With increased conversation around the topic of climate change, small businesses are taking steps to make sure they remain environmentally responsible. Professional car washes are already significantly more environmentally responsible than washing one’s car at home, thanks to water use regulations and standard practices such as recycling and treating greywater. Still, there’s more that car wash owners can do to make their operations more sustainable. Two of the easiest, most cost-effective ways are installing LED lighting and building sustainable landscaping.

Shining a Light on the Environment

For many retailers, LED lighting is a win-win alternative to conventional lighting. According to LED lighting manufacturers, the extra bright lighting system cuts energy costs while shrinking a company’s carbon footprint. For example, Cree Lighting estimates that LED lighting can reduce energy consumption by 68 percent over a lifetime of use, shrink energy bills by a third, and save businesses thousands in maintenance fees.

Cory Baright, vice president of operations at the LED manufacturer G&G LED, makes an even more persuasive argument for LED lighting. “Quality LED products can consume up to 75 percent less energy than incandescent and high-intensity discharge lighting,” Baright said. “This significantly reduces greenhouse emissions from power plants. Also, LEDs are rated to last up to 10 times longer than traditional sources. Less servicing, manufacturing, packing and shipping all reduce the environmental impact.”

Owners who have made the switch to LED lighting attest to the many advantages. Haji Tehrani, president and CEO of the Indiana car wash operation Drive & Shine, first began changing his company’s inside lighting to LED in 2005. As a result, he said, his interiors were twice as bright and the energy used for lighting was slashed in half. In 2015, Tehrani installed even more LED lighting, changing the interior T8 lamps to 18-watt LED tubes, which he said, increased the lumen output again by 50 percent, yet cut the lighting electrical cost by almost half.

“In this process, we also eliminated all our T8 ballasts. The new LED lamps are rated for over 50,000 hours — meaning our maintenance cost will be substantially less compared with the cost to maintain our T8 lighting system,” Tehrani said. “Our payback for this conversion will be under a year, which is really amazing.”

Tehrani didn’t stop there. He then replaced the channel letters and box signs with LED modules and has converted the parking lot lighting at two of his five locations. Tehrani points out that the 250-watt LED lighting he uses in these parking lots have almost identical lighting matrixes as the old 1,000-watt metal halide, but run at a quarter of the operating cost. He expects a 1.5 year payback on the conversion.

A lighting system that’s brighter, cheaper and better for the environment — LED lights sound almost too good to be true. Like any other business decision, though, there are challenges that owners should be aware of before investing. Baright advises owners to do their homework. “As more and more companies come out with LED lighting, the biggest thing to watch out for are fixtures that are not certified by UL [Underwriters Laboratory, an independent product safety certification program],” Baright said.
“This happens with many low-cost, low-quality LED products that come from overseas. A UL certification ensures the products are safe for use and will meet all national and local electrical codes.”

Going Greener with Sustainable Landscapes

When it comes to reducing a business’s carbon footprint, the more an owner can do, the better. One often overlooked, but high eco-impact area, can be found right outside most businesses’ front doors: the landscape. There are plenty of ways to make lawns, plants and even hardscapes more sustainable.

Don Hearing, a landscape architect with the firm Cotleur & Hearing, explains that one of the keys to sustainability is to start with plants that don’t require large amounts of fertilizer or extensive pruning, and are generally drought resistant. To achieve this, whenever possible the plants should be indigenous to the region. “It is ideal if there are existing native plants or trees on the site,” Hearing said. “Then, you have the opportunity to incorporate native vegetation into the design. Because it has been in place forever, it tends to survive and you are then able to reduce the overall carbon footprint because less has to go into maintaining the landscape.”

Hardscapes are another sustainable option for owners. Because they require minimal maintenance, hardscapes — which include all decorative outdoor spaces that use materials such as concrete, brick, stone or metal — are an easy, sustainable option for owners looking to beautify their grounds. Some hardscape materials are more environmentally friendly than others. For example, natural materials are better than man-made ones, like the popular hardscape material, decorative concrete.

“Most typically in a car wash environment you see people using decorative concrete pavers,” Hearing said. “What we find is that over time, and we are in Florida where there is a lot of ultraviolet light, concrete pavers lose their luster in a fairly short period of time — in 15 years — and there’s really no way to get that luster back. On the other hand, when we use a natural material such as a stone or a real clay brick, it stands the test of time. Clay brick installations 20 years later look like the same as they did on day one, and when they do age, they age gracefully.”

Another landscaping option, which is evolving out of the quickly growing green construction trend, is rain gardens. From the outside, rain gardens appear to be beds of traditionally landscaped plants, but underneath the surface, rain gardens perform a critical environmental task — absorbing storm water. According to the website for Green Water Infrastructure, a consulting firm specializing in sustainable site development, storm water is combined with waste water in many communities across the country.

Unfortunately, many waste water systems cannot handle additional water caused by rainfall. As little as a quarter inch of rainfall can overpower a waste water system, sending untreated waste water into local waterways.

“A rain garden is an inverted depression in the landscape that is planted with deep-rooted native plants,” said Tom Barrett, owner of Green Water Infrastructure. “The rain garden is usually constructed as close as possible to the runoff source. The purpose of a rain garden or bioswale [a similar landscape feature used to help manage storm water runoff] is not to capture 100 percent of the rain but to capture the first one-quarter inch to one inch of rain, stopping the water with the most pollutants from reaching the sewer or storm water system.”

Unfortunately, sustainable landscaping does not offer the same financial rewards that LED lighting does. Nonetheless, an educated owner can keep costs low and sustainability high. For instance, Hearing said that sustainable landscaping costs the same or less than landscaping that does not consider environmental concerns, such as water use and indigenous plants. “In terms of hardscaping, often there is a little bit of a premium for natural materials that are either made from a clay or from a stone, but over the lifecycle of a facility, the cost will even out,” he said. A rain garden, on the other hand, is a more complicated landscape element. Barrett said they require some civil engineering expertise and a knowledgeable landscape designer. “This is certainly not the least expensive option for an existing facility but a good option for a new facility,” he said.

As new eco-friendly practices and products continue to sprout up, going green will become progressively easier and less expensive. Not long ago, LED lighting was too costly for most small businesses to install; today, LED lighting has become an easy way to reduce the electric bill, not to mention one’s carbon footprint.