The first BCE awards allowed British Petroleum’s efforts to be recognised and also helped to raise awareness of environmental issues further.
There were only five winners in 1975, with British Petroleum taking top honours. With Scotland having only recently discovered oil, British Petroleum were growing fast and had to show resourcefulness and adaptability in the way they expanded. This was demonstrated at Dalmeny Tank Farm in Lothian, Scotland.
Situated 3 miles inland from the Firth of Forth in South Queensferry, the 93-acre site was formerly an old Bing (a mound or heap of mining spoil/waste left over from coal extraction, which is usually heavily contaminated with heavy metal residues) formed from spoil from oil-shale operations on site. It was redeveloped by BP to act as an onland storage facility for crude oil.
Redevelopment of the land was carried out between 1973 and 1975 during which time 2.3 million cubic yards of shale, clay and topsoil were removed. The site was reseeded with grass and 55 000 trees and shrubs were planted; this helped the site blend into the surrounding environment.
The tank farm was concealed within the Bing making it ‘invisible’ except from the air. The newly landscaped site hid seven, 260 ft wide, 60 ft high tanks, each capable of holding 74,000 metric tonnes of crude oil. Alongside these were three ballast water tanks and two ‘recovered oil’ tanks. There were two, 48-inch pipelines that ran from the farm to the Forth tanker terminal off Hound Point. One transported crude oil to the waiting tankers while the other allowed contaminated ballast water to be transported to the treatment plant at Dalmeny. Both of these were buried to reduce the visual impact.
The idea was developed by award-winning architect James Morris who also received numerous other awards for this project.
This project demonstrated an awareness of the visual impact of installations but on the whole wasn’t that much more environmentally friendly as a result of these measures. This shows how businesses still had a way to go in developing environmental policies. The environment was about how things looked, i.e. if an area appeared clean it was clean.
More recently, British Petroleum has become BP and is gradually becoming less reliant on oil as the main source of income for the business. BP Solar, for example, is the 3rd largest producer of solar panels in the world. It has also invested heavily in ‘BP alternative energy’, which is made up of its wind, solar and hydrogen power businesses.
As one of the largest companies in the world, BP is aware of the role it needs to play in reducing climate change and improving sustainability. It measures emissions from their products, is involved in numerous emissions trading schemes and has carried out and funded research into carbon capture and storage technologies. BP is also concerned about sustainable transport and is continually looking for ways to reduce carbon, NOx and SOx emissions. Its research includes biofuels, hydrogen fuels and development of cleaner oils and lubricants.