The First Facility Management Blog

The IFMA Foundation has released a new report on workplace violence entitled Violence in the Workplace: The Role of the Facility Manager. Written by Wayne D. Veneklasen, Ph.D., CFM, and Donald W. Barnes Jr., CPP, the report looks at the history of violence in the workplace, examines the scope of the problem, describes the statutes surrounding it, and concludes with a focus on planning, response, and recovery. Copies of the report are available free of charge from the IFMA Foundation or can be e-mailed as a PDF if you send your request to schwartz@groupc.com.
 
While publications on workplace violence have traditionally focused on the preventive role of the human resources department, there are many aspects of the problem that can be alleviated by having the proper safety plans and security procedures in place — and by the facility itself. This new report takes the perspective of the building owner and facility manager while outlining the steps they can take to help mitigate this problem.  
 
“There is a lot out there on workplace violence. You read about it all the time. However, there has been nothing done on what it means for the facility manager. What can they do if something happens?” said Veneklasen. “There is no simple answer. We’re just trying to create opportunities for people who have a concern and want to do something about it. Here are some tools. You can assess your own vulnerability and learn how to write a workplace violence policy if one doesn’t exist.”
 
The report was made possible through contributions donated in memory of W. David Beverly, the late husband of Linda Beverly, CAE, IFMA’s vice president of administration. A long-time engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, David Beverly was killed on April 20, 2007, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, by a contract engineer who shot him and held another coworker hostage before committing suicide. This senseless act impacted the lives of countless people and underscored the very real threat posed by violence in the workplace.
 
“While it isn’t always possible to predict when workplace violence will occur, we hope that the tools outlined in this report will help facility professionals do their part in preventing these acts,” said IFMA Foundation Executive Director William Rub. “Our goal is to help create a safer workplace for everyone.”

As part of its work, the California Energy Commission operates a Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Division, which oversees the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. The PIER program focuses on a number of energy areas, including Building Efficiency. This research aims to decrease building energy use by developing or improving energy-efficient technologies, strategies, tools, and building performance evaluation methods.

Periodically, PIER will publish informational briefs based on its research, which is often conducted with a variety of organizations with funding from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. The briefs are written and prepared by E Source.

PIER recently released a brief about commissioning with a monitor-based appproach. The document, “Savings Persist with Monitoring-Based Commissioning (TB-39),” shows how monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx), a program approach that combines permanent building-energy-system monitoring with standard retrocommissioning practices, can provide substantial, persistent energy savings.

A pilot program conducted at 25 California university campuses demonstrated that MBCx has the ability to:

• Reduce peak-period electricity use and total annual energy use;
• Trend and benchmark building-performance data continuously;
• Catch problems with control systems that are normally hard to detect; and
• Identify cost-effective retrofit opportunities.

MBCx can be used in commercial and institutional buildings with energy information or energy management systems that are capable of trending building energy use.

To download the two-page report from PIER free of charge, visit this link…

Markets rise and crash like the waves.  Financial giants melt like ice cream on hot asphalt.  Workplace anxiety hits fever pitch.  Fortunes are routinely earned and squandered.  Politicans are like a man walking in a blizzard and leaving no tracks.  Businesses cycle just as day follows night. 

But cherishing and loving friends and family and keeping their memories alive - THOSE are eternal gifts that can’t be bought or sold.  This notion hit me like a brick in the face last week as I learned a childhood friend was burying her teenage daughter.  May God bless and comfort her family and all who struggle in this life.

Poor Richard

This Web exclusive comes from Jack Sine, a freelance writer who specializes in IAQ matters.

Refrigerant leaks have always been a concern for facility managers, but it was a problem that could be easily discovered and corrected. For several years, refrigerant leak detection, while not perfect, was a fairly settled technology. Almost everyone used a heated sensor detector. There were other methods on the market—sound amplification, soap bubbles, fluorescent dyes in the refrigerant, and corona discharge—but by far the most successful and most popular defense was heated diode technology.

For anyone unfamiliar with heated diode technology, it is an approach that relies on a ceramic substrate doped with a reactive element and heated to a high temperature. When the surface makes contact with a halogen-bearing gas, the chlorine, fluorine, or bromine atoms separate from the molecule and are ionized. This activates an electric current that alerts the instrument user to the presence of a refrigerant. The portable hand-held technology was developed originally by GE as a plug-in device and then refined by Inficon as a smaller, battery powered, more accurate instrument more than 10 years ago.

