The First Facility Management Blog

The lighting industry has been trying to find new ways to be more environmentally friendly over the past few years. The biggest initiative has been the use of compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) to help save money on both current electric costs and future bulb purchases since these bulbs can last up to five years in some cases. This past year saw an increased push to get LEDs into the market as an even better way to save money. The up front cost of these lights is much greater than CFLs or traditional incandescent bulbs, but their power and lifespan (up to 15-20 years) more than makes up for the initial investment, especially in larger facilities.

LEDs will be on the world stage tonight when the newest New Year’s Eve ball drops in Times Square as part of the festivities to bring in 2009. The 12 foot geodesic sphere weighs 11,875 pounds, is covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals, and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs. The ball can produce a palette of more than 16 million colors and billions of possible patterns. This year’s LED count is more than three times the number used a year ago. This year’s ball 10% to 20% more energy efficient than the one used to ring in 2008—equivalent to the same amount of energy per hour as needed to operate two traditional home ovens.

The ball has come a long way since first debuting in 1907. The original sphere was constructed of iron and wood, featured 100 25 watt light bulbs, was five feet in diameter, and weighed 700 pounds. Other changes over the years include:

• a 400 pound ball of wrought iron replacing the original in 1920
• an aluminum ball tipping the scales at 200 pounds in 1955
• the ball resembling an apple in much of the 1980s to reflect the “I Love New York” campaign
• an aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls featured in 1995.
• for bringing in the new millennium a completely new redesigned crystal sphere was created.

Focus Lighting put together this year’s lighting design that uses over 3,500 lighting cues to manipulate the moving patterns of light emanating from the ball. Theatrical techniques are being utilized to display each facet of each crystal, making the sparkle viewable, whether seen from five feet or 500 feet away from it.

Officials at a crematorium in Halmstad, a town of 55,000 people on the western edge of Sweden, are considering using the heat expelled during its operations to warm the facility itself.

The idea began to take form after an environmental review concluded that the crematorium’s chimneys were pumping too much smoke into the air. Inspectors have said the crematorium would have to buy new ovens in order to meet basic environmental standards.

The director of the cemetery has noted that during the discussion of environmental concerns the parties involved began to consider how the waste heat at the facility could be used in a productive manner.

If the plan comes to fruition, the crematorium would begin by heating its own facility, with the possibility of connecting to the city’s district heating network to provide heat to other city buildings So far, the plan has met with approval from the locals; however, there may a discussion on the ethics of the plan.

Changes to the purpose and scope of ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 as well as new lighting requirements are being proposed through public review. ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, provides minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design of buildings except low-rise residential buildings.

Among the proposed addenda out for public review is addendum aq, which proposes changes to the purpose and scope of the standard. The proposed modification addresses applications not covered in the existing standard scope, such as requirements for laboratories, data center cooling, and kitchen exhausts. It would also permit the 90.1 committee to address technologies, such as computer equipment and refrigerated casework, and would extend existing requirements for envelope, space cooling, and lighting to a larger group of spaces where energy is consumed.

“ASHRAE is committed to substantially reducing energy use in buildings,” Mark Hydeman, vice chair of the committee, said. “This addendum is a critical step toward achieving that goal. For example, it requires all cooling and heating equipment that operates under standard conditions to comply with the existing minimum efficiencies of the standard regardless of the facility that they are in. Manufacturing and process environments often operate at much longer hours than office buildings and retail facilities, which served as the basis for the life-cycle cost analysis of the minimum efficiencies.”

Standard 90.1 currently addresses design and construction of buildings. The proposed addendum would add operation and maintenance, which allows incorporation of industry standards such as ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180-2008, Standard Practice for Inspection and Maintenance of Commercial Building HVAC Systems.

The addendum also incorporates utilization of on-site, renewable energy resources. “By including on-site and renewable energy resources in the scope, an appropriate mechanism was created for future requirements as well as credits for these energy resources not currently provided in the standard,” Hydeman said.

