AVW Equipment Is Working on Sustainability Solutions

Learn about the company’s sustainable roots from its early days to current initiatives.

A Department of One

There wasn’t necessarily a single moment when Angelina “Nina” Djordjevic became interested in sustainability – but she’s always been surrounded by it. From an early age, she saw her parents dedicate long hours as volunteers, helping out at church or supporting the Serbian-American immigrant community in the Chicagoland area. Encompassed by their generosity, Nina developed a natural interest for non-profit work.  

At Indiana University, she studied political science and non-profit management and received an opportunity to visit the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Nina was excited about the opportunity, but soon realized there was a lot of talking on policy and not enough action on the ground. She didn’t want that to be her future.

In her last year of college, she switched majors to sustainability. She took classes in sustainable agriculture and food insecurity – and fell in love with the courses. This is where I can make a difference, thought Nina. 

However, sustainability isn’t exactly a popular profession in Eastern European households. But it’s also important to understand sustainability isn’t just following popular Instagram or TikTok consumer behavior trends. There’s also economic and social sustainability. 

No one understood that aspect of sustainability like Nina’s grandfather, Mr. Milovan “Mike” Vidakovich, also the founder of AVW Equipment. Mr. Vidakovich did not grow up wealthy, and like many families, nothing went to waste whether it was food, water, or clothes. Back then, it wasn’t about taking a stand with sustainability – you simply didn’t have a choice.

Mr. Vidakovich built his car wash manufacturing company with the same mentality. He was resourceful, using every piece of equipment, ensuring employees didn’t waste any scrap material, paper, or packaging material. He also focused on procuring the highest-quality items available – like 304 Stainless Steel – so customers would prefer working with AVW Equipment. Her grandfather stressed buying local, saying Chicago is a hub city where you can find everything. 

It was also about boosting the local economy. Even today for employee events, AVW continues to contact local bakeries, restaurants and food trucks.  

That’s the mindset Nina grew up in. She joined AVW in the summer of 2023 as a sustainable specialist. Her first projects included measuring resource usage to determine areas of improvement and starting a dedicated recycling program on-site. This led to decrease of nitrogen, water and electrical usage. She also worked with ComEd to ensure the facility’s heating and electric use is certified to environmental standards.

More Customers Are Asking About Sustainability

One of the first operators to recognize the importance of resource efficiency was Kaady Car Washes in Portland, Oregon. They were one of the first to recognize sustainability was becoming a determining factor for their eco-conscious customer base.

Car wash operators in dry parts of the country also need to factor in the natural environment. While cities like Chicago have easy access to fresh water sources, a car wash business in Arizona or Nevada has to be more careful regarding its water use, especially during drought seasons. The rise in natural disasters isn’t helping.

“Car washes are going to have to figure out ways to adapt,” says Nina. “As a manufacturer, we’re going to dedicate more research and development in how to help our customers the best we can.” 

AVW understands its sustainability programs go hand-in-hand with supporting the local community, and works with non-profits based in the area. Just down the street is the Maywood Fine Arts, an organization providing creative programs to children in the surrounding towns. Nina also teamed up with HR director Jasmina to work with young professionals and presented on resume building and mock interview seminar at the local park district.

What’s Next for AVW’s Sustainable Journey     

Nina is optimistic about AVW’s upcoming sustainability initiatives. She’s currently working on adding resources to the engineering team so the department can dedicate more time on R&D projects such as resource efficiency and life cycle assessments on equipment. 

She’s also on the team developing AVW Forward, an ERP program that will add efficiency to inventory, purchasing and production scheduling to give the company better analysis of production workflows. The focus is increasing productivity while minimizing waste and energy consumption. 

Nina is also watching what’s happening in the world of agriculture, where currently small farmers are resisting the rapid industrialization of the industry. Sustainability, then, is becoming more visible in our every-day lives – from consumer behavior to agriculture and even car wash manufacturing.

Learn more about the Maywood Fine Arts organization here.

Learn more about the National Young Farmers Coalition here and here