“We made what we thought were the best refrigerant leak detectors and the market responded,” says Jerry Wander, general manager at Inficon.

But, as with all technologies, there were problems as well. Temperature variations and a variety chemicals and gasses could trigger false alarms. The sensors also have a short life span and must be replaced often.

Enter The Blends
Then came the blended refrigerants.

“When the blends like R404a and R507 came out, heated diode could identify them, but it wasn’t sensitive enough to be truly effective,” said Wander. “We turned to infrared technology, which proved to be much more sensitive not only for blends, but for all the CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs as well.”

Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light but shorter than radio waves. The term literally means “below red.”

For leak detection, the sensor is an infrared absorption filtometer consisting of an infrared emitter at one end, an infrared energy detector at the other, and an optical filter in between. Since most materials absorb specific and known wavelengths of infrared energy, the sensor in an infrared refrigerant leak detector focuses on the wavelengths absorbed by refrigerant.

All refrigerants and blends have similar absorption spectra between 7.5 and 14 micrometers. The optical filter in the sensor limits the infrared spectrum emitted by the instrument to that range.

When activated, the emitter creates a high intensity infrared stream containing all the wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. The optical filter blocks all of those except the ones in the refrigerant spectra. The remaining infrared energy strikes the detector and causes it to heat up.

When refrigerant passes through the sampling cell, some of the infrared energy is absorbed by the refrigerant. There is an immediate decrease in the amount of infrared energy reaching the detector and a corresponding drop in the detector’s temperature which triggers an alarm, either visual or audible, to alert the user of the presence of a leak.

“It’s simply the best way to find refrigerant leaks in air conditioning systems,” said Rey Harju, president of Fieldpiece Instruments who just introduced its own infrared detector. “It makes a maintenance engineer’s job a lot easier. They are also more cost effective. Although the initial cost is more than the heated diode detectors, the life of our sensing system is more than 10 years. When you figure the cost of sensors for heated diode detectors, the cost of the infrared instrument is less over the long run. And, more important, over the long run they’re more reliable.”

The first infrared refrigerant leak detectors were wall mounted units used inside walk-in coolers and freezers. In recent years, electronic technology has advanced to the point that they can now be made small enough to be hand-held.

No More False Alarms
“The beauty of infrared detectors is that they eliminate false alarms,” say Jim Mowery, vice president of sales at Bacharach. “Other technologies are sensitive to other background gases such as cleaning products. Heated diode detectors are affected by breezes and changes in air temperature. Infrared detectors only react to refrigerant and they are very sensitive.”

Bacharach manufactures the H25-IR, a complex infrared detector designed for heavy industrial operations where there is a possibility of catastrophic leakage. At eight pounds and with a price tag of more than eight thousand dollars, it is not designed for home or commercial HVAC environments.

“It’s effective in an industrial setting because it not only detects, it also quantifies,” explains Mowery. “That’s important, because you can determine the seriousness of the leak and either schedule repair or shut down for emergency servicing. That makes it important for assembly lines producing such things as refrigeration racks, automobiles, fire extinguishers, and any production environment that uses process cooling. It can pick up and eliminate all trace gasses and be set to look for one specific refrigerant. Then, after that refrigerant has been identified in the air, the unit can be used to detect where the leak is and how much refrigerant is escaping.”

A Versatile Detector
A smaller and more affordable infrared detector that is useful in many applications has been offered by Inficon for more than three years.

“We designed our D-TEK Select so it could be used in a variety of environments,” said Wander. “It is used in automotive, refrigeration, and HVAC.”

Significantly smaller than the Bacharach detector, this one is much easier to transport and use in tight spaces, weighing only one pound three ounces. To solve the need to change sensor with the heated diode detector, the Select’s sensor lasts for 800 hours.

“One important thing with infrared,” Wander says, “is to keep the infrared path clean. To assure that happens, we’ve designed in a series of filters to keep out anything that would interfere with accurate operation.”

The D-TEK Select also features sensitivity to 0.10 ounce per year, two sensitivity settings (high and low), and a battery life of 6.5 hours.

The Power Of Infrared
But the question still remains – “How good are infrared leak detectors and do they justify the higher cost?

