It’s not do-gooder folly but good business for you to make an effort to Keep The Scene Green© these days of ever increasing environmental awareness and concern over energy supplies.
Being an environmentally conscientious auto parts and accessories retailer — serving your customer’s best interests and needs — is compatible with our automotive parts and accessories business — not adversarial.
Our stores are filled with products which can improve car and light truck performance, reduce emissions, and make driving more comfortable.
Some suppliers are willing to cooperate in retail efforts to promote those products as helpful in conserving energy and cleaning the environment when retailers ask for help.
Promoting the environmental friendly benefits for these products is not only good for the image but good for sales.
THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO “KEEP THE SCENE GREEN©”!
And there are lots of ways store managers and staff can promote environmental responsibility. Let me count some of them.
First, recycling oil at retail locations. A given.
Second, recycling oil filters. Not as much of a given, but easy to do.
Providing an easy way for DIYers to dispose of used materials draws traffic back to retailers.
There’s great help to get you started on recycling these two high-turn product lines if you haven’t implemented such a program already.
Many, if not most, states and local jurisdictions have laws, ordinances, or regulations about disposing of used engine oil and filters.
If you’re uncertain about local regulations, the Filter Manufacturers Council (www.filtercouncil.org) has information about what’s required in your state, county, or city. The Council has a comprehensive list of recyclers to come cart those filters away, drain them, and turn them back into raw material.
The Filter Council’s work this past decade has turned the percentage of recycled oil filters from zero (0%) to approximately 50%. That’s a lot of filters being used to make rebar rather than being dumped in landfills.
Third, an annual drive to collect old phone books for recycling. Although this is not automotive-related, it’s a complete-community need. Everyone has phone books to get rid of when the new ones are published. Although recyclable, many municipalities and other solid waste programs don’t accept them.
Why not set up a dumpster in your parking lot for these, promote your program, seek partners (possibly teens from a nearby high school looking for community projects), and talk with the local media about coverage?
Your parking lot will have increased traffic, and some people who are not yet customers may take the time to come into your store, particularly if its exterior and signage are well done and inviting to first-time visitors.
Make sure that someone on your staff is responsible for keeping the lot tidy (some people will leave books on the ground if the dumpster is full or too hard to open), so that visitors will have a good impression.
A couple of phone calls to the local phone company and the local disposal organizations should uncover your local rules for disposing of phone books, and get you on your way.
Fourth, get behind community clean-up or keep-clean efforts. Adopt a section of a road or highway and keep it clean. Many communities reward volunteer efforts like this with a roadside sign crediting the companies whose employees and associates take responsibility for picking up the trash along that segment of the road.
You might tell your contacts at schools, in government, and with the media that your store wants to become involved in environmental projects, and see what others have in mind.
Become a green-scene location where people can come to pick up information about saving electricity, conserving water, reducing use of heat-energy in their home.
Next, within our industry, talk with suppliers’ field people about your discomfort with the unnecessary, disposable packaging for some of the SKUs. Yes, blister packs are needed to protect product and prevent inventory shrinkage for some items, but does the industry really need the colorful paperboard boxes which contain product and provide an additional layer of protection and box-billboards for product benefits copy?
In Europe, which is far ahead of the United States in some environmental regards, retailers must accept, and dispose of, unnecessary packaging, such as the “beauty boxes” which contain perfume and makeup products.
Sixth, look at your own operation with an analytical environmentalist’s eye. Are the windows and doors in your store well sealed to keep heated or cooled air inside? Are the store and your storage areas well insulated to conserve heat and air-conditioning costs?
Is your HVAC properly functioning? Perhaps your local power company will come do an analysis for you.
Call in a local lighting expert to analyze the efficiency of your lighting. Check to see if you have the most modern and most efficient energy-saving modern ballasts. If he or she charges a modest fee for the inspection, the cost savings may well be worth the investment.
If he or she recommends cutting lighting foot-candles for energy purposes, make sure that your floors are as shiny as they can be. Shining floors reflect the lighting in use, making the store brighter.
Don’t become overenthusiastic with cutting light, however. A dark store is not conducive to making customers feel welcome, employees cheerful, or selling product.
Lastly, involve store associates at the beginning of your thinking about ways to Keep The Scene Green©. Ask them for their suggestions with an open mind. They may have some good, unconventional ideas which will be good for the store as well as for the environment.
These are my ideas for keeping the scene green, and improving your store traffic and sales. Aftermarket Business and I would like to hear from you about yours. Write Larry Silvey (lsilvey@advanstar.com) or me (salexander@autoinstore.com) with your ideas, or give one of us a call.
Graphics
1) your keep the scene green logo with appropriate cutline,
2) filter manufacturers council logo and graphics.
Cutline: In the past decade, industry efforts to recycle used oil filters have succeeded. Ten years ago, when the Filter Manufacturers Council started its recycling efforts, used filters were not used for any second purpose. Today, approximately one in two oil filters is recycled and used to make other products, such as rebar.
Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, Inc., is a member of Aftermarket Business’s Retail Advisory Board. He can be reached at his Sanibel Island, Florida headquarters, phone 239-395-9203, or e-mail salexander@autoinstore.com.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, March, 2001. Copyright by Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar Communications, Inc. retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Aftermarket Business, call 1-218-723-9477 or email fulfill@superfill.com.
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