Swan Hill Toyota

During 2013 we completed the installation of our solar system in conjunction with our local supplier. Our suppliers worked diligently and carefully to ensure the size of our system meets the needs of our consumption.

 

We have 174 individual solar panels capturing the natural sunlight with Swan Hill enjoys so much! This system is capable of producing enough energy to make our need almost self-sustaining, returns unused energy to the grid, and reduces our Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Whenever you bring your vehicle to us for any reason, we will always ensure that it is returned to you in the best possible condition. All vehicles services include a complimentary vehicle exterior wash. In order to do so in the most sustainable way, we have invested in the installation of rain water tanks.

 

We have three individual tanks, each with a capacity of 15,000 litres. Natural water through rain is collected from our roof space and stored in the tanks for daily use. This significantly reduces our use of mains water. 

 

To our community, water is a precious commodity. Anything we can do to reduce our demand for water will allow more for those who have greater need.

In order to minimize our consumption of electricity, we looked at areas of our facilities where we could reduce the need for a constant power supply and replace this with an on demand supply.

 

We have replaced traditional light switches in our low traffic areas, areas such as toilets and staff rooms, with occupancy sensor lighting and timed light switches. We also replaced our warehouse lighting with lights which include a motion sensor. This reduces the time in which lighting in these low occupancy areas are on, effectively reducing our power consumption. 

Swan Hill Toyota actively supports, practises and encourages the principles of Eco-Driving. Eco-Driving focus on smooth and efficient driving habits. It aims to prolong the life of your vehicle through good maintenance, decrease stress levels associated with stop/start driving habits, decrease excess fuel consumption, further decreasing emissions and the demand for natural resources. 

In a further effort to reduce our consumption of electricity, we have converted all our internal and external lights to LED. All of our office, showroom, workshop, yard and warehouse lights are now LED based.

 

The benefits of LED lighting include a much longer life span, low energy consumption, brighter and more even lighting, zero heat or UV emissions and instant illumination.

 

We were able to sustainably dispose of 134 fluorescent light tubes.

The design of our facility attempts to make the most available use of natural daylight as possible. We have four metre high walls which allow more natural daylight in reducing our need for light sources.

 

In order to keep the internal temperature of our showroom as consistent as possible we have installed blinds across the entire length of the showroom. Doing so allows us to have an efficient use of our cooling and heating systems, reducing our consumption of energy.

There are some small but subtle things you may not notice about our business. Some little things which we do on a daily basis to contribute just in a small way to the greater good.

 

• Installed whirly bird units on our workshop to reduce hot air and evacuate fumes. 
• Make active use of roller doors to ensure natural air flow, decreasing the demand on air-conditioning systems. 
• Our walls are insulated to keep the premises on an even temperature. 
• Scrap metal is recycled and turned into new products by local contractors. 
• Our waste oil and waste oil filters are collected by an EPA licenced contractor and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. 
• Segregation of general waste through specified bins. We separate our general waste from our recyclable paper, cardboard, and plastics. This reduces our demand on local landfills.