Bobby Rosser is the outside salesman at B & T Heating and Air in Tulsa, OK. He recently had reason to try out his company’s new infrared leak detector.

“I was over at a friend’s house a few weeks ago,” he said, “and he was complaining that his split system was loosing refrigerant. I asked him what he had done about it, and he said he had had three separate service companies come over the last six months, but they couldn’t find the leak. They all three thought it was probably in the evaporator. It was a small one, about half a pound a year, but this is one meticulous guy and he wanted it fixed. It just so happened that I had our new Fieldpiece SRL2 in the car, so I said ‘let me give her a go.’ It was an R-22 system, so the other companies heated diode detectors should have found it, but it must have been too small. I used the infrared and found the leak within minutes. It was at the first U-bend going into the compressor. He was impressed and so was I.”

With the emergence of blended refrigerants, the infrared leak detector is definitely here to stay, but Rosser would probably contend that it does very well with the old refrigerants as well.

Innovex Technologies, a provider of components for heating and cooling systems, recently introduced its new iWorX^TM valve series for heating and cooling—two position, modulating and floating actuation valves featuring accurate control and durable construction.

The new ZV series, MV series and FV series valves are designed to increase comfort and reduce energy consumption while providing durability and performance at a competitive price. The valves can be used in a variety of applications where accurate control is required. These include hydronic systems, residential zone systems, fan coil units, and reheat on commercial terminal box units just to name a few.

By accurately controlling flow, these valves reduce sudden changes in supply temperature and provide heating and cooling more evenly. The Innovex line offers two position actuation in the ZV series, as well as complete modulated solutions in the MV series (modulating actuator) and FV series (floating actuator).

All ZV, MV and FV series valves determine the correct action required by responding to a thermostat or building automation system output signal. This provides accurate control of chilled or hot water into the controlled medium, cooling or warming the conditioned space as required. When the desired temperature is reached, the valve returns to its original position and powers off, which helps reduce energy consumption.

The base and cover of all ZV, MV and FV series actuators are constructed of specially engineered flameproof polycarbonate. All valve bodies feature durable EPDM rubber and stainless steel internal construction providing exceptional performance even in the harshest environments.

The entire line of ZV, MV and FV series valves are available in two way and three way configurations and in 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, and 1 1/4″ sizes with a variety of connection types, including inverted flair. This allows these valves to be used in a range of new construction and retrofit applications.

Advance, maker of ballasts and drives, has launched a repositioning campaign to acknowledge its long-standing position in the ballast industry while firmly reflecting its affiliation to global technology leader and corporate parent Philips. As part of the initiative, Advance will officially become known as Philips Lighting Electronics North America (N.A.) and will adopt Philips Advance (logo seen here) as its product brand on all existing electronic and magnetic fluorescent and HID ballasts.

Founded in 1945 and acquired by Philips in 1959, Advance has prided itself on helping to both lead and define the ballast and lighting industries for over 60 years. The move towards more consistent Philips branding is designed to facilitate a broader range of market opportunities and a simplification of itscorporate affiliation in the marketplace. Beginning in mid-2008 and continuing throughout 2009, Advance’s repositioning activities are manifesting themselves in the form of updated product packaging, collateral, and commercial documentation reflecting the new organization and product brand names. “As a proud member of the Philips family, we are very excited to drive these measures as a means of acknowledging the critical role we play as a leading components supplier within Philips and as a way to promote the strength we can deliver through the combination of our two recognized brands,” says CEO of Philips Lighting Electronics N.A. Pieter de Haan. “But while our organization and brand name may change slightly,” assures de Haan, “the market can rest assured that our values and dedication to the customer experience will remain the same.” About Philips Lighting Electronics North America A leader in the ballast industry for over 60 years, Philips Lighting Electronics N.A., based in Rosemont, IL, offers a full line of Philips Advance branded ballasts and drivers for fluorescent, HID, and LED light sources to the market’s broad range of lighting fixture manufacturers and electrical distributors.

Steelcase, a global office environments manufacturer, was recently granted a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody Certification by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), an independent third party accredited by the FSC to certify companies to its international standards. The certification highlights Steelcase’s ability to meet the FSC tracking requirements for ensuring that the materials used to develop its wood products come from a well managed forest.

