A McDonald’s location getting a remodel usually doesn’t generate much in the way of headlines, but the location on West Buena Vista Drive near Disney World is getting a lot of attention because it runs fully on clean, renewable energy.
The fast-food giant unveiled this green-energy-powered building on July 1, with the drive-thru open now and the dining room to open at a later date.
The building, inside and out, is all sleek design aesthetics and environmentally-friendly innovation, studded with over 1,000 solar panels, an outdoor dining space with solar panel awnings, passive ventilation, and a living garden wall that naturally cools the space. Customers are invited to pitch in by going a few rounds on stationary bikes on property that will help generate power for the building. Well-played with that last gambit, McDonalds.
McDonald’s is using this restaurant as a learning hub, with plans to analyze data and numbers from this location as part of an overall effort to decrease its energy usage and carbon footprint company-wide in the years to come. (Meat-eating aside, of course.)
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This article appears in Mean People Suck.