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Member News: ParkMobile Mobility Study Shows COVID-19 Will Have a Significant Impact on Consumer Behavior

June 29, 2020

Survey results indicate changing outlooks about where people will go and how they will get there Atlanta, GA, – June 24, 2020 – ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions, released a new research study today showing the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior. The survey, conducted Read More »

Balancing the Post-pandemic Budget

June 24, 2020

By Pamela Corbin, CAPP There is little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge effect on the budgets of parking systems throughout the country. Operating budgets are one of the most important work products in municipalities. They give the authority to incur obligations and pay expenses, allocate resources, and control Read More »

The Parking Podcast Episode E31: An Interview with Brian Wolff and a Conversation about Authentic Concern

June 23, 2020

Topic: Brian Wolff, CEO of Parker Technology, discusses leadership, parking technology and authentic concern. Check it out here https://www.parkingcast.com/

Choose Kindness

June 19, 2020

By Kathleen Federici, MEd I witnessed an act of kindness about three weeks ago that has stuck with me. Kindness is everywhere. Sometimes, the act is so small we don’t allow ourselves to acknowledge it. Sometimes, the act is so large, we can’t allow ourselves to forget it. With our Read More »

What’s the Answer, Part II

June 10, 2020

By David Feehan As I thought about my previous blog, I realized that there is much I wanted to say but did not. I raised the issue of diversity in the parking industry and even looked to our leadership at IPMI to ask if we were doing enough. But having Read More »

The Parking Podcast Episode E30: An Interview with Industry Leaders and a Conversation about Encouraging Stories Part 2

June 9, 2020

Topic: Leaders from around the parking and mobility industry share encouraging and optimistic stories during COVID-19. The sequel. Check it out here https://www.parkingcast.com/

Member News: Westward’s GO-4 Vehicles Enhance Purdue University Parking Efficiencies While Reducing Fuel Costs by 65%

June 8, 2020

Purdue University recently obtained two GO-4 parking specific vehicles from Westward Industries. The GO-4 vehicles will support the university’s efforts to expand their mobility, transportation, and parking management operations, elevating their on-street and lot presence while increasing mobile reads within their mobile LPR systems. Purdue University sought a solution to Read More »

What Do We Do Next?: COVID-19 and the Triple Helix Model of Innovation

May 27, 2020

By David C. Lipscomb This blog is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of the International Parking and Mobility Institute, Transportation for America, and Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to Read More »

Member News: Propark Mobility Launches Certified CleanCo Parking and Transportation Program in Response to COVID-19

May 26, 2020

May 26, 2020 Hartford, Connecticut – Propark Mobility announced today that the company’s CleanCo division will be providing industry-leading comprehensive cleaning and sanitation programs for parking and transportation operations across the country, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. “We are living in a new world, which requires different processes Read More »

A New (Ab)Normal

By Chris Lechner, CAPP As the U.S. begins to open up in ways large and small, the mobility industry is preparing for a broad range of outcomes. There are two fundamental questions facing all of us: How many people are coming back to our venues? How are they going to Read More »

Free Online Shoptalk: Municipalities, Finance, & Recovery: Current Challenges and Next Steps

May 18, 2020

Wednesday May 13, 2020- 2:00 PM EST Free Online Shoptalk: Municipalities, Finance, & Recovery: Current Challenges and Next Steps Free to all Industry Professionals Access the Recording here   Join IPMI for our next online Shoptalk diving into cars, cash, and financial impacts to operations. Open to all, moderator Tiffany Read More »

A 10-Point Roadmap for the New Normal in Parking and Mobility

May 15, 2020

By Kevin White, AICP Like many other sectors of the economy, the parking and mobility industry has been affected significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite significant impacts on revenue, staffing, and other functions, municipal operations have deftly adjusted to local conditions and are planning in earnest for an uncertain future Read More »

COVID-19 & the Curb: Private Sector Works to Adapt and Offer Creative Solutions

May 13, 2020

This post is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI), Transportation for America, and Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as Read More »

Member News: Heart of the Park Partners Band Together to Feed Baltimore

May 12, 2020

May 5, 2020 We’re at our best when we all work together. Since its late March launch, Heart of the Park, a partnership between Harbor Park Garage and several local organizations and businesses, has distributed about 13,000 meals to Baltimoreans in need and to those on the front lines, serving Read More »

Parksmart Advisor Training

May 11, 2020

Parksmart Advisors lead clients through the certification process for sustainable parking structures. The Parksmart program is now offered under by the USGBC/GBCI alongside the suite of LEED and other sustainability rating systems. IPMI is the USGBC Education Partner providing the education required to earn this valuable certificate. This is a Read More »

Member News: Penn Parking Develops More than 3,000 Face Shields for COVID-19 Healthcare Workers

May 8, 2020

May 7, 2020- Penn Parking, a Maryland-based parking management company, recently wrapped up the Herculean effort of handcrafting 3,300 PPE face shields for healthcare workers throughout Maryland, Virginia and DC area. The shields are to assist in the fight against COVID-19. Penn Parking leadership, staff and friends worked together to Read More »

Member News: ParkHub Launches ‘Attendant Academy’ to Support Industry Advancement During the COVID-19 Crisis

May 7, 2020

The company’s online courses aim to help prospective parking professionals develop skills for future employment. DALLAS, May 7th, 2020 — ParkHub, the leading B2B parking technology company, has launched online courses designed to support the professional advancement of parking attendants during the COVID-19 crisis. The curriculum, coined Attendant Academy, provides Read More »

IPMI News: IPMI Partners with City Tech to Launch the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab

May 6, 2020

IPMI Partners with City Tech to Launch the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab, a Cross-Sector Collaboration to Help Shape the Future of the Parking Industry May 6, 2020 In partnership with the International Parking & Mobility Institute, City Tech Collaborative is launching a new Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab, a cross-sector consortium Read More »

Member News: Flowbird Uses Advanced Technology To Limit Contact During Transactions

May 6th, 2020 Company focuses on reducing germ spread while supporting city financial health Moorestown, NJ – Flowbird Group has announced recent developments that limit the amount of physical interaction with its parking kiosks and an alternative to avoid the kiosks altogether. The leader in curbside management, having been involved Read More »

Curbside Management in a Recurring Emergency Scenario: A Municipal Perspective

By Benito O. Pérez, AICP CTP, CPM; and David Carson Lipscomb, MCP This post is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of IPMI, Transportation for America, and ITE’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to Read More »

COVID-19 Information Clearinghouse: Events and Education

May 5, 2020

Read all the COVID-19 Information Events & Education postings here. To search all resources by keyword, search the Resource Library. Submit Postings Here   Member Post: June 15, 2020: SWPTA Webinar- Pandemic Recovery: The Road to Re-opening, shared by SWPTA IPMI Post: May 29,2020: Thinking Outside the Box: Urban Freight Read More »

IPMI Sustainability Framework

May 4, 2020

International Parking & Mobility Institute’s Framework on Sustainability for  Design, Management & Operations Revised on March 2020 Sustainability in parking and transportation means meeting “the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”1 To be successful, transportation solutions and sustainable practices should balance Read More »