By working with well managed forest, these woodlands can provide a continuous yield of raw materials and remain the home for numerous animal species. Loggers use special techniques to harvest the wood without causing environmental damage. In a forest that is not responsibly managed, loggers perform clear cutting, high grading, and over harvesting which can take an area out of production for over 50 years. Steelcase’s efforts to operate sustainably span the history of the company as purchased wood veneer comes from sustainable sources.

“It is an honor to receive this FSC certification as it affirms Steelcase’s commitment to cradle to cradle environment processes,” says Nancy Hickey, senior vice president, chief administrative officer of Steelcase. “From design to production, we are constantly seeking more effective ways to conserve resources, prevent pollution, and nurture environmental consciousness. FSC certification demonstrates that Steelcase’s responsible practices extend to the very beginning of the product lifecycle by utilizing responsibly managed forests.”

Founded in 1992 following the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the first FSC certification was issued in 1993. FSC certification for a company demonstrates that it can perform to the highest social and environmental standards in the market in wood product sourcing. Additionally, as governments around the world enforce stricter environmental regulations in their purchasing programs, FSC certification protects a corporation’s brand and reputation in the international market.

The Steelcase wood business operates out of the world’s first LEED certified manufacturing facility. The facility opened in 2001 and has since made additional changes to allow the facility and its operations to become more sustainable. Notable is the recent change from solvent based to water based finishes; this has contributed to a reduction in VOCs by 91% since 2001.

This FSC Certification comes on the heels of other recent environmental accomplishments by Steelcase, including the most cradle to cradle (C2C) product certifications in the industry as well as the first wood casegood to be C2C certified. These products are additionally certified by Indoor Advantage, receiving awards from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WasteWise program for the past six years for the company’s efforts in waste prevention, recycling collection, and manufacturing recycled content products. Steelcase was also recognized for signing an agreement to purchase all of the green power produced from a new wind farm in Texas for at least five years, publication of the company’s inaugural corporate responsibility report, and creating a Green Giants campaign that highlights sustainable leaders that have made strides in giving back to the community from an environmental perspective.

While this Friday Funny isn’t uproariously funny, it is so topical and intriguing that I couldn’t resist sharing it. According to a story from LiveScience.com Senior Writer Jenna Bryner, cubicle or office decor says a lot about the left or right leaning tendencies of employees.

A study by John Jost, a psychologist from New York University claims that conservatives go for the neat and tidy look while liberals prefer their decor to be a bit more of the carefree and cluttered. The full results from the study will be presented in an upcoming issue of Political Psychology.

Bryner notes, “A person may hide their political ideology from others, including from pollsters, but the researchers were delighted to learn that a peek into subjects’ living quarters or even workspaces could give that away. Conservatives and liberals leave behind distinct ‘behavioral residue’ that can be picked up by savvy scientists and possibly other observers.”

Bryner explains how the study was conducted.

The researchers took inventory of five office locations—a commercial real estate agency, an advertising agency, a business school, an architectural firm, and a retail bank—all in a large U.S. city. They had observers check out the workspaces of 94 male and female employees. The subjects’ average age was 37.

The snoopers had no idea of the workers’ political orientation. Political orientation was measured with survey questions.

Liberals’ offices were judged as significantly more distinctive, comfortable, stylish, modern, and colorful and as less conventional and ordinary, in comparison with conservatives’ offices, Jost said.

The findings agreed with a link found by Jost’s team between two personality traits and political ideology. In personality tests of thousands of college students, Jost found that liberals tended to score higher than conservatives on one key measure called openness to experiences, which includes holding wide interests, and being imaginative and insightful.

Conservatives showed higher scores for conscientiousness, which measures a person’s need for order, discipline, achievement striving and rule following.

Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs at McGraw-Hill Construction Research and Analytics Group in New York City, issued a statement about the expected impact on construction activity. The text of his commentary:

Recent Financial Market Events—the Broad Impact on Construction

The upheaval in the financial markets during September has altered the financial landscape, which will affect funding for construction projects and, in turn, construction activity.

The situation with the financial markets continues to be fluid, particularly regarding the shape of the $700 billion mortgage buyout proposal. Given the sense of urgency coming from Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke, Congress is anticipated to pass some measure with revisions to the Treasury proposal, including oversight of the process by which the distressed mortgage securities are purchased. The expectation is that the purchased securities will increase in value as the housing market begins to improve in 2009 and beyond, which would allow them to be resold and decrease the potential cost of the bailout from $700 billion to something less. The key, of course, is that the decline in home prices comes to an end, and we don’t expect to see that until 2009 at the earliest.

