The First Facility Management Blog

In written testimony, Stephen R. Yurek, president of the trade association, told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources earlier this week that proposed legislation would hinder energy efficiency progress.

The new legislative proposal–Energy Efficiency Promotion Act (S. 1115)–aims to promote energy efficiency improvements to residential and commercial appliances and equipment, such as central air conditioning. The ARI asserts this will have the adverse effect of hindering the development and use of energy efficient technology.

Said Yurek, “The Energy Efficiency Promotion Act, while admirable in its attempt to conserve energy, will ultimately undercut the effective energy efficiency programs developed by Congress and administered by the Department of Energy. These current laws and regulations work because they are the result of a partnership with industry that has given manufacturers the opportunity to provide critical input into the development of energy-saving performance standards that still allow them to produce affordable, quality products for the American public.

“Not only would this legislation hurt industry, it would hurt consumers and environmental progress,” he continued. “It will also change an enforceable program at the manufacturer level to an unenforceable program at the point of installation. In addition, ARI opposes the legislation because it contains a number of provisions that would open the door to a morass of federal and regional performance and design standards for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) equipment.”

As an alternative, ARI recommends the adoption of a menu of alternative, energy-efficiency measures to achieve the bill’s objectives. These include:
* Supporting residential energy efficiency initiatives like incentives and rebates for the purchase of efficient appliances;
* Passing tax incentives to accelerate the replacement of older HVACR equipment in commercial buildings with more efficient technology;
* Strengthening the nation’s support of workforce education and certification to promote more efficient installations of HVACR equipment; and
* Funding research and development projects to advance the next generation of energy efficient technologies.

About ARI
The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) is the trade association representing manufacturers of air conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment. An internationally recognized leader in developing standards for and certifying the performance of these products, ARI is also a major advocate for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) industry both domestically and abroad.

Recently, one of the largest jansan manufacturers in the world conducted an online survey regarding Green roofs. The survey was included in a monthly newsletter published by the company and distributed to more than 2,500 facility managers throughout the United States.

The survey found that many facility managers are well versed as to what a Green roof is and what some of its benefits are. However, in other cases, the majority of their answers were simply not correct.

For instance, when asked what impact the vegetation on a Green roof has on air quality, nearly 70% indicated that “it helps filter dust and dust particulates from the air,” which studies show is correct.

Approximately 7% answered that they thought Green roofs actually harm indoor air quality. On the contrary, like most vegetation, the plants on a Green roof absorb pollutants from the air and release oxygen.

Respondents were also asked what effect Green roofs have on outdoor air temperatures. Seventeen percent said they have “little or no effect.” This is incorrect, studies show. Instead, one of the proven benefits of Green roof systems is that they help reduce the “urban heat island” effect–the reason inner cities and large downtown areas are considerably warmer than outlying, forested areas.

Some of the other questions in the survey and their answers included these:

• Forty-one percent thought the most significant benefit of a Green roof is energy savings. Although they do help “insulate” a facility, which does reduce energy costs, the key benefit of a Green roof is their ability to reduce stormwater runoff.

• As to costs, more than 70% of the respondents were aware that a modular Green roof, where plants are preplanted in modules that are placed atop the existing roof, tends to be less expensive than a built-in-place system constructed directly on the roof.

• Nearly 60% of the respondents believed a Green roof increases the value of a property, whereas about 40% believed the technology is too new to affect property values. Green roofs are recognized as a property improvement and can increase property values.

• Similarly, only 30% believed a Green roof increases the life cycle of the existing roof, while the other respondents believed it has little impact. In actuality, studies find that Green roofs can double the life expectancy of the existing roof.

• Less than a third of the respondents knew that a Green roof can contribute seven points or more toward LEED certification. Most of the other respondents believed it was five points or less or that it was not part of the LEED accreditation evaluation.

Finally, the facility managers were asked what U.S. city has the most Green roofs installed. Most respondents were sure it was either Portland, Oregon, or Seattle, Washington. However, the city with the most Green roofs installed, by a fairly wide margin, is Chicago, Illinois. With two million square feet of Green roofs installed, including one on their City Hall, it appears Chicago may have to do a bit more boasting about how Green the city is becoming.

