CALLING all Nissan dealers… you’re about to get a great chance to demonstrate your green credentials in a brand new awards scheme: the Green Organisation’s Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships.
These days the motor trade needn’t be a sector that is all about dirty cars and even dirtier dealerships. With the advent of greener motoring, dealers are becoming greener too – and these awards will celebrate the very best.
Very soon entries will be accepted – and Nissan dealers, no matter what size of site or operation, will be able to earn themselves recognition on a national and even international scale for their exploits and attitude.
Paul Everitt, chief executive of the SMMT, said: ‘Good environmental practice is increasingly important in the UK motor industry.
‘If a business is not actively managing the energy and water it uses or the waste it creates it will be paying more than it needs to and risking its reputation.
‘The industry is working hard to reduce the impact of its products; from initial design to end-of-life disposal. This approach is opening up new business opportunities where industrial success and environmental protection go hand in hand.’
It sounds a bit of a cliché, but it’s the little things which can make a big difference, explains Richard Collins, event organiser for the Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships.
‘If 12,000 dealerships over the next 10 years cut their energy performance by 30 to 40 per cent, hundreds of thousands of pounds could be saved and a considerable reduction could be made in energy being produced from power stations,’ he says. ‘It’s also something as simple as carrying out best practice and taking the environment seriously.
‘That’s precisely what the Green Apple Awards for Car Dealerships is all about. It’s about giving dealerships recognition for environmental and sustainable best practice.
‘From new builds to the aforementioned light switch, dealers who can show they are acting sustainably in the day-to-day business of selling cars are the ones who can really make the most of these awards – and of the benefits they can bring.’
There’s a whole variety of categories dealers can enter. They are:
- Best eco building – retrofit or new build
- Best eco vehicle facilities
- Best internal campaign to green the dealership and improve sustainable business processes
- Most innovative recycling of automotive materials initiative
- Green motoring advice
- Energy efficiency
- Green innovation
- Best green marketing campaign
- Best local community initiative
- Greenest small dealership group – under 10 outlets
- Green Car Maker of the Year
- Best Electric Car
- Best Eco City Car
- Best Eco Family Car
- Best Eco Executive Car
- Best 4×4 Eco Car
It will soon be time to enter, so keep an eye on Nissan Insider to find out more… and soon, we’ll be revealing which celebrity is backing the gongs.