The Parking & Mobility Industry Comes Together in a Time of Need

April 29, 2020

By Brett Wood, CAPP, PE This blog is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of IPMI, Transportation for America, and ITE, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies Read More »

Free Online Shoptalk: Leading Remote Teams and Best Practices

April 23, 2020

Wednesday April 22, 2020 – 2:00 PM EST Free Online Shoptalk: Leading Remote Team & Best Practices Pre-Registration is required to attend Free for all Industry Professsionals Access the recording here IPMI invites all industry professionals in parking, transportation, and mobility to discuss how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted your Read More »

Member News: JTA, Beep & NAVYA Autonomous Shuttles Help Transport COVID-19 Tests Collected at Mayo Clinic Drive-Thru Site in Jacksonville

March 30, 2020

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), Beep Inc. and NAVYA partner with Mayo Clinic to safely transport COVID-19 samples on their Jacksonville Campus JACKSONVILLE, (APRIL 2, 2020) – For the first time in the United States, autonomous vehicles are being used to transport medical supplies and COVID-19 tests at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Read More »

Let’s Charge

March 5, 2020

By Arishna Lastinger In 2018, Auburn University was selected as one of many Alabama universities to receive electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that would be supplied and installed free of charge by the Alabama Power Company. Alabama Power funded the charging stations with a grant and did not place a Read More »

Keeping Cornell On the Move: A unique bus system offers comfort and convenience, earning loyalty from customers despite its long-distance rides

November 27, 2019

By Bridgette Brady, CAPP AS WE KNOW, mobility solutions take on many forms: trains, planes, boats, automobiles, human and animal-propelled modes, and of course the bus—one of the most used forms of transport in the world. Buses are among the most important forms of urban and rural passenger transport around Read More »

THE GREEN STANDARD: Smart Parking Lots: Tech Hubs of the Future

November 23, 2019

By Rita Azrelyant, MA, CAPP PARKING LOTS ARE OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS VAST WASTELANDS of bituminous pitch for the sole purpose of lodging vehicles—vehicles that sit idle for hours, days, weeks, and possibly months—but what if we alter our concept of parking lots and envision them as technological hubs of Read More »

Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places

By Jeff Speck NORTH AMERICA, ALONG WITH MUCH OF THE WORLD, has been building and rebuilding its cities and towns quite badly for more than half a century. To do it properly would have been easy; we used to be great at it. But, like voting for president, just because Read More »

GARAGE CASE STUDY: An Automated Solution to Parking Perils

October 1, 2019

By Christian Hermansen PARKING IS A NECESSARY EVIL IN THE PUBLIC’S MIND. It’s something we all do be­fore going shopping, hanging out with friends, or catching a game. It’s the experi­ence before the experience. As someone who has recently joined the parking-sphere, I see parking as something where you either Read More »

Unpacking the APO: Approach to Sustainability

By Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP IPMI LAUNCHED THE ACCREDITED PARKING ORGANIZATION (APO) program with a focus on excellence in our industry. The APO program recognizes parking, transportation, and mobility organizations at the top of their game—these organizations can be recognized at one of two levels (Accredited Read More »

Case Study: Putting the Pieces Together

By Cali Yang A winning combination of features makes a transit-oriented development work. THE WALNUT CREEK TRANSIT VILLAGE IN WALNUT CREEK, CALIF., is an urban mixed-use development that includes studio apartments, retail, restaurants, and public plazas. This is one of the first of many new Transit Villages being planned by Read More »

TIMBER! Considering cross-laminated timber as a solid strategy to future-proof parking

By Chelsea Webster BUILDING A PARKING FACILITY IS EXPENSIVE—not only because of the land, permits and red tape, and technology you have to incorporate into the facility, but also because of the material and construction costs. To make matters worse, after sinking piles of money into the project, some parking Read More »

Not All Clouds Are Created Equal

July 2, 2019

By Sam Goodner CHANGE CAN BE DIFFICULT when it comes to the servers, hard drives, and other hardware and software systems that have long served as the foundation of your company’s IT infrastruc­ture. There’s something reassuring about seeing those machines on their racks with their fans whirring and lights blinking. Read More »

Leading Mobility

June 1, 2019

By Bridgette Brady, CAPP MOBILITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN a part of our lives. Howev­er, the recent and swift evolution of interconnectivity, mobility-as-a-service, curb management, and so many other holistic approaches to transforming the facilita­tion of movement means the industry needs to pause and understand its foundation. As with any paradigm Read More »

Eyes on the Trends

By Brian Shaw, CAPP AS MOBILITY PROFESSIONALS, we have to try to stay aware of trends in our industry. Most of us were caught off guard with the advent of transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft and the impact they have had on curb space, traditional taxis, Read More »

To Charge or Not to Charge: EV Parking at a Mid-Size University

April 5, 2019

By Victor Hill, CAPP, MPA WE WERE FINALLY ASKED WHY we do not offer charging for electri­cal vehicles, by an actual electric vehicle (EV) owner. The issue has come up infrequently on our campus—a midsize university of about 11,000 students—in the past five years as the vehicles have gained popularity. Read More »

Parking and the City

March 21, 2019

By Donald Shoup AT THE DAWN OF THE AUTOMOBILE AGE, suppose Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller had asked how city planning could increase the demand for cars and gasoline. Consider three options. First, divide the city into separate zones (housing here, jobs there, shopping somewhere else) to create travel Read More »

Revisiting Green Approaches

By Brian Shaw, CAPP STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA has a growing and effective sustain­ability enterprise that covers most aspects of the university’s operations and systems. However, it never hurts to revisit our approaches occasionally. I was recently asked by our new university leadership to provide an overview and, arguably, a justification Read More »

Making the Most of a Campus Transformation

March 20, 2019

By Doug Mayhew, CAPP Colorado State University (CSU) is building for success. The physical environment around campus has changed more than the Colorado seasons. The university has seen unprecedented growth in both campus infrastructure and attendance and, with the goal of being a 35,000-student campus by 2020, has invested $1.4 Read More »

The Psychology of Parking

By Megan Leinart, LEED AP BD+C For years, I have considered the idea of writing about the psychology of parking. Since studying psychology for my minor in college, I’ve been fascinated by the inner workings of the mind, and I’m constantly analyzing people (friends, family, random people at the store Read More »

Being Part of the TDM Conversation

By Tim Maloney THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE in the parking, transportation, and mobility space. We place a great deal of emphasis, and appropriately so, on creating and connecting online and offline systems that provide the best experience for our customers as their expectations for parking continue to Read More »

Engineering as Sustainability Tool

By Juan Ramos, LEED AP BD+C I ALWAYS HATED VALUE ENGINEERING (VE). As a young designer, I imagined how the interior glass bridge symbolized our journey through life, its transparency juxtaposed with the adjacent green wall’s filtering of sightlines as you waited in line to pick up your coffee. I’d Read More »

SPARKS OF CREATIVITY: A mural project at the Downtown Eugene Transit Station was paid for with parking revenue.

