The Axalta Coating Systems/Paint & Panel Sustainability Award enters its fourth year as an increasing number of shops realise the long-term benefits of running a sustainable business.
Running a business sustainably involves a lot more than just recycling headlights and thinners. Taking a sustainable approach to the industry can mean investing in apprentices, creating a clean and healthy environment for staff, investing in energy-saving equipment and even staff training.
If you enter your business for the Axalta Coating Systems 2013 Sustainability Award, then we invite you think holistically about your whole approach to business. If you look up the definition of sustainability, it is many and varied and while it is a word often used in the context of saving the planet’s resources or reducing our carbon footprint, “sustain” means to last over time.
Sustaining your repair business in today’s tough industry conditions is going need a raft of strategies, and not just environmental. How are you securing the future of your business in an efficient and effective way, and returning to your staff, your local community and the environment at the same time?
Previous award winners
2011 Sustainability Award winner Alan Willmot from Cairns was inspired by the natural beauty of the Great Barrier Reef to not only invest in making his business as green as possible, but also to help other smash repairs nearby to do the same. To ensure that his staff not only embraced sustainable practices but were able to train new and existing staff, four of the management team were enrolled in environmental sustainability training courses through Brisbane Open Learning TAFE.
2012 winner Darren Wales does business on a large scale – his enormous truck repair business in Smithfield, Sydney has a disproportionately small carbon foot print. As well as energy-saving equipment which helps to keep his profits healthy, instead of just recycling parts, many are reused. Not only does this speed up cycle times it improves profit and customer satisfaction as well as being green. Wales also puts his money where his mouth is and buys 6000 tonnes of carbon credits each year to offset the repair facility’s emissions. While Wales believes this is the morally correct approach to business, it also creates a virtuous circle as it attracts tax rebates and helps to seal contracts with local councils and organisations looking to deal with companies with sustainable business practices.