Drive Smart takes the green to the auto repair shop

You can drive a hybrid or make your own biodiesel, but how green is your car when it goes into the shop? Drive Smart LLC wants you to consider the green-ness of your friendly neighborhood garage when it's repair time as it proposes a series of auto care centers owned by independent operators across the country. The Drive Smart shops will not only have luxury features for customers (wireless café, health food services) but will also be environmentally conscious throughout. According to the company, "each four-acre, 10-unit 'green building' complex" ... includes "solar and biomass energy resources, recyclable products, and water and energy efficiency design elements". Drive Smart shops will be good for the people who run the shops as well, as the plan is to have them all locally owned instead of leased like 60 to 70 percent of garages are today. The first Drive Smart will likely be built in California.

[Source: Drive Smart LLC]