Parking. What’s the first thing in customers’ minds when they see that word? It might be tickets or meters or parking garages, but no matter what it is, the feeling associated may not be a good one. The parking services program in Eugene, Ore., Epark Eugene, aims to change that Read More »

Ready to Expand Your EV Offerings?

By Daniel Ciarcia, LEED GA IF YOU’VE JOINED A GROWING NUMBER OF GARAGE OWNERS and oper­ators by installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, you’ve likely noticed demand for these stations increasing. With sales of EVs in the U.S. surging 45 percent from 2016 to 2017 and patrons competing for those Read More »

Accessibility and EV Charging Stations

By Michelle Wendler, AIA THE DEMAND FOR INSTALLATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) charging stations has increased dramatically in the last three years. In some jurisdictions, there are requirements for installing electric conduit now to provide infrastructure for future charging stations. Many clients are requesting more stations as they receive requests Read More »

To Share or Not to Share

March 12, 2019

By Josh Naramore TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND CULTURAL CHANGE as the sharing economy continues to grow are forcing parking operators to adapt. New services are challenging local government regulatory approaches, making it difficult to differentiate between public and private, personal and business, and creating a chaotic, but positive, disruption. Transportation is Read More »

Planning for the Short Term

February 5, 2019

Industry experts talk about their strategies for sustainability and efficiency. Compiled by Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C 17-12 planning for the short term EVERY ASPECT of garage planning, design, construction, and operation has sustainability effects. The choices we make affect the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit—but Read More »

A Green Year in Review

Sustainable parking case studies that made 2017 greener. MEGAN LEINART, LEED AP BD+C 2017 has been another year for the books, and the parking, trans­portation, and mobility industry is no exception. We continue to see significant advancements in sustainability in parking design and construction, technologies, and management and operations. Experts Read More »

BIKE SHARE: WHAT NOW?

February 3, 2019

By Ron Steedley, CAPP, MEd Bike share used to be an “if” but now it appears to be a “when.” We need to plan, prepare, and be ready to roll out this mobility option in our jurisdictions when vendors come knocking. As transportation professionals, we already know bike share is Read More »

Going Green: How parking can become a part of the global green infrastructure

By Sarah Stanley AS THE WORLD’S LARGEST CAR MARKET, China is making significant moves to spur the growth of electric vehicles (EVs). The Chinese government announced this past fall that it will be moving toward banning the sale and production of fossil fuel vehicles. China is not the first to Read More »

An Autonomous Future Right Now

By Kim Fernandez The tour of your new neighborhood begins on an eight-passenger, electric, autonomous shuttle. You settle in and enjoy watching the scenery go by outside—houses and townhouses, shops and restaurants, offices and parks, and the massive solar farm that powers it all. When you reach the edge of Read More »

The Green Standard: I Was Going to Recycle, but …

December 1, 2018

By Yasser Jabbari YOU ARE LATE FOR WORK. You are carrying the breakfast that you some­how did not spill on yourself navigating through morning traffic. As you speed-walk through the parking lot, you come to a set of trash and recy­cling cans that have words on the front of them Read More »

The Parking Professional: Technology of Parking and Market Disruption

By Jeff Pinyot THE BUZZWORD IN BUSINESS IS “MARKET DISRUPTION.” The excitement about disrupting a market is that in the first place, we start with a thriving and confirmed market that is in the cross­hairs of investors. Take the parking industry: It doesn’t take much research to acknowledge that parking Read More »

Honoring an Urbanist

The work of Jane Jacobs and what it means to parking. By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP On a recent project trip to Boise, Idaho, I was invited to wait in the conference room of our client, the Capital City Develop­ment Corporation, or CCDC, until other meeting attendees arrived. I had Read More »

The Parking Professional: Building Well

Strategies, linkages, and lessons for the parking, transportation and mobility industry. By RACHEL YOKA, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C, The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Green Business Certification Institute (GBCI) administer multiple certification standards in addition to LEED standards. One of these standards will be familiar to our Read More »

A Guide to Parking

April 14, 2018

IPI’s mission to advance the parking profession manifests in a number of ways – through top-notch education, certification and accreditation, and connecting our community through the conference and expo and now online through Forum.    Publications are another hallmark program of our organization; take a look through this magazine and the Read More »

Forum, IPI’s New Online Community

April 5, 2018

Forum is an online community that gives members a powerful new way to access and share parking, transportation, and mobility-industry information and on-the-job experiences. IPI members can log in and join vibrant discussions, gain others’ perspectives on questions and challenges, access a robust, online library of member knowledge and resources, Read More »

Brussels Combats Air Pollution with Free Transit

March 12, 2018

Brussels has joined Paris and Madrid in offering free transit and free bikeshare use on days when air quality is particularly bad, in an effort to fight pollution. If levels of fine particulate matter in the air stay bad for 48 hours, the city’s residents will be able to use Read More »

Plug in When You Park?

March 1, 2018

By David M. Feehan I drive a 2013 Chevy Volt, which I bought new. Chevy sells about 25,000 Volts a year, and the new Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid expects sales to be about the same. There are other at least 20 manufacturers that now offer PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), Read More »

Sustainability Framework

May 8, 2017

Industry-wide goals and action items for sustainable parking solutions. Sustainability Framework 2017

At a Glance: Green vs. Greenwashed: A Reference for the Parking Industry

With the rise of consumer demand for environmentally (and socially conscious) products and services, companies promote the perception that an organization’s products, goals, or policies are environmentally friendly. This may occur without a true commitment to environmentally sustainable practices. “Green marketing” or “greenwashing” is defined as the practice of a Read More »

Earth Day

April 24, 2017

By Irma Henderson, CAPP In celebration of Earth Day that occurred this past Saturday, this week’s blog series is dedicated to sustainability in parking. During the past 40 years, 85 percent of Americans have driven their cars to work every day and most cars are parked 95 percent of the Read More »

Stop Fighting Over Who Takes Out the Trash

March 1, 2017

By Vicki Pero, SPHR Environmental sustainability has been important to me for most of my life and I’ve had the good fortune to participate in greening efforts personally and professionally. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself to limit the amount of trash that I Read More »

365 Days Big Green

January 24, 2017

By Dan Ciarcia Today’s parking owners are innovating to maximize financial and environmental value while providing higher levels of service to customers. Parking designers are crafting solutions that capitalize on location, community, and water and energy resources. Owners are also embracing multi-mobility, alternative fuels, cycling, and connectivity to the community. Read More »

Ditching Drivers

January 1, 2017

Ditching Drivers By Jess McInerny, SE What parking professionals need to know now to prepare for a new world of driverless cars.  How will parking differ in the future? If you are investing right now, given 30 to 50 years of building use, what should you consider to improve the Read More »

A New System for Abu Dhabi

A New System for Abu Dhabi By Mohammed Al Muhairi and Tope Longe Managing the conflicting priorities of parking management. Parking pricing remains an important aspect of parking management. The need to set prices at a level that is effective for road space management and to redress the gap between parking Read More »

Profitable Pricing

Profitable Pricing By Saloni Firasta Vastani, PhD How new trends in pricing models can benefit the parking industry. Why is price so important? A study conducted by Hinterhuber in 2004 shows that a small increase in price can increase or decrease profitability by 20 to 50 percent. That seems like Read More »

