Ad firm plans to green up old post office building

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California’s largest independent advertising agency, Rubin Postaer & Associates, is trying to be as green as it can when it moves into its new headquarters next to Playa Vista: the former U.S. Postal Service distribution center at 13031 W. Jefferson Blvd.

Before the agency moves in 575 employees there from Santa Monica in late 2010, it will help make over its leased building to meet gold or possibly platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards, Co-Chairman Gerry Rubin said. Architecture firm HLW International is working on the redesign. The ad agency has several clients that are active in environmentally friendly technology, including American Honda Motor Co.

‘Honda is a leader in environmental technology,’ Rubin said. Now ‘we have a chance to step up and do what’s right.’

The site has a natural gas hookup, he added, and ‘there is no reason to think our mail room vehicle couldn’t be a hydrogen car.’

In April, the Los Angeles City Council passed a green building plan that would require newly constructed residential and commercial development over a certain size to employ LEED standards.

Studies show the average green building saves 36% in energy and 40% in water, and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and solid waste by 70%.

— Roger Vincent