INDIANAPOLIS – The new KFC restaurant in Indianapolis was designed with the planet in mind, and it features design advances in the areas of energy efficiency, community connections, water conservation and sensible materials.

“This new KFC Green restaurant is part of our E3 initiative, which looks at Economically responsible ways of saving Energy and being Environmentally aware,” said Roger McClendon, chief sustainability officer for Yum! Brands Inc., parent company of KFC Corporation. “This project is part of our global environmental stewardship efforts.”

McClendon explains the building is designed to use 25% less energy and water than a conventional KFC restaurant. It features energy-efficient cooking equipment, low-power, long-life LED lighting, locally sourced building materials, parking preference for hybrid vehicles, fixtures designed for lower water use, waste recycling (including cooking oil and plastics) and other green features.

“We are very proud of this restaurant, which is a tangible example of the work we are doing to reach our goal of reducing our environmental impact, while serving the food our consumers love,” McClendon said. “This is one step along our path toward designing and building greener restaurants and we’ll be using it as a ‘test lab’ to evaluate the performance of technologies and processes. What we learn at the Indianapolis restaurant could potentially impact the design of future buildings worldwide.”

Design elements of the new KFC Green restaurant include:

  • Energy Efficiency — Cooking with energy efficient kitchen equipment; specifying high-efficiency heating, cooling and ventilation; reusing energy to heat hot water; lighting with low-power, long life LED lighting; harvesting sunlight to reduce manmade lighting; and automating energy management and monitoring.

  • Community Connections — Building with local building materials such as concrete, steel and masonry; roofing and paving are light colored to help reduce urban heat island effect; parking preference for customers using hybrid vehicles; and reducing use of foam through reusable food containers.

  • Water Conservation — Installing fixtures designed for lower water use; planting indigenous flowers and shrubs to reduce water needs; and using water-conserving drip irrigation system.

  • Sensible Materials — Reducing building size to save materials and energy; incorporating building materials with recycled content, including floor tiles, wall coverings and cotton fiber insulation; building with sustainably harvested wood (FSC Certified); selecting Earth-friendlier adhesives and paints; and recycling waste including cooking oil and plastics.

Louisville, Ky.-based KFC Corporation is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain. More than 15,000 KFC outlets operate in 109 countries and territories around the world serving some 12 million customers each day.