The auto industry is notoriously slow to adapt and innovate, especially when it comes to issues with the environment and sustainability. But we want to change that, which is why our eco-pledge focuses on areas where we can have the greatest impact – health, carbon, water, and waste.
A pledge is only worth something if you can measure it. These are the numbers behind our commitment — drawn from our live reforestation account and from the way we actually clean cars every day.
Tree and carbon figures come from our live forest account at Evertreen; ocean plastic totals come from our live EcoDrive impact dashboard. Both grow as we keep contributing.
As the PNW’s first detailer to us All-Natural and Organic Products, the health & safety of our customers and their passengers is a top priority of ours. This is why we have chosen to only use all-natural & organic cleaning products for all of our interior services. Most interior auto detailing products and compounds contain harmful chemicals, alcohols, and polymers that have been proven to increase health risks and cause long-term adverse effects. We find this unacceptable.
In addition to using all-natural and organic products, we are proud to be the PNW pioneer in the use of steam. Since our humble beginnings in 2012, we have mastered an innovative steam cleaning technique that kills the most dangerous bacteria, pathogens, and spores without requiring the use of toxic chemicals that compromise your health. In addition, steam can be used on any surface, able to penetrate into the toughest to reach areas or gently clean the most delicate surfaces of your vehicle.
Eco Car Cafe has been proudly Carbon Negative since 2022, and staying that way is a standing cost of doing business for us rather than a marketing campaign. Being a small business is an advantage in responding to climate change, and we intend to leave this wonderful earth to our children better than we found it.
Our carbon journey began with Carbon Collectible NFTs. That early climate-finance partnership is what took us carbon negative in the summer of 2022, securing verified carbon offsets and virtual rights to three hectares of mature forest land in the Avatime forest in the Volta region of Ghana. It was the beginning of the journey, and you will find it as a milestone in our sustainability timeline further down this page.
Today we offset our environmental impact through Evertreen, our current carbon and reforestation partner. Every service we complete helps fund verified tree planting and forest restoration, and every tree is geolocated, monitored and independently verified rather than self-reported. Our forest is public, so you can watch the trees we have funded, and the CO2 they are projected to capture, grow in real time.
With our innovative steam cleaning technique we are able to reduce our water consumption by 95%, cleaning a car with as little as one gallon of water. The gentle yet powerful effects of steam break down hard to remove dirt and grime build up, lifting tree sap and stubborn substances without harsh chemicals, detergents or abrasive compounds. Because steam leaves almost no runoff, the soapy water and road grime a conventional wash sends into storm drains never gets there in the first place.
Using less water is only half of the job. Those storm drains lead to our rivers, to Puget Sound and to the ocean beyond it, so protecting the water we share matters just as much as the water we save.
That is why we partner with 4ocean. 4ocean employs full-time crews who pull plastic and debris out of the ocean and off rivers and coastlines every day, and everything they recover is weighed and reported rather than estimated. Every visit to Eco Car Cafe helps fund that cleanup work, which means keeping your car clean also helps keep our oceans and waterways clean.
In a consumer based society there is too much waste, which is why we’re committed to reducing our waste by 50% by 2025. Our first step towards this goal was to go paperless, relying on digital innovations to serve our customers more efficiently and in a more eco-friendly way. Also, we are in the process of sourcing our detailing supplies from fully recyclable materials. One less plastic bottle or polyester rag in the landfill is a win in our books.
Giving back is built into how we run this business rather than bolted on at the end of the year. Eco Car Cafe donates 10% of profits to charitable and environmental initiatives, so every vehicle we clean helps fund work well beyond our shop doors.
Those contributions support reforestation through Evertreen, ocean and waterway cleanup through 4ocean, and local charities and community initiatives across the Puget Sound area. We would rather hand a fixed share of what we earn to organizations that can show their results than talk about being a force for good, and we will keep telling you where it goes.
