LAcarGUY at Manhattan Beach Earth Day Event
This past weekend, LAcarGUY‘s team were on-hand at the unveiling of the official H2.0 Fountain at Polliwog Park on Earth Day. LAcarGUY is proud to be among a number of community partners who have contributed to support Leadership Manhattan Beach’s initiative to provide seven state-of-the-art water drinking fountains to the community, where three of which include a fountain especially for canine companions.
LAcarGUY‘s Manager of the Environment, Alisha Auringer, and CIO, Tim James, had the opportunity to fill up their water bottles using the bottle-refilling dispensers! LAcarGUY was also presented with a sponsorship plaque from the wonderful team at Leadership Manhattan Beach.
Check out a few pics from the day! If you attended the event, tell us what you think of the new drinking fountains!
LAcarGUY Sponsors Grades Of Green Trash Free Lunches
LAcarGUY, the leading hybrid dealer group in the world, was a proud sponsor for the second annual Grades of Green Trash Free Lunch Challenge at local schools.
There were 17 local schools that participated in the challenge and the top three were all sponsored by LAcarGUY stores! First Place went to Lunada Bay Elementary School, sponsored by Pacific Porsche. They won by reducing trash going to landfills by 87.5%. The school was honored with a celebration on Earth Day, on April 22, and will received a $1,000 education grant.
Riviera Elementary School, sponsored by Audi Pacific and Washington Elementary, sponsored by Subaru Pacific tied for second place among the 17 schools and will receive awards of $750 each.
Before the Trash Free Lunch Challenge the Lunada Bay School were producing 13 bags of trash and 0 bins for recycling. After the Challenge they reduced this to 5 bags of trash and increased their recycling to 2 full bins per day.
The students at Lunada Bay also designed a water drip irrigation system consisting of plastic water and juice containers as an irrigation system for the schools fruit and vegetable garden where they are growing kale, lettuce and strawberries.
President/Owner of LAcarGUY Mike Sullivan responds to the great news, “This is one of my favorite projects of the year to be a part of. We are so proud of these kids for taking complete control of their environment and then going home and teaching their parents….what a great cycle. I’m really happy that Alisha could be a part of the judging panel and take those learnings back to LAcarGUY; really teaches our employees the benefits of sustainability in our everyday lives. Couldn’t be more proud.”
A judging panel of five environmental experts visited Lunada Bay and two other finalists in the competition—Riviera Elementary in Torrance, and Washington Elementary in Redondo Beach—earlier today to determine the Grand Prize winner. The panel included Alisha Auringer, Manager of the Environment, LAcarGUY; Marieta Francis, Executive Director, Algalita Marine Research Foundation; Abby Landers, El Segundo High School Grades of Green club president and Youth Board Advisor for Grades of Green; Michelle Nakamura, Operations Manager, 5 Gyres Institute; and RupamSoni, Senior Environmental Engineer, Sanitation Districts of L.A. County.
Even though this year’s Trash-Free Lunch Challenge is nearly complete, any school may initiate Grades of Green’s Trash Free Lunch program, as well as more than 40 other environmental activities. Complete instructions are available at no cost to schools at www.gradesofgreen.org.
LAcarGUY Revs up their Eco-engines with 2012-13 Trash-Free Lunch Challenge
LAcarGUY is partnering with Grades of Green, a nonprofit organization based in the South Bay with the mission to inspire and empower students and the broader school community to care for the environment, to host the “Trash Free Lunch Challenge.” The challenge will encourage schools to focus on reducing lunchtime trash while educating students about the 4Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. Students will be encouraged to bring lunches from home in reusable containers and to use other reusable items, such as stainless steel bottles and cloth napkins. Each school participating in the challenge will implement a lunch time sorting system where items that would normally be tossed into the trash will be sorted into the proper bins, such as recycle and compost. “We are thrilled to partner with Grades of Green to bring this exciting Challenge to schools in our communities” says Alisha Auringer, manager of the environment with LAcarGUY.
The four schools sponsored by LAcarGUY will compete against twelve other schools throughout the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles area during the 2012-2013 school year.
The first 16 schools to register for the challenge will receive:
- An Eco-Consultation of the school resulting in an eco-consultation report.
- A Training Day including a tour of the Puentes Hills Landfill hosted by Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County.
- An Eco-Prize Kit filled with raffle prizes such as Go Green Lunch Boxes, Neat-o reusable pouches, Ween Green snack containers, and a Street Surfing Wave Board.