The steps taken to provide stability to the financial markets will require time. The lending environment for commercial projects will probably grow even more difficult in the near term, before some credit easing begins to take hold, perhaps in the latter half of 2009. This means that the downturn in construction starts shown by commercial building in 2008, particularly for stores and warehouses, will grow more widespread in 2009, dampening offices and hotels as well. This had been our expectation prior to this September’s events; if these steps are successful, a rebound in commercial construction could occur earlier than expected, perhaps as soon as 2010 or 2011.

The institutional structure types, such as schools and hospitals, respond in a lagged manner to shifts in the economy and lending conditions. We expect to see a loss of momentum for 2009, given the deterioration in state and local fiscal health, although funding already raised through the bond market should help the initial stage of a construction slowdown remain gradual. In other words, the response to September’s financial turmoil is expected to be delayed and diffused. The same applies for public works, and a near-term plus for that sector is that Congress recently transferred $8 billion from the general fund to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. As for single-family housing, the steps to stabilize the financial markets, if successful, should help to stabilize homebuilding in 2009, although at a very, very low level.

HID Global recently announced that it is expanding its position within the access control space to include logical access control products and solutions for converged security environments. By collaborating with IT industry leaders, the company offers a portfolio of logical access offerings to meet market requirements, enabling physical access control integrators to use HID technology to provide complementary logical access solutions.  

“Since establishing our relationship with Microsoft around Crescendo and its support for Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007, HID Global has led the industry in providing breakthrough solutions for the true convergence of physical and information security, enabled by an access control card,” said Denis Hébert, president and CEO of HID Global. “Never before has it been so easy to have convenience meet security at the desktop.”



As a further extension of HID’s reach in the IT space, the company announced that its iClass contactless smart cards are read by the embedded contactless smart card reader in select models of new Dell Latitude E-Family laptops. Organizations can now use a single HID iClass card for both physical building access and secure authentication to PCs. When using an iClass card, laptop users will be able to take advantage of the Dell pre-boot authentication functionality which helps to secure the data on the laptop. When first turning the laptop on, a user will present an iClass card to the contactless smart card reader located in the palm rest of the laptop.

A valid card presentation will allow the laptop to boot up and take the user to the Windows operating system.

In the future, users will be able to experience secure, two factor authentication to the laptop. Users will have the ability to present their card and a PIN to securely authenticate to either Windows XP or Windows Vista. This conforms to Microsoft’s strategic direction to deploy smart cards for secure authentication.



“Having HID technology seamlessly integrated into a mainstream PC platform is good news for HID customers,” said Mr. Hébert. “It is this type of development that provides customers with convenient and cost effective options to secure PCs and the associated data.” 

HID is further leveraging its core market position in physical access control by offering a wide range of logical access products, solution, and capabilities that reinforce the company’s strategy of providing solutions for the delivery of secure identity.

The products and solutions include:

• HID on the Desktop: A set of logical access control solutions that can extend the reach of an existing physical access infrastructure. With HID on the Desktop, the same card that is used to open the door can now open Windows on the PC. An HID card or token, an OMNIKEY reader, and naviGO software is all that it takes to experience improved security and greater convenience at the desktop.
• Crescendo smart cards: A series of secure multi-technology, off the shelf smart cards, Crescendo cards enable convergence by providing standards compliant support for existing physical and logical access applications.
• Omnikey readers: The Omnikey reader line is a desktop and mobile reader and driver infrastructure that ensures seamless integration and interoperability between PC and smart card. The newest offering is the Omnikey 6321, a USB connected “dongle” reader that supports the use of contactless smart cards for secure two factor authentication in a mobile computing environment.
• naviGO: naviGO is a software package that enables an organization to use its existing physical access control cards for two factor authentication at the desktop.  

Enhancing these converged solutions, the Asure ID 2009 card personalization software improves the issuance and management of advanced photo ID credentials with visual security features. Additionally, the company’s IT Channel Program focuses on working with leading third party IT vendors to deliver enterprise applications such as single sign on, pre-boot authentication, and disk encryption solutions.