Named 2018 Business of the Year Earns Honda Platinum Leadership Award

One of Atascadero’s oldest still-operating businesses, Glenn’s Repair & Rental — which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary this year and was also named the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year 2018 — has joined the elite ranks of Honda dealers that have received the company’s highest award for environmental sustainability.
Glenn’s Repair & Rental is one of only four other Honda dealerships nationwide to receive the company’s Platinum Environmental Leadership Award and one of only two power tool dealerships. The other two platinum award-winners are car dealerships located in big cities, making Glenn’s Repair & Rental the only small town business to have received the honor.
In order to receive the award, the business had to reduce its resource consumption by 50 percent, owner Geoff Auslen said. Auslen started working toward the goal after learning about the award at a Honda convention in Las Vegas a year ago. Since then, the business has installed solar panels, installed new lighter-colored roof that reflects heat to cut down on cooling bills, new LED lighting, upped its recycling game and cut its water consumption, all reflected on its monthly utility bills and verified by Honda.
“It’s a tough bar,” Auslen said. “It’s their highest award. It’s pretty awesome, nobody else can say that. We’ve done a lot in the past five years here to change the dynamics of the business.”
“It’s a win-win,” said Ausen’s wife Kate. “It’s good for us, it’s good for the environment, it saves money and the customers appreciate that we’re becoming more and more sustainable.”
Geoff and Kate recently received a plaque commemorating their achievement from a Honda corporate representative with Atascadero Mayor Tom O’Malley in attendance to give his congratulations.
“We overachieve a little bit,” Auslen said. “We actually did every single educational module that Honda offered in the power equipment world. We like to kind of set the bar a little high. It makes a difference.”