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Can Gas Go Green?

by John Gendall
November/December 2007 , Page 36

Helios House at the corner of Olympic and Robertson Blvds. in Los Angeles.

House of Helios

BP, the energy company formerly known as British Petroleum, cultivates a reputation as the greenest of the energy multinationals; the firm’s sunburst logo is meant to remind customers of its investments in solar and wind power. Yet for all its alternative-energy aspirations, BP, like the rest of the world economy, still lives and dies by oil. So it only made sense that the company chose Los Angeles, the embodiment of American car culture, as the site of the world’s first “eco-friendly” gas station.

Although it only opened this February, Helios House (the name refers to the Greek sun god that inspired the BP logo) has become a landmark on gritty Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles. The project began in July 2006, when BP asked architects Nader Tehrani and Monica Ponce de Leon, founders of the Boston-based firm Office dA, to design a gas station that would reflect BP’s green image. In search of local expertise, Tehrani and Ponce de Leon recruited fellow Graduate School of Design alums Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee in Los Angeles.

Choosing a station BP had purchased from California-based Thrifty Oil, the architects launched a total environmental and aesthetic makeover. Their goal: to make old elements green in a way that could be easily reproduced. “This is not the end-all of sustainability,” Tehrani says, “but a continuing investigation into sustainable options for future projects.” Helios House also aims to educate consumers: After filling their tanks, drivers receive a small card containing tips for green living. The card, which has flower seeds embedded in it, is biodegradable.

Skeptics might say that dressing up a gas station with solar panels and recycle bins is like putting lipstick on a pig, and Tehrani concedes that “a sustainable gas station may appear to be a contradiction.” Still, BP has 25,000 stations worldwide, and collectively, they leave a significant environmental footprint. “You never know where the next Helios House might pop up,” says Ann Hand, a BP senior vice president for brand marketing and innovation. And other oil companies might follow BP’s lead. “Consider how many gas stations are built or renovated around the country,” Tehrani says.

Meanwhile, the eco-station is good business: 46 percent of Helios House customers say that they travel out of their way to fill their tanks there. In other words, eco-minded drivers will actually use more gas to buy more gas.

Customers can leave old phones in a cell recycling center.
The main structure is clad with 1,653 interlocking, recyclable stainless steel panels. 90 solar panels cover the roof, producing 15,000 KWH of energy and reducing the station's carbon footprint by some 5,000 LBS of CO2 each year (roughly the equivalent of powering two to three American homes).
Contaminated water run-off collects in a 2,000-gallon undergrown cistern, where it is filtered, then used to irrigate the station's plants.
The Concrete consists of crushed shards of unrecyclable glass, instead of sand, the most commonly used material, in the bathrooms, tiles are made with recycled glass, while material in the sinks and toilets comes from post-industrial aluminum scrap.
Native drought-resistant plantings, including little bluestern and blood red trumpet vine, not only visually underscore the project's green identity, they reduce heat, absorb hydrocarbons, and contain run-off.