The Atlas Supermarket closed permanently on May 11, 2002, 2-1/2 years after the passing of Sid Maurer. It was only last January that Sunflower Market suddenly closed its doors. Have you noticed that our Kroger has undergone an extreme makeover and that there is a fledgling new food enterprise, Locally Grown Gardens, at the intersection of 54th Street and the Monon Trail? Have you visited the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market lately? And then, how about the recent grand opening of the long awaited "Fresh Market?" These, along with the always reliable but uneventful Marsh and a host of specialty shops like The Breadsmith, Johnny's Market, the Village Pantry, and the snack section of the CVS drugstore represent the retail food culture of our community. Is there anything to learn from asking how Green it might be? Let's look at the Atlas site.

In the year 2000, Green was still only a whisper, yet Atlas exhibited many very Green elements. Words like frugality, sufficiency, conservation, and naturalness represent concepts that are at the core of the Green way and the Atlas way as well, as I recall. These traits came to Atlas through Sid's dedication which infused his own personal qualities into the enterprise he created and dearly loved. Sid was Atlas.

A fundamental premise I learned in my studies in sustainable design is that the Greenest building is one you do not need to build. The environmental impact of demolition and new construction cannot be compensated for by the new building's energy efficiency. Similarly, trading in your perfectly serviceable automobile for a new one with better gas mileage is not a Green thing to do because the energy saved with the better mileage will never add up to the energy expended in making the new car. Sid knew this. No energy was expended on frills and affectation, yet you could always find that unusual food item on his 50 year old shelves at a reasonable price. I especially appreciated his handling of the produce. He never bought into the marketing notion that lettuce is better presented drenched in water. This may have a dubious measure of sensual appeal at the point of sale but it encourages rot which in turn increases waste both at the store and at home. On arriving home with such a product I am compelled to remove it from the package, dry it as best I can, wrap it in paper towel, and repackage it in another dry bag so that it might last more than a day or two in the refrigerator. I could stick Sid's shrink wrapped lettuce in the refrigerator and not worry about it for better than a week or so. For this and many other similar reasons, I loved Sid's Atlas, but the most profound loss at Atlas' closing was the loss of community. I am certain that Atlas made a profit, but it did not seem that it was the primary motive for its existence. There was virtually no turnover in the help - they seemed part of the extended family. They were real, competent, and happy to be there.

Here now arrives Fresh Market and even though the community and its leadership supposedly has had considerable input in the design process, neither Green nor Sid seem anywhere to be found. My first impression is that frugality, sufficiency, and conservation seem to have been replaced by extravagance, excess, and waste precisely at a time when urgent environmental concerns, rising property taxes, the mortgage debacle, falling dollar values, skyrocketing medical costs and growing economic inequality have degraded the quality of life of the middle class to the point that many of us are now struggling just to get by. On the other hand, Fresh is convenient and I was able to buy some decent prosciutto there the other day.

Can Fresh go Green? Although it is probably too late to do much about the building envelope and the mechanical system, and beyond the obvious efforts to reduce energy consumption, recycle, and reduce waste, Fresh could spearhead a Going Local initiative by leading an effort to establish an organized distributed urban garden network. Fresh appears to have the resources to implement any plan it chooses to pursue. If it chose to, it could engage and contribute to the community by building a network of small local gardens to supply a portion of its produce instead of relying on the current industrialized system that is heavily dependent on truck transport. The effort would be primarily a matter of organization. Plantings and harvests could be scheduled to deliver locally grown, truly fresh produce to the store in a timely way and with the use of high tunnels and green houses, production could eventually extend year round. Further, by converting its rooftop from parking to an intensive green roof with greenhouses, Fresh could grow plant starts for the effort. Radical? Yes. Impossible? Not in my opinion. It would take vision. It would take courage. It would take commitment to community. It would be a truly creative community building move toward sustainability. How cool! How Green - and how respectful to Sid's legacy.