Fit for the Future Winner Q&A

Five minutes with… Bury Road Garage

We sat down with Mark Hallows, owner of Bury Road Garage, and winner of TotalEnergies’ Fit for the Future Award 2024. Mark shares his views on sustainability, and we hear more about Bury Road’s efforts to reduce waste and become more energy efficient.

How do you feel about winning the award, and would you recommend for other garages to enter?

Mark: Definitely! It was a bit of a surprise at first, but we’re all really proud to have won and have our efforts recognised. The prize package allows us to carry on being a greener garage and helps us save even more money as a business. It's absolutely brilliant, and I will be entering the competition again.

How are your customers benefitting from your garage’s sustainability efforts?

Mark: We’ve saved a lot of money as a business thanks to the installation of solar panels. We’ve not had an electricity bill for the last two years and we’ve been able to send power back to the grid. This means we haven’t had to increase our prices in line with rising energy costs, allowing us to keep the standard rates we’ve had for the last four or five years. It’s saved us a lot of money and we’ve been able to pass those savings onto our customers here in Radcliffe.

What sustainable plans do you have for the future?

Mark: We’re in the process of expanding our premises and have planning permission to install solar panels there too, which will improve our energy efficiency even further. Aside from that, we’re always looking to reduce waste. Our next plan is to cut out plastics from the products we use, recycle as much as we can, and move over to box oils which are much better for the environment than bottles and barrels. We’ll keep exploring new ways to limit our impact and protect the planet. It’s important to us and it’s important to our customers too.

The Fit for the Future prizes are specifically geared to help workshops address the sustainability challenges facing the industry. Each bundle is worth £5,000 to help accelerate their journey towards net zero.

Bury Road Garage selected the Fit for the Future Quartz prize package, which includes:

• £3,000 worth of cutting-edge Quartz lubricant delivered in TotalEnergies’ innovative and eco-efficient 100% recyclable packaging solution
• One year’s worth of waste oil collection and recycling 
• Two Quartz product stands
• Package of eco floor mats and seat covers