Little 'green' lies

By Jenni Chase, editor, AutoGlass magazine

During the Feb. 12 “Green Is Good” panel discussion at the 2008 National Auto Glass Conference in Tucson, GlasWeld President Mike Boyle threw out an interesting statistic: Nine out of 10 people admit telling “green” lies in an effort to appear more environmentally responsible. The reason: People want to be green, but either don’t understand the issues or don’t know where to start.
Going green can be an intimidating prospect. I mean, how many windshields can you transport in a Toyota Prius? Yet, just because you can’t replace your fleet of mobile vans with hybrid vehicles doesn’t mean you can’t positively affect our environment. Some simple suggestions from the panel:
• Put battery chargers on a timer so they don’t drain electricity 24 hours a day.
• Replace the old soda machine in your lobby with a new, more energy-efficient model.
• Tint your shop windows to cut down on passive solar heat gain and lower air-conditioning usage.
• Use energy-efficient light bulbs.
• Replace the Styrofoam cups of coffee you give to customers with mugs.
• Install a high-quality water filter so employees can drink water from the tap rather than purchasing plastic water bottles.
• Call your local energy provider and ask them to come out and audit your facility. You’d be amazed at the number of simple changes you can make to improve your energy efficiency.
• Talk to your employees. You might be surprised by the number of suggestions they can offer.

I’d like to add one more: Share your experiences. If you’ve made a change at your location that can help others “green” their business, please let us know. E-mail myself or Matt Rumbaugh at mrumbaugh@glass.org.
For more information on the National Auto Glass Conference, visit www.autoglassmagazine.net.