Easywash Clears Path for Enviro-friendly Success (Groundbreaker)

Easywash's Laura-Lee Normandeau and Geoff Baker

As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention. Be that as it may, one day several years ago, Geoff Baker and Laura-Lee Normandeau of Vancouver, B.C., went hunting for a brushless carwash to pamper their favorite Ford. For most urbanites, fulfilling this need should have been simple enough, but for Baker and Normandeau, the necessity led them straight to another career path and right into the carwash industry.

After a nine-mile journey, they landed smack at the back of a long line of vehicles and a two-hour wait. When the carwash system sputtered to a halt, those in line were issued refunds and sent away in the same grime-covered cars they’d arrived in a couple hours earlier.

“We left there wondering, ‘Do all people go through this just for a carwash?’” recalls Baker, who spent much of his career in the dot-com world until that spring day in 2002. “It was right then we saw the need for a new carwash in town.”

Greener Pastures

Spending so much time in the corporate-technology realm gave Baker the experience and skills to embark on a new adventure, but it was the couple’s gut instincts and sense of environmental consciousness that drove them to develop Easywash, an eco-friendly site that has raised the bar for carwashes across North America.

The goal was to become the world’s most super-friendly carwash, claims Baker. “And I can say that we’ve definitely achieved that for a number of reasons.”

For tree huggers, earth-friendly Easywash is like a breath of fresh air, but for some carwash operators, the state-of-the-art engineering just might be mind blowing. Easywash incorporates water recycling, on-site water filtration, rainwater collection and the power of hydrogen fuel all under one roof and throughout the carwash property in North Vancouver.

In fact, Easywash has applied for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification through the Canada Green Building Council. The Green Building Rating System awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria in areas such as sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environmental quality.

If accepted, the certification would be a tremendous third-party environmental endorsement for a carwash and could spearhead new construction and renovation projects industry-wide that seek environmental designation and recognition beyond typical water conservation and reclamation practices.

“LEED recognizes achievements and promotes expertise in green building,” notes a passage on Easywash’s Web site. “‘Sustainable green buildings’ are now more than just an industry buzz word. Over the next three to five years it will become the norm. Not only is it the responsible way to build, but over the longer term will provide very positive financial returns.”

The Easywash project has gone beyond the usual water conservation efforts by professional carwashes. The company not only has implemented a program that recycles nearly 85 percent of the water used for washing vehicles, Easywash bypasses the public’s supply to draw water from its own well.

“Just because our water is free doesn’t mean we should waste it,” notes Baker.

Here’s how it works: Used water drains into floor bay sumps and is directed to storage tanks for three recycling stages, the first of which — the settlement tank — separates mud and dirt. Secondly, gravity pulls water into an oil-water separator, which eliminates petroleum contaminants that leak from brakes, batteries, engines and the like. The remaining water is then guided to the third stage, the flush/circulation tank, where it is continually circulated through the Easywash reclamation unit for removal of bacteria and fine particulates. The recycled water is returned to the worksite for applications like undercarriage and wheel washes, as well as some high-pressure rinse cycles.

Another big environmental plus for Easywash is its participation in Canada’s Integrated Waste Hydrogen Utilization Project (IWHUP). Through the project, Easywash became home last September to a hydrogen fuel cell designed to provide 90 percent of the carwash’s energy demands, including the heating and cooling of buildings and producing hot water to wash cars.

IWHUP’s goal is to purify waste hydrogen vented from a North Vancouver electrolytic sodium chlorate plant and transfer it into energy for industrial uses. As a project member, Easywash assists in harnessing the otherwise wasted hydrogen into power — a first for many industries worldwide, carwashes included.

By Design

After electing an entrepreneurial life on that fated spring day in 2002, Baker and Normandeau began initiating themselves into the industry by visiting a multitude of carwash sites. This educational process took them throughout North America, from Texas to New York, Puerto Rico to California. Along the way, they visited