Dunkin’ Donuts announced the launch of DD Green, a green building certification program designed to help franchisees build sustainable, energy-efficient restaurants. In conjunction with the announcement, the company is celebrating the grand opening of a DD Green certified Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant at 5560 E. 7th Street in Long Beach, California. Dunkin’ Donuts will work with franchisees and construction managers to build 100 new Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants DD Green certified by the end of 2016.

To be recognized as a DD Green restaurant, franchisees, construction managers, and architects will follow a five-stage program during the planning, design, and construction phases of store development. Those that have met the DD Green criteria will display a DD Green plaque in-store that notes the restaurant’s achievement in energy reduction and sustainable design.

"We are delighted to be able to launch the DD Green initiative, a green-building certification program that is customized for our various store formats and designed to enable us to meet our long-term environmental targets," says Paul Twohig, president of Dunkin' Donuts U.S. and Canada, and Dunkin' Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Europe and Latin America. "We are committed to building greener restaurants, and this new program is designed to reduce our overall environmental footprint and improve operating costs for our franchisees."

The five stages of the DD Green program include Site Development, Store Efficiency, Healthy Indoors, Sustainable Operations, and Innovation and Community. Each stage of the DD Green strategies provides a brief synopsis of the strategy goal, specific educational information, guidance and metrics to achieve with the design and construction team.  

Each stage focuses on securing sustainable strategies and practices for restaurants, including the mitigation of construction pollution and waste recycling, installation of energy-efficient LED light fixtures, mechanical units and water-saving plumbing fixtures, implementation of healthy environments with indoor air-quality management and use of zero-VOC paints, and a required sustainable building operations training for employees. Franchisees can achieve two different levels within the program: DD Green, where stores meet minimum sustainable requirements, and DD Green Elite, where stores reach beyond requirements and achieve additional suggested sustainable goals.

UL Environment, a business division of UL—the global independent safety science company—audits and certifies sustainability programs, and reviewed the DD Green achievement program structure in 2014. “We applaud Dunkin’ Donuts for their efforts in promoting improved sustainable building practices via this program,” says Catherine Sheehy, program manager for UL Environment. “We have reviewed the new DD Green certification program and confirmed that the strategies required for achievement will, if implemented as described, enable participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants to achieve reductions in energy and water usage, and reduce waste and material sent to landfills in comparison to Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants that do not implement the DD Green strategies required for certification.”