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JULY
2021
Join Us at Subaru's National Business Conference in September
Are you heading to Subaru's National Business Conference in Anaheim? Please stop and visit with Chuck Golden and Megan Fleck to update us on all of your Eco-Friendly activities. Find us in the Eco-Friendly Area, Booth 14, within the Retail Environment Booth.
Baldwin Subaru Hosts Earth Day Shredding Event
Baldwin Subaru didn't let rain showers stop its Earth Day activities this year. The retailer, in partnership with Keep Covington Beautiful, provided a free paper shredding and recycling event. It was a record-setting success, with an estimated 3 tons of materials diverted from local landfills.

“We set up a drive-thru style drop-off system due to COVID-19 to minimize contact,” said Lindsey Rose, Baldwin’s marketing specialist. “The drivers would pull up, pop the trunk, and we would collect the paper.”

Local residents could bring a maximum of three boxes of paper documents. A total of 177 cars came to the event and filled two trucks with paper to be shredded and recycled.

Despite the rain, Rose said drop-offs were steady. “For the entirety of the event, we had cars wrapping around the side of the parking lot, waiting for us to unload their unwanted documents.”

To publicize, Baldwin promoted the event on Instagram and Facebook, and later posted on its success.
SOA Eco-Friendly Lead Goes Eco-Friendly
From beach cleanups to school vegetable gardens, Megan Fleck, SOA Headquarters’ Eco-Friendly Program lead, is a champion of retailers’ environmental community activities. She’s also active in an eco-friendly program in her hometown, saving bicycles from landfills and encouraging residents to explore the community on two wheels.
 
Over the past eight years, Fleck has worked with the Collingswood, NJ, Bike Share Program, an organization that “up-cycles” donated bikes and rents them out to residents. Unlike programs in larger cities that rent bikes by the hour, Collingswood Bike Share bikes are rented by the year. The $25 annual membership fee covers both use and repairs throughout the year. The program’s bikes are made from donated bikes of varying sizes, styles, and vintages, and all receive a splash of bright green paint to allow for easy recognition and prevent theft.
 
“Collingswood Bike Share is a great program, and I am so proud of all we have accomplished,” says Fleck. “Not only does it promote recycling by ‘upcycling’ bikes that would have otherwise been landfilled, it also encourages a positive and healthy lifestyle for its members. At last count, we had more than 800 bicycles out on the road — which equates to more than 7 percent of eligible residents renting a bike. While other volunteers work on the bicycle repairs and maintenance, I handle much of the customer service and bicycle painting.”
 
Collingswood is very much a traditional small town with a vibrant “main street” that hosts a wide variety of businesses. In such an environment, walking or biking to local businesses is convenient and something the Collingswood Bike Share encourages.
 
Fleck shares two-wheel enthusiasm with several eco-friendly retailers. Patriot and Sommers Subaru offer loaner bikes to service customers. There’s also Mitchell Subaru, part of Mitchell Auto Group, the first auto dealer to earn the League of American Bicyclists’ gold bicycle-friendly business rating. 
Let us know about your store’s environmental community activities.
OPTIONAL Survey Still Open: Help Develop a Dealership ENERGY STAR Certification
It's not too late to complete the OPTIONAL NADA Dealership Energy Use SurveyData collected from the voluntary survey will be used to build an ENERGY STAR certification and score for franchised dealerships. Learn more about the survey, or get a walkthrough of how to complete it in this demonstration webinar.

As previously noted, participation in the survey or webinar is completely VOLUNTARY and not required for Eco-Friendly Retailer status.
Who's Certified?
Click below to see the full list of 205 Eco-Friendly Retailers.
Chuck Golden
Green Dealer Support
517.719.0355