Green Garage Certification as Operating System

Paul Wessel, Green Parking Council

American Planning Association National Planning Conference 4/30/14

Transforming an industry:

the Oxymoron of Green Parking

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb13-41.html

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“Americans spend most of their waking hours at work. The rest – it seems – are spent en route And it hasn’t changed much over the years.”

Parking Industry Size

Parking Industry

• "[Parking] is the single biggest land use in any city. It's kind of like dark matter in the universe, we know it's there, but we don't have any idea how much there is.“ – Don Shoup

• $24-25 billion industry, highly fragmented but experiencing consolidation and outsourcing of operations

• 100 - 800 million parking spaces in the US

• 40,000 parking garages with paid spots

• 3000 parking companies with $8 billion annual revenue

Industry Segments

• Commercial

• Universities

• Airports

• Hospitals

• Hotels

• Municipal

• Shopping Mall

“Creative Tension” & Green Parking

Creative Tension In his Letter from A Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue…I must confess that I am not afraid of the word, tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth… the purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”

http://www.thekingcenter.org/glossary-nonviolence

The market is changing…

What people want…

Parking follows… Can it lead?

Green Garage Certification

as Operating

System

• a national 501(c)(3) organization developing and dispersing green parking practices in and around the parking industry.

• promote certification and credentialing, open-source standards, professional leadership.

• work at the intersection of parking, green building, clean technology, renewable energy, smart grid infrastructure, urban planning, and sustainable mobility. embraces all modes of transportation.

the Theory of Green Garage Certification

Successful sustainable urban mobility:

• embraces all modes of transportation

• respects consumer choice

• seeks to encourage more sustainable practices

• approach is not car vs. transit, parking vs. parks, cars vs. people

• sustainable paradigm is cars and transit, parking and parks, cars and people.

Successful sustainable urban mobility:

Lessons from LEED:

• Ask the right questions – that’s how change begins

• It’s about being entrepreneurial, scrappy and building new business models

• Creating a common space is crucial

• Relationships with government agencies can help you out of the gate

• Certification as operating system

• Use your program to accelerate adoption of technologies of technologies and drive down costs

• Don’t overdo the paperwork

• Include everyone

• It’s not green if it doesn’t work

It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.

• Charles Darwin

Operators that fail to evolve will find themselves left out of dance in the long run.

• Mike de Windt

the Practice of Green Garage Certification

Vision & Framework

• Create a rating system that helps transform the parking industry

• Address a void in the building marketplace

• For new and existing facilities

• Meaningful with teeth, but not excessive

• Management

• Programs

• Technologies & Structures

Management

• Parking Pricing

• Shared Parking

• Transportation Management Association

• LEED or Green Globes

Program

• Placemaking

• Car and Bike Sharing

• Alternative Fuel Vehicles

• Wayfinding Systems

Technology

• Energy-Efficient Lighting

• Ventilation

• Storm Water

• Durability & Resiliency

• 6/1/14 !!

improve the welfare of people and their communities by

creating more convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient, and

attractive places for present and future generations

enable civic leaders, businesses, and citizens to play a

meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people's

lives

create communities that offer better choices for where and

how people live, help communities envision their future, and

find the right balance of new development and essential

services, environmental protection, and innovative change

How can Green Garage Certification help Planners*:

*excerpted from APA’s “What is Planning?” at https://www.planning.org/aboutplanning/whatisplanning.htm

www.greenparkingcouncil.org

paul@greenparkingcouncil.org