Design and construction Green designs Jess McGregor, architect, and Panagiotis Paraskevas, structural engineer, from Stripe Consulting, on the sustainability in the design and construction process T he current energy crisis has led us to be increasingly concerned about future generations meeting their energy needs, as well as meeting our own. As the construction industry has been one of the worst-performing sectors in the UK for energy usage over the past three decades, great concerns have been raised among the relevant institutions, which have declared code red. This is usually a signal that, finally, it is time for us to wake up. Embedding sustainable changes in the car park sector may prove challenging, however, because the use of sustainable materials, such as timber and bamboo, is practically forbidden. So how do we make car parks as efficient as possible? How do we assess the provision of spaces against raw material consumption, while balancing structure, ease of use, traffic flow and budget? Measure the carbon Change is an extremely slow process in the construction industry: however, the good news is that by making small, but effective changes, the embodied carbon of a car park as well as the energy consumption during its construction can be decreased significantly. The first step is to evaluate the embodied carbon in previously designed car park projects and set a carbon threshold, based on that evaluation, that we should try not to go beyond. We have created an in-house carbon calculator at Stripe, based on the industrys most up-to-date data, and have started measuring our previous projects. As a result, we better understand how we can decrease the embodied carbon in our future designs. Sustainability In design and construction terms, sustainability is usually associated with eco-friendly design and low-carbon technologies. To an outside viewer, multi-storey car parks are not sustainable. But, in reality, the sustainability sphere also encompasses the reduction of non-renewable resources, minimising waste, low-carbon cradle to grave processes, and circular life-cycles. By making small, but effective changes, the embodied carbon of a car park as well as the energy consumption during its construction can be decreased significantly When preparing schemes for new structures, we try, during the conceptual design stage, to make our proposals as effective as possible by considering different orientations of the frame layout, different materials, and various construction methods (for example, modular construction). We then calculate the embodied carbon of each of the proposals and try to educate our clients, emphasising that the carbon footprint of the structure is one of the major factors in the decision process. Design is key The design of a car park is crucial in minimising its ongoing carbon footprint. Well-planned vehicle routes, clear wayfinding, limiting dead-end situations and smooth ramps/level 22 britishparking.co.uk PN May 2022 pp22-23 Stripe Sustainability.indd 22 21/04/2022 11:21