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When car buyers stop into Pacific Subaru, 14700 Hendry Avenue, Hawthorne, Calif., they receive a special “green” welcome at the LAcarGUY dealership. The showroom features a living wall, a 14-foot high vertical garden with ten rows of planter boxes containing 120 plants, created with the LiveWall Green Wall System.
“Living walls, also known as green walls, are structural systems that attach to existing exterior or interior walls to transform unadorned wall surfaces into vertical gardens,” said Dave MacKenzie, president, LiveWall, LLC (Spring Lake, Mich.) “When installed indoors, they make interior spaces more appealing and inviting and improve indoor air quality.”
“Think about the typical car showroom. They are sterile, stressful. Our living wall is an organic, green element that creates a more relaxed, welcoming environment,” says James Hartzberg, general manager of, Subaru Pacific. “As a symbol of our commitment to sustainability, it connects with the values of Subaru car buyers.”
“The green wall brings to life what LAcarGUY and Subaru stand for,” says Alisha Auringer, manager of the environment with LAcarGUY. “It visually expresses our commitment to caring for the environment.”
Installed in January 2016 by Outside Matters Landscaping (El Segundo, Calif.), the Subaru Pacific green wall is 13 feet, 7 inches high and 8 feet wide. Totaling 110 square feet, it has ten rows, each with six LiveWall modular wall-planters lined with plant container inserts that have a mix of six different indoor plants. Florasource, Ltd. (San Clemente, Calif.), an independent horticulture supply company and Southern California LiveWall representative, advised LAcarGUY on green wall design and plant selection and provided 120 pre-grown nursery plants in the containers.
Love of the outdoors and concern for the environment are hallmarks of the Subaru brand. For example, Subaru has built all its cars in zero-landfill manufacturing facilities since 2004. The LAcarGUY family of dealerships is passionate about the environment. Among its green initiatives, LAcarGUY was the first dealer in the country to promote adoption of electric vehicles by offering charging stations open to the public at its dealerships. Subaru Pacific earned distinction as an Eco-Friendly Certified Dealer — joining the ranks of Subaru dealers that meet stringent environmental standards. In addition to the green wall, Subaru Pacific has a 100-foot-long stormwater retention planter that captures all the runoff from its building, and daylighting solar tubes reduce electricity consumption in the service area.
“Whether they want to test drive a Subaru Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle that reduces smog-forming emissions to nearly zero, take a look at our green wall, or learn more about LAcarGUY’s environmental stewardship and conservation efforts, we invite people to visit Subaru Pacific,” Hartzberg says.
