North Carolina's first stand-alone LEED-certified restaurant, the Subway restaurant on Market Street in Southern Village, will be officially recognized in a ceremony to take place Monday at 10 a.m.

The store is just the second of the more than 30,000 restaurants in the Subway system to earn certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

LEED is a third-party certification program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED serves as a benchmark for rating environmental performance and occupant satisfaction for several building scenarios.

Since September of last year, Subway and franchise owner Mike Abdallat have been working with Cary-based Green Tech Consulting, Inc. to earn a LEED certification for the Southern Village store. GreenTech worked with the U.S. Green Building Council to obtain the certification, complete the entire submittal application for review by the USGBC, and respond to comments and accept the final rating following USGBC's review.

Abdallat, who lives in Durham, owns two other Subways, in Carrboro and Raleigh. He said his green investment was already paying dividends since his utility bills have been reduced by at least half.

"I am sold on 'Green' and will definitely do another eco-friendly store," he said.

Designed to have an overall smaller environmental footprint by requiring less energy and consume less water, the eco-store elements for the Subway restaurant include recycled floor tile, high efficiency HVAC systems, low flow and flush fixtures in public restrooms, less lighting power and more natural light for seated customers. Overall, the new Subway store was renovated within its existing shell, thus avoiding a new building footprint.