The First Facility Management Blog

Workplace professionals from around the world will meet in Orlando, Fla., to analyze the trends and new products impacting today’s built environment during the International Facility Management Association’s World Workplace 2009 Conference & Expo, Oct. 7-9 at the Orange County Convention Center.

Recognized as the world’s premier educational and networking conference for facility managers and those in related fields, World Workplace brings industry leaders from the world’s top business and government organizations together with educators and exhibitors to focus on the future of the work environment. Now in its 30th year, the conference will feature more than 75 educational sessions and new product demonstrations by manufacturers from around the globe.

“World Workplace is regarded as the single most informative facility-related event in our industry for good reason — it’s the ‘one-stop shop’ for the solutions facility professionals need today in preparation to meet the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow,” said Thomas L. Mitchell Jr., CFM, CFMJ, incoming chairman of the IFMA board of directors. “It’s more than just a conference and expo providing education, new products and services, and peer networking. It’s a professionally and personally rewarding experience, and holding it in the ‘land of entertainment’ this year will enhance what will already be a memorable event.”

In a year when many people are focusing on less, World Workplace is offering attendees more. This year’s conference will feature an opening keynote presentation from Andrew Winston — esteemed author, speaker and globally recognized expert on green business — as well as presentations from four concurrent power speakers, who will replace the conference’s traditional closing keynote session.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Winston will deliver the presentation “Green Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart and Emerge from the Downturn on Top,” based on his upcoming book. He will make the case that going green — especially during an economic slowdown — saves money to help you survive, drives innovation to create value for the long run and represents a fundamentally new and better way of doing business.

The conference will also offer attendees a glimpse into the future of the workplace, as they get the first look at the new products and services debuting in 2010. The World Workplace expo floor will feature more than 200 exhibiting companies — including 3M, ARAMARK, IBM, Lowe’s and UGL Unicco — and will be freely open to the public this year. Additionally, expo hours have been extended, giving exhibitors and attendees 11 dedicated hours of interaction on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 7-8.

Another highlight of the World Workplace 2009 expo will be the Green Zone, an exclusive section of the expo floor reserved for those companies offering environmentally friendly products and services. More than 75 exhibitors will be featured in the Green Zone this year, including organizations such as the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments and the U.S. Department of State, as well as companies including AT&T, CORT, Kimball Office and Kohler.

Complementing the expo will be World Workplace 2009 educational sessions. Organized into eight different tracks, these sessions offer facility professionals the continuing education courses they need to meet the challenges posed by today’s workplace. Session topics include strategies for greening the office, the impact of new legislation on sustainable building design, and how to deal with workplace violence and natural disasters. Representatives from AOL, