The First Facility Management Blog

One year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, engineers and designers are still studying measures to improve the durability of buildings. According to researchers for the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University, concrete is a good bet–much better than wood and steel.

Jackie Craven of About.com explains the study:

To duplicate hurricane-like conditions in the laboratory, researchers shot wall sections with 15-pound 2 x 4 lumber “missiles” at up to 100 mph, simulating debris carried in a 250 mph wind. These conditions cover all but the most severe tornadoes. Hurricane wind speeds are less than the speeds modeled here.

Missile tests designed to demonstrate damage from hurricanes use a 9-pound missile traveling about 34 mph.

Researchers tested 4 x 4-foot sections of concrete block, several types of insulating concrete forms, steel studs, and wood studs to rate performance in high winds. The sections were finished as they would be in a completed home: drywall, fiberglass batt insulation, plywood sheathing, and exterior finishes of vinyl siding, clay brick, or stucco.

All the concrete wall systems survived the tests with no structural damage. Lightweight steel and wood stud walls, however, offered little or no resistance to the “missile.” The 2 x 4 ripped through them.

“The results of the tests were not surprising, but they were dramatic,” says Donn Thompson, PCA’s residential technology program manager. “Concrete walls meet both the criteria needed to protect occupants in a severe storm—structural integrity and missile shielding ability.”

With the passage of the oil and gas bill, interest in our nation’s ability to create alternative energy continues to grow. The Bush Administration has made limited progress to make America less dependent on foreign resources, so cities and states across the US are taking it upon themselves to enact renewable energy initiatives that will power the nation’s future.

The following are areas that have developed new and unique initiatives and have had major announcements that will make the US more energy independent.

- Baton Rouge, LA: Just announced a new coal gasification plant which is projected to be one of the largest industrial developments in the country this year, worth $5B and 1,200-1,500 jobs.

- New Orleans, LA: Just announced a new biodiesel plant which will supply the US with 43M gallons of biodiesel fuel (more than half the amount of biodiesel used in the US last year).

- Sacramento, CA: Long before Arnold signed a global warming pact with Blair, this region has been quietly building its alternative energy sector. Home to the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the region also boasts the largest supplier of portable fuel cells in the world.

- Pennsylvania: America’s first-ever waste coal to diesel plant will be built in Pennsylvania.

- North Dakota: Known as the “Saudi Arabia of Wind,” North Dakota has the highest wind potential in the nation and has more than $700 million invested or scheduled for the production of renewable fuels and wind energy production.

- Denver, CO: Created the first Green Fleets program in the nation which has decreased the City’s dependence on foreign oil by 4%.

Executives around the world believe it takes companies slightly more than three years (3.2 years) to recover from a crisis that damages their reputation, according to market research by Burson-Marsteller. The research, which is based on the opinions of 685 business “influentials” — CEOs, senior executives, financial analysts, business media and government officials in 65 countries - also shows that quickly disclosing the details of a scandal or corporate misstep should be management’s top priority as it begins the process of restoring corporate reputation.

Every two years, Burson-Marsteller conducts market research to identify the drivers of CEO and corporate reputation. The latest research conducted by the firm took a closer look at the crisis management strategies that a company should use to protect, manage and build its reputation. According to the market research, the top ten crisis management turnaround strategies are:
· Quickly disclose details of the scandal/misstep (69%)
· Make progress/recovery visible (59%)
· Analyze what went wrong (58%)
· Improve governance structure (38%)
· Make CEO and leadership accessible to the media (34%)
· Fire employees involved in the problem (32%)
· Commit to high corporate citizenship standards (23%)
· Carefully review ethics policies (19%)
· Hire an outside auditor for internal audits (18%)
· Issue an apology from the CEO (18%)

“A crisis can have a devastating impact on a company’s reputation in terms of its profitability, credibility, competitive position, and ability to retain and attract top performers,” said Deborah Bowker, chair of Burson-Marsteller’s U.S. Corporate/Financial Practice. “However, companies can lessen their recovery time and be welcomed back into the fold, with their reputation restored, if they follow a few well-executed and integrated turnaround strategies.”

Equally important to crisis management and corporate reputation is integrating communications strategies. Having the right message, delivered by the right messengers, to the right audiences and via a mix of old and new channels is critical to a speedy recovery, according to Burson-Marsteller. “Not only does this ensure superior execution, but it also enables companies to measure their progress on a regular basis which was also cited as a top turnaround strategy by 14% of respondents,” said Bowker.

One of the more surprising findings of the market research conducted by the firm is that only 5% of senior executives believe that updating their website can be an effective tool in their crisis management and corporate reputation turnaround strategy.

