduced water usage by 35 percent of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards.

A white roof mitigates heat island effect, while interior finishes include both renewable and regionally manufactured materials. In addition, the new facility parallels The Coca-Cola Company’s own Live Positively standards for sustainability.

The new distribution center consolidates Coca-Cola Refreshments’ operations from Neptune, North Brunswick and Parsippany and represents a significant investment by the company in the state.

With a fast-paced construction schedule of less than one year, Forsgate’s new facility exemplifies a costeffective, efficient, sustainable, and high-performance design solution for the industrial sector.

“By stepping back from the buildings and rethinking the role of distribution centers in the supply chain, we can build projects that are arguably good for the environment,” said Klimek, an active member of the NAIOP and USGBC teams creating a set of LEED guidelines specifically for industrial distribution centers. “While LEED has helped us come a long way to create green buildings, at the end of the day, we need to remember sustainability is not about points, but about the environmental, economic and community benefits.”