- A “Prep-Rally” School Assembly to be held at their school where the Grades of Green team will educate and motivate students to reduce landfill waste and work hard to win the Trash Free Lunch Challenge!
- An Eco-Tool Kit containing hand stamps, trivia cards, a raffle box and tickets, and laminated Grades of Green signs for the sorting system.
The Trash Free Lunch Challenge winning school will be announced the week before Earth Day 2013 and awarded a $1,000 Grand Prize during a school wide celebration. The 2nd place school will receive a $750 prize and 3rd place will be awarded $500.
In 2011-2012, schools who participated in the Trash Free Lunch Challenge reduced lunch time waste by an average of 71%, and collectively diverted over 11,000 bags of waste, or 82.5 TONS of waste, from going to the landfill in one year.
For more information about the Trash Free Lunch Challenge and to sign up your school to participate, visit www.gradesofgreen.org/trashchallenge.
Mike Sullivan To Be Awarded With Community Environmental Leadership Award From Global Green USA
LAcarGUY‘s Mike Sullivan will be honored at the 16th Annual Millennium Awards Gala in Saturday June 2nd at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica with the Community Environment Leadership Award.
This honor recognizes Mike’s personal commitment to supporting so many important local environmental organizations and for actively promoting community projects from beach cleanups to creating school gardens. When Global Green needed hybrid cars for their Red Carpet – Green Car campaign (i.e., taking stars to the Oscars in fuel efficient cars), Mike provided them.
LAcarGUY not only sell more hybrids and clean diesel cars than any other dealership group in America, we also showcase energy and resource conserving practices in its dealerships — including the new Audi LEED certified dealership. The LA Green Team represents the company’s commitment to advancing sustainability by encouraging, inspiring and educating its 800+ employees about reducing their individual and corporate carbon footprint, as well as selling more hybrids and clean diesel cars than any other dealership group in the United States.
We hope you will join us in paying tribute to Mike’s contributions and help support the work of Global Green by sponsoring a table or purchasing tickets to the event. To participate or for further information, please contact MTA Events at globalgreen@mtaevents.com or 818.906.0240 if you require further information. We look forward to seeing you there!
LAcarGUY Wins Prestigious Sustainable Business Council Industry Achievement Award
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) recently announced the Inaugural SBC Industry Achievement Awards recipients during an awards ceremony attended by preeminent sustainable business leaders from throughout Southern California. Five Inaugural SBC Giving Tree Awards trophies that are Ficus Bonsai in Bamboo planters, to coincide with Earth Day and be symbolic of the event’s sustainable message, were presented during the award’s ceremony.
SBC’s Sustainable Business Award results were a tie. The two recipients have impressive sustainability credentials. The Miyako Hybrid Hotel is a Silver LEED certified hotel built to show that business, luxury services and green facilities and operations are not mutually exclusive.
As a business located in the city of Los Angeles, with an active Sustainable City Plan implemented in 1994, LAcarGUY commits to conducting business in a manner that safeguards health, protects the environment and conserves valuable materials and resources.
LAcarGUY won SBC Sustainable Business Award because we are a business that is a leading contributor to the Southern California economy and society. Our sustainable achievements are acknowledged by the general public, scholars, critics and peers. LAcarGUY continues to advance the sustainable business industry.
LAcarGUY Proudly Sponsors SBC’s Industry Achievement Awards
The inaugural Sustainable Business Council’s Industry Achievement Awards will be held at Lexus Santa Monica on April 18th, 2012, which coincides with Earth Day. The goal of these awards is to showcase Southern California’s sustainable business community who are a vital part of the state’s overall economy. These awards will provide an opportunity to salute individuals and businesses for their sustainable contributions to the marketplace and the community.
The following SBC Industry Achievement Awards will be presented:
- SBC’s Lifetime Achievement in Sustainability Award
- SBC’s Lifetime Business Achievement Award
- SBC’s People’s Choice Award: Inaugural Category: Sustainable Restaurants
- SBC’s Sustainable Business Award
The evening’s festivities will feature:
- Networking opportunities with sustainable business leaders.
- Sustainable restaurant food tasting as part of the People’s Choice Sustainable Restaurant Judging.
- Sustainable wine tasting.
- Inspirational special talks from SBC’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.
- An awards ceremony for the inaugural award recipients.
- Delicious dessert buffet and libations.
- Raffle draw for special Lexus-hybrid weekend getaway.
- Drive and rides of the latest hybrid vehicles from Lexus.
