Across seven countries and 22 U.S. states, there are more than 137,000 parking spaces registered under the Parksmart program. Parksmart has now reached its 100th registration—St. Armands Parking Garage, in Sarasota, Florida, brought Parksmart to this milestone. While this is a great achievement for Parksmart, what does it mean for you?
Parking garages are one of the many underused solutions in mitigating the effects of transportation-related climate change. The accessibility of abundant free parking encourages the use of single occupancy vehicles (SOV) instead of encouraging alternate modes of transportation like biking, walking or public transit.
Cars driving into, out of, or even circling around in search of parking spaces, in large parking facilities, contribute to the production of excess greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there are many efficiencies in conventional parking structures that can be implemented to reduce overall energy consumption.
Parksmart, administered by GBCI, is the world’s only rating system recognizing high-performance, sustainable garages. It provides users with the framework to build higher-performing parking facilities that improve access to spaces and better serve customers and the environment.
By providing the framework to improve the siting, design and operations of parking facilities, Parksmart helps parking owners and operators drive sustainability outcomes that are reducing costs, encouraging alternate modes of transportation, reducing CO2 emissions and conserving resources.
Learn why Parksmart market leaders are applying the Parksmart certification framework to the development and operations of their parking facilities, and understand what it means for their bottom line:
- “The value to Cal Poly Pomona is immeasurable. The number of faculty and students that join the university because we strive to make our university’s built environment less impactful on our existing stretched resources, while still providing the best level of service, is limitless. A stronger faculty and enrollment requests help make us one of the leading universities in the nation. We will continue to strive and set a positive influence upon others in our industry.” —Bruyn Bevans, LEED AP, Senior Project Manager, Facilities, Planning, Design and Construction,Cal Poly Pomona
- “Triple Bottom Line (TBL) helps optimize and align economic, environmental and social performance. Investors and decision-makers can use the TBL Tool to configure development investments for maximum returns and prioritize initiatives that are also aligned with TBL goals. WE PARK aims to make substantial redesigns and improvements to existing parking facilities to position car park as the “second lobby.” We improve the customer experience, not only based on overall look and feel, but also reducing our operating costs by a series of modernization measures, such as our national central control room, intelligent barrier system, LED lighting, auto payment system, CCTV cameras, smart signage, car park navigation system, etc.” —Mark Cho, Senior Partner and CEO China at LimeTree Capital Partners.
- “There's definitely a ripple effect to this. I tell people about green garages, and they look at me like, "Green garages? Really? What are you talking about?" Then I go into it. They're like, "Oh, wow." You put hands-free readers in garages, so it speeds up the egress process. There's less emissions and stuff like that. These are things that you may or may not be doing now. When you go to purchase new equipment, why not look into it?” —Tim Hoppenrath, Impark, Parking Manager for Brookfield Silver Spring Metro, Washington, D.C., metro area
- “The most impactful attribute of the Parking Structure II garage is the fact that it is completely, fresh-air open and naturally ventilated. Only the closed electrical and IT rooms have mechanical ventilation. Natural light and air with slightly higher ceiling clearances make the garage a pleasure to use.” —Bruyn Bevans, LEED AP, Senior Project Manager, Facilities, Planning, Design and Construction, Cal Poly Pomona