Proposed addendum aq is open for public review until February 2, 2009.

Other Proposals
Four other proposed addenda–ar, as, au, and av–are open for review until January 19, 2009. A fifth addenda, at, is open until January 4, 2009.

Proposed addenda ar and av are related to lighting efficiencies. Proposed addendum ar revises an earlier version of the standard where expanded exterior lighting power limits were put in place but details were not included on calculating installed power and its comparison to the limits. Addendum av would require that in all spaces where alterations take place, all requirements of section 9 are met, not just the lighting power density requirements.

The proposed addenda to ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 are available during their public review period. To read the addenda or to comment, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

This year, Firestone Building Products Company, LLC collaborated with a number of its licensed roofing contractors to assist their local communities through the Firestone Community Service Program. Qualified Firestone contractors are awarded with material credit for Firestone roofing products installed as part of a donated labor community service project. Those eligible for participation in the community service program are recipients of Firestone’s esteemed Inner Circle of Quality Award or Partner in Quality Award—distinctions recognizing exceptional roofing professionals for their commitment to quality installation and outstanding roof performance.

This past year, the following roofing firms took part in this program:

• Greenberg Roofing of Fargo, ND donated labor and time to re-roof the 640 square foot roof on the Fargo Salvation Army building. The crew installed 60-mil fully adhered Firestone RubberGardTM EPDM. Fargo Salvation Army provides counseling, housing, clothing, meals, emergency disaster relief, and spiritual ministry to local residents.
• Herzog Roofing in Detroit Lakes, MN re-installed Firestone ISO 95+TM polyiso insulation and ballasted 45-mil Firestone RubberGardTM EPDM on the 41 square foot roof of the REACH volunteer center. The REACH center provides family support, nonperishable food from their food pantry, reusable items, and counseling services to local residents in Hawley, MN. 
• Houck Services, Inc. of Harrisburg, PA re-roofed a home of the winning family in WHTM Channel 27’s Midstate Home Makeover Contest. The crew installed 1,500 square feet of Firestone ISO 95+ TM polyiso insulation and 60-mil RubberGardTM EPDM. The home makeover contest awarded the grand prize to the Litschi family of Myerstown, PA. The Litschi’s have 12 adopted children, many of whom are mentally or physically disabled.   
• Nordmann Roofing Co. from Toledo, OH donated a portion of a new roof to Rossford High School in Rossford, OH for the school’s press box. The 1,000 square foot project replaced the old leaky roof with 1” Firestone ISO 95+TM polyiso insulation and 60-mil fully adhered Firestone RubberGardTM EPDM. 
• Plescia Roofing, Inc. in Norwood, NJ installed a 160,000 square foot roof on the Holy Family Catholic Academy in Norwood, NJ. The crew replaced a 20 year old leaky roof with 60-mil fully adhered Firestone UltraPlyTM TPO roofing system. This project is one of several service projects the firm has donated to Holy Family. 
• Richard L. Sensenig Company of Lancaster, PA donated labor and materials to install a new roof on the Twin Valley Bible Chapel in Narvon, PA. The crew installed 800 square feet of Firestone Tapered ISO 95+TM polyiso insulation fully adhered RubberGardTM EPDM.  
• S.G.O. Roofing and Construction, LLC of Lakeville, MN installed a roof on the new American Cancer Society Twin City Hope Lodge in Minneapolis, MN. A crew of 15 put in the 9,100 square foot Firestone 60-mil ballasted RubberGardTM EPDM roofing system with 1” ISO 95+TM polyiso insulation and DensDeckTM insulation. Hope Lodge provides free housing to out of town cancer patients and their families while patients are undergoing treatment.  

