Recently while reading through some daily e-mail digests I receive, I saw that Testa Produce has opened a new distribution center that includes a number of sustainable features such as a freestanding 238-foot, 750kW wind turbine; a rainwater reclamation system, including bio swales to capture run-off, a 5,000-gallon internal cistern, and a 765,000-gallon detention pond; a 45,000 square-foot barreled vegetated roof; and 180 solar panels located on the roof, dock and pole-mounted solar trees in the parking lot.

The vegetated roof feature piqued my curiosity so I contacted Angela Bader, Testa’s marketing coordinator, for more details. She told me that the roof is made up of a variety of native plant vegetative material that requires minimal irrigation. The roof is designed to collect rainwater runoff and filter it into Testa’s internal rainwater filtration cistern. From there, the water is distributed throughout the building and used for non-potable use. In terms of environmental impacts, the roof will release more oxygen into the atmosphere and act as insulation to decrease wasted heat emissions.

To learn more about Testa’s sustainability programs, visit their website. If you have a sustainability story to share, please let us know. We highlight members’ sustainability stories on the PMA website.

Tags: Sustainability, Sustainability stories

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 10:00 am and is filed under Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.