{"id":542302,"date":"2010-04-23T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T15:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2010-04-23T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T15:50:14","slug":"ford-looks-to-create-a-greener-dealership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/542302","title":{"rendered":"Ford looks to create a greener dealership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greenwire:<\/a> If Ford’s new sustainability initiative goes as planned, the dealership where you buy a Fusion Hybrid will be as green as the car itself.At this month’s annual National Automobile Dealership Association convention in Orlando, Ford announced its “Go Green” dealer sustainability program, a voluntary project to push Ford, Mercury and Lincoln dealerships to be more energy efficient. Ford will partner with the Rocky Mountain Institute on the effort.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Outside of three pilot projects, the program is entirely voluntary, and dealers can choose if and how much they will participate.<\/p>\n

The program is part of a larger effort by dealerships across the country to put a more environmental face on an industry traditionally beset with environmental complaints. NADA has been working with U.S. EPA and dealerships across the country to reduce energy output.<\/p>\n

While dealerships can take traditional, simple steps like installing more energy-efficient lighting, the complex design of dealerships poses problems in crafting any industry standards, said Doug Greenhaus, NADA’s director of environment, health and safety. For example, they have large lots that require vast lighting and the in-house service shops use a lot of power.<\/p>\n

“You can have a huge office building with many offices, even the Empire State Building, and it’s basically one type of operation,” Greenhaus said. “We have office spaces, but we also have outdoor lighting and we also have service departments. It’s almost like we have another business.”<\/p>\n

Dealerships electing to participate in the “Go Green” program would receive an energy assessment<\/strong> from a team of Ford engineers. Bill Allemon, the Ford manager of energy efficiency, said the team will then provide a series of improvements across all areas of the dealership.<\/p>\n

“In the past, we were just changing the skin of the dealership,” Allemon said. “Now we’re improving the lighting and heating. We’ll provide a much more comfortable and relaxed environment.”<\/p>\n

Dealers will be presented with a range of options, from adopting alternative energy sources to pursuing LEED certification, Allemon said.<\/p>\n

“We want to help our dealers become more energy efficient, lower operating costs and lower their carbon footprint,” Allemon said. “It’s really about improving the cost-effectiveness of the dealership. They may have lowered hours or cut their head count; this is another way for them to be cost-efficient.”<\/p>\n

While Ford has a plan for making dealerships more energy efficient, it is not the only automaker seeking a green showroom makeover. NADA, at its February convention, highlighted the ways dealers have invested more than $1 billion in eco-friendly changes.<\/p>\n

Many took simple steps to get at the “low-hanging fruit,” Greenhaus said, by installing automatic switches in bathrooms or adjusting the temperature in the showroom. Others targeted showroom and lot lights by reducing the volume or changing out the bulbs for more efficient models. Other simple steps included replacing garage doors to improve sealing and keep in heat, or installing porous pavement on the vast storage lots to help with draining.<\/p>\n

Some dealerships made a more significant investment by installing solar panels or wind turbines. Greenhaus said that one dealership in Vermont even created a small hydropower plant on a nearby river.<\/p>\n

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Greenwire: If Ford’s new sustainability initiative goes as planned, the dealership where you buy a Fusion Hybrid will be as green as the car itself.At this month’s annual National Automobile Dealership Association convention in Orlando, Ford announced its “Go Green” dealer sustainability program, a voluntary project to push Ford, Mercury and Lincoln dealerships to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}