Next week, the 50-year-old family owned dealership will be putting their green meddle on display. Teaming up with Green Alliance, the local green business union, Seacoast Volkswagen is planning a green gathering that will include a rollout of the 2012 Passat model.
The party, a combination summer celebration and BBQ, will begin at 5 p.m. August 26, and continue until 8 p.m. And it is open to the public. Local green business leaders will be on hand to mix and mingle with environmentally-minded consumers. And Volkswagen will highlight the Passat's green diesel options.
Local band Blue Eye Brown will perform live, while Green Alliance members will have access to free beer, provided by Green Alliance Business Partner Smuttynose Brewing Company of Portsmouth. All natural hot dogs and hamburgers will be cooked on a food-grade wood-pellet grill, provided by Seacoast Energy Alternatives Solar Store, which is located in Portsmouth. Additionally, Waterline Alternative Energies will be on hand to discuss and promote its 35-foot wind turbine that the company installed in 2009, as well as a solar array being installed on the roof of the dealership.
On the heels of the Green Alliance's successful July cruise aboard the MV Thomas Laighton, Director Sarah Brown hopes to keep her organization's momentum going forward as summer winds down into fall.
The cruise was such a great time with such a great turnout, you'd think it would be hard to top, says Brown, who launched Green Alliance in 2008 as a way of connecting local green businesses with sustainability-minded consumers. But we can't wait to try our hand at getting an even bigger turnout at Seacoast Volkswagen. Obviously the beer and food won't hurt, but we also hope people seriously consider taking a look at what the dealership has to offer.
The new Passat is the second North American-made model ever introduced by the German automaker. Last year Volkswagen introduced the North American version of its popular Jetta, resulting in a 77 percent nationwide sales increase.
According to Doug Miles, general manager at Seacoast Volkswagen, his company expects similar success with the new Passat. Like the Jetta, Volkswagen is redesigning the Passat for American tastes making it a little bigger, but also a lot cheaper, says Miles. It's a class we've never competed in before.
More exciting still is where the new Passats will be built. Buttressed by thousands of acres of trail-laden open spaces, the new Chattanooga, Tennessee plant employees use current technology and practices to maximize efficiency while reducing its environmental impact.
Recognizing that most of the pollution from a car plant comes from the paint shop, all cars at the plant are dipped in paint rather than sprayed, reducing both water and chemical usage by a combined 20 percent. Excess paint normally diluted in 50,000 gallons of water will instead be mixed with limestone powder, where it can then be sent to a cement kiln to be turned into project-ready cement.
Even the cypress shipping pallets are donated locally to make furniture and art projects.
Seacoast Volkswagen has taken similarly comprehensive steps towards sustainability in their own right. For starters, anyone driving by the Route 33 dealership would be hard pressed to miss the giant, 35-foot wind turbine located in front of the showroom parking lot. Then there's the forthcoming 80-panel, 19.2 kilowatt solar PV system on the showroom's expansive roof, which is expected to generate 30 percent of the dealership's electricity needs on sunny days. Beyond the big ticket items, Seacoast Volkswagen has instituted a number of smaller green initiatives, including retrofitting all 60 parking lot lamps with LED bulbs in the process slashing electricity from the lamps by 75 percent. Inside the building, a comprehensive recycling program, which includes using the garage's waste oil to heat the premises, recycling all light bulbs, and reusing wash bay water through a water recycling unit, has helped reduce the facility's carbon footprint.
The Green Alliance and Seacoast Volkswagen invite all to come and share in the green summer celebration and learn a little more about the sustainable entrepreneurs in their own communities.
For more information: sarah@greenalliance.biz or call 603-817-4694; or meredithw@seacoastcars.com.
To learn more about the Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz
For Seacoast Energy Alternatives, visit www.seacoastenergyalternatives.com
For Waterline Alternative Energies, go to www.waterlinecompanies.com
For more info on Smuttynose, visit www.smuttynose.com
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