“Firestone is pleased to partner with a growing list of contractors who are enthusiastic about giving back to their local communities,” said Mike Gorey, president of Firestone and chairman, CEO, and president of Bridgestone Firestone Diversified Products. “This unique and worth while program has led to more than 60 local community service projects since its inception nearly 10 years ago, and we applaud the contractors who are dedicated to aiding public, private, and non-profit organizations in need.”
 
The Firestone Inner Circle of Quality Award recognizes a group of contractors who demonstrate a strong commitment to long term quality roof performance. Award recipients must achieve Master Contractor status, install at least four warranted roofs in each of the past five years, maintain at least two million square feet under warranty, and achieve an annual QIR of 2.0 or less.

The Partner in Quality Award acknowledges Firestone licensed contractors who maintain at least one million square feet under warranty and demonstrate the same qualities as the Inner Circle winners.  

Manufacturers and purchasers who are seeking information on sustainable production and consumption can now access The Green Standard’s new website at www.TheGreenStandard.org. Developed collaboratively with Azul Arc International, the updated web site is filled with informative content and an intuitive layout. 

In addition to a clean, user friendly design, The Green Standard has expanded and restructured the content to make it easier for readers to learn about programs that will help them enhance their brands and become more competitive. The site includes information on The Green Standard’s new programs, including the first and only environmental product declaration system in the U.S. and the unique Gaia Product Profile, as well as the EcoLibrary compendium of articles created for Interiors & Sources magazine. Plans are to continually update the site with news, additional EPD reports, articles of interest, and comprehensive information on The Green Standard conferences and events. 

The new web site coincides with the launch of The Green Standard’s Bright Green Future campaign, a yearlong educational initiative to empower manufacturers and purchasers to confidently navigate the environmental landscape while making lighter footprints. The campaign includes the introduction of The Green Standard Environmental Product Declaration System, managed by Paul Firth, vice president of technology. In addition to the EPD System, which is considered to be the core component in the emerging global product information system, the website provides access to Gaia Product Profile, an innovative tool that provides specifiers and purchasers with a summary of all of the information in a full EPD report.

A new feature of The Green Standard’s educational resources is their Green Purchasing Accredited Professional training, an intensive “best practices” training and certification for architects, engineers, contractors, interior designers, facility managers, and governmental and educational procurement professionals.

The website also details a new membership program offers incentives to join The Green Standard as it provides free use of many of their education, technology, and training resources for manufacturers and purchasers. 

The Green Standard President and CEO Deborah Dunning says that the development of the Bright Green, Bright Future campaign with all its elements is the culmination of the organization’s work over the past nine years. “We are pleased to be able to support U.S. manufacturers in becoming even more effective in the global marketplace through development of a comprehensive EPD system and believe that this work, along with our educational programs, will meet a longstanding need of both institutional and individual consumers in North America,” she says.

The Green Standard is a not for profit organization founded in 2000 to advance sustainable production and consumption, using lifecycle based resources. TGS provides education, technology, and training for manufacturers and purchasers on product eco-design, certification and purchase. TGS works in open and transparent ways on these resources, using best practices in consensus-based development to insure stakeholder participation, often collaborating with other organizations to develop tools that are innovative yet practical.   

The Institute for Business & Home Safety is offering the following information and engineering guidelines that can help prevent this threat to life safety and property. Emergency managers in a number of states are warning facility managers to pay attention to the accumulation of ice and snow on their buildings.

The age of the building is a major factor in the snow load risk.

• Newer building codes provide much better guidance for estimating snow loads, particularly the increased loads near changes in roof elevations where snow drifts and snow falling from the upper roof can build up on the lower roof near the step.
• Older roofs can also suffer from corrosion of members and connections which can reduce its ability to resist high snow loads.
• Buildings with light weight roofs, such as metal buildings or built up roofs on bar joists generally provide less protection from overload than heavy roofs.

The safety margins used by engineers are based on a combination of the weight of the roof and the snow loads. Consequently, there is usually a larger margin of safety against excess snow loads for heavy roofs than for light weight roofs.

