Sue Schauls of Waterloo, Iowa, has been appointed as Technical Advisor to the Coordinating Committee For Automotive Repair (CCAR®), according to Daren Fristoe, CCAR President and Chief Operating Officer.

"We are excited about the addition of Sue as another high-quality resource for the CCAR organization," said Fristoe. "Her depth of technical expertise, coupled with her longstanding commitment to the environment, will allow her to assist in our overall continuous improvement process, moving CCAR to greater successes in 2010."

Schauls is an independent Environmental Consultant with extensive regulatory expertise. She was previously Program Manager at the Iowa Waste Reduction Center, the state's small business environmental assistance program, based at the University of Northern Iowa, where she managed the Small Business Pollution Prevention Center (SBPPC), conducting applied research in waste reduction and small business training. Schauls also managed the Painting and Coating Compliance Enhancement (PACE) and the New Environmental Technologies for Small Business (NETSB) programs at the IWRC.

Through the SBPPC, Schauls coordinated the nationwide Mobile Outreach for Pollution Prevention (MOPP) demonstration vehicle, teaching small businesses about pollution prevention and waste management from a customized mobile classroom. She trained over 7,000 people in the MOPP, which toured 23 states and 67 Iowa counties in twelve years.

Schauls has also conducted facility environmental audits at hundreds of Iowa companies. Over the past thirteen years, she has become the Iowa regulatory expert for salvage yards, and she currently serves as the regulatory consultant to the Iowa Automotive Recyclers. Schauls holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Planning from the University of Northern Iowa.
 
Established in 1994, CCAR is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose 200+ affiliates represent all segments of the automotive industry. CCAR's mission is to work with the industry around the world, with career/technical schools, governments and other organizations to provide best practice information and training, and to measure improvements related to:

• Pollution Prevention (P2).
• Safety for all who repair or maintain vehicles as a profession, as well as those who work in related businesses.
• Reduction of lost workdays due to accidents or job-related health issues.
• Decreases in costs and liability exposure.
• Reduction in costs of training in these areas.

CCAR operates "CCAR-GreenLink®," the National Environmental Compliance Assistance Center for Automotive Repair, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition, CCAR provides the "S/P2" e-learning program in Safety and Pollution Prevention for the auto repair industry, and the "HazmatU" e-learning program in automotive hazardous materials shipping.

Preston Hood Chevrolet of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is one of seven recipients of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2009 ENERGY STAR Small Business Award.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and the EPA ENERGY STAR Program jointly announced an Energy Stewardship Initiative in January 2007 to help improve the energy efficiency of dealership facilities and operations. This initiative offers data, tools, and strategies to help dealerships implement a variety of cost-effective retrofit and new construction strategies involving energy-efficient lighting, climate controls, equipment, and building design as well as improved energy practices and technologies.

The ENERGY STAR Small Business Award winners represent excellence in energy efficiency and are great examples of financial and environmental stewardship.

Click here learn more about the NADA-ENERGY STAR initiative.

Click here to read about Preston Hood Chevrolet and its experience with the ENERGY STAR program.

Courtesy of Zurich North America

Road testing your customer's vehicle after completing service and repair work is generally considered to be a good idea, for many reasons. Obviously, it's very important to verify the quality of your work to ensure customer satisfaction. However, validating the safety of the vehicle after work is complete can also help reduce your liability risks.

The safety factor deserves additional attention. Test driving after completing work on brakes, tires, front end components and other safety-related parts helps to ensure that you are returning a fully functional vehicle to your customer. This is important not only from a safety standpoint, but also for "customer satisfaction" and quality control. The worst-case scenario, from a loss prevention and public relations standpoint, would be to allow your customer to drive off in an unsafe vehicle that causes an accident. Protecting your customer and the public at large must be a primary concern for you as a business owner.



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Automotive Instructors: Let us showcase your students who have completed their S/P2 testing in an upcoming S/P2 Newsletter. You may attach a group photo of your students with the S/P2 Certificates of Completion to an e-mail message and send it to newsletter@ccar-greenlink.org. Thank you!

The Coordinating Committee For Automotive Repair (CCAR) welcomes CSi Complete, Plain City, Ohio, as its newest Affiliate.

CSi Complete is a leading provider of customer satisfaction indexing and call center services to the collision repair and claims industries. With 13 years' experience, CSi Complete has completed millions of surveys and made millions of calls for thousands of customers across the United States and Canada.

"We are proud to welcome CSi Complete as an Affiliate of CCAR," said Daren Fristoe, CCAR President and Chief Operating Officer. "The partnering of CCAR and CSi Complete represents another milestone in our organization's history, as we move toward adding a customer satisfaction survey capability to our e-learning programs. CSi Complete is the premier provider in this field, and we welcome the opportunity to work together."

"CSi Complete has a long history of supporting organizations that benefit all industry segments, and CCAR fits nicely into this part of our mission," said David Merrell, CSi Complete Vice President of Sales and Service. "We will initiate programs that will be beneficial to both organizations, and we look forward to that," he added.