Toyota Awards First Australian Eco-dealership

Toyota Awards First Australian Eco-Dealership

Patterson Cheney Toyota in Dandenong Victoria has become the first car dealership in Australia to achieve a 5 Star Toyota environmental rating by adopting innovative ways to reduce its environmental footprint.

Launched in May 2010, the environmental benchmarking program, known as Toyota Environmental Dealership (TED) integrates environmental thinking and sustainable business practices into the daily operations of Toyota dealerships.

TED allocates points for environmental action against seven environmental dimensions including recycling and waste management, energy and water use, environmentally preferred purchasing and social contribution. Dealerships can be awarded 3, 4 or 5 stars for their overall environmental performance.

Toyota Australia President and CEO Max Yasuda said, "Overseas research shows that a higher percentage of new and used-vehicle shoppers would prefer to buy their vehicle from an en environmentally responsible dealer, rather than from a dealer with no environmental program."

"Dealerships recognise the advantages and opportunities in showing leadership to address environmental issues. Many Toyota dealers have already made progress in some areas of environmental management and TED provides them with a practical roadmap to achieve further environmental gains," said Mr Yasuda.

Patterson Cheney Toyota Dealer Principal Colin Uden said the program had opened his eyes to the countless ways small businesses could bring about positive environmental change.

"Energy efficient cooling and lighting and water saving technology use to be reserved for the most environmentally conscious, but now it is widely available to the community and business sector. Many of the changes we've made to reduce our environmental footprint are so simple that I don't know why we didn't adopt them sooner," said Mr Uden.

To achieve a 5 star TED rating, Patterson Cheney Toyota formed an Environment Committee and adopted activities including replacing energy hungry lighting; using recycled pizza boxes for employee clock-on cards; installing blinds and canopy screens to maximise shade in summer and natural light in winter; washing cars in water from rain tanks and teaching customers how to eco-drive. Their efforts have achieved a 15 per cent reduction in energy use and a saving of up to 70,000 litres of water or 280 bathtubs of water per month during the past 12 months.

Buoyed by his team's success Mr Uden is encouraging other dealerships and small businesses to go for green.

"The business case for making your dealership or business environmentally friendly is financially attractive," said Mr Uden.

"We spend a huge amount of money on energy to run the dealership and if we can reduce our costs and lessen our impact on the environment, why wouldn't we do that?"

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SOURCE: Toyota Australia