CampusParc has become a household name in the Ohio State community, known for its operation and maintenance of parking spaces and garages on the Columbus campus. Less well known is the company’s work to improve campus sustainability efforts.
The university’s long-term agreement with CampusParc Management Inc., a company that supplies parking facility maintenance, vehicle assistance, permits, enforcement and more, has led to higher levels of campus parking organization and efficiency for university students, employees, and visitors. Only ten years into the fifty-year contract, the two institutions will continue to work together for at least another four decades.
While Ohio State has been developing and strengthening its sustainability goals, CampusParc has sought to do the same within their company.
“As a partner of the university, we’ve always wanted to support its sustainability goals. Since we're only a university affiliate, our emissions were not included in the most recent Ohio State emissions output calculation, but that does not mean we aren’t still striving for net zero,” said Niki Thomas, communications and public relations manager for CampusParc.
The latest step in the process falls in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. CampusParc has pledged to convert their entire fleet to EVs as soon as feasibly possible. The fleet consists of maintenance trucks, compliance vehicles, utility vehicles, and TROPOS, larger, motorized golf cart-like automobiles.
Currently, Thomas and her team have converted six vehicles to electric: four Nissan Leafs to replace four Honda CRVs and two electrified TROPOS. Maintenace trucks pose the biggest challenge to the group meeting their goals.
“Maintenace trucks are such large vehicles, they’re larger than Ford F-150s, and there’s just not an affordable electric model on the market yet,” Thomas explained. “We also had some difficulties with location. Two of our staff members actually had to go a few states over to pick up some of the Leafs because they weren’t available in Ohio.”
Despite challenges, CampusParc is determined to succeed. Through a phased approach, the organization is tackling their benchmarks one vehicle at a time.
“As an organization, it’s very important in our mission and values of the company to have sustainability-oriented goals embedded in our operation,” Thomas added.
EVs are not the only avenue towards sustainability CampusParc is taking. They have partnered with the university on several other fronts to increase campus environmental practices including placing compost drop-off locations in accessible parking lots and garages, adding electric charging stations in Old Cannon garage, placing recycling bins identical to those around the rest of campus in lots and griding torn-up concrete into millings and relaying it in new gravel lots.
"I think it’s really critical to look at what other sustainability opportunities are available for CampusParc as a whole to collaborate not only with the university but for ourselves both internally and externally. It should be at the forefront of pretty much any decision that’s being made,” Thomas concluded.
Story by Aurora Ellis, student communications assistant