Joanna Cohen, Director of Sustainability at Car-Part.com, delves into the pivotal role the company plays in transforming the auto recycling industry. Car-Part.com is North America’s largest marketplace for recycled auto parts, connecting recyclers with buyers and supporting the B2B sector with advanced platforms like Car-Part Pro and Checkmate. These innovations fuel sustainability, reduce costs, and advance the adoption of green auto parts.
Empowering Auto Recyclers: Car-Part’s Comprehensive Marketplace and Management Solutions
Car-Part was founded in 1996 as an online marketplace designed specifically for the needs of the auto recycling industry. We are now the largest recycled parts marketplace in North America, quoting $80 billion/year on Car-Part.com, Car-Part Pro, and Integrated Car-Part Pro. Our marketplaces connect recyclers with buyers, not only on the classic Car-Part.com website but also through Car-Part Pro (designed for the collision and mechanical repair industry).
Additionally, Car-Part offers a comprehensive business management platform with Checkmate. The Checkmate inventory management system helps recyclers manage businesses, maintain inventory, and sell parts efficiently. Its end-to-end workflow leverages marketplace demand data and gives recyclers tools to inventory, price and sell parts, buy vehicles, manage production, track business information in real-time, and report on their own business information. Trading Partners facilitates easy recycler-to-recycler parts locating. Also, with Car-Part Interchange Plus (CPI+), we offer new and enhanced fitment data for 100 part types (and that’s a $400 million/year opportunity for recyclers in the Car-Part.com marketplace).
Integrating Green Parts and Meeting Rising Demand
Our Integrated Car-Part Pro (iPro) B2B marketplace helps insurers and repairers increase recycled parts usage. In fact, the USA iPro marketplace has achieved greater than 16% recycled part utilization for more than 5 years! (And last year, iPro saved US claims an average of $110!) iPro users utilize recycled parts more because our marketplace is built to support them. Recycling industry knowledge has been built into iPro, so recycled parts sell better.
In the claims repair process, we’re integrated directly with estimating systems. iPro integrates with all major North American estimating systems and helps match the parts on an estimate to parts available for sale in the Car-Part Pro marketplace. iPro markets recycled parts to insurers, repairers, and independent appraisers. The marketplace has 200 million parts available, and it supports recycled parts with exclusive supply chain technology, real-time part verification, and an assembly-optimized workflow (critical for sourcing recycled parts). Improving technology and fitment data make it easier than ever for collision repairers to find, choose, and purchase the right recycled parts for their needs.
In addition to cost-effectiveness, demand for recycled parts is increasingly driven by other benefits, notably recycled parts’ availability and sustainability.
The recycled parts supply chain in North America is very stable. It’s localized (less subject to global disruptions), and the Car-Part Pro marketplace provides real-time delivery information. Recyclers across North America are diligent about inventorying and pricing their parts, so there is a lot of availability in the marketplace, and the parts are easy to source online. On the whole, the automotive recycling industry is also increasingly meeting customers’ needs by providing more sophisticated services.
There is increasing value being placed on the sustainability of recycled parts. They make a big impact on collision industry companies with commitments to reach net zero. We believe sustainability, combined with a stable supply chain, cost savings, and marketplace improvements, will drive increased demand for recycled parts in the coming years.
Quantifying Carbon Savings: Communicating the Environmental Impact of Green Auto Parts
At Aviva Canada’s Net-Zero Supplier Summit earlier this year, we unveiled several new CO2e Savings Analytics that quantify the carbon emissions saved by choosing recycled auto parts. These reports are available for insurers and MSOs/banners using the iPro marketplace, and they help companies measure and report the carbon impact they have achieved by sourcing recycled parts.
We’re currently developing a feature that will display the CO2e savings information in the search results as shoppers are making buying decisions in our online marketplaces. We’re also releasing a feature in the Checkmate management system that helps recyclers promote the environmental impact by showing customers their carbon savings on invoices and statements.
The Carbon Savings Impact of Recycled Auto Parts
35 million metric tonnes of CO2e* – that’s the potential reduction of carbon emissions annually from Car-Part.com’s North American marketplaces if quotes for top recycled parts are being utilized instead of new parts. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of emissions from 9 coal-fired power plants for one year†. That’s big news for everyone! Especially for companies with net-zero commitments and for auto recyclers who actually power the CO2e savings.
As you can see in the chart, engines and transmissions have the most potential reduction of carbon emissions, by far. If quotes for engines were being utilized instead of new parts, there is a potential reduction of 19 million metric tonnes – equivalent to the emissions avoided by 5,000 wind turbines running for one year in the US‡.
Industry Enthusiasm and Geographic Trends: The Impact of Carbon Savings Data on Recycled Parts Sales
Overall, auto recyclers are excited about a new opportunity to distinguish their parts, and to showcase what we in the industry have always known: recycled auto parts are the sustainable solution! The difference now really is that we can quantify it to make it tangible for our customers and to promote recycled auto parts. It’s too early to see significant changes in sales trends, but the leading indicators are positive.
We see a greater interest from Canadian insurance companies and those with a European parent company. The insurance companies are driving the focus by setting net-zero targets for their own supply chains. As collision repair shops begin to set their own net-zero targets, they will see the use of recycled parts benefit their own bottom line, as it will lower the amount of money they have to spend on carbon removal measures to reach their goals.
Car-Part’s Vision for the Future
We recently added the CO2e data directly in the marketplace. It is now visible to buyers in real-time during the part search workflow where decisions are being made. In the future, you can expect further integration of the data into the workflow, including in the shopping cart during checkout.
The data we use will become more precise and robust all the time. The CO2e savings data we are using now is mainly based on a recent Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association environmental impact study that calculated the potential emissions avoided when a reused part is used in the place of a new part.
We are continually seeking out other data sources and improving data in the CO2e Savings Reports to include more parts, as well as distinctions for various popular vehicle types. The information will only continue to improve – getting better, broader, and deeper!
Footnotes/Sources:
*”35 million metric tonnes of CO2e” calculated based on data from these sources:
- Integrated Car Part Pro Analytics (for Car-Part.com) v2.27 Market KG Co2e report (2023, January 1-2023, December 1)
- Oakdene Hollins and Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (2023, September). THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF GREEN RECYCLED PARTS IN ONTARIO. https://oara.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/OARA-Final-GreenRecycledParts-report.pdf
† “Equivalent of emissions of 9 coal-fired power plants for 1 year” calculated based on data from this source:
- United States Environmental Protection Agency (January 2024) Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
‡ “Potential reduction of 19 million metric tonnes – equivalent to the emissions avoided by 5,000 wind turbines running for one year in the US ” calculated based on data from these sources:
- Integrated Car Part Pro Analytics (for Car-Part.com) v2.27 Market KG Co2e report (2023, January 1-2023, December 1)
- United States Environmental Protection Agency (January 2024) Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