- And some yet to be publicly announced surprises!
For more information, contact info@sustainablebc.org and for ticket information, click here.
Pacific Audi builds largest Audi Showroom in the world (timelapse)
We will be capturing the construction of our new LEED Certified Audi dealership via time lapse. Here is a sneak at first 7 days. Pacific Audi is a proud member of the LAcarGUY family of dealerships
Why Does Building a “LEED” Building Matter to Your Neighborhood?
Hi everyone…starting today, there will be a new post every two weeks about something related to our new Pacific Audi building, the process of building green, and how it will physically be a positive addition to the neighborhood, and a nicer place to walk into and work in.
First off, we keep using the term LEED. What IS that? Some of you may know, but basically it’s short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it’s an independent building certification created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Here in L.A., we have a USGBC-Los Angeles Chapter, and there’s even a new South Bay branch of the Chapter that is getting going, so if you’re interested in getting involved, please do contact the Chapter.
What’s nice about the non-profit USGBC-LA, which promotes sustainability in the built environment, is that anyone can be involved, whether as a green building professional, or green building advocate who wishes to promote sustainable living throughout his/her community in related ways.
So, back to LEED. It provides voluntary guidelines for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. There are various levels of ratings (Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum, both for residential and commercial) that are based on hitting a certain number of points. Points are awarded based a number of considerations such as choices of materials, how one positions the building, what is done with any demolition materials, how water will be used, how much energy will be expended/saved in heating and A/C, transportation infrastructure (which may seem funny since we’re a car dealership, but just wait!), landscaping, and even on innovative ideas! Solar is certainly what makes the most headlines, but there are so many cool “inside” elements that are so impactful. Many architects and an increasing number of general contractors and other building pros build to LEED standards, and we’re luck to be working with some of the best, including Sauers Lopez Construction Inc. and Whitfield Associates, Inc. (architect).
What this means to you is that we’ll be striving to be an even better member of the community by providing a smarter and more beautiful building inside and out. In these posts we’ll share with you more about how we’ll be saving energy as well as water, mitigating storm water runoff, increasing the use of trees (most dealerships don’t like trees outside…think about it!) for cooler ground, beauty and shade for everyone, and even “eating” smog.
Green-built buildings in any neighborhood across the globe make a difference:
- they make people stop and take notice of what is happening, ask questions, and learn more about the process which might seem intimidating;
- they become a community destination to check out to see how it works and looks; and
- they can galvanize community support and add to the sense of pride within the community.
Yes, our project is a car dealership—and you might think we’re a little ironic for being excited about our green building that will house and sell…well, cars. But we hope to make a building the community is proud of and enjoys, and that our employees feel better working in. As LAcarGUY’s Mike Sullivan said at the groundbreaking, “This property just mirrors where the [Audi] franchise [which I’ve owned since 1999] is going, where the brand is going, and where we are going.” Stay tuned…
LAcarGUY at the 25th Annual Arbor Day Celebration
LAcarGUY joined forces with the Tree Musketeers for the 25th annual Arbor Day celebration in El Segundo on May 10, 2012. Arbor Day (from the Latin arbor, meaning tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska, United States. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, and an estimated 1 million trees were planted that day.
We planted over 170 trees. Planting trees is the simplest way for you to make a meaningful impact in the environmental movement. Each tree planted generates crucial clean oxygen, serve as noise and pollution buffers, provide beautification and so much more.
Volkswagen Santa Monica Lighting Retrofit
Committed to changing an “environmentally-challenged” industry and protecting future generations, LAcarGUY is active in local environmental programs and initiatives. Just recently, Mike Sullivan’s Volkswagen Santa Monica completed a lighting retrofit in the service bays, parts department and business offices. The job included taking out the CFL’s (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) and replacing them with LED (light emitting diodes bulbs). One of the main advantages of LED lights is the simple fact that they last much longer. The average lifespan of an LED lightbulb is around 11 years. The other main advantage is that they are much more energy efficient.
The retrofit reduced the energy usage from 245,875 annual kWh to 82,781 annual kWh. The annual energy cost was reduced from $36k to $12k. A total savings of 67%!
In addition to our energy savings, we reduced our carbon footprint even further by using E-Cycle Environmental to recycle 80 lbs of wood, 656 lbs cardboard and over 500 fluorescent tubes and lighting fixtures. Our landfill diversion was 100%.
Mike Sullivan’s Volkswagen Santa Monica opened in 1964 and continues today one of the nations leading VW dealerships.
