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A strategic 360°sustainability model

Dynamic environment

Parking facility owners and operators, as many other infrastructural businesses, operate in a dynamic environment. They need to provide a dynamic response to external events and sustainability trends, maintain and strengthen their position by remaining alert to new developments and responding with forward-looking responsible strategies.

Integral mobility

Parking facility owners and operators specifically, serve society by being an integral part of city mobility policies. To achieve this, adopting a fair pricing policy, facilitating information about available parking spaces, and offering alternative modes of transport is key. They know that ongoing dialogue with stakeholders is vital to ensure that all needs are considered.

Impact on society and stakeholders

For Q-Park it means that the value we create, capture, share and retain, must be directly traced back to our business model. Our financial results need to ensure that we can continue to create value for society in the long term by improving the accessibility and quality of life in urban areas.

For this reason, Q-Park has developed an integrated liveability model with a 360^° view to provide a transparent framework of its values and sustainability aspects. The model is easy to understand, interactive in use and integrates all Q-Park’s business activities.

Improving liveability is what we do

Improving the liveability and sustainability of cities by providing purpose-built parking facilities is what we do. All business activities can be placed in one of the four value quadrants, simplifying how we create value for stakeholders, motorists and society alike.

Q-Park creates value, amongst others, through its:

• parking facility functionality – easy access (also for people with reduced mobility), off-street parking, mobility hub integration and 24/7 service

• innovations in parking – contactless payments, PaSS (Parking as as Smart Service), e-charging and business intelligence dashboards

• investments in sustainability – LED programme, energy-neutral parking facilities and infrastructural co-creations

Four values

The Q-Park Liveability Model is based on four value quadrants:

• Value creation

• Value capturing

• Value sharing

• Value retention

The Q-Park Liveability Model is a holistic visual and its simplicity makes communication about CSR strategy, goals and achievements clear.

The model has three layers:

• The inner layer is the strategic layer with the four core values. All values are equal and provide a balanced and integrated 360° view on our business impacts.

• The second layer is the tactical layer and shows the critical success factors in which Q-Park wants to excel.

• The third, outer, layer is the operational layer for which Q-Park has defined key performance indicators.

Value creation

Q-Park is passionate about space, space for nature, leisure and culture. We're passionate about enabling people to move around. Our parking facilities enable communities to thrive and give them ample room to manoeuvre.

Q-Park creates value for its stakeholders with purpose-built parking facilities at varying distances from a city centre and with balanced parking tariff schemes. Q-Park contributes to:

• accessibility to amenities such as public transport, hospitals, shops and events;

• decreasing traffic searching for a place to park;

• freeing up public space for parks and squares;

• opportunities to reduce on-street parking;

• nudging motorists to make informed choices;

• creating sustainable parking solutions;

• decreasing subsidised parking, by pursuing the 'user pays' principle.

Providing parking facilities at transport hubs is another example of how we create value. Parking at transport hubs enables people to continue their journey by public transport, which relieves inner-city congestion and reduces emissions.

Value capturing

Q-Park captures value for public and private landlords by offering a range of contract types and value propositions. Q-Park operates the parking facilities it owns, has in concession, lease, or under a management contract.

This includes providing a range of parking products for different types of customer. Q-Park serves about one million customers every day.

• Most just turn up, knowing that their car will be parked safely near a location where they want to be. They take a parking ticket or use their bank card to access and exit the parking facility.

• For customers who want to plan, or who know exactly where they want to go, our country websites provide pre-booking services and detailed information for navigation purposes.

• For customers who visit us frequently, we offer a wide range of economically priced season tickets.

Per car park, the website also includes details of onsite services, such as where they can charge an e-car and what the parking tariff structure is so customers can make an informed decision of where to park.

Value sharing

Q-Park aims to provide as much information as possible about its parking facilities to visitors at the location itself and in advance through the country websites.

We have created a useful place for all this information in our recently renewed back-office systems which feeds the country websites. Besides mentioning points of interest (POIs) nearby, the information presented includes:

• number of parking spaces, including those for blue badge holders

• drive through height

• number of e-charging stations

• parking tariffs, pre-booking options and season tickets

• services provided, such as AED, family parking, and toilets

And let's not forget about the variety of digital services provided to make lifes easier.

• Leisure and retail venues can offer their customers digital parking validation.

• Customers can access and exit parking facilities by using their bankcard which safes time and effort.

Value retention

Q-Park endeavours to create aesthetically pleasing interiors and exteriors to our structures either as an artistic statement or to blend in with the surroundings. In many of our inner-city projects, such as Deansgate North in Manchester and Handelsbeurs in Antwerp, we have retained the architectural heritage.

We aim to retain value through co-creation. We work together with parking payment service providers such as EasyPark and Yellowbrick who want to combine their on-street parking and payment solutions with off-street parking for their customers.

We also aim to retain value by writing articles and publishing our expertise about the parking industry. And with our compliance programme, employee training programme and health & safety programmes, we seek to retain our colleagues and our reputation.

The full Q-Park CSR report over 2018 is available here http://csrreport2018.q-park.com/ 

Q-Park has developed a liveability model to provide a transparent framework for its CSR activities and reporting, this is easy to understand and to apply to all of Q-Park’s business activities.