Sustainability Topics Sustainability Topics

Overview

Sustainability Topics Sustainability Topics

• Sustainability Topics:

– 1) Transportation

– 2) Facilities Planning

– 3) Operations and Maintenance

– 4) Concessions

– 5) Visitor Management

– 6) Interpretation and Education

– 7) Marketing and Fundraising

Transportation Planning and ConstructionTransportation Planning and Construction

Key Principles:

• Establish effective transportation systems and routes (link with master planning and community)

– Roads, pathways, boardwalks

• Identify and implement effective transportation modes and fuels

– Buses, cars, maintenance vehicles, etc.

• Educate, inform, and motivate other parks and the public about green transportation

– Determine best long term approach and share

Example: Assateague Island

• Reclaimed lumber for pathway surfaces

• Asphalt roads and parking lots have been removed and replaced with crushed clam shells

Example: Glacier Park

• A 1936 national park experience, but this is a 21st-century tour on a clean-running propane historic red bus refurbished by Ford Motor Company through a partnership with the National Park Foundation (NPF).

• Carries the visitors over the Continental Divide on Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun-Road.

Facilities Planning and ConstructionFacilities Planning and Construction

Key Principles:

• Establish Green Facility process for planning and construction

– Start early with green goals and follow-through

• Use the LEED Green Building Rating Tool

– Set goals and document best practices

• Educate, inform, and motivate other parks and the public about green facilities

– Determine best long term approach and share

Example: Zion Visitor’s CenterExample: Zion Visitor’s Center

• Outdoor rooms

• Cooling towers

• Alternative transportation system

• Trombe Wall

• PV on roof

• Stained concrete flooring as thermal mass

• Efficient lighting

• Water conservation features

Facilities Operations and MaintenanceFacilities Operations and Maintenance

Key Principles:

• Incorporate sustainability into your O & M park practices

– Start with an an audit (determine your baseline)

• Establish green purchasing policies and programs

– Set goals

• Educate, inform, and motivate other parks and the public about green O & M

– Green cleaning products

Example: Tom’s Cove Visitor’s Center Assateague Island

VISITOR’S CENTER

• Relocation of existing structure – Interior and Exterior renovation

• Durable materials:Fiber cement siding and reclaimed lumber

• Solar tubes, occupancy sensors, and compact fluorescents

• Salvaged and recycled materials

Concessions Concessions

Key Principles:

• Include concessions in overall sustainability planning processes, teams, and goals– Strong partnerships between parks and concessionaires

• Take advantage of contract language to encourage greener concessions operations

• Share green concession information with other parks and the public

Audit Type– Comprehensive with site visit

– Paper audit w/ telephone follow-up

Criteria– Federal, state, local regulations

– Best management practices

– NPS regulations and policies

– Concession Contract

Prioritization/Scheduling– Contract renewal date

– Park request/reoccurring issues

Example: Concession Environmental Audit Program

Visitor ManagementVisitor Management

Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP)

• A process to plan for ensuring that park resources are protected while also facilitating visitor enjoyment of those resources

• Consists of 9 Elements

VERPVERP

Element 1: Assemble an interdisciplinary project team

Element 2: Develop a public involvement strategy

Element 3: Develop park purpose, significance, and primary interpretive statements, identify planning constraints

Element 4: Analysis of Resources and Visitor Use

VERPVERP

Element 5: Describe potential range of visitor experiences and resource conditions (management zones)

Element 6: Allocate the potential zones to specific locations within the park (prescriptive management planning

Element 7: Select indicators and specify standards for each zone; develop a management plan

Elements 8 & 9: Monitor resource and social indicators; Take management action

Interpretation and EducationInterpretation and Education

Key Principles:

• Incorporate sustainability into the story your park is trying to tell– Illustrate stewardship (site, building, big picture)

• Use many different methods to educate the public about your greening activities– Guided tours, signs/quick visuals, exhibits/ publications

• Present information they can take home and use – make visitors recognize that they can be part of the solution– “Take-home” information: landscaping, energy efficiency, etc.

Example: Zion Visitor’s CenterExample: Zion Visitor’s Center

• Outdoor rooms with signs

• Cooling tower display

• Real time energy display & website

• Alternative transportation education

Marketing and FundraisingMarketing and Fundraising

Key Principles

• Seek Investment, Not Charity.. People want to feel they're investing their money, and getting something in return.

• Design Your Case to Move People Intellectually and Emotionally. Your case must inspire and challenge prospective donors.

• Create Authentic Involvement. Invite people to do something important for you. Enable them to develop a strong sense of involved interest in your organization

• Planning for your organization's future presents an opportunity

for authentic involvement. • Ask For a Specific Amount, Ask for Enough. Prospects prefer

to be asked for enough to reflect their stature and capability, and enough to get the job done.

Marketing and FundraisingMarketing and Fundraising

Key Principles• Few Will Do the Most. "Ninety percent of the funds come from

about ten percent of the donors." Focus your efforts on the small number of prospects who will produce the greatest results.

• People Prefer Structure.. Provide people with specific goals, deadlines and assignments, and then create a positive climate for them to work effectively within your structure.

• Keep Things Moving. Meetings are the glue that keeps a fund raising program together. "Well-run, well-attended meetings provide tangible evidence of an effective organization.

• The Donor Deserves Good Stewardship. Good stewardship means protecting and managing the donor's investment, thanking the contributor, and continually reporting on the benefits stemming from the donor's investment. Build ongoing relationships with your donors

Marketing and FundraisingMarketing and Fundraising

Partnership/ revenue possibilities

– Green Outreach. Host “for fee” community programs to educate them and raise awareness/ support of the park.

– Green Marketing. Demonstrate green products in the parks. Partner donations can fuel a 'Switch to Green' effort for the park. These could be at three levels:

• National -- helping to make your national parks green.

• Regional -- taking pride in their region and how their region will be the 'first' to be green.

• Local -- making a specific donation to the park they have the most affinity to, i.e. their local park.

Procurement and Purchasing Procurement and Purchasing

Key Principles:

• Include environmental considerations in normal purchasing process

• Emphasize pollution prevention early

• Examine multiple attributes throughout the life cycle

• Compare environmental impacts

• Collect and use information on environmental performance

Sustainability in the NPS Sustainability in the NPS

“Conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and…provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

1916 Organic Act