Whole Foods Market | Sunnyvale

Integral Group provided mechanical, electrical, refrigeration, and sustainability consulting for a new flagship Whole Foods Market store in downtown Sunnyvale. The space occupies the full first floor of a mixed-use building. The store will have a variety of space types, some of which include: grocery space, frozen food, dairy, bakery, coffee station, bar and restaurant, indoor and outdoor customer dining space, food storage and staging, offices, receiving space/loading dock, and circulation space.

In addition to pushing the envelope on retail innovation, the project’s goals include building a flagship store that takes advantage of cutting-edge building systems technologies to achieve maximum efficiency while continuing to be a leader in sustainable design. In this light, Integral Group approached the sustainability and wellness goals of the project holistically, guiding Whole Foods through LEED and WELL Certifications, creating a custom Healthy Materials program to be incorporated across Whole Foods’ Portfolio, and leading a biophilic design workshop to implement biophilic design strategies throughout the store. Whole Foods hopes to be the first WELL Certified grocery store when complete.

The innovative mechanical design utilizes waste energy from the building refrigeration systems to provide free cooling and heating most of the year, resulting in greater than 30% annual energy savings. Coupled with a unique all-natural refrigerant strategy, this store will be a model for low-carbon grocery and retail facilities.