Are eco petrol stations credible?

Concept sketch for a single skin geodesic architecture with embedded solar PVs | © Minale Tattersfield

Compared with conventional designs, eco petrol stations offer two major benefits for fuel retailers:

• Financial in terms of reduced costs to run the eco petrol stations and therefore a lower life time cost, which should more than outweigh any higher initial expenditure or incremental capital costs to build them.
• Image / Customer reward. Early adoption of environmentally friendly technology and behaviour fits neatly with the softer, environmentally-friendly values that customers nowadays expect. Broadly speaking, research shows that, given two equal and indistinguishable looking products, the one with greater green credentials will be preferred. Commercial value is therefore highlighted by the potential for increased shop and fuel sales, plus the opportunity to offset advertising costs. 

Convenience retail in Russia is evolving

Kerb trip incident might be helpful for petrol station owners

Petrol station boss Steve Jones, Harvest Energy | Credit: Anglia News

PC Kelly Jones “drops legal action” against burglary victim whose kerb she tripped over at a Harvest Energy  petrol station in Thetford, Norfolk on August 25, 2012.

According to Steve Martin, Managing Director of sign installation company Xmo Strata, the highly publicised case could be ‘helpful’ for forecourt owners and those working in the industry.

Wary to seize on the opportunity, Mr Martin said the incident did not involve signs, but was a useful reminder to anyone working on fuel forecourts.

“This kind of controversy can only be helpful in limiting the possibility of future claims of this type”, he said.

UK-based forecourt designers Minale Tattersfield, who work closely with sign contractors from around the world, believes a properly designed forecourt should preemptively seek to address on site hazards – two such ways are to ensure the forecourt is appropriately lit and signed.

Lighting the way to energy savings

Uniform illumination courtesy of CREE

When specifying optimal luminaires for a forecourt design project, you would assume a higher power lighting fixture offers better subject illumination and visibility for safe circulation. However, a lower power solution offering more even uniform light can outperform some of the more powerful light fixtures. How is this possible you might wonder?

Lewis Hamilton mistakenly pits in the wrong garage

Lewis Hamilton mistakenly pits in the wrong garage at the Malaysian Grand Prix last Sunday. McLaren’s pit box would have taken some resisting for Lewis Hamilton who was their F1 driver for 6 years until signing to Mercedes at the end of last season. It is understandably hard to break a bond of team loyalty after so many years, still harder if the colours of his former team’s overalls are more eye catching.

Benefits 'in store' for heat recovery chillers

Image courtesy of Daikin

Discussing chilled technology during a cold snap in Northern Europe makes sense when it involves utilising heat recovered from the chilling process to warm the ambient areas of a convenience store.

An international symbol of access?

The international symbol of access (ISA) is often seen where access has been improved, particularly for wheelchair users. But in this instance the ubiquitous symbol appears to negate its original intention.

Differentiate or alienate?

A positive outcome in the wake of the horsemeat scandal is surely the fact that there is now a wider appreciation of the complexity of the industrial food chain.