California McDonald's Gets Green Arches

McDonald's is synonymous with golden arches, fries, burgers, and playgrounds for most of us. Another of the many restaurants in the chain is moving away from the golden arches and going green. A restaurant in Riverside, California has turned those golden arches green with green tech in an effort to get the LEED Gold Certification for design in environmental and energy design.

The restaurant used several different energy conserving technologies and green design ideas in its efforts to be more environmentally friendly. These include a light colored landscape to reduce heat emissions. The native plants used in the landscape are drought tolerant so less water is needed and low flow pluming is used to conserve water inside the restaurant.

The big green feature for the location is the addition of 294 photovoltaic panels that generate some of the power the restaurant needs to operate. The exact percentage of the power needed that the panels are able to generate is unknown. The restaurant even uses recycled denim inside the walls for insulation.