SAN DIEGO — San Diego Gas & Electric has given a Grand Energy Champion Award to Petco for the company’s San Diego headquarters.
The 300,000-square-foot, pet-friendly facility was a former semi-conductor plant that expanded and relocated Petco’s support center from multiple buildings to one. More than 75 skylights and nearly 3,000 solar panels on the roof produce an 86 percent energy offset and allow the building’s lighting systems to run at only half capacity.
Throughout the construction process, approximately 85 percent of all demolition materials were recycled. The building’s café uses highly efficient appliances to cook and prepare food for Petco’s partners. Outside, rain and runoff water flows through landscape elements around the building and parking lot that filter water through soil sediments. In return, water evaporates, instead of draining and polluting the ocean. The building’s energy efficiency is further accented by drought-tolerant landscaping and electric car charging stations for employee use.