FEATURE GREEN ISSUES GREEN TO ITS CORE
Green Parking was founded by Neil Edwards in 2008 as a car park management company that puts environmental aspects at the heart of its temporary car parking operation. As the economy faltered and funding dried up, Green Parking recognised many development projects would be put on hold and landlords would be receptive to proposals that would not only generate income in the interim, but maintain a green approach to property management. The company’s clients include institutions, retailers, managing agents and the public sector. To this end the company concentrates on the fundamental aspects of reducing, reusing and recycling from its car park operations.
Examples include introducing simple
measures such as discount parking tariffs for car sharing to work, electronic parking permits via mobile phone-based parking payments and paperless parking, which accounts for a third of the company’s turnover.
Linking social media and the internet to the company’s website enables customers to research the location of Green Parking car parks and directions/sat nav, which does assist in reducing the time spent driving around looking for a parking space. Where possible, the company is creating a dedicated recycling area on new car parks and electronic vehicle charging points will be introduced once the necessary technology has become available and the number of users warrant their introduction.
Falling costs of high-quality energy-
efficient lighting have also benefited operators looking to upgrade their facilities
Council’s refurbishment of its Isambard Brunel multi-storey car park was designed to reduce energy use in lighting by 49 per cent, making annual savings of around £17,500 on electricity bills – with an expected payback of just 11 months. The project utilised a retro-fit lighting solution from Energys Group that enables fluorescent tubes to be replaced by energy efficient lamps by using a plug-in adapter with existing fittings. Falling costs of high-quality energy efficient lighting have also benefited operators looking to upgrade their facilities. The recent introduction of LED lighting across VINCI Park UK’s West India Quay multi-storey in Canary Wharf is due to save an estimated 64.7 per cent year-on- year in electricity consumption and carbon emissions – but the savings on energy bills and the relatively low cost of the upgrade mean payback will take under two years.
Voltage optimisation
As well as using LED lighting and presence detection to dramatically improve energy efficiency, other changes to electrical systems, such as voltage optimisation, can
be a smart and relatively low cost way to reduce overall power usage.
‘Lighting is generally the largest point of energy usage in car parks, but we have also found that car parks with other plant and equipment – lifts, pumps and ventilation – have proven to be the areas where measures like voltage optimisers have delivered significant reductions in energy consumption,’ says Herring. Voltage optimisation technology can be installed as part of a car parking facility’s electrical supply system, working to reduce overall energy consumption by controlling and optimising power required in a dynamic way. This meets the demands of all the electrical equipment in use at a particular time, rather than maintaining a constant voltage level. In this way, savings can be made by reducing voltage levels when demands from electrical equipment changes.
Herring identifies a positive trend in sustainable solutions that can reduce car park energy consumption: ‘Recent developments in lighting technologies have seen the cost of high-quality low-energy lighting systems reduce significantly. The effect of this has been that the payback period, as seen at West India Quay, has also reduced. ‘We have also invested in trialling associated technologies with voltage optimisers, movement sensors and daylight sensors, and there is no doubt that we are not far away from the stage where the energy required for lighting is reduced to a point where it can be entirely satisfied from local renewable sources.’
As the UK’s attempts to meet its carbon reduction targets gather pace, the parking profession’s commitment to a sustainable future is set to become an increasingly important issue – both for a greener future and a healthier bottom line. The BPA’s Kelvin Reynolds concludes: ‘As an association, we encourage our members to think and act sustainably and, whenever a refurbishment comes along, to consider how they can make the building more energy efficient and user-friendly.’
28 JUNE 2013
www.britishparking.co.uk
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