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The first thing you notice are the bubbles. OK, that might be the second thing, after the Paul Bunyan-sized red Coke bottle just inside the front door.

But there’s no denying it: Bubbles are ubiquitous inside Baton Rouge Coca-Cola’s new distribution facility. Large and small, they adorn the floor, walls and ceilings. Even the custom light fixture in the foyer—where you’ll also find a display of Coke bottles through the ages—is designed to evoke columns of rising bubbles. Because when you get right down to it, the bubble is key.

“We wanted the effervescence of our brand to really resonate throughout this facility,” says Darian Chustz, president of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company United’s Gulf Coast Region, sipping from a petite glass bottle of Diet Coke.

“It’s all about capturing the essence of our brand and our business and really making it a fun and happy place, not only for people from the outside but for the 500-plus employees that work here.”

In addition to the fun, happiness and bubbles, a stroll through the complex—designed by Grace & Hebert—reveals a company mindful of history and nostalgia. Vintage Coke machines stand like suits of armor along the corridors. Photos of old advertising and the long-gone former digs of the Baton Rouge bottler line the walls. The new place is the company’s fifth home in the city since 1906. The previous facility, on Airline Highway just south of Interstate 12, opened in 1971.

More history: The Plank Road entrance is marked by a sign that in the 1930s graced the company’s downtown building. That building was demolished in the 1970s. But work crews uncovered the sign—in six pieces—during an expansion of the River Center. The relic was refurbished and “repurposed.”

The facility itself is not antique. The plant is the first LEED-certified Coca-Cola bottler in the United States and the first LEED-certified manufacturing facility in Louisiana. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation bestowed on certain buildings that meet strict requirements for sustainability and conservation.

“It’s basically a point system where you get points for different initiatives or elements that you build into your design in a number of different categories,” says Melanie Clark, the vice president of marketing for Baton Rouge Coca-Cola.

The four loose categories LEED uses to decide whether to grant certification are recycled materials, regionally sourced materials, water conservation and energy efficiency. One step toward LEED certification was using recycled steel for building columns, joists and girders and recycled materials for office furniture.

Another requirement is for the site to minimize storm-water runoff, which explains the vast grassy areas surrounding the plant. Bike racks, parking spaces for high-efficiency cars and even a white reflective roof that absorbs less heat are necessary for the LEED seal of approval.

“Most of our parking surface is concrete versus asphalt, because concrete is more reflective,” Clark says. “It provides a reflective surface that minimizes the heat effect. We mixed all of our concrete on site so we didn’t have to truck in concrete, which again minimizes transportation costs.”

Chustz says that even before he knew what LEED certification meant or that the company would be pursuing it, plans for the new plant were very green-oriented.

“We had already planned and designed a recycling center into this facility to recycle cardboard, plastic, PET, aluminum, water recovery,” he says. “We were already headed down that path.”

Then the Coca-Cola Company itself became interested in what the Baton Rouge bottler was doing, and it pushed for LEED certification.

“They brought a lot of attention to this project and helped us get focused on sustainability and environmental initiatives,” Chustz says, adding that the result is “the most modern and efficient Coca-Cola bottling plant in America.”

Terry Layman of Forcum Lannom, the Dyersburg, Tenn.-based contractor on the $178 million project, says LEED certification requires a lot more documentation than a conventional project.

“It’s more involved than it would be on a normal construction project, but as long as you keep the documentation you’ll be OK.”

The design team and field site crews stayed on top of the documentation so well that the plant was able to announce its LEED certification the day of its grand opening, April 28.

“Normally it takes you six to eight months, maybe up to a year, after the completion of a facility before you know if you get LEED certification,” Layman says.

Coca-Cola also decided the Baton Rouge bottler might as well expand production into other brands. Originally, the plan was for the new plant to produce the carbonated beverages it has always produced—much more of it, but still the same stuff.

But Coca-Cola granted the franchise authority to make PowerAde and Vitamin Water, which led to an expansion of production capabilities the bottler never could have achieved on its own. The Baton Rouge plant became a major Coca-Cola hub in the Southeast, producing the new brands for shipment to other bottlers in the region. The new site is much larger than the old one, from just under 300,000 square feet on 27 acres on Airline Highway to 781,000 square feet on 112 acres on Plank Road just east of Metro Airport.

And to think the Baton Rouge bottler hadn’t planned to move before the 2005 hurricane season. Now it has a 99-year lease with the city and plenty of room to grow, with the option to lease more acreage should the need arise. The plant currently has 540 employees, and the bottler plans to add another 100 in the next three years.

“Katrina changed everything for us,” Chustz says. “We probably would have expanded at our existing facility. We’d just spent $5 million on a new warehouse expansion and literally completed it the week that Katrina hit. We filled that warehouse up completely in the weeks following Katrina and still couldn’t get enough inventory into our facility to accommodate our local needs.”

The bottler was able to take advantage of GO Zone funds to build the new plant, though the project had to be fast-tracked in order to do so, which meant a “very hard timeline,” Chustz says.

The company originally considered relocating outside Louisiana, though Chustz gives credit to officials with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, the city-parish and Louisiana Economic Development who rose to the occasion in terms of infrastructure and land needs.

“We looked to other states, quite frankly, as an opportunity to maybe move our production,” Chustz says. “But at the end of the day, Baton Rouge, from a manufacturing perspective, was the right place for us to be. They wanted us to stay in Baton Rouge. They wanted us to stay in Louisiana.”

FACTS AND FIGURES

Information about Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company’s new distribution facility:

Location Plank Road, just east of Metro Airport

Acres 112

Facility square footage 781,000

Current production lines Four [sparkling can, sparkling bottle, sparkling bottle and Dasani, Thermal]

Employees 540

Beverages produced Sparkling beverages, Dasani Water, PowerAde, Vitamin Water [by year-end 2009]

Bottle line speed 800 per minute [16 ounce, 20 ounce, ½ liter); 650 per minute [32 ounce]; 350 per minute [2 liter]

Can line speed 1,800 per minute

Daily production 4.5 million 8-ounce servings

Loading docks 98

Fleet vehicles More than 340

SOURCE: Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company