“Companies struggling with reputation issues can use their websites and other interactive tools to quickly and accurately deliver important messages on how they are responding to a crisis and what they are doing to fix the damage,” said Andy Nibley, global head of the firm’s interactive capability. “Web-based communications give senior leaders the most immediate channel for delivering messages of vital importance to key internal and external audiences. When dealing with a crisis that impacts a company’s reputation, speed is everything.”

Larry Stahl, Industry Director of Eaton’s Electrical Business and Joe Sheehan, NFPA Principal Electrical Engineer are featured in a new podcast being offered by Eaton. In it, Stahl discussing arc flash safety issues with Sheehan. The discussion focuses on compliance with NFPA 70E and features a wide range of solutions to improve workplace safety.

The arc flash podcast was produced to help educate employers, facility/safety managers, and electrical personnel about arc flash safety. It also looks at ways in which companies can work towards a safer working environment to prevent injury and death caused by arc flash hazards.

The podcast explains how listeners can improve the safety of their facility with a wide array of solutions to address this problem. It can be downloaded here.

Sarnafil Inc., a manufacturer of thermoplastic roofing and waterproofing systems, and Roofscapes, Inc., a full-service green roof firm, have announced a single source Sarnafil system warranty agreement for extensive green roof systems. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies agree to jointly promote green roofs and to offer a single source Sarnafil warranty.

“We are pleased to be the industry’s first single–ply roofing manufacturer to offer a single source green roof warranty,” said Brian Whelan, president and CEO of Sarnafil Inc. “This agreement brings together two of the best companies in the green roofing market with a combined green roofing experience of more than 40 years.”

Green roofs consist of a planted area on a roof surface. They offer numerous benefits to the building owner and the environment including, reduced building heating and cooling costs, protection of the waterproofing membrane, improved air quality, storm water retention, reduction in the urban heat island effect, and aesthetic appeal.

“The Sarnafil-Roofscapes, Inc. agreement offers a breakthrough for the architect and building owner,” said Charlie Miller, president of Roofscapes, Inc. “Green roof systems require specialized design and installation expertise. It is imperative that the waterproofing system design and materials be of the highest quality to avoid costly and difficult repairs in the future. Likewise, the growing medium and vegetated cover design and maintenance are critical to the vitality of the roofing system. Now building owners can have the peace of mind of working with the industry’s most experienced green roof team and get a single source warranty covering the entire system.”

The team of Sarnafil and Roofscapes, Inc. utilizes time tested design principles while customizing each installation to satisfy the demands of regional climates and conditions. Sarnafil and Roofscapes, Inc. encourage a design-build relationship with the owner and designer to address all issues involving the waterproofing design, plant selection, water management and conservation, maintenance requirements, and system weight in an effort to tailor the vegetated roof to climatic constraints and the client’s needs.

This week’s Friday Funny is just plain silly. It comes from the Web site, CorporateDump.com.

The idea is to score the most points. Your attempts need to be verified by another co-worker. See how many points you can score in one eight hour shift.

One point gags:
Run one lap around the office at top speed.
Ignore the first five people who say “Good Morning” to you.
Phone someone in the office you barely know, leave your name and say “Just called to say I can’t talk right now. Bye.”
To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.
Leave your zipper open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say “Sorry, I really prefer it this way.”
In the middle of a meeting, suddenly shout out “Yahtzee!”
Walk sideways to the photocopier.
While riding the elevator, gasp dramatically every time the doors open.

Three point gags:
Say to your boss, “I like your style” and shoot him/her with double-barreled fingers.
Babble incoherently at a fellow employee then ask “Did you get all that? I don’t want to have to repeat it.”
Page yourself over the intercom (do not disguise your voice).
Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle (there must be a ‘non-player’ within sight).
Shout random numbers while someone is counting.

Five point gags:
At the end of a meeting suggest that for once, it would be nice to conclude with the singing of the national anthem (2 extra points f you actually break into song) (5 extra points if you start singing another nation’s anthem).
Walk into a very busy person’s office and while they watch you with growing irritation, turn the light switch off and on 10 times.
For an hour, refer to everyone you speak to as ‘Bob’.
After every sentence, say ‘mon’ in a really bad Jamaican accent. As in “The report is on your desk, mon.” Keep this up for an hour.
While an office mate is out, move his or her chair into the elevator.
In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter “Shut up, damn it, all of you just shut up!”
At lunch time get down on your knees and announce “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”
In a colleague’s diary, write in 10:00 am.: “See how I look in tights.”
Carry your keyboard over to a colleague and ask “You wanna trade?”
Repeat the following conversation 10 times to the same person: “Do you hear that?” “What?” “Never mind, it’s gone now.”
Come into work wearing army fatigues and when asked why, say “I can’t talk about it.”
Find the vacuum and start vacuuming around your desk.
Hang a two foot piece of toilet paper from the back of your pants and act genuinely surprised (or perfectly calm) when someone points it out.
Tuck one pant leg into your sock and when queried, say, “Not now,” and walk away.

