Parking lots and garages have particularly large carbon footprints and environmental impacts that can be difficult to mitigate. However, if you wish to reduce this impact, there are changes you can make to improve your facility. If you’re looking for ways to make your parking facility more sustainable, keep reading to learn some eco-friendly practices that can help reduce your business’s environmental impact.
Focus on Water Runoff
Parking garages and lots heavily contribute to stormwater runoff pollution that occurs in urban areas. This is because rainwater doesn’t have anywhere to flow as it crosses concrete or asphalt pavement. It can mix with oil slicks, chemicals, and other toxins that collect on your pavement and leak these chemicals into nearby waterways. You can improve your facility’s runoff conditions by using permeable pavement materials that allow water to naturally drain away instead of rerouting and collecting chemicals. You can also try to direct streams to less harmful spaces, such as vegetated areas, to reduce runoff.
Use Renewable Energy
Parking garages use a considerable amount of energy to power lighting, gates, and other installations. Consider finding other sources of renewable energy that you can use instead of traditional sources. For example, some parking garages may be perfect candidates for installing solar panels on the upper roofs to generate electricity. Other garages may use small wind turbines on the buildings’ sides to generate energy. Many parking facilities across the US are already starting to implement renewable energy sources like these to reduce their carbon footprints.
Use Automated Parking Technology
Automated parking systems use lift technology to arrange cars in vertical rows instead of horizontal ones like traditional garages or lots do. The lift does the parking for the customer, so it reduces the time each vehicle spends running, which reduces the emissions it produces.
These systems require patrons to navigate only a small portion of the facility, which means you can reduce the building’s lighting to this smaller section rather than lighting the entire facility. This can significantly cut down on energy usage in comparison to a traditional parking garage, which must have lights on every floor to provide safe navigation for customers.
Try implementing some of these strategies to make your parking facility more sustainable if you want to achieve an eco-friendlier business. Creating sustainable parking is important for your overall business because it can help you attract new customers and stretch your budget thanks to energy savings.
