Spend 20 minutes watching TV or walking the aisles of your neighborhood grocery store or discount retail chain and one thing will quickly become apparent: Virtually every company is touting the “green” benefits of its products or services.
Consumers still like the idea of doing what they can to tread more lightly on the earth, and the collision repair industry seems to fit in a category where environmental efforts can still be a distinguishing market advantage.
Why? First, while it may be hard for a consumer to connect why one kitchen sponge is “greener” than another, they are especially aware of the environmental impact of all aspects of their cars. Second, though the industry’s image is much improved, many consumers still don’t expect to see environmental concern when they go to get their car repaired. Third, there are some great opportunities within the industry right now to credibly show you’re doing your part for the environment.
Make the move to waterborne
If you’re not in one of the California markets requiring a transition to use of waterborne basecoats, making the switch may be one of the best ways you can promote your shop as easier on the environment than the other guy. All of the paint companies are creating ads, posters and counter-displays to help shops promote their use of waterborne paints.
“They love it,” says Rick Denny, an estimator at Denny’s Valley Autobody Inc., in Puyallup, Wash., about his customers’ response to the shop’s recent switch to waterborne. “The Prius and hybrid vehicle people are obviously a little more into it than others, but overall the feedback we’ve received is great.”
Denny’s Valley Autobody has long made environmental efforts part of its strategy, helping it earn a four-star rating in a county agency’s “EnviroStars” program. Shop owner Patty Denny uses money a recycler pays for the shop’s cardboard for pizza lunches for her crew; takes the bubble wrap from parts to a mailing company that reuses it; and even switched to a corn-based window cleaner.
A voluntary switch to waterborne basecoats, therefore, was a natural fit for the shop. It touts itself as the area’s top “green shop” on everything from office signage to its fax cover sheets. Rick Denny said he’s not sure whether it actually brings customers to the door, but it certainly makes them feel good about deciding to leave their vehicle once they hear about the shop’s environmental concern.
Off-set your ‘carbon footprint’
Travelers concerned about contributing to global warming can now use a variety of means to buy “carbon offsets,” essentially investing in programs – such as wind turbines or other renewable energy sources – that reduce emissions to the same degree their air travel on that trip contributes to it.
Some auto dealers have appealed to “green” customers using a similar approach, buying offsets or sponsoring tree plantings to counter the greenhouse gas emissions a customer’s new vehicle is likely to produce over its lifetime.
A number of organizations, such as NativeEnergy (www.nativeenergy.com) or Terrapass (www.terrapass.com), have an online form that can help you estimate your shop’s “carbon footprint,” how much carbon-based pollution your business creates. Find that your company generates seven tons of carbon-based pollution? A $98 donation to NativeEnergy invests in non-fossil-fuel energy-producing projects that offset that level. You can tell your customers your business is “carbon-neutral.”
Choose efficient equipment
As Denny Boulton equipped a new second location for his business, D’s Paint and Body Shop in Peoria Heights, Ill., he chose to invest in new technology that would make the shop as efficient and “green” as possible. That included looking at new paint booth technology.
“We chose an ABS Air Systems paint booth because it has a feature that recycles the heat in the booth,” Boulton says, which makes it more efficient – and as an added benefit, less costly – to operate.
Boulton also invested in an “Exhausted Air Recycling System,” something he has already retrofitted his first shop to include.
“It allows us to recycle the air from our air tools,” Boulton says, showing how a retrofit on the tool allows a second line to be attached to recirculate the air. “When you’re taking new air in, you’re taking in moisture and dirt so you have to clean it and dry it. Now we’re taking that clean, dry air and running it back for reuse. It reduces the noise. It reduces the moisture in the air lines. And it saves us energy costs by cutting compressor usage.”
Sell the benefits of recycled parts
Many shop owners have a bit of a love-hate relationship with ‘used’ or ‘recycled’ parts. In the right circumstances, they can be a great choice, but even then some customers are interested only in new parts. The ‘green’ argument may be the right one to help that customer feel good about their choice of a used part. Automotive recycling helps keep more than 4 million automobiles out of landfills every year, according to the Automotive Recyclers Association.
“A lot of people don’t think of buying a used auto part as having something to do with recycling,” says Shannon Nordstrom, vice president and general manager of Nordstrom’s Automotive, an automotive recycling business in Garretson, S.D. “But if you are reusing the parts, you don’t have to produce new ones. You don’t need new raw materials. You don’t need the energy that producing those new parts requires. Reuse is the best kind of recycling there is.”