Parksmart Certification Standard

November 29, 2016

Parksmart Certification Standard is the detailed reference manual for Parksmart certification (formerly Green Garage Certification), the transformational rating system defining and recognizing sustainable practices in parking structure management, programming, design, and technology. The standard contains technical requirements for each of the 48 discrete elements of the program, including descriptions, options Read More »

PARKING AUTHORITIES AND PARKING UTILITIES

October 25, 2016

By Leonard T. Bier, JD, CAPP   Virtually all municipalities recognize the importance of providing on- and off-street parking for residents, visitors, shoppers, and persons employed within their cities. However, not every municipality realizes the importance of integrating all aspects of providing public parking within the framework of a parking Read More »

VEEP: Evaluating Ventilation Efficiency

By Frank Nagle While most, if not all, subscribers to The Parking Professional magazine are well aware of the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) campaign, it’s a safe bet they’ve never heard of Ventilation Energy Efficiency in Parking (VEEP). Consider this, then, a first step in heralding the Read More »

Preventative Maintenance is the Original Sustainability

October 24, 2016

By Mike Mitchell As a manufacturer of protective coatings and preventive maintenance products, I might be accused by some readers of having a biased opinion. While that’s very much true, I can also make the case that protecting your existing parking facilities is the most sustainable and greenest option available. I’m going to focus Read More »

2016 Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking Campaign Award Winners Announced

October 7, 2016

Annual LEEP awards honors organizations for cutting energy use in parking facilities (Los Angeles) – Oct. 5, 2016 – Today, the winners of the 2016 Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) campaign were announced. LEEP is an annual recognition of real estate owners that have achieved exceptional performance in parking Read More »

Certified Green Garage Goes Global As Parksmart

July 26, 2016

By John Schmid It was 11:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve 2015 when I walked back into my holiday house party and made a toast: “to the green parking garage going global.” I then signed the document package the attorneys had sent over, and a new era began. This was Read More »

Strategic Partner News: Certify your parking structure for the future with Parksmart

June 27, 2016

Parksmart certification helps parking facilities meet standards of sustainability and reduced environmental impact. Parksmart is the world’s only rating system defining and recognizing sustainable practices in parking structure management, programming, design and technology. An industry-driven, field-tested road map for high-performance new and existing parking garages, Parksmart recognizes forward-thinking facilities working today Read More »

Guide to Parksmart Certification

June 7, 2016

Parksmart, (formerly known as Green Garage Certification) is the world’s only rating system that defines, measures and recognizes high-performing, sustainable garages. An industry-driven, field-tested road map for new and existing parking structures, Parksmart recognizes forward-thinking facilities shaping tomorrow’s sustainable mobility network. Prepared by the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), the Read More »

Going Green with LED Lighting Retrofits

June 1, 2016

By Jennifer I. Tougas, PhD, CAPP If you are looking for ways to save money in your operation, take a hard look at your lighting system. Recent advances in the lighting industry allow us to save energy with more efficient fixtures, more intelligent controls, and lower maintenance needs. All of Read More »

Cupertino Garage: Demand-Control Ventilation System Pays for Itself with Energy Savings

May 12, 2016

One of the greatest sources of energy consumption – and consequent operational costs – for an enclosed, commercial garage is the mechanical system that ventilates it. Ventilation can account for more than 30 percent of a property’s total, annual energy bill, consuming upwards of 400,000-kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. Some Read More »

IPI Online Learning Earns GBCI Credit

April 25, 2016

IPI’s online catalog is expanding by leaps and bounds, and now we have a new feather in our cap. Sustainability in Parking, one of our most popular online learning courses, now qualifies for two valuable GBCI credits toward maintaining LEED AP and LEED GA credentials, and is featured in the Read More »

Take the LEEP – Submissions due June 15, 2016

The Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign is a program offering free guidance and recognition to facility owners and managers interested in implementing energy-efficient lighting solutions in their parking lots and structures.   Phase 2 awards submissions are due June 15, 2016.  Awardees will be recognized at GreenBuild this Read More »

Parksmart Advisor Training Offers GBCI Credits, New Dates Announced

April 4, 2016

IPI, as an approved USGBC Education Provider, now offers LEED-accredited professionals valuable continuing education credits to maintain their LEED AP and LEED GA credentials. Parksmart Advisor Training (formerly Green Garage Assessor) now offers GBCI credit for LEED accredited professionals for 7 CE Hour(s). Attend a Parksmart Advisor Training course today: Read More »

Cornell University’s Forest Home Parking Garage Earns Green Garage Certification

March 16, 2016

Among the first parking structures to earn Green Garage Certification in the United States, the Forest Home Garage, constructed in 2009, is a perfect example of how sustainable innovation can be achieved through retrofitting an existing facility. Located at the north end of the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY, the garage plays an important Read More »

Sustainable Parking Design & Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook

March 11, 2016

Sustainable Parking Design & Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook is the parking industry’s first reference book on sustainability. The parking industry has a tremendous role to play in sustainability, and this handbook will guide parking professionals in their green initiatives. Available on Amazon, this is a must-have reference for every parking professional.

Going Green with LED Lighting Retrofits

February 25, 2016

By Jennifer I. Tougas, PhD, CAPP If you are looking for ways to save money in your operation, take a hard look at your lighting system. Recent advances in the lighting industry allow us to save energy with more efficient fixtures, more intelligent controls, and lower maintenance needs. All of Read More »

Greening the Walls

February 13, 2016

By Vicki Lee Parking structures haven’t traditionally been viewed as things of beauty; historically, they’ve been thought of as dull, gray, and packed with vehicles that emit pollutants. An increasingly popular solution to this challenge has been to cover parking garages’ façades with living green walls. Green walls, also known Read More »

EVs Everywhere

By Sarah Olexsak When it comes to parking, employers and facility managers are working together to make plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging stations the next bike racks. Parking providers that offer charging to workplaces can have a competitive advantage when attracting clients in ­cutting-edge industries. Employers have long recognized that Read More »

Lots of Greening

By Brian McKelligett The city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., recently completed an almost one-year renovation of its very popular and recently renamed Cox’s Landing 15th Street Boat Launch. This launch facility has long been popular with boaters thanks to its easy access to the ocean. The city estimates that more Read More »

Making a LEEP

By Michael Myer There’s no doubt about it: Parking facility lighting has come a long way in recent years, saving energy, money, and nearly countless resources. Thanks to a new campaign and awards program, it’s taking a giant LEEP and hopes to achieve more than 500 million square feet of Read More »

Transforming Green

The U.S. Green Building Council (USBGC) was founded in 1993 to promote sustainability in the way buildings are designed, built, and operated. It developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and professional credentials and hosts the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, billed as the world’s Read More »

Making the Garage Green in Every Way

By Brian Shaw, CAPP I recently started working for Stanford University as its director of parking and transportation services. Stanford is known as one of the leading sustainable universities in the country, and a number of ranking and recognition programs have given the university high marks for its sustainability programs Read More »

