01-Jul-2012

How To Construct a Net-Zero Gas Station

Recently there was a great story about the net-zero Highland Chevron facility located in Beaverton, Oregon.

In eco-friendly Portland, Oregon—where the first LEED-certified convention center was registered all the way back in 2004—gasoline is still necessary. The city’s motorists ranked number one in the United States in 2009 for new hybrid cars per capita (8.8 per every 1,000 households), but even hybrids need to be refilled every 400–600 miles. Meng-Hannan Construction, Inc., which specializes in gas stations, built or remodeled many such structures in 2010 and 2011, including the first net-zero facility for a City of Roses suburb. Take a careful look at how it was constructed—because there’s more green around the facility’s fossil fuels than meets the eye.