Sustainable parking is creating innovative solutions for traditional parking garage structures. If you’re trying to create an eco-friendly business, don’t neglect your parking structure. These buildings can have a negative impact on your business’s carbon footprint as much as your retail building or venue itself can. Find out why so many businesses across the country and worldwide are making the switch to sustainable parking. Keep reading to learn more about sustainable parking and the seven main benefits of shifting to sustainable parking for your business.
What Is Sustainable Parking?
Parking structures are some of the most inefficient structures in terms of energy use and functionality due to being largely unoccupied. To create more efficient parking structures, many contractors and architects are coming up with ways to utilize more of their space for sustainability. Automated vehicle storage and retrieval systems are helping parking structures become more efficient by creating high-density, low-energy spaces that can fit more vehicles with less space and workforce. Even adding spaces for bike racks and other sustainable transportation means can help reflect a more sustainable parking structure.
Benefits of Sustainable Parking
Now that you know more about sustainable parking and a few ways to achieve it, you might be wondering why you should make the switch in the first place. Many businesses that utilize parking structures have already experienced some of the benefits of sustainable parking systems. Keep reading to learn some of the reasons to switch thanks to the many benefits of sustainable parking.
Promotes Space Efficiency
Automated parking structures can create more space without changing the dimensions of your parking garage. Traditional parking structures fit one vehicle to a parking spot, which wastes a sizable portion of vertical space in the structure. But thanks to automated car stacking technology and machines, standard parking structures can increase the amount of space utilized, especially underground automated parking structures. This helps utilize space in these structures more efficiently by parking cars automatically in rows. Once you install automated parking technology, you instantly unlock more space efficiency that your structure would otherwise be wasting.
Helps Reduce Carbon Footprint
Automated parking structures aid in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that come from running engines in parking garages. Fully automated car parking systems reduce the amount of time that guests would spend driving in circles throughout your parking garage. Plus, the parking process itself eliminates the process of finding a space to park, which means less time spent running engines. This is how automated parking structures can help reduce carbon emissions to create a smaller carbon footprint for your business or venue.
Conserves Building Resources
More space efficiency results in smaller parking structures being built. When smaller parking garages can accommodate more cars, more businesses will choose smaller models for parking structures. Thanks to the smaller construction scale, builders and designers can conserve materials for future projects. Conserving building resources helps keep materials out of landfills longer and reduces the need to manufacture more construction materials, which requires energy and produces emissions.
Better Water Efficiency
Smaller structures are better equipped to control runoff from rain and storms. Too much runoff in any area causes erosion, which impacts any type of structure, causing wear and damage over time. Runoff also collects any contaminants that might be present on buildings and the ground, such as oil, fertilizer, pesticides, and more. The excess water then deposits these contaminants into water sources, which can put wildlife and human health at risk. Because automated parking structures reduce the size of the overall facility, runoff is easier to reroute and control. Fully automated car parking systems also reduce the amount of oil and other automotive fluids that collect in your garage by minimizing running engines. This helps prevent these contaminants from being present in your garage’s runoff.
Low Energy Consumption
Lowering your business’s energy consumption is crucial to becoming more sustainable, and utilizing an automated parking system is an excellent way to do so. Because fully automated parking systems don’t require guests to track down their cars across multiple floors, lights don’t need to be throughout the entire building. This helps decrease their use of electricity and the energy required to power lighting in such a large structure. Lighting is only required for areas where customers wait for their vehicles or where maintenance teams might need to access the car storage system.
Reduces Accidents
Accidents are more common in parking garages than you might think. Winding and sneaking ramps combined with low lighting can lead to many accidents for your guests or even employees. Trustworthy equipment like automated car parking systems can help reduce the number of accidents that would usually be caused by driver error. This not only preserves the vehicles themselves and manufacturing materials but also ensures a safer and more positive experience for your parking guests. Your business can market the increased safety and security of its parking garages, which will help attract new and returning visitors.
Increased Safety for Users
Reducing accidents is not the only way that automated parking structures keep visitors safe. The one-way access to vehicles decreases theft, which can be a huge issue in traditional parking garages. Because you don’t need to prioritize lighting throughout the structure, automated parking garages can place priority on the customer drop-off and waiting areas. Even this small upgrade in lighting can help guests feel safer and have a better experience at your business. Positive experiences lead to more returning customers, who will also spread the word about your business or venue.
Beyond these main seven advantages, there are many more benefits of shifting to sustainable parking, including the visual aesthetic boost, cost efficiency, and more. Remember these advantages as you design or upgrade your business’s next parking structure. Prioritizing a sustainable parking solution can help your business be more eco-friendly, which can attract more customers and promote a better future for your business.
Now that you know these benefits, you might be wondering how to start along the path to a fully automated car parking system. Fortunately, you can get started today by learning more about our mechanical and automated parking solutions here at Harding Steel. Contact us today for assistance in choosing the best parking solution for your structure.