Simplifying the EV Charging Equation

By Michael Nichols The statistics are compelling and the pressures are mounting: It’s almost a foregone conclusion that at some point in the future, your facility will add electric vehicle (EV) charging capabilities. In other words, it’s not a matter of if, but when, your facility will adopt EV charging. Read More »

Elevating the Art of Parking

By Jim Ketai The Bedrock Real Estate Services team is on a mission to revitalize Detroit by creating jobs, excitement, and opportunity. The short-term results we have achieved since 2011 are noteworthy: 40 properties, including several historic skyscrapers, have been acquired, and more than 100 businesses have been recruited to Read More »

Lessons from LEED

By Paul Wessel It was a pretty audacious idea. Certifying green buildings? Who cares about that? And even if people care, who’s going to pay for it? That was the response David Gottfried received back in 1992 when the founder of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was just starting Read More »

Strategic Planning Sustainability at its Best

By Rick Decker, CAPP How do we incorporate sustainability into our parking operations and the strategic planning of our larger organizations? Frequently, budgeting and planning methods are already in place and can be difficult to influence. It appears a daunting task. Let me add some rays of hope. There are Read More »

Illuminating

By Philip Lavee The historic Hills Plaza building in San Francisco’s South of Market waterfront district is home to high-profile companies including Google and global architecture and design firm Gensler. When global commercial real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) decided to upgrade the lighting in the parking garage, Read More »

From the Far Horizon

By David Hill, MA, CAPP, and J.D. Hassan As parking professionals, we are no strangers to technological innovation; our industry turns on technology and new ideas and concepts are all around us. But every once in a while, a new idea comes along that has the potential to completely change Read More »

There are Many Steps to Sustainability

By Mike Drow, CAPP and Rick Decker, CAPP Many facility owners and operating managers seek to operate in a more sustainable manner. We can use many technological methods to achieve this goal, from installing solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity, to using improved construction materials. Many of the Read More »

And the Winners Are…

February 12, 2016

By Michael Myer and Marye Hefty In 2015, 18 organizations won Phase II Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign awards by saving an average 60 percent in parking lighting energy. Since LEEP was launched in 2012, award winners have achieved 200 million square feet of high-efficiency-lighting parking for combined Read More »

Sustainability and Parking

By Megan Leinart, LEED AP BD+C One of the most popular and likely heavily debated subjects in the parking industry is sustainability. The topic has been one to elicit a significant amount of interest and excitement in public gatherings and mediums, along with a certain level of skepticism in more Read More »

A Class Apart

By Bill Smith It wasn’t so long ago that “sustainable parking” was a bit of an oxymoron. But times change, sometimes drastically, and parking has embraced green practices. This year, seven facilities became the first in the world to earn Certified Green Garage designation—a milestone indeed. IPI is proud to Read More »

Green Thoughts

Green parking is more than a catchphrase: It’s a new way of thinking about the parking industry and doing business in a way that’s attractive to employees, customers, and the bottom line. And it’s moving super fast, with advances and new developments almost every day. We asked four leading experts Read More »

The Country’s Greenest Conference

By JC Porter, CAPP I recently returned from the Pac-12 Conference and am declaring it the greenest conference in the nation. I am certain there will be those who will disagree with my declaration, but after reading about the many accomplishments of Pac-12 schools, I invite dissenters to follow up Read More »

Incorporating Green Parking Into a Community

February 11, 2016

By Jody Miller There is a range of unique ways parking facilities—both renovation projects and new builds—are incorporating sustainable practices. Some are quite unique and step outside the box of standard parking-facility thinking. Across the nation, more and more parking facilities are implementing interesting ways to make parking garages more Read More »

On the Road; In the Lot

By Irma Henderson, CAPP By now, there are very few people who have not heard the terms “global warming” and “climate change.” While there are some who feel the increasing temperatures are a result of Earth’s natural cycles, others point to the increase of mankind’s use of fossil fuels. Regardless Read More »

Case Study Greening a Campus

By Mark Pace and J. Michael Whitcomb, PE Montgomery College in Maryland has incorporated ice thermal storage in its campus central plants as a summertime electrical demand management strategy since the early 1990s. Highly efficient rotary screw industrial chillers that use ammonia refrigerant (R717) operate at night when electrical demand Read More »

Green Garage Certification More Than Recognition

January 27, 2016

By Trevyr Meade The recognition of the world’s first Certified Green Garages at the 2015 IPI Conference & Expo was a statement to our patrons and communities that parking will play a key role in the sustainability movement. Green Garage Certification offers a menu of 48 elements garages can deploy Read More »

THE BIG PICTURE

January 26, 2016

By John W. Martin All of us will spend the rest of our lives in the future. Understanding what’s ahead and what it means has tremendous value, not only to you as individuals, but to your companies and even the entire parking industry. What’s the best pathway for your career? Read More »

What’s Going On with Electric Vehicles

By Michelle Wendler, AIA By 2025, it’s anticipated that there will be seven to 23 times the number of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) in use around the world than are on the road today. As parking professionals, we should be prepared for the increased demand for charging stations. In the Read More »

A New Evaluation Criterion For Parking Equipment

By Vicki Pero, SPRH Not so long ago when an organization considered facility parking equipment for purchase, there were three common areas of consideration: ease of use, durability, and revenue control and reporting. Like many other things in our industry, the criteria have expanded in recent years to include a Read More »

Five Key Drivers for Financial and Sustainable Success

By Daniel Ciarcia Most of us are keenly aware of the changing global climate and resulting critical environmental challenges. A recent Yale University study reported that 87 percent of Americans believe mankind is more (or at least equally as) responsible for climate change than natural events. We agree on the Read More »

Transition Station Goes Green

By Mark Bolton Parking structures are open for long hours, sometimes all day and night. Some spaces are infrequently occupied and open to daylight, making additional lighting unnecessary. In addition, energy costs are rising and industry standards (developed by organizations such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Read More »

Big Progress in Big Data

By Michael Drow, CAPP; Peter Lange; and Blake Laufer, CAPP The parking industry has access to more data today than ever before, and the amount of data collected is growing quickly and exponentially. We generate incredible amounts of data from a variety of sources, including space availability tools, meter and Read More »

People the Trio’s Overlooked Segment

By J.C. Porter, CAPP We all have a good idea of what sustainability means in regard to the planet and how it can affect the bottom line (profit), but people seem to fall into a gray area of our understanding. Providing great customer service is something everyone strives to achieve. Read More »

Changing Perspectives

January 20, 2016

By Rob Ley Eskenazi Hospital was established in the 1850s in Indianapolis to treat soldiers with smallpox. It has since become one of the largest hospitals in the Midwest and primarily cares for low- to medium-income patients. A few years ago, the hospital began construction of a massive expansion. Included Read More »

Placemaking Defined and Redefined

By J.C. Porter The Green Garage Certification Standard was recently released, and with it, parking professionals were introduced to a new language that may be unfamiliar to some. If you have not yet had a chance to purchase the new certification standard, I highly recommend you do so through the Read More »

