February and March GAT Meeting Recap From Mike Kruse: Sustainability in Motion! 🌱♻️

CMA’s Green Action Team has been working diligently to get CMA on the green track to sustainability! 🌍 With Earth Day right around the corner, there’s a lot happening across our dealerships next month to celebrate and spread awareness. Stay tuned! Your GAT leader will be sharing how your dealership is getting involved. Let’s keep driving toward a greener future together! 🚗💚

“During our February Green Action Team meeting, we discussed the results of the 2025 Sustainability Audit, and the results were largely positive. “There were a lot of yeses on these questions,” Judi Anderson said, “which is a huge step up from just a couple of years ago.” 

Liza and Judi asked what remaining initiatives Green Team members wanted to tackle in the audit. We spent the meeting discussing our answers. I took a poll to see which topics were mentioned most. These are the areas discussed more than once.

1. TV Monitors with Sustainability Content in each dealership – This initiative got five mentions during the call. TV monitors are an important part of our overall plan. They provide an opportunity to communicate directly with CMA customers about sustainability. 
2. Better Communication and Cooperation with CMA employees who aren’t GAT members – This was not on the audit, but it was mentioned three times during our call. Green Team members work hard to make changes at our dealerships, and cooperation from others is not always as quick or thorough as we’d like. Keep it up! Attitudes towards sustainability are improving slowly.
3. Sustainable Nonplastic Flatwear or Coffee Stirrers – This initiative got three mentions. We are making a lot of progress on this in 2025.
4. Make Recycling Easy for Customers – This was mentioned twice. Making recycling easy is an important part of making recycling work.
5. Aluminum Recycling Fundraiser for the Kid Float Event – This was mentioned twice. Katherine Waller is available to coordinate aluminum can collection from each dealership. 
6. Recycling Dumpster Service – This was also mentioned twice. CMA has a goal to recycle cardboard at every dealership. A cardboard or mixed recycling dumpster is the only easy way to do this. We are not far from this goal – about three or four dealerships away.

Other initiatives discussed included setting up indoor recycling bins and making sure they are emptied in the right place, giving customers USB drives and using less paper, recycling aerosol cans, recycling plastic bags and plastic film, installing timers on lights, cleaning up trash that comes from roadways onto our dealerships, and the sustainability letter to partner organizations.

In March, our Green Action Team meeting focused on plans for Earth Day. The meeting started with Mike Kruse giving an update on his visits to different locations for follow-up on the Sustainability Audit. Mike met with GAT members and managers in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Richmond, and Williamsburg. He will visit Rocky Mount on March 28th, and Valley CMA, Winchester, and Martinsburg in April. I’ll be writing more about these meetings in the near future. For now, I would just say that these meetings have been productive. In just a few hours at each campus, we’ve identified worthwhile goals and made plans to achieve them. Thanks to the work of managers and GAT members, we’ve already accomplished a lot. I’ll write more about this soon.

Katherine Waller gave an update on CMA’s aluminum can fundraiser for the Kid Float Event. The Kid Float is an annual event to get kids onto Virginia’s Rivers. With the help of many CMA dealerships, Katherine has collected enough cans to raise over $4,000 for this cause and successfully recycled thousands of pounds of aluminum. “I never thought we’d get this far,” said Katherine. “I couldn’t be more thankful for your help.”  The Kid Float event will be on June 14th this year. Nice work Katherine!

The rest of the meeting was a discussion on what our dealerships are planning for Earth Day.

Cindy at Winchester’s Subaru talked about their plans with Orchardview Elementary School. The Green Team at Subaru will build gardens at the school and provide seeds for students to plant.

Tyler at Honda in Winchester is looking at the space behind Honda to plant trees and seeds, and would like to add a walking path or picnic table. He is also considering hosting a lunch with info on recycling. 

Rodney at Williamsburg’s Ford mentioned that new plants are coming to their entryway. There was a discussion of also doing an awareness project, whether that’s an email, a Lunch-n-Learn, or an educational piece.

Abby at the CDJR in Lynchburg is planning a plant giveaway with starter plants that include info on Lynchburg’s Green Action Team efforts. She also mentioned a plastic Easter egg collection drive for those who no longer need Easter eggs, to be donated to local schools and churches.

Liza mentioned that she has about 1,000 Earth Day seed packets from last year’s Earth Day to be given out at any dealership this Earth Day.

NyAsia at Lynchburg Hyundai is planning either a trash pickup or a flower planting. She also mentioned producing info cards about how they recycle at Hyundai.

Valerie at Richmond Subaru is getting trees from the Arbor Day Foundation to give to customers and staff for the week of Earth Day. She is also working on sustainability goody bags in a miniature recycling bin, with recycled-material pens, and seeds.

Darlene at CDJR in Martinsburg has created a ‘Moving Green Forward’ flyer that she will be putting on Facebook and putting up around her dealership. She is planning to give out seeds as part of their Earth Day in Martinsburg.

And finally, Judi will be hosting green trivia on CMA People. So please keep your eyes out for that!”