See things in a new light
You may be able to improve the lighting in your shop – something your technicians are sure to appreciate – and save energy and money on your taxes all at the same time.
Tacoma Public Utilities in Washington, for example, offers a rebate of 17 cents per kilowatt hour saved the first year, up to 70 percent of the project cost, to businesses that replace old lighting systems with new, more energy-efficient lighting. Congress has extended until 2013 a 60-cent-per-square-foot federal tax deduction for improvements to lighting in commercial buildings that reduce energy use, and some states offer similar rebates or tax credits (check with your utility or state energy department).
In sunny Sacramento, Bryan Rehorn has gone one step further. The owner of Autobody Workshop installed dozens of skylights in the roof above his shop’s 12,000-square-foot production area, flooding the area with natural light, eliminating the need for electrical lighting much of the time.
Meet the 2011 EPA regulation today
Going green makes particular good sense for shops because it also can help them comply with new federal guidelines coming down the road. One such Environmental Protection Agency regulation will place a number of requirements on collision repair shops by 2011. It may require new equipment and practices, but it is also designed to reduce overall toxic material consumption, which can result in savings for the business as well.
Under the regulation, shops will be responsible for ensuring all painters have completed hands-on training in the proper application of surface coatings. All painting of vehicles must be done in a spray booth (or, in the case of painting of some vehicle parts, a prep station) that meets the regulation’s requirements. The booth, for example, must be fully enclosed, and use a filter system that captures at least 98 percent of paint overspray. Prep stations must have a full roof, at least three complete walls or complete side curtains, and must be ventilated so that air is drawn into the booth.
The regulation also requires that all spraying of coatings be done with a high-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) spray gun. All paint spray gun cleaning must be done either with solvents that do not contain certain hazardous air pollutants, or within a fully enclosed spray gun cleaner.
Shops will have three years from the time the regulation was finalized –until January of 2011 – to comply with its requirements.
While some shops may already be in compliance with these regulations, they may not think to promote this to potential customers. Advertise that you meet 2011 environmental regulations now. Tout that you use the latest technology to reduce and contain paint overspray. Show that your technicians are getting the latest training to help reduce creation of hazardous waste.
Find power alternatives
Demonstrating to customers your commitment to cleaner, more renewable forms of energy doesn’t necessarily require installing a wind turbine or solar panel on your shop’s roof. You can let your electrical utility do the work for you.
PacifiCorp, for example, which supplies power to six Western states, is among the utilities that offer customers the option of choosing renewable energy sources – wind, solar, geothermal or biomass – for some or all of their power usage. The added fee can be as little as $2 a month, and the utility helps promote companies that make the switch through its Web site and newsletters to all its customers, and by offering participating businesses window decals and signage.
Even if you choose to stick with conventional power sources, your utility may be willing to visit your shop to conduct a free energy audit to help you find ways to make your facility more energy-efficient.
Cut your garbage bill
Still paying full-price to have dumpsters full of cardboard parts packaging and damaged sheet metal parts hauled away? Go “green” by turning more of your waste stream into a revenue stream. Depending on the current price for scrap metal, haulers will remove all your shop’s scrap metal for free or may even pay you a small fee for it.
Your garbage hauler can help set you up to recycle your scrap cardboard and paper, often reducing your garbage disposal fees. Companies that refurbish damaged bumper covers, radiators, wheels and headlights may pick those up from your shop; some shops require such companies to take the items no matter what their condition, while others allow the haulers to pick-and-choose but in return expect a small fee for each item taken for refurbishment.
Work with ‘green’ suppliers
Choose vendors using good “green” practices, and touting their efforts can help your own “green” credentials. If you choose a Spray-Tech or Junair spray booth or booth accessory system, for example, you can promote the fact that the company’s Rialto, Calif., factory recently installed a 440,000-watt solar panel system that offsets more than 25 percent of the factory’s power bill. CEO Tyler Rand said the system offsets the company’s “carbon footprint” by 120,000 pounds per year, and seemed appropriate for a company whose products help make the transition to waterborne possible for shops.
“Offsetting some of our electric usage with solar energy just seemed like a natural expression of our environmental commitment,” he says.
There are strong business arguments for “going green” even if you’ve never considered yourself an environmentalist. It may offer your shop a marketing edge. But many of the activities mentioned here may also improve the quality of your shop’s work, reduce your costs, generate new revenue, or improve your technicians’ productivity – all things that can add a little more “green” to your bottom line.