Utility Meets Beauty

By Wendy DeCapite According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 105 million commercial parking spaces in the U.S. As cities grow more crowded and new businesses emerge in the suburbs, the need for parking garages has increased. Despite its status as a functional necessity, the parking garage Read More »

The Hottest New Couple In Town

By Vanessa Weston, CAPP Automobiles have been around for centuries, and from their initial introduction until today, have needed their own storage: parking. Smartphones have been around since 1993 but did not become a part of consumers’ everyday lifestyle until the last decade or so. Who would ever think of Read More »

Five Ways to Go Green at Your Garage for Free

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP One of the core principles of sustainability is the triple bottom line. You’ve heard it before: people, profit, and planet. Too often, profit can be undervalued. Spending money without regard for return on investment (ROI) is not truly sustainable in the long term. Funds (from revenue, Read More »

Power Struggle

By Kim Fernandez IT happens all the time: Driving down the road, you glance at your fuel gauge to see it’s nearly empty. You pull into the gas station, line up behind the car at the pump, and see there’s nobody there actually pumping gas. Maybe that driver is in Read More »

Green Alphabet Soup

By Irma Henderson TDM, SOV, HOV, AVR, TOD, ATP. What does this all mean, and why is it so important to parking professionals? According to Wikipedia, transportation demand management (TDM) is, “the application of strategies and policies to reduce travel demand or to redistribute this demand in space or in Read More »

Green Garage Assessor Training Value to Consultants

By Megan Leinart, LEED AP BD+C, CNU-A At the 2014 IPI Conference & Expo in Texas, the Green Parking Council (GPC, an affiliate of IPI) conducted its first Green Garage Certification Assessor training. More than 20 parking professionals showed up for eight hours on a sunny Saturday, away from the Read More »

Joining the Electrical Vehicle Age

By Mark Pace Electric vehicles (EV) are currently the topic of a great deal of conversation and legislation in some areas despite the fact that fewer than 1 percent of all new vehicles are plug-in capable. Enforcement of EV charging-only spaces is a challenge for some jurisdictions. Case in point: Read More »

Charging Up

By John Hipchen When their new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations officially went online last November, administrators at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS) in North Chicago, Ill., said they had taken another big step toward walking the walk when it came to their commitment to a sustainable Read More »

Lean Smart Parking

By Christopher Dance On-street parking sensors are working in cities from Los Angeles to Moscow. The benefits of data from such sensors are undeniable. As guidance apps move from cellphones to in-car systems, drivers will rely on sensor data to quickly find nearby spaces. Comparisons of sensor data with meter Read More »

Every Effort Counts

By Jody Miller Sustainability is a hot topic in nearly every industry, political agenda, and even consumer purchasing pattern. Once a fashionable trend, sustainable practice is now an expectation. Everyone has an eye on what organizations are doing in support of economic, social, and environmental sustainable practices. With the world Read More »

Identifying Untapped Potential

By Trevyr Meade With Green Garage Certification officially launched, our industry has come together to showcase the untapped potential that lies in the parking spaces we own and operate. Our work has developed an industry-specific standard that communicates to cities, campuses, and commercial real estate the contribution parking can make Read More »

Lightening Up

By Ken Sapp Plug-in electric vehicle (EV) pioneers Nissan and Chevrolet are in their third model years producing cars with this relatively new technology. Ford, Fiat, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Tesla have all introduced EVs, and BMW is launching two luxury EV models this year. The popularity of long-range EVs means Read More »

Beyond the App for That

By Amie Devero There’s an app for that! It’s become the go-to answer for many modern municipal challenges. But often, that quick solution fails to address the real issue, and sometimes adds new problems for customers and municipal professionals alike. In cities around the world, technology is being used to Read More »

Building the Invisible Garage

BY K. Vance Kelley, AIA Tradition and modernity come together seamlessly at the Kansas Statehouse, where a 550-space underground parking garage has transformed the visitor and staff experience, while solving a host of logistical and practical parking concerns for the 140-year-old capitol. “The most noticeable thing about this garage is Read More »

The Metrics that Matter

By Pete Messman It is increasingly difficult to argue against having energy-efficient lighting installed in a parking garage. Even garages that were built recently with traditional metal halide or high-pressure sodium fixtures should be considering a retrofit as the benefits affect everyone—customers, managers, and owners. But there is a huge Read More »

Automated Facilities Sustainable Problem or Solution

January 19, 2016

By Vicki Pero, SPHR Believe it or not, the first automated parking facility, in which the customer leaves his or her vehicle at the entrance for facility equipment to park, was built in Paris in 1905. These structures have become very popular in Europe and Japan in more recent years Read More »

Blowing in the Wind

By Jacinta Messer Environmental artist Ned Kahn is known for his large-scale art depicting natural phenomena that include wind, water, and fire. His art is sustainable and fluid, often incorporating materials and movement that capture the elements in multiple dimensions; it’s so profound that even Smithsonian magazine has featured his Read More »

Greening Before Design

By Brett Wood, CAPP Parking’s green movement has largely focused on the facility: How can we squeeze out the most energy efficiency through lighting, operations, and design? I have seen numerous presentations and publications documenting power savings, cost savings, and innovations in interior and exterior design that highlight and promote Read More »

Greening the Lot

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate It’s an overcast day in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but that doesn’t stop dozens of parking professionals from boarding a shuttle bus to tour a recently upgraded sustainable parking operation. On the way, Green Parking Council (GPC) Executive Director Paul Wessel and Rachel Yoka, Read More »

By the Parking Industry, for the Parking Industry

By Rachel Yoka, LEED AP BD+C, CPSM I recently had the opportunity to participate in the first joint meeting of the boards of directors of the International Parking Institute (IPI) and the Green Parking Council (GPC), which became an affiliate and the “sustainability arm” of IPI last summer. Our recent Read More »

Integrating Innovation

By Rachel Yoka, LEED AP BD+C, CPSM We consultants have another big and bold year ahead of us. I don’t mean the next big project we land or the next big conference (such as the 2014 IPI Conference & Expo in Dallas, June 1-4). Although these are undoubtedly at the Read More »

Let the Sun Shine

By Jon Sarno Parking lots and garage rooftops offer expansive, un-shaded, and unobstructed spaces that are ideal for housing commercial-scale solar energy solutions. Solar photovoltaics (PV) have long proven a smart choice for parking facilities for a variety of reasons. With the growing trend of installing plug-in electric vehicle charging Read More »

Understanding the Triple Bottom Line and Applying It to Your Program

By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP Sustainability still means many different things to different people and groups. The term “triple bottom line” has emerged as a helpful phrase for what most mean when incorporating the principles of sustainability within institutional planning frameworks; it refers to the effects that sustainable business practices Read More »

From the Ground Down

By Rich Wagner, CAPP Permeable paving includes a range of sustainable materials and techniques for using pavements with a base and sub-base that allow stormwater to move through the surface. In addition to reducing runoff, this structure effectively traps suspended solids and filters pollutants from the water. Although some porous Read More »

Goregous Green

By Roy Diez New garage decks are obviously developed to fill a perceived need for additional parking in a given area. The bet is that, as in the movie “Field of Dreams”, if you build it, they will come. Mixed-use structures hedge that bet by combining supply and much of Read More »