Our pledge is not a marketing exercise bolted onto the business. It shows up in the equipment we bought, the products we refuse to stock, and the way we run our shops and mobile units day to day.
Since 2012 we have built our process around steam rather than solvents. High-temperature steam lifts dirt, sap and grime, and neutralizes bacteria, pathogens and spores on contact — which means we can skip most of the aggressive chemistry conventional detailing depends on.
A traditional wash can run through dozens of gallons. Our steam method cleans a complete vehicle with as little as one gallon, cutting water use by roughly 95% and eliminating the soapy runoff that carries road grime into storm drains.
We were the first detailer in the Pacific Northwest to commit to all-natural, organic products for interior work. Most interior compounds rely on harsh chemicals, alcohols and polymers linked to long-term health effects. We simply do not carry them.
Going fully paperless was our first step. We are steadily moving our detailing supplies over to fully recyclable materials and favor durable, washable tools over disposables. One less plastic bottle or polyester rag in the landfill counts.
Our mobile detailing unit brings the service to your driveway or office, which removes a round trip from your week. Self-contained water and power on board means no reliance on your tap and no runoff left behind.
Being a force for good means doing the right thing when nobody is auditing us — in how we price work, how we treat our team, and what we expect from the partners and suppliers we choose to stand behind.
The auto industry has been slow to change. We have tried to move in the opposite direction — making one concrete commitment at a time and keeping it.
We opened as the Pacific Northwest’s first detailer to work exclusively with all-natural and organic interior products, and spent our early years refining a steam cleaning technique nobody else in the region was using.
Going paperless was our first waste commitment. Booking, records and invoicing all moved to digital, which made the business both leaner and easier for customers to deal with.
We reached carbon negative status in the summer of 2022 through Carbon Collectible NFTs, an early climate-finance partnership that secured verified carbon offsets and virtual rights to three hectares of mature forest in the Avatime Forest in Ghana’s Volta Region. That was the beginning of our carbon work, not the end of it.
Our Evertreen forest is growing with every service, and our 4ocean partnership funds crews recovering plastic from oceans and coastlines. Both are tracked and verified rather than self-reported.
We are working to cut operational waste by half and to finish moving every detailing supply we use over to fully recyclable materials. It is unglamorous work and it is the part we are least willing to fake.
We would rather fund organizations that measure their results than run our own feel-good campaign.
Our current carbon and reforestation partner. Evertreen funds verified tree planting and forest restoration, with each tree geolocated and monitored over time. Our forest is public, so anyone can check the numbers.
Employs full-time cleanup crews and reports recovered plastic by weight. Our contribution is administered and tracked through the EcoDrive impact platform.
The climate-finance partnership that first took us carbon negative in 2022, covering our original offsets and the protected mature forest land in Ghana’s Volta Region. This programme is part of our history rather than our current work — our carbon offsetting now runs through Evertreen.
Every service helps us contribute to global reforestation efforts. Through our partnership with Evertreen, we actively support tree planting projects that help restore ecosystems, improve biodiversity, and offset environmental impact. Explore our live forest to see the positive difference being made over time.
Each tree is geolocated, monitored and independently verified, so what you see below is a record of real trees in the ground rather than a claim on a website. It updates on its own as our contribution grows.
Sustainability goes beyond vehicle care. Through our environmental partnerships, every visit helps support initiatives focused on removing plastic waste from our oceans and protecting marine ecosystems for future generations.
4ocean employs full-time crews who pull plastic and debris out of the ocean, along rivers and off coastlines every day. What they recover is weighed and recorded, which means the contribution attached to your visit can be accounted for rather than estimated. Our share of that work is tracked through the EcoDrive impact platform.
Cleanup totals are maintained in our EcoDrive impact account and update here as they are reported. View our live impact dashboard.
Every detail can make a difference. Join Eco Car Cafe in giving back to the planet and our community — planting trees with Evertreen, pulling plastic from the ocean with 4ocean, and supporting local nonprofits and charities.
