Going Green
To operate a Full Service Auto Repair Facility and do it professionally and profitably is no easy task. There are many details to manage, including perception.
Vehicles, like most modern mechanical machines if not maintained, are by their nature very messy: grease and oil, grit and grime, smoke and exhaust. Therefore it should come as no great surprise that automotive shops can appear dirty, too.
And yet, the iPod-toting public somehow expects — nay, demands — that all things be neat, tidy, clean… So the popular image of the shop and the mechanic does not jive well with these expectations. No matter how outdated it may be, it is a difficult stereotype to break. And the dirty shop floors and blackened technician’s overalls don’t help matters.
Thus, it might come to many as a surprise that our industry plays a leading role in “going green”, you’d be hard-pressed to find of any other industry that has been doing it longer.
How can that be? Seems to most that an automotive shop is the last place you would find practitioners of the Sustainability Movement. Therefore, any shop touting itself as “green” must certainly be doing so at the expense of their bottom line… after all, you can’t apply environmental values on industry without compromising economics, right?
Wrong. The auto repair industry has been recycling since it’s inception. Most consumable parts such as alternators, starters, distributors, water pumps, engines, transmissions just to name a few have been rebuilt using the original cores since the first cars were produced.
Let’s take a look at a few green goals:
- Lowering Carbon and GHG emissions (the gases that cause global warming)
- Reducing harmful exhaust pollution (that affect healthy air quality)
- Diverting waste and minimizing the “cradle-to-grave” impacts of material production/consumption.
Proactive Maintenance
- By doing proactive maintenance on your vehicle (e.g. proper tire inflation, fresh fluids, wheel alignment, etc.), you can significantly improve your mechanical efficiency (read: gas milage) of getting from A to B.
- Running more efficiently also means cleaner burning, i.e. less NOx, CO and HCs (bad aircare chemicals) coming out the tailpipe creating smog, asthma problems and acid rain.
- The many parts of a car work together, for good or bad. If one part is wearing out, another has to pick up the slack and wear out too. By keeping on top of things, Westside ensures you save money (avoid expensive repairs), but also keeps you from needing to buy new materials (that need to be mined, produced, shipped) and throwing away old (i.e. creating waste) sooner than you should.
Recycling
At Westside, we believe in the 3Rs, not only as a form of corporate responsibility, but also as a way to reduce our bottom line. We re-claim dirty oil, anti freeze and other fluids for recycling. Filters, tires and other parts are sent away to be recycled. Scrap metal is collected. etc.
- Turning oil into motor fuel is itself a dirty, carbon-intensive process. That’s why by recycling oil (cleaning it and reusing it), we are keeping more in the ground to begin with.
- Recycling fluids and materials means less pollution due to production and transport.
- By recycling, we are keeping contaminants out of the waste stream (read: air, soil, streams, food chain).
Clean Energy, Green Tech
- Keeping educated and up to date as professional technicians means that we are supporting the transition to Clean Energy Vehicles, such as Natural Gas & Hybrid-electric… ideally leading to a fleet of zero-emission vehicles.
- Our holistic approach to servicing your hybrid vehicle includes getting to know how you drive it. By improving the efficiency of each system, as well as how they interact, means cleaner exhaust when the fuel tank is being used.
- Sharing diagnostic data back to the manufacturer means that engineering improvements can be made on newer technologies in the future. Ultimately, this lowers the footprint by making fewer lemons that cost energy to produce and scrap.
So long as our transportation system demands the use of low-occupancy vehicles making on-demand trips, Westside will be here to empower positive green behaviour change for owners and drivers.
If you commute every day in your vehicle, there is probably no greater opportunity for you to green up your lifestyle than by allowing us to help you achieve a smaller carbon footprint on the road.