The death of David Beverly at the Johnson Space Center last Friday had an unfortunate impact on IFMA headquarters. According to Reuters and other news sources:

The shooter was identified as 60-year-old William Phillips, who has been working for Johnson Space Center for 12 years as a contractor employed by Pasadena, California-based Jacobs Engineering Group, whereas, the slain hostage was David Beverly, an engineer employed by NASA. Fortunately, a second hostage escaped with minor injuries.

Though, no apparent motive for the slaughter has been found, but it is said that there had been ‘some kind of dispute’ between Beverly and Phillips that caused the bloody incident based on a poor review.

The victim in the incident was the husband of Linda Beverly, Vice President of Administration for the Houston-based International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and member of the IFMA senior strategy team. Ms. Beverly joined the IFMA staff in 1996 as chapter and council relations manager, and has also served as associate director of membership services, director of member resources and vice president of administration and member resources. She is currently responsible for administrative and accounting functions and is a member of the Senior Strategy Team.

According to Dave Brady, president and CEO of IFMA, “She is doing as well as can be expected considering this tragic loss of her husband and best friend.” Brady adds, “she is considered by most of our members to be the nurturer of the ‘IFMA family.’ Now is the time for our family to pay her back for everything she has done to make IFMA the special place it is today.”

Tonight at 8:00 pm Eastern, most PBS stations nationwide will premier a NOVA documentary, Saved By The Sun , which features an interview with Rocky Mountain Institute Chairman and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins. The one-hour documentary poses a burning question about the future of life on Earth: can we harness the hottest thing in the universe to cool down our warming planet?

In the course of the program, viewers are treated to a tour of Lovins’ amazing, energy-efficient home, which doubles as RMI office space. In addition, Reader’s Digest has just named Lovins its Best Energy Saver. The accolade reads:

For three decades, physicist Amory Lovins has preached that America can wean itself from fossil fuels — and save money by doing so. Now businessmen and bureaucrats are beginning to listen. As founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based nonprofit consultancy group, Lovins helped persuade Wal-Mart to switch to more fuel-efficient trucks, Texas Instruments to build a chip plant that uses 20% less energy, and the U.S. Army to give solar power a shot. “I don’t do problems,” this environmental visionary told The New Yorker. “I do solutions.”

To watch a two-minute preview, click here. Please check local listings for confirmation — broadcast dates and times can vary.

The Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park (New Haven, CT), designed by Steven Holl Architects, has been chosen as one of the Top Ten Green projects for 2007 by the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment (AIA/COTE). Throughout the year the facility will be viewed as an exemplar of the standards and goals for sustainable design and construction.

The Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park was completed in 2005 and provides an abundant water supply to south central Connecticut, creates a vibrant watershed ecosystem, and includes a public park while providing a diverse habitat and sanctuary for migrating species of birds. The facility features the largest green roof in Connecticut (30,000 square feet), zero off-site storm water discharge, expanded wetlands for biodiversity, and is heated and cooled by eighty-eight geothermal wells.

The striking design fuses architecture with landscape to form a public park. Water purification facilities are located beneath the park, while the operational programs rise up in a 360-foot-long stainless steel sliver that expresses the workings of the plant below and forms a reflective horizon line in the landscape.

In 2005 the Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park was awarded an Honor Award by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and in 2001 it was the only American design to receive the Van Alen Institute Award in the International Projects in Public Architecture Competition.

Steven Holl Architects emphasizes sustainable building and site development as fundamental to innovative and imaginative design. Incorporating green roofs, double walls, and advanced mechanical systems, Steven Holl Architects constructed the New Residence at the Swiss Embassy according to Swiss “Minergie Standards,” higher standards than the U.S. Council for Green Building’s LEED standards for minimal energy consumption. In Beijing, the firm’s 200,000-square-meter Linked Hybrid complex is heated and cooled by a 660-well geothermal energy system, the largest residential geothermal system in the world, and employs green roofs and a separate grey water system. The design for the Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China) is a vision of tropical sustainability for the 21st century, employing renewable energy such as solar power and geothermal cooling.

Jackie Craven, resident author from the About: Architecture Web site, has written an interesting and timely article entitled, “Architects Seek Safer Schools.” It begins:

Shootings and teen violence inspire new, safer school design

Responding to tragic school shootings and other acts of violence in schools, architects are seeking ways to make school buildings safer.

