10th Australian Parking Convention 2006 Green Car Parks

Is There Such A Thing As A Green Car Park?

David Clark Director Cundall d.clark@cundall.com.au

1. Introduction
A key strategy for more sustainable built environments and reducing greenhouse gases is to reduce our reliance on cars and to drive smaller, more fuel efficient ones. The fashion for fuel guzzling, large 4WDs (or SUVs) is heading society in the wrong direction. So how can a car park, which makes it easier for people to use their cars be considered green? Most people drive cars they are a part of our life. Improving public transport and encouraging smaller cars and alternative fuels is the responsibility of government (or at least it should be!). The recent increase in fuel costs has forced people to think about the type of car they choose. The design and tariffs of car parks could also encourage alternative methods of transportation and smaller cars and so contribute to the wider sustainability agenda. Some ideas on how this might be practically achieved are presented in this paper. Given that we are going to continue to need more car parks, the challenge is how to reduce their environmental impact during construction and operation. This is no different to the challenges faced by all other sectors of the property industry commercial, residential and government. This paper provides an overview of key environmental impacts and potential design responses for the design and operation of greener car parks.

2. Drivers for Green Car Parks

Even the most hardened eco-skeptic would acknowledge that sustainability is now a core issue in the planning and design of the built environment. The Building Code of Australia now has minimum energy efficiency requirements for building fabric, lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Governments and corporate tenants are requiring minimum environmental performance for their buildings using tools such as Green Star and Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR). To attract and retain the Generation Y workforce businesses need to show they have a strong commitment to sustainability, and to provide better and healthier places to work. On top of all this, environmental laws are getting tougher and judges are set to become more exuberant. For example, in September 2006, Brian Preston, the newly appointed chief judge for the NSW Land and Environment Court stated, it is clear that the time for sustainable development has come, and it is essential that individual judges and national judiciaries seize the opportunity.

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3. Environmental Impacts of Car Parks

Car parks encourage people to use cars by making it convenient for them to park. Large cars have a bigger environmental impact than small cars they emit more greenhouse gases and consume more resources to make (refer Fig 1).
Annual Greenhouse Em issions (15,000km per year) 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 Micro Small Medium Large People Mover Recreational 4WD All terrain 4WD

Figure 1: Typical Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions for different sized cars (Source: authors calculation using AGO Greenhouse Coefficients and AGO Fuel Consumption Guide Database 1986 to 2003 for typical vehicle in each class)

Large cars need more space to park. Car parks use natural resources and generate waste during their construction. All construction activities also have environmental impacts (dust, noise, pollution, etc) unless properly managed. During their operation car parks consume energy for lighting and, for non naturally ventilated facilities (e.g. underground car parks), for mechanical ventilation. This energy can contribute up to 20% of a typical office base building energy consumption (refer Fig 2). For external car parks, stormwater run-off to local creeks and watercourses is a significant issue, particularly since the run-off may be contaminated with oil, petrol and diesel.

4. Rating Tools
There are two building rating tools in Australia that are commonly being specified for the design and operation of new offices in Australia: Green Star and ABGR. Other rating tools for different building types are currently under development, including Green Star tools for shopping centres, hospitals and education facilities.

kgCO2-e per annum

10th Australian Parking Convention 2006 Green Car Parks 4.1 Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) This tool benchmarks annual greenhouse emissions associated with energy use in the building (e.g. gas, electricity) from 1 to 5 stars. It uses 12 months of actual energy data (from utility bills) to determine a rating from 1 to 5 stars. Refer to www.abgr.com.au for further information on the scheme. An underground car park in an office building can be responsible for up to 20% of the base building ABGR rating. Figure 2 shows two typical office buildings. The one on the left is a naturally ventilated car park (car park is less than 3% of total energy) while the one on the right has mechanical supply and exhaust (car park is 15% of total energy).
Ventilation Fans 1.6% HVAC fans (occupied areas) 23.9% Carpark ventilation 0.0% HHW Pump CHW / CW Pumps 1.3% 7.5%

Auxillary fans 3% Cooling Tow er 3%

Com m on area lighting 3%

Carpark lighting 4%

Tenant condenser water loop 10.8%

Carpark ventilation 11%

Heat Rejection 5.3%

HVAC fans 34%

Lifts/Escalators 9%

Common area lighting 7.6% Heating 11.2% Carpark lighting 2.6% Cooling 14.9% Domestic Hot Water 3.4%

Dom estic Hot Water 4%

Exterior Lighting 1.3% Lifts/Escalators 8.6%

CW Pum ps (inc supplem entary tentant loop) 2% CHW Pum ps 2%

Heating 16% HHW Pum p 0% Cooling 9%

Figure 2: Typical energy breakdown for 4.5 star ABGR base building for office with car park with and without natural ventilation (Source: Cundall)

Consequently, to achieve a good ABGR rating (4 stars or better) requires a focus on delivering energy efficient car park lighting and ventilation.

4.2 Green Star Green Star covers a wide variety of environmental impacts associated with the design and construction of buildings. Criteria are grouped under environmental categories and a weighted points system is used to determine an overall rating (refer Fig 3). The ratings are: 4 star Australian Best Practice, 5 star Australian Excellence and 6 star World Leader. Refer to www.gbcaus.org for further information on the scheme.

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Indoor Environment Quality Indoor Environment Quality Energy Energy Transport Transport Water Water Materials Materials Land Use and Ecology Land Use and Ecology Emissions Emissions
Innovation

Environmental Weightings

Management Management Issue Category Scores Assessment Credits

Single Score

Rating

Figure 3: Green Star rating tool structure

The ABGR building simulation protocol forms part of the energy category score with a minimum 4 star ABGR rating required to achieve any Green Star certified rating. The table below summarises the credits in Green Star which can be affected by the design and construction of a car park associated with the building.