(FacilityBlog does not recommend you do this yourself; however, as a facility manager, you should be aware of the following activities and be on guard.)

A hybrid instrument for the practice and analysis of art

Steven Holl Architects announces the opening of the University of Iowa’s School of Art & Art History on September 8th. The building gives form to the innovative interdisciplinary educational model of the school by integrating dynamic spaces within implied volumes and indeterminate boundaries. The new building is a hybrid instrument for the practice and analysis of art based on the idea of ‘open edges and center.’

The University of Iowa has a long history of commissioning inspirational architecture and pioneering art education. The first university to grant credit for creative work in the arts, it gained renown in the 1930s for radically combining its art and art history programs into one school. Seeking to enhance its art program, it awarded the commission for a new building to Steven Holl Architects because of the firm’s particularly sensitive understanding of both the mission and programmatic needs of the art school.

Partially straddling a pond and an adjacent limestone bluff, the building’s assemblage of glass and Cor-ten steel planes is woven into the site, creating new campus spaces, pathways and connections to the landscape. Necessitated by the constraints of the site, an elevated wing containing the library program extends out over the pond, with reading spaces engaging the vertical landscape of the bluff to one side and the existing art building to the other.

The building is already functioning as a social generator for the University before its official opening. An outdoor terrace around the pond has become a popular gathering area for students, faculty, and people from the surrounding community. Campus traffic is drawn into the building at multiple points. Within the building, “formless” spaces work as a condenser of people, practice, and theory. The 70,000 sq. ft. building houses an auditorium, classrooms, an art library, studios, an art gallery, faculty offices, meeting rooms, and a café. A public route follows the contour edge of the pond and extends vertically up into the building’s central atrium by a suspended stair of red folded steel plates.

Main horizontal passageways and meeting areas provide communal spaces essential to the interdisciplinary approach of the School. Glass walls line the building’s interior passages, revealing works-in-progress within studio classrooms and giving views throughout. Roof planes of concrete planks are folded up to diffuse an even north light throughout the art studios giving new expression to the prototypical artist studio skylights. In warm weather studios open up to exterior balconies.

Natural finishes and exposed materials such as concrete floors and ceilings give material character to the new building. Inventive economical construction technologies throughout the building enabled the project to stay well within the budget.

This follow up story on airport security measures examines the existing–but often not yet implemented–devices that can help identify liquid explosives. It comes from Celeste Biever of the New Scientist. Here are some highlights.

“It’s not the case that we absolutely cannot identify liquid explosives,” says John Parmeter, an explosives expert at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. Joe Reiss of American Science and Engineering (AS&E) in Billerica, MA, which makes baggage-screening technology explains, “Analysts are trained to look for suspicious combinations of things. A solid explosive by its nature does not have a defined form and can take a variety of shapes and sizes. With liquids at least you know you are looking for a container.”

AS&E’s Gemini device (not yet installed in most airports) can detect X-rays that are scattered by objects rather than those that are transmitted, allowing it to image even low-density organic materials such as the liquid explosives TATP and nitroglycerine.

Rapiscan of Los Angeles, CA, which makes a large number of the X-ray machines used in airports, has added quadrupole resonance imaging to its X-ray devices. This technology, similar to magnetic resonance imaging, can identify specific molecules that might indicate the presence of explosives.

Existing Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) machines look for certain nitrogen-containing compounds, including liquid explosives such as nitroglycerine and explosive slurries made of ammonium nitrate. The UK-based company Smiths Detection of Bushey, Hertfordshire, and Thermo Electron in Waltham, MA, have developed IMS machines capable of spotting TATP, although these are not yet in use.

Devices to scan passengers for hidden explosives are also being developed. Scanners that measure the way objects absorb and reflect terahertz waves, which lie between microwaves and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum, can detect explosives, as the reflected signal reveals characteristic spectral signatures. TeraView, based in Cambridge, UK, is developing small scanners that can be used to screen passengers for concealed devices as they pass by.

Schneider Electric recently launched expanded expert repair services for over 120,000 products from more than 2,500 manufacturers through its Telemecanique® Automation and Control Repair Services. As a result, customers now have a single source to repair or replace their entire automation and control equipment line, regardless of the manufacturer.

