Protecting the Environment Through Conservation and Sustainability
As a publicly traded Fortune 500 company and one of the nation’s largest automotive retailers, Sonic Automotive is committed to doing its part to conserve natural resources and promote environmental sustainability.
Protecting the Environment Through Conservation and Sustainability
As a publicly traded Fortune 500 company and one of the nation’s largest automotive retailers, Sonic Automotive is committed to doing its part to conserve natural resources and promote environmental sustainability.
Green Building & Energy Conservation
With over 100 vehicle retail locations and counting, our facility experts continually manage and seek to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings. Several of our facilities in Colorado and Texas benefit from covered parking equipped with solar panels, both to protect our inventory from hail damage and to reduce our energy footprint. We are proud to have earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for five buildings in Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas. As the Company’s footprint expands, our operations team continues to assess all globally recognized green building standards for the construction or modification of new and existing facilities.
Implementing High-Efficiency Lighting
As part of these efforts, Sonic Automotive and EchoPark Automotive have invested in many of our facilities to achieve cost and energy savings in the Company’s lighting usage. In 2019 alone, we completed 60 high-efficiency lighting projects at locations across the country.
Repurposing Commercial Buildings
To further reduce our environmental impact where possible, our company has focused on repurposing and adapting existing facilities, rather than the more energy intensive effort to construct new facilities. As stewards of the communities in which we operate, Sonic Automotive and EchoPark Automotive have contributed to the renewal and revitalization of neighborhoods by repurposing existing commercial facilities in markets such as Atlanta, Georgia, Bethesda, Maryland, and Houston, Texas, among others.
Waste Management and Recycling
Sonic has also partnered with leading environmental solutions providers to ensure our corporate offices and retail facilities across the country are responsibly disposing of waste and continually increasing our recycling efforts, in order to reduce the environmental impacts of landfill use. Since the start of 2020, we successfully diverted more than 3,000 total tons of waste through commercial single-stream recycling programs, a 215 percent increase in total tons of waste diverted from the prior year, and more than 7,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) in estimated GHG emissions saved.
Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
In addition to our efforts to reduce the Company’s energy consumption through the construction, maintenance, and operations of our facilities, we are deeply committed to supporting our guests seeking more sustainable, energy-efficient vehicles. Our 100+ dealerships and pre-owned automobile retail locations offer a wide range of hybrid, alternative fuel, and other fuel-efficient vehicles. As of Q2 2021, approximately 90 percent of our franchised dealerships were equipped with Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) charging stations and charging infrastructure.
The typical BEV infrastructure includes a charging station for customer use, a demonstration station in our new vehicle delivery areas, as well as a high-power unit in the auto shop areas of our dealerships that significantly reduces energy use while servicing customer vehicles and preparing vehicles for delivery.
By year-end 2021, we expect that 100 percent of our franchised dealerships will be equipped with the charging station infrastructure to enable fast-charging, zero emissions vehicles.
Partners in Sustainability
Operating more than 100 dealerships representing over 20 different automobile brands, it is imperative that we closely collaborate with our large network of manufacturer and vendor partners to measure and improve our collective environmental impact. This commitment begins with supporting our partners in their efforts to transition to a more fuel-efficient economy, including the plans of many manufacturers to become carbon neutral and offer a 100 percent electric vehicle fleet in the coming years and decades. With tens of thousands of new and used vehicles in inventory nationwide, Sonic looks forward to continually helping our guests understand and embrace electric, hybrid, and other fuel-efficient vehicles that will be important to collectively achieve a more sustainable future.
Sonic Automotive partners with several manufacturers’ social impact initiatives, including all 12 of our Honda and Acura dealerships that adhere to the Honda and Acura Environmental Leadership Program. The program measures a robust set of energy and water usage criteria including heating and cooling, energy management, recycled water usage for car washing, waste management and recycling, lighting, irrigation and more.
We are proud to support all of our partners’ energy and water conservation efforts, which to date have resulted in the recognition of three Sonic-owned Honda dealerships for their “Gold Level” achievement as a result of a 30 percent reduction in energy use, and four locations achieving “Silver Level” recognition for a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption. Across Sonic’s portfolio of Honda and Acura dealerships, carbon emissions were reduced by an average of 34 percent, also achieving nearly $175,000 in reduced annual energy costs.
Our company partners with several manufacturers’ on their social impact initiatives, including all 12 of our Honda and Acura dealerships which adhere to the Honda and Acura Environmental Leadership Program. The program measures a robust set of energy and water usage criteria, including heating and cooling, energy management, recycled water usage for car washing, waste management and recycling, lighting, irrigation and more.
We are proud to support to all of our partners’ energy and water conservation efforts, which to date has resulted in the recognition of three Sonic-owned Honda dealerships for their achievement of Gold Level as a result of a 30% reduction in energy use, as well as four Honda or Acura locations achieving Silver Level recognition for a 10% reduction in energy consumption. Across Sonic’s portfolio of Honda and Acura dealerships, carbon emissions were reduced by an average of 34%, also achieving nearly $175,000 in reduced annual energy costs, on average.