PNC Bank's Green Branch Prototype: The Multiplier Effect of Volume Build

One of the central goals of the green building movement and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is transforming the building industry through widespread adoption of green building strategies. To date, the USGBC’s green building rating system, LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), has been the main market-based tool driving industry evolution and encouraging the adoption of sustainability. Despite incredible uptake, the speed of market transformation is hampered by the fact that LEED is intended to be applied to “one-off” design and construction projects. While it has been successful in engaging early adopters, LEED has yet to take a strong foothold in the largest sector of the building market: volume build programs.

Volume build programs are those in which owners are engaged in building or remodeling multiple branch locations on a continual basis. Ranging from bigbox retailers to casual dining restaurants to branch banks, these construction programs have the largest share of the market and the buying power to change not only the design and construction industry, but also the industrial manufacturers supplying their materials. If volume builders can realize the benefits that smart green building strategies offer, their uptake will signal the ‘true dawn’ of the green building movement.

PNC Bank, a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, is the pioneer in applying green building strategies to a volume build construction program with its new green branch bank prototype. With more than 100 branches planned over the next three years, their green branch prototype is transforming the building market more rapidly than any single company, while linking new towns and regions to the green building movement. PNC’s fi rst green branch opened in 2002 in West Grove, NJ, as the fi rst green building in the region, and the fi rst prototype version opened in 2005. Altogether, PNC now has more than two dozen green branches open across its eight-state region and the District of Columbia. So rapid is the transformation that PNC is currently in negotiations with the USGBC to streamline their LEED application process for all future prototype green branches.

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