• For flat roofs, the step-down area between roof sections is particularly susceptible to roof overload because of the tendency for ice and snow collection, especially during periods of windy weather.
• Roof top equipment and roof projections, such as mechanical equipment, which is over 2′ tall causes snow accumulation due to drift, creating the need for higher snow load consideration in these areas.

-An even more serious condition can be created when a taller building or a taller addition is built adjacent to an existing building.

-Unless, the existing building is strengthened in the area next to the new taller building or addition, snow accumulation on the lower roof near the step could produce much higher loads than those considered by the original designer for the existing building.

The design plan is the best source for determining how much snow load a building can handle. These designs can range from a snow load of 10 to 20 lbs per square foot in Mid-Atlantic states, to between 40 and 70 lbs per square foot in New England.

IBHS offers these general guidelines to help estimate the weight of snow:

• Fresh snow: 10-12 inches of new snow is equal to one inch of water, or about 5 lbs per square foot of roof space, so you could have up to 4 feet of new snow before you need to worry.
• Packed snow: 3-5 inches of old snow is equal to one inch of water, or about 5 lbs per square foot of roof space, so anything more than 2 feet of old snow could be dangerous.
• The total accumulated weight of two feet of old snow and two feet of new snow could be as high as 60 lbs per square foot of roof space, which is getting toward the design limits of even the best designed roof.
• If there’s ice, it’s much heavier, with one inch equaling about a foot of fresh snow.

Lastly, IBHS advises, for safe removal that won’t endanger you or damage your roof, consult a roofing contractor.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently recognized JohnsonDiversey as a “Champion” under the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI), a program JohnsonDiversey helped develop through its leadership in the National Pollution Prevention and Toxics Advisory Council. 

The EPA recognized JohnsonDiversey during a SDSI awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. The agency also recognized other chemical manufacturers and product formulators that have met the SDSI standard.   

The SDSI recognizes companies and facilities for voluntarily phasing out the manufacturing or use of nonylphenol ethoxylates, commonly referred to as NPEs, which studies have shown can harm aquatic life. In 2007, JohnsonDiversey voluntarily ceased producing and selling products with alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs), which include NPEs, though it remains legal in the U.S. to use the chemicals in cleaning applications.

“We especially appreciate the leadership role JohnsonDiversey played in the development of the SDSI program,” said Barbara Stinson, senior partner, Meridian Institute, the organization retained by the EPA to facilitate the Advisory Council. “Through its participation in the Council, JohnsonDiversey was a catalyst for the creation of a program to recognize companies that use safer ingredients in product formulations.”

JohnsonDiversey began phasing APEOs out of products in the 1990s and continued to seek alternative formulations well before publicly committing to eliminate them from products in 2007.  

“Eliminating APEOs from our products was the responsible action to take,” said JohnsonDiversey president and CEO Ed Lonergan. “We’re proud we can tell our customers and our communities that we’re setting standards for our products that are more stringent than current regulations in order to protect human health and the environment.”

JohnsonDiversey’s action has eliminated the annual use of more than 2,250 tons of APEOs. Although these chemicals have been used for more than 50 years in consumer cleaning, personal care, and industrial products to enhance their effectiveness, APEOs have increasingly been associated with harmful effects in the environment. 

As APEOs break down in the environment, the resulting components have been identified as potential endocrine disruptors that may result in reproductive toxicity, according to some studies. Additionally, these components are considered toxic to some aquatic species.

The EPA has not banned APEOs. However, Japan has banned APEOs and many industries in Europe have voluntarily eliminated their use. APEO regulations have also intensified in Canada.

In an effort to eliminate the challenge of surgeons, nurses, and support staff from fumbling with ID badges through scrubs or forgetting them, Promedica Health System’s (PHS) Sylvania, Ohio-based hospital’s surgery room grants door entry access through hypoallergenic/ antimicrobial coated biometric hand readers. The access control system increases entry speed in critical situations and most importantly creates a highly secure entry beyond card swipe technology that also allows PHS central security personnel to monitor and record through the hospital’s Frontier access control system software from Matrix Systems.

