APCOA has published its first annual sustainability report, showing that the company has managed to achieve a 70% reduction in car park energy consumption through the use of sustainable, innovative practices.

Kim Challis, APCOA UK & Ireland’s regional managing director, said:

Our car parks account for 59% of our energy usage as a business, so to reduce their energy consumption by 70% makes a significant improvement to our sustainability as a business. We have done this by retrofitting 12 of our 18 managed car parks in the UK with LED lighting and proximity sensors.

Our sustainability report shows that on average our managed car parks use 370kwh of electricity per parking space each year. We will be using this metric to benchmark our performance over the coming years.

APCOA is committed to using innovative technologies to drive up sustainability standards across the business. Other eco-friendly measures introduced by APCOA include:

• The installation of a solar panel canopy at APCOA’s car wash facility at Heathrow Airport;
• The replacement of a patrol vehicle in Maidstone with five hybrid bicycles, saving 18,000 vehicle miles a year; and
• The use of new low CO₂ shuttle buses at Luton Airport, reducing nitrogen oxides by 80% and particulate emissions by 66%.

Launching the sustainability report, Kim Challis said:

These improvements point to the way of the future for car park management companies. We will be publishing sustainability reports annually, showing our performance year-on-year. As a business, we’re striving to minimise the environmental impact of our operations.