Parking Garages and Green Walls

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate We have all seen our share of bland, unappealing parking garages. Unfortunately, many of us have had a hand in designing them as well. One may point out the obvious: that the primary goal of the parking garage is to simply park cars. Read More »

Upping the Ante on Parking Planning and Design

By Chris Gray, PE, and Megan Leinart, LEED AP BD+C Atlantic City is well known for its exciting atmosphere, vibrant nightlife, and boardwalk that’s alive with casinos, shops, and restaurants. People from all over the world visit the city to gamble, play on the beach, and experience an affordable and Read More »

The Greenest Parking Space

January 18, 2016

By Matthew Inman Parking is getting greener. There is a wide range of options to choose from to help mitigate a parking facility’s effect on the environment, from energy-efficient lighting systems and solar panels to green roofs and electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. One thing hasn’t changed: parking facilities exist Read More »

Dialing and Thriving

By Soumya S. Dey, PE, PMP, and Angelo Rao, PE Washington, D.C., has approximately 18,000 metered on-street parking spaces. The parking program has seen significant changes during the past few years, including two rate increases, lifting a Saturday moratorium on parking meter fees, and extending the hours during which meters Read More »

Behind The Curtain

By Jeff Pinyot Substitute LED for Oz in a memorable movie quote and you get this bold statement: “Do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful LED. I said come back tomorrow.” This begs the question: is light emitting diode (LED) technology ready today, or do we, as Read More »

Campus Garages Change Perceptions

By Ian Nestler, AIA, LEED AP BD+C With growing scarcities of both capital funding and vacant land, colleges and universities have begun tucking additional uses into campus parking garages, either by expanding footprints or adding floors. The benefits are as diverse as the potential uses. Adding a street-level retail component Read More »

Off the Grid

By Bill Schoenfisch When Long Beach City College (LBCC) first opened in 1927 with an enrollment of 503 students, its current enrollment of more than 27,000 probably seemed like an impossible dream. The college later split into three separate campuses by function, and renamed its original Long Beach location the Read More »

Why Going Green Makes Business Sense

January 16, 2016

By Dominick Brook With pressures from stakeholders, customers, and, to some extent, government entities and regulations, many companies are increasing their focus on sustainability strategies. Along with these motivations, certain green initiatives, particularly focused around the reduction of electricity use, have a quick and positive payback and can help a Read More »

We are Providing Sustainable Health Care

January 15, 2016

By Bridgette Brady, CAPP Did you know reducing congestion is part of a sustainable health care model? When we use transportation demand management (TDM) practices or provide bike parking in on-street spaces, we are doing our part to help a society be sustainable by enhancing community livability. There are many Read More »

Concrete Steps to Sustainability and Profits

By Tom Nickell, MBA Concrete. Gray, dull, boring. Not something to think about, right? Well, it’s also the most common man-made material. We walk on it, drive on it, and park on it. It’s no exaggeration to say that concrete and steel make up 99 percent of the materials used Read More »

EVs EVERYWHERE

By David Sandalow and Levi Tillemann, Ph.D. For the U.S. parking industry, the question of electric vehicles (EVs) is not if they’ll come, but how soon? The answer is now. The U.S. is already the world’s leading market for electric vehicles. In fact, EV sales in the U.S. tripled in Read More »

Let There Be Light

By Kyle Leighton Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing, Mich., is a public research university ranked as the ninth-largest university in the U.S., with 47,800 students and 2,954 faculty members. It is home to the renowned Wharton Center for Performing Arts, whose massive facility hosts 17 Lansing Symphony Orchestra concerts Read More »

From Gates to Grapes

By Kim Fernandez Joe Kovach looked out over a mostly-unused parking lot behind a closed dormitory at The Ohio State University in the fall of 2010 and pondered what potential might lie on the asphalt. “I started wondering if we could make that productive,” says the associate professor of entomology Read More »

Boosting The Green Bottom Line

By Dominick Brook Over the past few years, demand for plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) has steadily grown, with 10 models now commercially available in the U.S. As EV ownership expands, there is an increased need for more publicly-accessible EV charging stations. Many local governments have entered into ventures with EV Read More »

Energy Efficient Structure Lighting

By Donald R. Monahan, PE Politicians and the general public have increased their attention on global warming in recent years. This enhanced awareness has resulted in new government and utility-sponsored programs that provide rebates and tax incentives to increase energy efficiency and encourage conservation. Retrofitting your parking facility with more Read More »

America’s Sustainable City

January 14, 2016

By Kevin Blomberg No city has a lock on the healthy lifestyle quite like Los Angeles, where I live. With its abundant presence of yoga studios, organic grocery stores, and environmental organizations, there’s no shortage of people wanting to live a more healthy existence. However, the city’s notoriously terrible traffic Read More »

Electric Vehicles Notes from the Field

January 12, 2016

By Rick Decker, CAPP The landside department of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is advancing an electric vehicle program on several fronts. To better serve our customers, we want to understand their experiences operating electric vehicles (EV) in the wide variations of Minnesota’s climate. We also want to understand Read More »

Calming the Storm

By Seth Brown Parking professionals view a highly-used and busy parking lot as an amenity that generates income and adds value to the property being served. Stormwater professionals, in contrast, look at the same parking lot or facility and see a source of increased water pollution, high rates of stormwater Read More »

Greening Your Garage

By Dennis A. Safford Who knew doing the right thing for the planet could make you more money? Implementing sustainable initiatives in parking facilities that benefit the environment and society does not mean you need to sacrifice dollars. At face value, it would seem that the urban parking garage is Read More »

The Forest for the Trees

By Federico Lopez Many industries—perhaps most—directly and indirectly emit greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and are in part responsible for climate change; the parking sector is not an exception. Just like all other businesses, Bogota, Colombia’s City Parking consumes energy, fossil fuels, and water, and generates waste in its daily Read More »

Sustainable Campus

By Gabriel Mendez and Shereen Shaw Arizona State University has a long history of dedication to sustainability. As the nation’s largest public university in terms of enrollment, ASU leads by example, setting short- and long-term sustainability goals that touch every university department. These include the mitigation of carbon emissions from Read More »

Mixed Use Parking Structure Design

By John Purinton, PE, SE A trend in the parking industry for the last decade, especially in downtown, urban, or educational settings, has been to include some type of mixed-use in new projects. Most of these mixed-use applications are retail and are located on the ground floor, where pedestrians will Read More »

Where Mobility Meets Facility

By Joachim Hauser As the director of mobility for BMW, I am often asked, “Why did BMW, a German premium car manufacturer, become a Titanium Launch Partner of the United States-based Green Parking Council (GPC)?” There are many facets to the answer and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the Read More »

What Has Your Parking Deck Done for You Lately

By Joey D. Rowland, PE and Thomas Carlson-Reddig, AIA, LEED AP Parking decks were once considered necessary evils and relegated to secondary status in the minds of campus planners. While much attention was lavished on academic buildings and student unions, parking was shoved onto the outskirts of campus on undesired Read More »

