The McDonald’s where I spent my early years stuffing my face with Big Macs and fries was recently demolished, and will soon be replaced by a newer, LEED-certified McDonald’s.

Ok, I admit it: I used to eat at McDonald’s a lot as a kid. Although I haven’t touched the stuff in years, I still have fond memories of riding my bike up to McDonald’s and gorging on hamburgers and fries with my friends. Sometimes we would even invade the playground, throwing plastic balls at each other until they threw us out. It wasn’t just that I liked Big Macs, McDonald’s was one of the only places I could bike to from my house in the planned unit development in Cary, North Carolina where I grew up, and lunch there  only cost a couple of bucks.

I won’t list here the reasons why I object today to McDonald’s and what it stands for. Perhaps more than any other corporation, McDonald’s has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the way Americans live and do business. Some of the reasons were explored in Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 film Super Size Me.

These days, however, not even McDonald’s can ignore the spirit of the times. Yesterday, my dad emailed me a story from The Cary News. Turns out, that same McDonald’s that I spent so much time at as a kid was torn down last week. The place was 25 years old, just younger than I am.

According to the article, Ric Richards, the owner of that and six other McDonald’s restaurants in the area, decided that refurbishing the place would be too expensive, and decided instead to rebuild it as a green building. When construction is finished later this year, it will be the first McDonald’s in the state, and only the third in the nation to earn certification as a green building by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

“As a businessman, I think it sets an example,” Ric, who says he eats at his restaurants at least once a day, told The Cary News. “This is the future.”

While I won’t bore you with my opinions about Cary, North Carolina, suffice to say that this is a place where zoning regulations mandate drab colored finishes for home exteriors, clotheslines are prohibited and cops spend their time kicking kids out of parks after dark. In short, not a very progressive place.

In the landscape, Richard’s new McDonald’s will be something of an architectural landmark. His new building will use water and energy conservation devices to dramatically reduce water and electricity use. The old materials will be sold to a recycling center. The interior will have natural wood and lighting, “muted colors and cushioned seats.” A far cry from the gaudy, tacky, uncomfortable McDonald’s that I knew as a kid. Apparently corporate headquarters gives franchisees more say in the design of their own places these days.

While I have to take my hat off to a guy like Ric, who decided to think ahead in an extremely conservative environment, I will find it hard to root for the success of the new, green McDonald’s. And not only because Ric decided not to rebuild the playground.

Unfortunately, the core of McDonald’s business strategy remains as it is: the antithesis of sustainable. No matter how many salads they sell, the food will remain unhealthy. The term “McJobs,” which Wikipedia defines as “slang for a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement” got its start there. And the environmental effects of the company that turns chickens (let’s assume that’s what they are made of) into McNuggets are huge.

Props to Ric for the initiative and the foresight. But regardless of what kind of building it inhabits, a McDonald’s is still a McDonald’s.