Wayne Auto Spa

One fight against global warming begins in Wayne
Saturday, February 10, 2007

By DIANE HAINES
HERALD NEWS COLUMNIST

Rob Burke ditched a lucrative and prestigious corporate legal career for the opportunity to run a car wash.

A dubious career choice? Not for Burke, 43, of Morristown, who sees the environmentally sensitive business as his contribution to fighting global warming and the greenhouse effect.

The business, Wayne Auto Spa on congested Hamburg Turnpike, has a sign that tells potential customers that the car wash and oil-change establishment uses solar energy.

There are, in fact, 58 solar panels that provide electricity embedded in the green roof. The oil change and lubrication portion of the business recycles dirty motor oil and uses it in furnaces to heat the business. Waste water from the car wash goes through an advanced filtration system to remove impurities. Behind the structure that houses the business are gardens, trees and picnic benches.

Before Burke and a partner purchased the 30-year-old facility in September 2005, the waste water used to be dumped directly into a stream, where it caused pollution. Their purchase came at a time when the building was decidedly rundown, giving them plenty of room to think “green” when doing the $200,000 upgrade.

Is the investment paying off? “It’s far exceeding our expectations,” Burke says.

Burke has put his three-piece suits and wingtips in storage. On a typical day he wears jeans, a baseball cap and yellow-tinted sunglasses perched on the brim. His office is literally the size of a large closet. To describe it as a mess would be too kind. The old desk is piled high with papers. Boxes, files and folders are stacked on shelves and the floor.

It’s a far cry from the sleek offices of his former law firm, Sills Cummins Epstein & Gross P.C., which has locations in Newark, Princeton and New York. Burke worked there for nearly 10 years.

Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in West Orange and Short Hills and attended Newark Academy before entering Union College and Emory Law School. He was hired by Sills Cummins shortly after graduation in 1988. He left in 1997 to become CEO of a software company that he sold in 2004.

He spent about a year looking for something that would interest him.

“There was no pressure to generate income. I spent time with my kids until I found the right opportunity,” says Burke, who has two children, Alexandra, 15, and Jonathan, 8. His wife, Andrea, works as a teacher in Bedminster.

He has long been concerned about the environment, and the family regularly goes on wilderness camping trips for recreation. His wife drives a hybrid Honda.

“This is an extension of the way we live,” says Burke, pointing to the cotton shopping bags hanging from hooks on the wall, which he uses for grocery shopping. “We have a responsibility to ourselves and to future generations to take care of our habitat.”

For his next project, he wants to build a 100-foot-tall windmill with 30-foot blades to provide wind-driven energy. It would be erected in front of the car wash, where a flagpole now stands

Burke says he’s holding off his variance application to see if two environmental organizations will support his cause. The windmill “will raise public awareness of environmental issues,” he says. “It’s a public policy question.”

Mayor Scott T. Rumana says he applauds all the environmental improvements Burke and his partner have made to the business.

“I’m a huge environmental guy,” says Rumana.

Reach Diane Haines at 973-569-7046 or haines@northjersey.com.

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