Category Management

Credit Title Commissioning Environmental Management Waste Management

Issues addressed Rigorous commissioning and use of independent commissioning agent Environmental Management Plan and ISO14001 certification for builder Recycling / reuse of waste Achieve minimum 4 star ABGR and further energy improvements (adjustment factor included to reflect size of car park to NLA) CO sensors (shopping centre tool) Provide less car parking Provide 25% of spaces for small cars and motorbikes Provide secure bike facilities including showers & lockers Increase fly ash/slag content of concrete and/or use of recycled aggregates Use of steel with higher recycled content Reduce PVC in cabling, conduits and piping Treatment of stormwater leaving site

Energy

Energy

Ventilation Transport Provision of car parking Small Parking Spaces Cyclist Facilities Materials Recycled Concrete Recycled Steel Reduced PVC Emissions Stormwater Pollution

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5. Sustainable Design of Car Parks

The table below provides an overview of some environmental issues to consider when designing a greener car park.

Item Internal Lighting

Impact Greenhouse

Issues to consider Maximum 2.5W/m2 Sensor control to reduce lighting out of hours Light coloured finishes to improve uniformity Efficient lamps Daylight sensors and timers No uplighting careful selection of fittings Natural ventilation preferred CO sensor control of supply & exhaust Use impulse fans instead of ducted exhaust systems Increase fly ash / slag content in concrete to 25% Use non-PVC pipes and conduits (e.g. HDPE) Recycled plastic wheel stops Water efficient toilets, urinals and taps Rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing (and car washing?) Permeable pavements for external car parks Use of swales, etc to treat run-off from hard surfaces Consider photovoltaics on roof

External Lighting

Greenhouse Night Sky Pollution Greenhouse (Air Quality)

Ventilation

Materials

Natural Resources Embodied Energy Water consumption Pollution

Toilets

Stormwater run-off

Renewable Energy

Greenhouse

6. Cycling Facilities
Cyclist facilities are increasingly becoming required in office buildings to allow people to cycle to and from work. The facilities typically comprise secure and accessible bike storage and change rooms with showers and lockers. These are usually provided somewhere in the car park. In commercial car parks, used by people commuting to and from work, there is an opportunity to provide cycling facilities and charge for the use of these facilities. A typical car parking bay can hold 10 bikes. If a typical early bird ticket costs $15 per day ($75 per week) then the use of cyclist facilities could be charged at say $2 per day ($10 per week) giving a similar return on investment when the cost of change room facilities is taken into account.

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7. Car size and parking fees

The trend for larger car parks is leading to larger car parks. This is best illustrated by considering the car parking spaces for the US (refer Fig 4) compared to typical worldwide standards (refer Fig 5). The latter is similar to Class 2 spaces (long term city parking) as defined in AS2890.1-1993.

Figure 4: US standard parking bays (Source: http://www.multi-storey-car-parks.com)

Figure 5: Average worldwide standard parking bays (Source: http://www.multi-storey-car-parks.com)

Parking bay design for large cars requires 25% more space than standard cars. Small cars (as defined in AS2890.1-1993), with a bay width of 2.3m, are a further 8% smaller than standard Australian car parking bays. Large cars take up more space and therefore it appears reasonable that they should pay more to park than small cars. Large cars also emit more greenhouse gases. Figure 6 summarises a brief study by the author of different car sizes and fuel economy. The fuel economies were sourced from the AGO Fuel Consumption Guide Database 1986 to 2003 and vehicle data from www.drive.com.au.

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Type Example cc Fuel in city 7.5 8 11 13 10 10 21 Height Length Width Weight

Micro Small Medium Large People Mover Recreational 4WD All terrain 4WD
Height (m m)
1900 1800

Hyundai Getz Nissan Pulsar Mazda 6 Ford Falcon Toyota Tarago Subaru Forester Landrover Discovery
Length (m m )
5500

1.5 1.8 2.3 4.0 2.0 2.5 4.0

1495 1445 1435 1483 1810 1590 1837

Width (m m )

3825 4470 4670 5053 4750 4450 4835

1665 1695 1780 1863 1790 1735 2009

Weight (kg)

1103 1200 1350 1684 1617 1385 1836

2100 2000

2000 1800 1600

5000 1700 1600 1500 4000 1400 1300 0 5 10 15 20 25 3500 0 5 10 15 20 25 1600 1500 0 5 10 15 20 25 4500 1900 1800

1400 1700 1200 1000 0 5 10 15 20 25

Fuel i n c i t y ( L per 1 00 km)

Fuel i n c i t y ( L pe r 10 0k m)

Fue l i n ci t y ( L per 1 00 km)

Fue l i n ci t y ( L per 1 00 km)

Figure 6: Fuel economy versus height, length, width and weight of different cars

There appears to be a direct correlation between car width and fuel economy (and consequently greenhouse emissions). Car parks could therefore encourage smaller, more sustainable cars by charging different tariffs based on car width. For example, Yarra City Council in Melbourne is considering changing the current parking fee structure to assist in discouraging residents from owning vehicles that have a greater impact on the environment and encouraging residents to have vehicles that have a lesser impact on the environment. (ref: Yarra City Council Planning, Environment & Infrastructure Committee Meeting September 2006).

8. Summary
The design and operation of car parks presents a number of opportunities to directly reduce their environmental impact. These include reducing energy through efficient lighting and ventilation, reducing waste and natural resource consumption through considered selection and specification of materials, and reducing pollution through treatment of stormwater run-off. In addition, car park design can contribute to the wider sustainability agenda by providing facilities for cyclists and charging tariffs that encourage smaller cars.