Board Perspective

Ah, springtime! My favorite time of the year, and the busiest season on a university campus. This year my reward at the end of our campus academic quarter will be to attend the IPMI Conference & Expo in Fort Worth, Texas!

April is Earth Month, and Earth Day on April 22 has been celebrated since 1970 as a way to bring an everyday awareness to environmental issues. The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “Invest in our Planet.” This year’s theme is very relevant to the work we do in the parking and mobility industry. We continually invest our time, energy, and resources to better integrate sustainable building principles, modes, practices, and processes into our day-to-day operations.

Strategically, many of our organizations are working on exciting, innovative, and collaborative sustainable projects. Some organizations are forced out of their comfort zone to face sustainability because of laws and mandates. For example, here in California, we have several state mandates and measures that have been passed related to climate action. No matter where you are on your sustainability journey, there is much work to be done. It takes strong, steady, tenacious leadership and a long-term investment in all aspects of sustainability that ultimately relate to the triple bottom line: profit, people, planet. I think of all the ways IPMI has supported growth in the area of sustainability. Programs like Parksmart that have been at the forefront of the industry and have helped us to collaborate and work with other industry partners to design and operate high-performing, sustainable parking facilities.

Since I love talking about everything parking and mobility, I was recently discussing the topic of sustainability and leadership with a fellow colleague who is also a Coast Guard reservist. My colleague shared the guiding leadership principles of the U.S. Coast Guard: Ready, Responsive, and Relevant. These leadership tenants also apply to our industry and our goals related to sustainability.

Ready: Being ready professionally. We must start with having the knowledge to be ready to respond and aid our communities as it relates to sustainable practices and everyday business decisions. We must ensure that we have all the necessary resources to be successful in the areas of training, planning, and maintaining a sustainability mindset. Remember, the theme of Earth Day is, “Investing in our Planet.” I suggest the first thing you put on your investment list is your professional development. Last year, I was given the professional development opportunity to attain my LEED® Green Associate™ certification. The LEED Green Associate program is a rigorous education program (much like CAPP) that covers various domains/categories of sustainability. Specifically, the LEED® Green Associate™ certification focuses on the seven categories of LEED®. Topic sections review traditional vs. sustainable practices and their relation to the triple bottom line: profit, people, and planet. It was because of my partnership with our campus sustainability team that I was given the opportunity to pursue LEED® Green Associate™ certification. Knowledge in the various areas of sustainability will keep you relevant and help you lead an operation that functions efficiently and sustainably.

Responsive: Being responsive to our communities is one of the most critical components of a parking and mobility program. This is not the “as needed” response of our parking programs of long ago. We cannot wait to respond to the needs of our customers; instead, we should be going above and beyond the minimum expectations to truly support our communities. Part of this responsiveness is making sure, at a minimum, we are aligned with industry standards or norms. Another part of responsiveness is actively planning for response. Strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting are all components related to response readiness. Let’s take EV charging for example. What has been your organization’s response and more importantly, why? The key to “why” should be tied to your organization’s strategic, long-term sustainability goals. Being responsive requires us to be present and fully knowledgeable about what is happening in all sectors of the various ecosystems encompassed in parking and mobility. As an industry, we have amazing vendors and suppliers that are working hard to help our organizations plan and respond with software, technology, and products that will support our sustainability efforts now and into the future.

Relevant: Being relevant is key to excelling in our industry. The Earth Day website encourages us to take the opportunity to “act boldly, innovate broadly, and implement equitably.” As we think of being relevant, sustainable practices and processes are the things we should be practicing and modeling, further driving them into our organization and industry culture. It is collaboration at many levels that helps us support our communities. Fortunately, we have IPMI and our local state and regional parking and transportation associations to provide a great source of timely, relevant information to keep us abreast of all the topic areas related to sustainability.

So, as we celebrate Earth Month and Earth Day remember the R’s: ready, responsive, and relevant. As parking and mobility professionals, we are important stewards of the environment. Our efforts can positively impact many generations to come.

Have a great month, and see you in Fort Worth! ◆