Greener at home

JCPenney’s Home Office is located on a 125-acre landscaped campus maintained with native Texas wildflowers and grasses, drought-tolerant plants and environmentally-sound materials, all encircled by a 1.5 mile walk/jog path. The grounds are enhanced with a six-acre man-made lake serving as a beautiful place to eat lunch while providing an environmental necessity by collecting the site’s storm water runoff.

The JCPenney Home Office is comprised of a quarter-mile naturally-lit and landscaped atrium flanked by eight office wings. The building utilizes a low- rise design encouraging walking along the landscaped atriums, walkways and bridges to stimulate Associate interaction and enhance communication through informal exchange. The office wings comprise an open office environment with an increased building perimeter to distribute natural indirect lighting throughout most of the building during the day. An automatic window shade system and a wider than normal exterior overhang reduce solar heat gain by limiting the amount of direct sunlight allowed into the building, which is under one of the largest copper roofs in the United States, utilizing 6.5 acres of sustainable material. Our thermal ice storage system is one of the world’s largest and offsets the peak demands of electrical usage by making ice each night to cool the building the following day.

 

The JCPenney Home Office implemented nearly 40 energy saving initiatives over the past five years to reduce energy consumption. Major initiatives included:

  • Retrofitting the lighting system lamps with high-efficiency electronic ballasts.
  • Replacing exit signs with LEDs.Installation of occupancy sensors in non-open office areas including
  • Restrooms, conference, copy and storage rooms.
  • Utilizing the building Energy Management System to customize control of over 100 lighting and HVAC zones.

In 2008, the ENERGY STAR program awarded the JCPenney Home Office the coveted ENERGY STAR label, signifying that our Home Office performs in the top 25 percent of office buildings nationwide. In 2008, our Associates helped us recycle 744 tons of paper, cardboard, plastics and cans from the Home Office. In addition, the used cooking oil from the cafeteria is processed and used for fuel for our on-site truck.   In addition, the Company is currently seeking LEED certification for the Home Office facility. Additional modifications that have been made in pursuit of LEED status include motion-controlled faucets, organic landscaping, use of organic cleaning supplies and the conversion of cafeteria paper and plastic goods to recycled and biodegradable products. Food waste and compostible disposable items from the cafeteria are composted.