Much has been said and quite a bit written about green building, which is changing the way communities are designed. LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), started by the USGBC less than a decade ago, centers on designing and constructing high performance buildings.

LEED design standards are being adopted into local building codes. A good example is Cal Green (California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Part 11), aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of buildings. Many think the old building technology partially impacts global climate change.

Among the principles that lead to a high-performance building are those that reduce the use of indoor water, reduce the use of outdoor water for irrigation and repurpose or recycle construction waste to keep it from going to landfills.

There are also mandatory reductions in energy use for heating, air conditioning and mechanical equipment. CalGreen even requires the use of low-pollutant emitting interior finish materials in paint, carpeting, flooring and particle board, i.e., materials containing volatile organic compounds (VOC). Even manufactured products used in these buildings must be constructed to meet certain green standards to reduce energy usage and to make healthier environment for people.

Cal Green includes some code changes that will affect the design of parking areas. These changes include car sorting, which gives preference in location to eco-cars. Parking locations will be signed in a manner similar to ADA accessible parking spaces. (Editor?EUR??,,????'?????<

Parking lots are also to be designed to encourage the use of alternative transportation. Bicycle parking and storage become an element of parking lot design. (CALGreen Section: 5.106.5.2)

These minor actions have been used in local jurisdictions, but for the first time have been included in state law. These small steps can be seen as changing the way parking lots are designed, perhaps for the first time since the 1940s.

Chicago is quite interested in green building. This is most evident in the Chicago Climate Plan that is making changes to urban design, waste, stormwater, transportation and public landscapes and the urban forest canopy of the city. From this plan a Green Urban Design Plan has emerged which is aimed at making the city more sustainable.

The Chicago policy rests upon several principles. Chicago?EUR??,,????'?????<

Parking lots are one of the most dominate urban land uses, yet ecologically sterile, with very low levels of productivity. They merely store cars for part of the day. This one also ?EUR??,,????'?????<

What was not mentioned, and is seldom mentioned in green building strategy is green parking.

I have not found policy that leads to the design of green parking lots. In fact, one of the little secrets of the green movement is very few people, including many landscape architects, do not know exactly what green parking is, or can be. Even when your search for definition, little information is available. No one seems to be working to define green parking as anything more than porous paving, which is a definition created and used by the EPA several years ago.

Green Parking Lots
Several months ago I crafted a story about the LSU AgCenter Sustainable Landscaping initiative, often referred to as Louisiana Yards & Neighborhood Program. In that story I challenged the reader to assess their Sustainability I.Q. I wanted to know if the green industry in Louisiana is embracing the green movement that is spreading across the United States. You won?EUR??,,????'?????<

Since we are teaching sustainable landscape design at LSU, I wanted to take the time to write about one of my favorite subjects, or should I say one of my pet peeves: parking lots. Parking lots are one of the most dominate urban land uses, yet they are ecologically sterile with a very low level of productivity. They merely store cars for part of the day. At lectures around the country I note that parking lots and teenagers have one thing in common: They both lay around without doing any work. The comment is usually received with a chuckle, except when I make the comment at a university. The students are silent. I guess they don?EUR??,,????'?????<

Parking lots don?EUR??,,????'?????<

A Definition of Green Parking
Green parking is a concept not well understood in the United States at this time, even though great ideas to form the concept are available. Few people write about green parking. The literature is scant. Few green parking lots have been constructed. But what do we know about this idea? We do have several definitions of what green parking is thought to be.

EPA definition: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Stormwatercenter.net: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

City of Seattle: ?EUR??,,????'?????< San Mateo County: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Green building, as defined by King County, Washington means: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

LSU Definition of Green Parking
The definition I use in the class I teach about green parking somewhat combines King County and ASLA?EUR??,,????'?????<

A working concept for green parking is ?EUR??,,????'?????< The key to this kind of parking is to put parking lots to work. Parking lots should not be allowed to be unecological ferociously hot slabs of concrete or asphalt that just lie there vacant most of the time not performing any environmental service.

In the next several columns I will explore some ideas about green parking lot design. You can email me, lsugreenlaws@aol.com, to get some class handout material and a copy of my paper on Green Parking. If you have parking lots in your area that meet my definition, please send a .jpeg with a description, name location and designer. Perhaps I can feature them in my stories.

 

D.G. ?EUR??,,????'?????<