Collaboration Plays Key Role in Kelly Subaru’s Green Transformation

Located along the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga, TN, is Kelly Subaru. It’s the city’s oldest family dealership, but its environmental initiatives are anything but outdated.

Built in 1971, Kelly Subaru’s facility underwent a $1.5 million renovation in 2016. Kelly’s general manager, Steve Marlin, says the project was guided by a drive to be as eco-friendly as possible, and the retailer used the guidelines laid out in Subaru’s Eco-Friendly Retailer program.

Kelly associates joke that the retailer is now greener than Kermit, a nod to the Muppets’ famous green character, Kermit the Frog.

Collaborative approach

Kermit once sang “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” That may be true if you try going green alone. To tackle the remodel project with eco-friendliness as a driving force, Kelly Subaru used a collaborative approach, drawing on the knowledge of several organizations. Partners included Chuck Golden at Green Dealer Support, a general contractor open to green building advancements, plus the help of Green Spaces, a Chattanooga nonprofit dedicated to advancing local sustainable building practices.

“Every time we met with our contractor [the Green Spaces representative] would be here, and she gave us a lot of advice and steered us in the right direction,” says Marlin. This guidance included suggestions for local eco-friendly painting and landscaping contractors.

The retailer also benefited from its local electric provider’s efforts to update exterior lighting at businesses across the city. Kelly Subaru is the first dealership in Chattanooga to have exterior LED lot lighting installed. The electric provider owns and maintains the lights, and a portion of the cost is included in each monthly electric bill.

“We’ve gone with more lumens and less wattage, and it actually reduced our light bill going with the LED lights,” Marlin said. “This place glows at night.”

There’s even internal collaboration at Kelly. The retailer’s Eco-Friendly team and Share the Love team work together, ensuring part of each year’s Share the Love activities include green projects.

The new Kelly Subaru

The inclusion of energy efficient windows and lighting has made a big impact in the showroom by filtering and increasing the amount of light, as well as reducing the amount of heating and air conditioning needed to keep the space comfortable.

“We do recapture all our rainwater off the main showroom,” Marlin said and explained that the water is stored in a holding tank and used for irrigation of exterior plantings. Other green innovations include a 50kW solar array added to the showroom roof, offsetting about 20% of the dealership’s total power usage.

Kelly’s environmental commitment extends into the community as well, with participation in river clean up events and trail run sponsorship in partnership with Leave No Trace.
 

At Kelly Subaru green practices are part of day-to-day operations, with a big emphasis on recycling.
Items recycled include:

Paper

Tires

Ink and toner cartridges

Cardboard

Waste oil

Oil filters

Batteries

Aluminum
 

Recognition big and small

Kelly’s eco-friendly advances have received recognition in big and small ways. It received Green Light certification, a local green award for Chattanooga businesses, as well as Subaru Eco-Friendly status.

In addition to the national and local awards, Kelly’s efforts have also made an impact on the individual level; customers have taken notice and are joining in.  

“Now it’s bleeding over to our customers,” Marlin says of the green culture Kelly has developed.

Take the alkaline battery recycling tube located outside the customer lounge. “We have customers that will put batteries in there because they know it’s there and they know it’s part of our culture,” says Marlin.

What’s next?

In 2015, Kelly sponsored an e-waste recycling event and plans to host another this year. Not only did the event divert electronics from local landfills, Marlin says it impacted business in two ways. Local residents stopped by to drop off recyclables and ended up checking out the store’s inventory. Others came to purchase a vehicle and returned later to drop off electronics for recycling.