Follow the link above to read the entire article.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has announced the Ivy League as the overall champion conference of EPA’s College & University Green Power Challenge for 2006-2007. The Ivy League beat out 15 other collegiate athletic conferences and New York University won individual school honors for purchasing more green power, 118 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), than any other school in the competition.

“EPA applauds this year’s College & University Green Power Conference Champions for their leadership in green power purchasing,” said Bill Wehrum, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for Air and Radiation. “EPA hopes this year’s competition inspires schools around the nation to participate in the 2007-2008 EPA College & University Green Power Challenge. Buying green power is a great way to demonstrate that what’s good for the environment is also good for higher education.”

Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has ranked conferences by the quantity of green power purchased by their respective colleges and universities. These conferences must have schools that qualify as EPA Green Power Partners and make a collective green power purchase of at least 10 million kWh conference-wide in order to be eligible for the challenge. The 33 schools and 16 conferences taking part in this year’s challenge are buying more than 750 million kWh of green power. EPA estimates that this amount of green power is equal to the electricity needed to power more than 60,000 average American homes each year.

Leading the Ivy League was the University of Pennsylvania followed by Harvard and Yale. The collective total purchase of these three schools ranked the Ivy League first among all conferences, with a total of more than 140 million kWh of green power purchased.

EPA also recognized 16 individual conference champions with the largest green power purchases within their respective conferences. The conference champions are: University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Duke University, University of California at Santa Cruz, Connecticut College, Western Washington University, University of Utah, University of Central Oklahoma, Syracuse University, University of Washington, The Evergreen State College, Oberlin College, University at Buffalo, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Rowan University.

Green power is produced from eligible renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. Green power is considered cleaner than conventional sources of electricity, has a superior environmental profile to conventional power, and does not contribute additional carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Buying green power has proven to be an excellent strategy for colleges and universities across the country to reduce the environmental impact of their purchased electricity, while allowing them to tie environmental action to the educational mission of the school.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership encourages organizations to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with fossil fuel-based electricity use. The partnership comprises of a diverse set of organizations including Fortune 500 companies, small and medium businesses, government institutions as well as colleges and universities.

The champions were announced today at the 2nd Annual Smart and Sustainable Campus Conference in College Park, MD, which EPA co-sponsors. This annual event is designed to encourage smart growth and sustainability among colleges and universities nationwide.

An intensive, three-day program brings together leading security design architects, engineers, and operations experts prepared to share proven methods for completing cost-effective facility designs as well as ideas about how to present these design solutions to senior management. Sessions include:

Estimating the Cost of the Project Discover how to produce an estimate, based on information from various sources, that is in line with design requirements.

Managing Project Changes Accept the fact that changes in a design project are inevitable; learn how to minimize their impact on cost and schedule.

The Security Design Process Learn to structure successful internal design processes and develop a responsive security system design project on time and within budget.

Design Team Interfaces Explore the roles and responsibilities of key team members and discuss techniques to ensure everyone involved communicates and coordinates effectively.

Functional Requirements and Conceptual Design Learn the keys to conducting a comprehensive security study and discover how these evolve into a complete functional security design.

Overview of Security Countermeasures and Their Selection Learning how to build a layered security solution.

Preparing and Presenting a Security Business Case Appreciate security’s role in ROI and examine the various techniques and information you need to successfully present and defend your security business case.

Security Program Integration Explore systems integration and discuss the relationship between the terms “integration” and “risk mitigation.”

Security System Documentation Review the major aspects of design documentation and learn how to manage the preparation of design deliverables.

Engineering Design Considerations (Multi-Discipline Issues) Understand how a security system design is developed and converted into a facility design solution.

Designing to Resist Terrorist Attacks Equip yourself to evaluate the effectiveness of what you are being told about how to approach the protection of your people and infrastructure against terrorist attacks.

Value Engineering Explore how to control costs through proper planning and design.

Completing the Process Understand procurement and then move on to an understanding of the processes and steps involved in construction administration.

Practical Exercise Create your own architectural and engineering design based on a multi-story facility design issue.

Blue Light Special Benefit from a no time limit, no-holds-barred session giving you access to firsthand expertise and experience.

