Honest Commitment to Environment Strengthens Business

Wayne Auto Spa's 58 solar panels provide 15 percent of the facility's electricity.

Whether the adoption of green practices makes sense at your carwash depends on your goals. An upfront capital investment can permanently reduce your operating expenses, but your investment — even after government subsidies and tax breaks — will be significant. Your market positioning can be enhanced, but a word of caution: don’t try to fool anyone by pretending. Making false or erroneous claims about the environmental benefits of your business, commonly known as “greenwashing,” will likely backfire.

So why bother? My experience at Wayne Auto Spa, where I adopted a “green is good” approach in 2005 when I purchased the business, suggests that an honest commitment to the environment not only can translate into lower operating expenses but also foster stronger customer relationships, conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and reliance on foreign oil, and even become a community focal point.

My advice is simple: adopt green technologies not only for economic motives but also because you genuinely want to make a positive contribution for your community. The rest will follow.

My green reputation was built over a four-year period that started before it was hip to be green. My business reflects my passion to preserve our planet for future generations and to achieve energy independence.

Green Economics

Nevertheless, the economics of going green obviously matter. We own and operate businesses to support our families. My green initiatives also focus on reducing operating expenses. Having installed solar photovoltaic panels on my house to generate electricity a few years before buying my carwash, I realized I could save money on my utility bills and do some good in the world at the same time. The return on investment for my system was less than three years, in large part due to New Jersey subsidies that are among the best in the nation.

My solar photovoltaic system has a rated capacity of 10 kilowatts and is comprised of 58 solar panels and two inverters. It provides about 15 percent of the electricity consumed by my business and also earns solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) from the New Jersey Clean Energy Program. Every year, my system earns 12 SRECs that are worth a total of $8,100 in today’s market. SRECs are purchased by utility companies to offset their obligation to generate a certain portion of their electricity from renewable sources.

Utility companies can either directly generate renewable energy, pay a penalty or buy SRECs (each is worth 1,000 kilowatt-hours). The value of the SREC is a small discount below the statutory penalty price. This system is akin to a cap and trade system.

Beyond solar-generated electricity, I also purchased two 250,000 Btu waste oil furnaces when I bought the business. These furnaces heat our facility with the used motor oil drained and collected from the cars of our quick lube customers. Even with no subsidies, the payback on these was less than three years. They provide all of the heat for my quick lube and carwash tunnel, which we keep at fairly balmy temperatures. Not only do we avoid the consumption of more natural resources to heat our facility, recycling and reusing on-site avoids big, dirty diesel trucks necessary to haul the used oil to a treatment or disposal facility.

Our other green improvements were pure expenses with no tangible payback. For example, my predecessor was legally discharging wastewater into a stream pursuant to a grandfathered permit. I chose to install a physical connection to the municipal sewer system, which included a pump station and a wet well. But at least under my ownership, we never discharge into a local river.

Like most operators, we installed a water reclaim system, and we also have our own very productive well. These may seem ho-hum features to some carwash owners, but they are relevant to your green credentials. Well water avoids consumption of treated city water, and reclaim systems dramatically reduce total water consumption.

Our property is big for a carwash, so we also replaced about 1,000 square feet of asphalt with open grassy areas and gardens with flowers to absorb storm-water runoff. Runoff sweeps debris, residual oil and other