Stuttgart/Düsseldorf, Germany. November 29, 2024 – APCOA, the leading European car park operator, has won the German Sustainability Award (DNP) in the category Transport Infrastructure. APCOA was honoured for its Urban Hub concept.
“We feel very honoured that APCOA and our Urban Hubs have been awarded the German Sustainability Award. This award emphasises that with smart concepts and the intelligent use of existing buildings we can transform our cities into a more sustainable environment for working and living, business and leisure,” says Frank van der Sant, Chief Commercial Officer of APCOA.
Niels Christ, Group Director Urban Hubs adds, “since the first idea of our Urban Hubs concept we have transformed over 500 car parks across 50 cities in 12 countries into mobility, logistics and charging hubs. These serve as logistics centers for last mile delivery, provide charging points for electric vehicles and function as pick-up and drop-off points for cars, e-scooters and e-bikes of mobility service providers.”
Sustainable urban hubs from APCOA
With the Urban Hubs, the company is capitalising on its market-leading position with over 13,000 locations in Europe. For users of mobility services of all kinds, the car parks become important hubs that can be used 24/7, where you can park and charge, switch from a (shared) car to an e-scooter or back, pick up a delivered parcel from a locker board before continuing your journey or have your vehicle cleaned. Logistics service providers also use the areas as transshipment points, e.g. to consolidate several deliveries or to transfer to small electric vehicles for last-mile distribution. Based on APCOA’s digital platforms, the range of services and partners can be expanded as required and adapted to mobility developments and needs. The bundling of inner-city space, services and partners is unique in Europe.
APCOA officially launched its Urban Hub concept at the beginning of 2021 and has since implemented it at numerous international locations. Together with partners from the logistics, mobility and electric charging sectors, hubs for sustainable urban services have been created across Europe. Further locations are currently being set up and the company has ambitious plans for the future to further transform car park locations into urban hubs. In the future, the focus will also be on additional applications that are currently still dreams of the future: Drone logistics or autonomous electric charging.
The 17th German Sustainability Award
In 2024, the DNP once again honoured pioneering contributions to the transformation towards a sustainable future. A total of 100 companies will be honoured as part of the 17th DNP. The award uses the best examples to show how ecological and social progress can be achieved more quickly. It aims to motivate all key players to change, connect them across borders and encourage partnerships. The award is based on the goals of the 2030 Agenda and thus on the key areas of transformation such as climate, biodiversity, resources, supply chain and society. The DNP is awarded as part of the German Sustainability Day, which has become the leading congress on sustainability since 2008. The multi-stakeholder DNP project brings together all key players from politics, business, research and civil society. The diversity of institutional partners with different perspectives is reflected in the Foundation's Board of Trustees, but also in the methodology team, the jury and the circle of speakers at the events.
Contact
APCOA Group:
Sebastian Merkle
Flughafenstr. 34
70624 Stuttgart-Airport
Tel.: +49 711 94791-652
About APCOA
APCOA is Europe's leading parking operator with more than 50 years of industry expertise. With its 5,000 employees, the Group manages more than 1.6 million individual parking spaces at 13,000 locations in 12 European countries. The company is active in the areas of parking, charging, technologies and urban solutions. With its consistent “asset light” business model, APCOA is a trusted partner, maximising value for private and public real estate owners.
Via its open digital platform, APCOA FLOW, the company connects on-street and off-street car parks with owners, partners, customers and their vehicles. Based on this technology, APCOA is transforming its car parks into urban hubs, creating the physical and digital infrastructure for mobility, logistics, EV charging and a wide range of innovative services that enable a more convenient mobility experience.
The environment also benefits: With its digital services and intelligent Traffic Management System, the company actively contributes to the reduction of emissions in cities by decreasing the volume of logistics traffic and vehicles searching for parking. By connecting parking, mobility, and proximity services for urban living, APCOA is positioned to become an integral part of the digital and physical Smart City ecosystem.
