Fill up on gas while the walls of our “air cleaning station” clean your car exhausts.
This is the vision that drives Pilipinas Shell—one of the country’s top energy companies with almost a thousand outlets nationwide—as it joins the fight against air pollution by joining the One Wall One World initiative (OWOW). With their initiative for cleaner and safer air by painting all their stations with Boysen KNOxOUT, the world’s first air-cleaning paint with CristalActiv photocatalytic technology, Pilipinas Shell becomes the first petroleum company in the world to help combat air pollution by transforming their retail stations into air purifiers.
“The burden of air pollution in the country, particularly here in Metro Manila, is a constant threat to the environment and to the health of Filipinos,” says Ed Chua, country chairman for Shell Companies in the Philippines. “The innovative technology of Boysen KNOxOUT perfectly complements the staunch advocacy of Pilipinas Shell towards caring for the environment and promoting sustainable development.”
The One Wall One World campaign, an advocacy project spearheaded by Boysen in partnership with the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia), and the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP), aims to have as many walls in Metro Manila painted against pollution.
To highlight this initiative, a ceremonial painting will be held this Friday, July 22, at the 50-square meter Shell gas station in Florida Street near Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA).
“Shell stations nationwide are constantly exposed to high amounts of vehicle exhausts with the high traffic of vehicles fuelling up daily. We’ve chosen a Shell station along EDSA simply because the air pollution levels here are off the charts,” shares Chua. “With a long-term collaboration with Boysen Paints spanning more than 40 years, we envision to help reduce air pollution by making use of KNOxOUT’s breakthrough paint technology.”
A recent study shows that in Metro Manila, 80% of pollution in the air is caused by vehicular traffic. Add to this the fact that along EDSA, where the bulk of transports across the metropolis can be found, the average 24-hour NO2 level is over 4 ½ beyond the health limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). In fact, NOx levels along EDSA are three times than that of Beijing.
Thus, the need for a more aggressive campaign against air pollution, which the OWOW initiative has been carrying out through Boysen KNOxOUT
KNOxOUT has demonstrated its ability to clean the air during numerous tests and trials a few years back. Results of the trials in Guadalupe showed that one square meter of a KNOxOUT-painted area reduced NOx by the same amount of one mature tree. Thus, the KNOxOUT painting of the Shell Florida Station is equivalent to 50 mature trees in the area to clean the air.
KNOxOUT’s CristalActiv photocatalytic technology enables it to absorb energy from light and transform ordinary water vapor into free radicals, which then break down noxious air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), that come into contact with the surface.
Boysen KNOxOUT also has a self-cleaning feature that keeps painted surfaces looking fresh while other surfaces turn grey from air pollution.
Boysen KNOxOUT has previously backed advocacy projects that also aimed to help clean the air, such as the “Green Walls” initiative and the “One Wall, One World Campaign.” To find out how you can be one of the citizens or companies who are stepping up to clean our air, please visit www.onewalloneworld.com.