(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Sheldon Spackman

Energy Efficiency

Scottsville Group set to open new Subaru ‘passive house’

Jun 15, 2019 | 2:32 PM

Doors are set to open next week on a new one-of-a-kind Subaru dealership in north Red Deer.

Described as a ‘Passive House,’ the new certified Scott Subaru dealership at 6801 50 Avenue is said to be the only one of its kind in the world and built to a rigorous standard of efficiency.

Garrett Scott, Owner and Chief Operating Officer for the Scottsville Group, says staff will be moving in this weekend.

“We’re just bringing in the tools and certain pieces of equipment that we need and basically filling the offices up and we’ll be ready-to-roll Monday,” he explains.

Scott says ’passive’ is much different than conventional building.

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“It’s basically an impenetrable outer-shell that the building has and acts much like a thermos does where it keeps what it wants to keep inside and utilizes a fraction in order to heat and cool the building,” he explains. “It also utilizes heat recovery ventilation systems as opposed to furnaces and AC units, so that more air is just circulating more frequently basically.”

Scott says the new Passive House is a great step towards long-term sustainability and pairs well with their Subaru brand.

“A lot of times in dealership builds, they’re built to be oblivious, I would say, to the long-term costs of operation as opposed to what we’ve done here,” adds Scott. “The size of this building (14,100 sq. feet) lends itself well to doing a unique project and we wanted to do something where we’re not going to be soaking ourselves in costs down the road just because we went with the cheapest way to build right now.”

Aside from the hassles of moving, Scott says staff are excited for their new digs.

“We were busting at the seams at our old facility, so this new facility, albeit not huge, has more than enough space than we need right now. This is all of our staff, so this is anybody Subaru trained from the new and used vehicle sales and parts and accessories and right to our technicians.”

Scott says the new Subaru Passive House allows them to be a lot more accommodating to customers and have greater capacity with increased convenience.

“More service bays with more ability for parts storage and with a bigger presence, we’re able to stock a bit more and provide customers with more selection,” says Scott. “But also I think with the way we built it and the motivation behind it being an efficient project like this, we’re trying to differentiate ourselves from other dealerships and even others I operate within our own group. We’re hoping that the customer experience in here is just as the building – completely unique to everything else.”

Scott says the facility’s opening sends the message they’re not just trying to be green, but now have that ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ mentality.

“Why should we be consuming more energy if we can build our buildings smarter?” asks Scott. “Why should we be making the customer purchase experience more difficult if we can just work hard and invest in the right technologies or do things differently that help us identify trends and help us utilize all of our efficiencies to improve our level of service for everybody?”

Scott anticipates an official grand opening sometime in September.