Parking garages company puts construction waste water to public use

This parking garage has started using the water it pumps from below its underground parking garages for city irrigation and cooling systems.

Lyon Parc Auto builds and owns parking garages, some of which are five to seven stories below ground. Due to the area’s high water table, the company spends considerable amounts of time and money pumping fluids out from construction sites and away from completed garages. Rather than return that waste to the ground, Lyon Parc Auto has partnered with local organizations to use it in a variety of ways.

In Villeurbanne, a continuous flow of 100 cubic meters of water will cool the Théâtre national populaire. The city’s green spaces and ornamental ponds will also use pumped water. And in Lyon, the water removed from below parking garages is helping to fill the lake in the Park Tête d’Or.

Careful resource use is essential to sustainable living, with all industries capable of improving. More renewable farming processes, in particular, make a substantial difference. Recent examples include the app helping farmers in Spain decide when to irrigate, and the floating farm in The Netherlands powered by animal waste and renewable energy. How else could production processes turn waste into resources?