Office parking brings together two of the most polluting industries: transportation and real estate. How can office buildings reduce their carbon footprint? We asked Gabor Toth, the COO of Parkl, to explain how electric vehicles, sustainable practices and ESG compliance increase the sustainability efforts of real estates.
What role do parking facilities play in the sustainability efforts of office buildings and companies?
GT: Parking spaces within office buildings face the same challenges as office spaces themselves: efficient usage. Therefore, increasing utilisation is one of the primary objectives of property managers, whilst meeting tenant and employee needs is essential.
The report of Savills highlights that European office vacancy rates increased by an average of 60 bps from 7.7% to 8.3% during the past twelve months. Mobility considerations play an integral role in this. An office building is not sustainable solely based on its certifications but also on the decarbonisation efforts of its tenants. Electrification and greening corporate fleets are crucial tools in this process.
What are the prospects for the proptech (property technology) sector in the near future, and why?
GT: With the growing emphasis on environmental and economic sustainability, modern proptech solutions are becoming essential. However, we need to consider the fact that sustainability involves not only green energy and environmental consciousness but also maximising resource efficiency. The more you can achieve with a single unit of resource, the more sustainable your operation becomes.
For example, Parkl manages over 10,000 parking spaces daily and illustrates this concept well: on average, an office building parking space is used by 1.5-2 cars. Achieving such high efficiency and sustainable utilisation requires a smart system.
To achieve the ultimate resource efficiency, office buildings must begin continuous data collection, as this will become an expectation for all buildings, driven by the need for companies to report on ESG compliance.
“To optimise processes, every aspect of a building must be measurable and analysable. This is the ultimate goal of proptech, which underpins the sector's roughly 20% annual growth, especially within the EU. This is especially important considering the 30% growth projected in electric vehicles (e-mobility) over the coming years, and the undeniable link between PropTech and e-mobility, as both sectors experience significant growth in tandem.”
This is becoming a fundamental expectation for commercial real estate.
What are the biggest challenges in office/corporate mobility, particularly regarding parking and charging?
GT: During the COVID pandemic, we first observed that people preferred to drive to avoid public transportation. However, the problem was that there wasn’t enough space and no smart parking solution. Following this, the ESG/Net Zero trend emerged, and the electrification of car fleets began.
Parking and charging solutions then led to the development of flexible mobility solutions, which became more and more important with people returning to the office. This was the trend that we could also see from our conducted survey, that found 67% of employees prefer to charge their vehicles at work, therefore a sufficient charging infrastructure is needed, especially since not all employees have access to home charging.
The corporate sector drives this demand, requiring support from the commercial real estate sector.
“Electric mobility was born digitally, embodying the digitalisation of transportation, further motivating the real estate sector to digitise processes.”
What unique expectations and goals various stakeholders have when it comes to corporate mobility?
GT: The current market favours tenants, with office buildings often struggling with underutilisation. Tenants prefer fewer but higher-quality spaces that accommodate changed commuting habits.
Employers aim to enhance cost efficiency, employer branding, and encourage employees to return to the office, requiring smart and flexible solutions, including various forms of mobility like electric scooters, bikes, and EVs. For successful outcomes, it is essential to focus on user-centric and convenient solutions for both parking and charging.
In addition to efficiency, in its report, PwC also highlights that when it comes to ESG, besides housing, healthcare, decarbonisation, digitalisation, communication between the stakeholders need to be improved. This is crucial for sustainability projects, which often fail due to a lack of communication.
“Another success criterion is increasing engagement among stakeholders, which is especially critical in multi-tenant office buildings. Proptech solutions must address these needs and support communication among stakeholders, enabling a higher level of sustainable operation across all aspects of the building.”
What does the future hold for proptech? Where do companies currently stand in this regard?
GT: The growing demand for charging at the workplace also requires more efficient office building energy management than ever before. To guarantee the best possible energy supply in the car park, this can be accomplished through the use of dynamic load management (DLM) and smart building management systems (BMS). In the long run, incorporating additional energy storage capacity - a technology that is ready but still expensive in this environment - can also help with green energy management by expanding the office building's energy supply. These solutions not only help electromobility but also significantly affect the company's sustainability rating.
At Parkl, we believe that smarter mobility solutions can make cities more liveable and reduce the environmental impact of transportation. Interested in learning more about how we do it? Contact our sales team at sales@parkl.net who will be happy to assist you with any queries.
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