5 Steps to Making Your Auto Body Shop Green and Clean

In auto racing, when a spotter says to their driver in the car, “It’s clean and green,” that means the green flag has dropped for the field to race and the track is washed free of grit, dirt and debris and could be slick and hard to navigate. For a collision repair shop, becoming clean and green is much the same. Green electric vehicles and environmentally smart, safe business practices are the standard for shops today. But understanding the right lane for navigating these standards — from national, state and local authorities — is as challenging as hot laps on a cold track.

As the owner of two CARSTAR locations in the San Francisco area, I’ve navigated changing environmental and team safety standards for years. Just when you think you have a great program in place, there’s a “caution” that comes in the form of a new regulation. Here are a few things I’ve learned about being green and clean and how it benefits your team, repair quality, customers — and ultimately your bottom line.

It all starts with your commitment to training, education and doing the right thing. If you don’t make this a priority for everyone, not everyone will embrace it. And it has to start with the owner or general manager in charge. You have to constantly be studying the environmental codes, requirements to meet them, incentives available and how you can implement the initiatives to earn those incentives. Then, you need to formulate this into your strategic plan and roll it out to your team.

When it comes to green operations and team safety, you have to invest to stay ahead of the field and win the race. If you ignore the changing industry and the local, state and federal requirements, you’re likely to get left in the dust at the starting line.