North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue is offering her congratulations for efforts to bring energy-efficient construction into the mainstream.

Perdue visits a McDonald's restaurant in Cary on Tuesday which has met standards for environmentally sustainable construction. A spokeswoman says Perdue wants to see the innovations in place at a North Carolina business.

The restaurant uses insulation made from recycled blue jeans, tubes in the roof that admit and diffuse natural light into the store, and uses water-saving plants native to the region.

McDonald's franchise owner Ric Richards says the restaurant is one of just three in the U.S. network of the world's largest fast-food chain that have been built using the green construction principles.