A Conservation Call to Action

Self-serve operator Bill Sartor urges industry toward certification

By being proactive and working with regulators to find solutions that satisfy conservation efforts and business needs, carwash operators in San Antonio have had a major hand in securing their futures and steering regulations in their favor. To a large degree, the city’s carwash operators have set their own bar for what constitutes best practices, practically self-police their locations and have cleared distrust from the air.

It is a model that certainly should provide hope to operators in the Southeast, but success takes diligence, commitment, education and patience.

“[Operators] have been extremely reluctant to approach government because our government experience has been so bad in the past,” notes Sartor. “But this is a different breed of folks. People in the water conservation business or in the water business are stewards. They really are committed to the work that they do, and they want to learn more. They are always looking for better ways to do things.”

The key, he says, is in showing officials that key efficiencies already exist and that they don’t need an army of regulators to police the industry. Through certification, operators become accountable for maintaining a high standard of operation.

One hurdle with officials can be alleviating concerns that, under normal water conditions, conservation can be profitable. “Water regulators think that if they conserve water, they’ll go out of business,” asserts Sartor. “That attitude is changing, but you have to remember that they maintain their jobs by selling water.”

Again, the San Antonio program is an efficient model. Conservation is funded through irrigation tier rates and with fees from commercial businesses based on the size of their meter readings. The SAWS program gave away more than 20,000 low-flow toilets last year without any contributions from consumers, says Sartor.

“It’s like buying water; you just buy it forever,” he philosophizes. “Once a gallon of water is saved one time, it is saved again and again forever. That’s what regulators call firm yield. All of a sudden if it’s saved once, it’s saved forever.”

The real key is that the San Antonio program was not simply a temporary solution to fight through terrible drought conditions.

It has become the normal way of conducting business and strengthened the relationship between local businesses and government.

“The concept with all of our certification programs is to give recognition to businesses that are willing to step up to the plate and do best practices for conservation,” explains Guz. “It gives us an opportunity to get together with the leaders in those industries and determine what the best practices for water conservation are, define them and then set the bar to what is reasonable.

“Now, instead of fighting the process, you’ve got Bill Sartor and the local carwash industry saying, ‘Yeah, go ahead and put it into the ordinance that if our fellow carwash operators are not stepping up to the plate, they won’t be operating during droughts,’” she continues. “They’re not fighting us on that ordinance anymore because they worked with us on crafting it. That went into the San Antonio code with the full endorsement of the carwash folks. That’s the way you want government to work.”

Part of the payoff for operators is that the city recognizes and promotes the certified carwashes. Every certified location receives signage that says it is a recognized water-saver partner. In addition, SAWS places newspaper ads twice per year publishing the names of recognized partners, as well as keeping a list available on its Web site. SAWS also runs public service announcements promoting the certified washes.

“We created this water-saver partner program so every carwash that jumps through those hoops and operates in the most efficient way possible can be recognized in the community for doing the right thing,” notes Guz.

The recognition includes exposure to youth and charitable organizations who wish to hold fundraising washes. With the advent of the certification program, charity washes were rendered illegal unless held at a professional facility. As part of their certification requirements, each carwash location must host a minimum of three charity carwashes each year.

“[Operators] find it’s not a bad business operation for them because they draw in new customers in a larger volume on the days that they do the charity events,” says Guz. “They don’t seem to mind, once they’ve done it once.”

With four Washem locations, Sartor must hold at least 12 charity washes during the year, but he embraces the requirement as an opportunity to educate the public. He says he typically works with junior high and high school students specifically for this purpose.

“I give them a talk about the environment and water consumption at the carwash,” he says. “I talk to them about runoff and how different it is handled here and how it is treated, as opposed to when they [wash a car] at home.

“We have a real opportunity to influence young minds, which eventually, obviously, will be good for the business,” he continues. “But we can add to our stewardship by educating people because they don’t think about this stuff.”

That is another benefit to being proactive and working to strengthen ties to the community. The long-term benefits can be enormous. “The [operators] that are real leaders are all giving back to the community,” asserts Sartor. “That’s one of the things that we have to do as an industry. Whenever you do that, people get to know you and it gives you an opportunity to talk about your business.”

And yet with all of the positives from the San Antonio certification program, there are only a few instances of similar adoptions across the country. Even fewer of those were instituted as proactive measures.

“I can’t tell you how many seminars I’ve given on this over the years,” says Sartor. “It takes a threat to make people do this. I wish I could tell you that everybody in the carwash industry will have an epiphany and go right down to the regulator’s office. But they’re not going to.”

That doesn’t mean, of course, that Sartor will stop championing the need for operators to set a plan in place before desperation becomes the primary motivation.

“If you’re already in a drought or you’re going into a drought, then you better get started right away,” he says. “If you’re not in a drought, the water conservation folks have a phrase that every drought is a great opportunity to get ready for the next one.”

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines

Read Comments [0]