City of Wonders

By Mark Wright Gehry is one of a small constellation of star architects who have arguably raised parking garage design to that ideal in Miami Beach, Fla. “We are very lucky in Miami Beach, because we have a wealth of world-renowned designers and architects who have discovered new opportunities to Read More »

Staying Green

By Michelle Wendler, AIA In this column, I offer maintenance suggestions for two common green features that either are or may soon be part of your parking structure. Proper planning and maintenance will make and keep these systems excellent life cycle choices for your facility. Photovoltaic Solar Systems An advantage Read More »

Parking and Idling

By Richard B. Easley, CAPP When most people think of parking, they think of empty vehicles with their engines turned off. Let’s look specifically at diesel engine idling, which primarily involves commercial buses and trucks. This happens so often that environmentally-savvy communities are trying to eliminate or minimize this practice. Read More »

Light for All

By Susan Pollay This summer, the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the City of Ann Arbor held a party to celebrate the grand opening of the new 711-space underground Library Lane parking structure. A disc jockey spun car-related tunes, a variety of vintage cars were on display, Read More »

NYC Embraces EVs

January 8, 2016

By Guillermo Leiva New York City made headlines last year when it invested in a fleet of Chevy Volt electric cars for its police department, assigning them to traffic control throughout the city. Our parking officers are also exploring where electric vehicles might fit in. “New York City is where Read More »

Illuminating

January 4, 2016

By Pete Barth When a Baltimore County, Md. garage was about six weeks into its high-tech lighting makeover, Wayne Mixdorf, CAPP, director of parking for the Baltimore County Revenue Authority (BCRA) received a phone call from the local power company. “They thought something was wrong with the electric meter,” recalls Read More »

Financing the Sustainable Parking Facility

By Michael Cramer Can incorporating sustainable elements in a parking facility affect the revenue models used for attracting capital? In only a short time, it’s likely that this could become an area of focus for investors in green facilities. Posing the question creates challenges, because most garages are on a Read More »

The People Factor

By Bridgette Brady, CAPP Becoming a sustainable organization means creating a new approach to supporting the organization’s mission and achieving its goals. Truly sustainable organizations take a holistic approach by deeply embedding the principles of the triple bottom line—environment, economic, and social—into their business practices. This creates a dynamic sustainable Read More »

Balancing Funding for Parking and Transit at UNC Chapel Hill

By Cheryl Stout The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill is the nation’s oldest public university. Today, it receives an A+ rating in transportation from the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, but struggles with the challenges of maintaining an expanding multi-modal transportation system. The university had Read More »

Slaying the Mythical Dragon

By Roy Diez A sustainable parking garage? LEED certified? Conventional wisdom said it couldn’t be done, but conventional wisdom was wrong. Committed to completing construction projects in a manner that is as environmentally sustainable as possible, Duke University in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., made a conscious decision to attempt LEED certification for Read More »

Sustainability and Valet Operations

January 3, 2016

By Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, LEED Green Associate Modern valet parking in the United States began as early as the 1930s. As parking demand in urban areas increased, available parking adjacent to a driver’s specific destination grew smaller and smaller. Drivers became willing to pay to have someone else park and Read More »

Seven Parking Garages Become First in US to Achieve Green Garage Certification

January 2, 2016

Seven Parking Garages Become First in U.S. to Achieve Green Garage Certification New ‘Green Garages’ include corporate, university, airport, and hotel facilities in Los Angeles; Metro Washington, D.C.; Denver, Houston; Cambridge, Mass.; and Ithaca, N.Y. (LAS VEGAS – July 1, 2015) — The Green Parking Council (GPC) today announced the Read More »

Press Release, 6/2/14, Green Parking Council Launches Program

Green Parking Council Launches Program to Certify Parking Garages that Meet New Industry Guidelines for Sustainability Launching June 2, Green Garage Certification Program, considered “LEED for parking garages,” recognizes sustainable design, technology, and management (Dallas, Texas- June 2) Responding to the growing desire for more livable communities and rising concern Read More »

Press Release, 5/15/14, Rachel Yoka Joins International Parking Institute

Rachel Yoka Joins International Parking Institute as VP of Program Development Former VP of Timothy Haahs & Associates, Inc., and IPI’s 2012 Parking Professional of the Year continues her commitment to sustainability and excellence within the parking industry Alexandria, Va. (May 15, 2014) – Rachel Yoka, LEED, AP BD+C, CNU+A, Read More »

Press Release, 12/18/14 IPI and Green Parking Council Collaborate

International Parking Institute and Green Parking Council Collaborate with GBCI, the Certification Body for LEED New collaboration recognizes importance of sustainable parking facility design and management to the built environment Washington, D.C. (Dec. 18, 2014) – In recognition of the importance of sustainable parking facilities and practices to the development Read More »

Press Release, 5/7/14, Groundbreaking New Book on Sustainable Parking

Groundbreaking New Book on Sustainable Parking Design and Management Advances “Green” Parking Solutions Sustainable Parking Design and Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook provides theory, application, and case studies from parking architects, planners, and LEED-certified parking experts (Alexandria, VA – May 6) A comprehensive new book, now available for pre-order from the Read More »

Press Release, 12/10/13, LEEP Competition to Honor Parking Facilities

LEEP Competition to Honor Parking Facilities for High-Efficiency Lighting April 2014 awards, sponsored by a coalition of parking and building groups with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, will recognize facilities with the greatest energy and cost savings January 10, 2014 is the deadline for submissions to be recognized Read More »

2013-05-14 Green Parking Council Becomes an Affiliate of IPI

Green Parking Council Becomes an Affiliate of the International Parking Institute Joining forces will further enhance the parking industry’s efforts toward sustainable solutions (FREDERICKSBURG, VA – May 14, 2013) Under an agreement approved by the boards of both organizations, the International Parking Institute (IPI) and the Green Parking Council (GPC) Read More »

2013-01-31 Parking Industry joins with U.S. Department of Energy

Parking Industry Joins with U.S. Department of Energy to Support Obama Administration Initiative to Expand Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in the Workplace U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recognizes International Parking Institute, world’s largest parking association, along with leading automotive, communications, high tech, energy and environmental groups during keynote speech Read More »

2012-10-29 Smart Parking, Smart Cities

Smart Parking, Smart Cities: World’s Leading Parking Experts to Share Insights with Latin American Architects, Urban Planners, Developers, Government Officials, and Business Leaders Latin Parking Conference & Expo to Convene Dec. 9-12, in San Juan, Puerto Rico An increasing number of government leaders, architects, urban planners, transportation officials, and economic Read More »

Why Parking Matters – 2015 White Paper

December 15, 2015

Explains why parking and the expertise of parking professionals are integral to the future of cities. Why Parking Matters – 2015 White Paper

Tale of Two Cities Smart Parking Infographic

Illustrated comparison of a city with and without smart parking solutions. Tale of Two Cities Smart Parking Infographic

DOE Workplace Charging Challenge

Led by the U.S. Department of Energy, the initiative urges employers to install workplace plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging stations. DOE Workplace Charging Challenge