Supervalu-owned Cub Foods plans to open a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified grocery store in St. Paul Minn. October 31, and is aiming for LEED Gold certification for the new facility.

If approved for Gold certification, Cub Foods said it will be the nation's first new grocery store to do so. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.

The new 62,900 square-foot store will feature:

* Forty-four skylights that will illuminate 75 percent of regularly occupied spaces using a solar powered GPS system that tracks and redirects sunlight as needed.
* A commercial parking lot illuminated using only LED lights, which only need replacing every 40 years and are expected to provide an energy savings of 50 percent. This will be the first parking lot in the state to use LEDs, said Cub.
* The store interior will have a floor designed to eliminate the need for chemicals during the cleaning process.
* A landscape irrigation system that requires 50 percent less water than typical systems.
* Seventy-five percent of the building construction waste will be recycled and not sent to landfills.