Registration is a two minute process in Flower Hospital’s security center. Surgery room personnel enroll with a biometric hand scan by an identical model of the Hand Key II by Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies (IRST). The hand scan template is processed and attached to the employee’s security ID profile in the Frontier access control software. Matrix Systems’ PHS account supervisor, William Kuebler, engineered the project and coordinated firmware writing by Matrix Systems’ engineering department. Consequently, the interface between the IRST’s Hand Key II software and the access control software was seamless and now enables Flower Hospital’s security manager, Jonathan Jones, easy control over the enrollment procedure. Once enrolled, the employees enter the surgery room via the Hand Key II’s keypad code followed by a biometric hand scan in a process that spans five seconds or less.  

While the surgery room access is a success, PHS’ lock shop is used as a beta site to test biometric hand readers for future applications, which will be brought on line in additional sensitive security locations in the future. 

Biometrics is just one example of security that Donald Sullivan, security system technology specialist, and James Hofbauer, security director, both of PHS’ Central Region, are continually incorporating into the eight hospital, not for profit healthcare organization that services 27 counties in northwest and west central Ohio and southeast Michigan.

Another example is the Toledo Hospital campus’ 145 space physician parking lot/garage. Previously physicians had to swipe ID cards or punch in ID numbers at an access control card reader to enter the facility. Now physicians have windshield attached transponders that allow a more convenient and quicker entry. Because the wireless RF system sends entry information directly to the security department’s access control workstation, physicians are logged in immediately upon entering the campus. “If there’s an emergency and a need for a particular doctor, we know if that doctor is on campus,” said Hofbauer. “Plus, doctors are our customers too, so this is also a convenience for them because they no longer need to worry about remembering ID numbers or cards.”

Business conditions at architecture firms continue to deteriorate, with the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) posting its lowest level since the survey began in 1995 for the second month in a row. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI shows an approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the November ABI rating was 34.7, down from the 36.2 mark in October (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The inquiries for new projects score was 38.3, also a historic low point.

“With mounting job losses, declines in retail sales, and travel cut-backs, the need for new commercial facilities has dropped considerably recently,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “What’s just as troubling is that the institutional sector–schools, hospitals, and public buildings–is also beginning to react to tighter credit conditions and a weakening economy.”

Key November ABI highlights:
Regional averages: Northeast (39.5), South (36.8), West (33.5), Midwest (31.4)
Sector index breakdown: mixed practice (44.5), institutional (40.8), multi-family residential (30.0), commercial / industrial (26.7)
Project inquiries index: 38.3

Crestron International attracted large crowds recently at its headquarters grand opening in Belgium. The new state of the art facility provides training, sales, technical support, and product distribution for Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.

Crestron International was established in Brussels in 1992 with Frank Van Meeuwen, president of Crestron International, at the helm. Over the years, the commercial and residential markets throughout Europe and Middle East have consistently and rapidly grown, necessitating the expanded offices that just opened. In fact, this past year Crestron International earned more than $100 million in sales.

“This demonstration of leadership and commitment to the global marketplace is unmatched in our industry,” says Randy Klein, executive vice president of Crestron Electronics, Inc. “It takes a huge investment and a lot of resources to support an effort like this. Especially in times of uncertainty, we need to expand and grow to create new opportunities for our dealers.”

The new headquarters cost $6 million to build, including the property and infrastructure. This facility is more than a half mile wide, features more than 20 miles of installed cable, and is supported by 178 AV professionals. In addition to office space, the new headquarters includes modern training facilities and a fully automated, bonded warehouse.

“This new building and outstanding staff are a testament to our dedication and success,” says Van Meeuwen. “We look forward to continuing to provide the best support to our dealers, and lead the way to future prosperity.”