“Our expanded ability to service virtually all makes and models of automation and control equipment creates a new level of service and convenience for the customer,” said Robb Dussault, marketing manager for Telemecanique Automation and Control Repair Services, Schneider Electric North America. “Customers no longer need to look to multiple vendors for different types of equipment repair. They’re now able to get the experience and fast turnaround that Schneider Electric is known for on all their equipment, regardless of the manufacturer.”

The expanded service offering provides industrial end users with:

* A single-source electronics repair service for all electronic repair needs
* Service for products from multiple vendors of AC and DC drives, servo drives and motors, HMIs, automation equipment, PLCs, metering equipment and more
* Quick turnaround time with standard repair completed in seven business days and standard exchanges completed in one business day
* Warranty on complete repaired or exchanged products, not limited to just the repaired portion of the product
* Access to an inventory of refurbished equipment from all major manufacturers

For more information on Telemecanique Automation and Control Repair Services from Schneider Electric, or to order a 430-page catalog, visit www.us.telemecanique.com/repair or call 1‑800‑468‑5342.

Headquartered in Palatine, Ill., the North American Operating Division of Schneider Electric had sales of $2.8 billion (U.S.) in 2005. The North American Operating Division is one of four operating divisions of Schneider Electric, headquartered in Paris, France, and markets the Square D, Telemecanique and Merlin Gerin brand products to customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States, Schneider Electric is best known by its flagship Square D brand, with Telemecanique becoming increasingly known in the industrial control and automation markets and supported by many Square D distributors. For 100 years, Square D has been a market-leading brand of electrical distribution and industrial control products, systems and services. Schneider Electric is a global electrical industry leader with 2005 sales of approximately $14.5 billion (U.S.).

Cost of Materials Continues as Leading Issue. Energy & Fuel Leaps to Second Greatest Concern

Construction and contractor industry confidence in the economy has dropped by nearly 40% in the past three months, according to the results of an International Profit Associates Small Business Research Board (IPA SBRB) survey released here today.

The IPA SBRB Construction/Contractor Confidence Index fell to 30.7 for the most recent poll completed earlier this month, down from an index of 49.3 in May. By contrast, this outlook was far more pessimistic than that of all small businesses for which the IPA SBRB Small Business Confidence Index (SBCI) dropped about 20% to 39.3 from 47.3 during the same three-month period.

According to the results of the newly issued survey, 26% said they had confidence in the general economy versus 48% in May. Concurrently, 38% of the respondents in the current poll indicated disappointment with the direction of the economy an increase of 11% from the 27% who expressed that opinion in May.

Nevertheless, 52% of the construction and contracting firms responding to the survey said that they are estimating revenues for the year will be about the same as last year while 40% said they would be better than their 2005 performance. Of the respondents, 49% said they intend to maintain current workforce levels while 26% said they intend to increase hiring with 14% decreasing hiring and 9% of the construction and contracting firms unsure of their plans.

“The precipitous drop in confidence among the construction and contracting trades mirrors the concern we have heard from developers and builders about the slowdown in housing purchases and softness in commitments for new commercial projects,” said Gregg Steinberg, President of International Profit Associates, a provider of management consulting and professional services to small and medium-size businesses in North America.

”This data is alarming, though, both in how quickly the confidence among owners and managers of construction and contracting firms has changed as well as the steepness of the decline,” Steinberg added. “The confidence of construction and contracting firms, which had greater confidence than the universe of all small businesses just three months ago, has dropped by twice as much.”

The cost of materials, energy and fuel costs, and taxes are listed by the respondents as their three leading business issues. The cost of materials was described by 25% of the participants as the leading concern (the same as the previous period), 15% named energy and fuel as a leading issue — an increase from 3% of the respondents in the May 2006 report. Taxes were listed by 14% as the leading issue.

As far as other areas of interest, construction and contracting firms had varied opinions about being prepared to handle emergencies, whether the minimum wage should be raised and the fate of the estate tax — all of which were similar to the universe of all small to medium-size businesses.

Of the construction and contracting firms, 27% said they have a disaster or emergency plan ready, an increase of 15% from the post 2005 hurricane season. Significantly, 72% still do not have a plan in place (only 1% better than the 73% of all small businesses that do not have such a plan).

Construction and contracting firms are split about the minimum wage, with 49% in favor of it being raised, 28% opposing it and 23% not certain. The view on estate taxes are mixed as well with 40% opting for them remaining as they are, 31% abolishing them, 14% looking for a “change” and 15% unsure.

The International Profit Associates Small Business Research Board ascertains and reports the opinions of small business owners and managers on a wide variety of topics related to their own businesses as well as national and international issues that may impact their operations.

The IPA SBRB research includes studies of specific industry segments, such as Construction & Contracting and Manufacturing. The IPA Small Business Research Board will continue to expand upon the base of industries it tracks.