Cash back program for green shops

The Find Green Garage public verification program has received new grant funding to provide vehicle service and repair shop owners (as well as their customers) cash-back incentives for improving their carbon footprint and reducing energy consumption.

Shop owners registered in the ENERGY STAR Green Garage Challenge can sign up to receive incentives for managing their green sustainability on a continuous basis. Participants in the program will earn from 3 to 10 percent for purchasing green products, minimizing waste, and reducing their energy usage, according to the organization.

The Green Garage Challenge (www.findgreengarage.com) is an EPA Small Business Partnership program for improving energy efficiency in the auto service and repair industry. Shop owners can use the online tools on the site to provide data and receive a rating based on energy usage and emissions.

According to Steven Schillinger, administrator of the Green Garage Challenge, interested shops can receive a free audit to qualify their eligibility. "We have a network of 600 contractors that evaluate the shops to determine where they can improve their performance," Schillinger says. "You look at things like whether they leave the roll-up doors open in the winter, or if they're using an old air compressor, and determine how to improve their energy use."

Using equipment installed on the transformer that feeds the shop, the organization can monitor energy usage and provide hard data on where the inefficiencies are. To make any identified improvements, the shops can receive a credit toward the purchase of, for example, a more efficient air compressor based on the expected energy savings.

"Or if you are going to buy $15,000 in waterborne paint, you can get 10 percent back to the shop, which you can only spend on the purchase of paint with the jobber you bought the paint from in the first place," Schillinger says.

The rewards are available to shops that achieve a 10 percent carbon footprint reduction. "You have to make a commitment to the EPA that you will save 10 percent, but they don't care how you do it," Schillinger says. "A lot of it can be done by doing very simple things, like turning out lights and putting down the bay doors. You can hit that 10 percent figure easily without even installing any new equipment."

Any services or products purchased under the cash-back program need to have a validated data sheet showing how much carbon/greenhouse gas is saved by using that product. "The calculation has to come from the manufacturer, using ISO, EPA or other accepted standards," Schillinger says. "We have to be able to validate that, so every time the shop buys the product, that credit goes back to the shop for using that particular product."

The greenhouse gas contribution calculations can follow the ENERGY STAR standard, EPA Green Chemistry protocol, EPA ELV standards, U.L. Greenguard certification, or EPA product waste conservation standards, among others.

According to Schillinger, most general automotive business activities defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) under codes NAICS 811111 and NAICS 811198 are qualified to receive the offer

In addition, shops can issue Green Garage cards to their customers. For every dollar the customer spends at the facility, they can get 50 cents in cash-back rewards that can be used at participating retailers. That portion of the program is managed by Very Important Relationships, a marketing firm that manages virtual reward shopping malls.

For more information, interested shops can visit the Green Garage Challenge website.

http://www.findgreengarage.com