June 11–13, 2007 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Just back from the TFM Show in Chicago this week, and I thought I’d let you all know what products were named Best Of Show this year. A panel of judges, comprised of facility professionals, evaluated the 36 entries while walking the show floor on Tuesday, April 18. Using a point system in several categories, the judges’ input was then tallied by the TFM editorial staff. Winners were announced prior to the keynote session on the morning of April 19. The winning companies then received an award recognizing the achievement.

And the winners are…

Building Envelope and Exteriors
Karnak
298 Alumin-R roof coating

Energy and the Environment
Falcon Waterfree Technologies
F2000 Waterfree Urinal

Interiors
Allsteel
Relate family of chairs

Safety
First Water Systems
Outpost water purification system

Security
CCL Security Products
Combination Cabinet Locks for Hospital Applications

Technology and Engineering
Thinkage
MainBoss maintenance management software

Congratulations to all of the winners!

To commemorate Earth Day and bring awareness to the importance of energy conservation in commercial buildings, The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International today released its top 10 ways for building owners and managers to reduce energy consumption. The no or low-cost strategies that made the list are part of the nationally recognized BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP) that offers commercial real estate professionals strategies to reduce energy consumption by as much as 30%.

“The built environment accounts for 48% of greenhouse gas emissions in this country,” said BOMA International Chairman and Chief Elected Officer Kurt R. Padavano, RPA, CPM, FMA, SMA, and Chief Operating Officer of Advance Realty Group of Bedminster, NJ. “The good news is that there are many low and even no-cost strategies that are proven to save energy, reduce emissions, and they are easy to implement and have the added benefit of often reducing building operation costs.”

BOMA Top 10 Energy Efficient Strategies
1. Check that Equipment Is Functioning as Designed
Regularly inspect all equipment and controls to ensure they are functioning as designed.
Double-check Energy Management System (EMS) programming to make sure that operations are optimized. One firm corrected an EMS software programming error from “And” to “Or” and saved $3,700 annually.

2. Consider Your Cleaning Options
Team Cleaning-Janitors go through the building as a team floor by floor, and the lighting is turned
on/off as they progress through the building.
Occupancy Sensors-Install motion sensors that will turn lights on when janitors are cleaning and automatically turn them off when the floor is vacant.
Coordinate-Have janitors coordinate with the security crew to walk through the building and turn off equipment that was inadvertently left on by tenants.
Day Cleaning-Why not have the janitors clean during the day while the lights are already on?

3. Encourage Tenants to Turn Off Equipment
During off hours, make sure to power down everything - such as copiers, kitchen equipment and task lights. Use cleaning/security personnel to turn off miscellaneous items such as coffee pots, kitchen equipment and individual office lights.

4. Use High Efficiency LED Exit Signs
Replace inefficient exits signs with high efficiency LED exit signs. LED exit signs operate 24/7 and have lower maintenance costs due to their extended life.

5. Institute an Energy Awareness Program
Create promotional items, post posters, write news releases-tell everyone about your commitment to energy savings. Use your company newsletter and company/building announcements to keep tenants informed about your energy savings goals and how they can both help and benefit.

6. Install Monitor Power Management Software
In U.S. companies alone, more than $1 billion a year is wasted on electricity for computer monitors that are left on when they shouldn’t be. Avoid those wastes by installing power management software for computer monitors and CPU/Hard Drives.

7. Change Incandescents to CFL and HID
CFL lights use less energy, have a longer lamp life, and produce less heat, thereby reducing heat load. Also, check the lighting in restrooms, closets, server rooms and some common areas. Thanks to the 2005 Energy Bill, lighting retrofits and upgrades that meet energy efficiency requirements may be tax deductible, up to $.60 psf.

8. Harvest Daylight
Locate workstations requiring high illumination adjacent to windows.

9. Evaluate After Hours Usage
Talk to the tenants to learn if they are actually using their space during the lease-required operating hours. Adjust building operating hours to reflect actual tenant usage.

10. Adjust Ventilation
Reduce exhaust and outdoor-air ventilation rates within codes. Take a look at the fans and adjust ventilation in unoccupied and low-density areas to reduce the ventilation to a practical, yet comfortable level.