Across the globe—in office buildings, at airports, on college campuses—Parksmart-certified facilities are incorporating leading technologies, management and programs to help achieve more mobility for more people using fewer resources.

We want you to have the best USGBC email experience possible and to read about the news that most interests you. That’s why we recently updated our email subscription preferences for USGBC, GBCI and our whole family of brands. Our new email subscriptions page allows you to be in charge of the types of emails you want to receive.

By updating your preferences, you ensure that you won't miss out on the best articles, updates and events.

Once a year, the leaders in parking and sustainability from across the world gather to soak up the latest data and technology disruptions, celebrate innovation and compare notes with colleagues about how to manage the 90 percent of time that the world’s billions of cars are waiting for their next jaunt.

Best practices in parking operations are constantly evolving. Sometimes, new technology drives radical changes in best practices. More often, though, best practices evolve gradually and steadily as subject matter experts share their knowledge and experience. 

Parking adds to urban congestion

Thirty percent of all traffic congestion is caused by vehicles navigating streets to locate parking, according to a report from UCLA. This creates a substantial impact on emissions. The Urban Mobility Scorecard indicates that 3.1 billion gallons of gasoline are wasted within the United States due to congestion each year.

The parking industry is realizing that advances in technology and society affect the current thinking related to mobility and parking. These changes raise questions: What will the future hold? Will parking demands increase, decrease or simply change? What will become of our parking structures?   

How smart is your parking? If you are interested in optimizing performance, cutting energy consumption and increasing sustainable operations in your parking facility, Parksmart certification may be a great fit for you. Parksmart is a transformational rating system that defines and recognizes sustainable practices in parking structure management, programming, design and technology.

2016 was an exciting year for Parksmart—one filled with new partnerships, opportunities, growth and the promise of a better future for smarter parking and the sustainable parking industry.

Cities are looking to green infrastructure to align sustainable development efforts and to foster social and economic development.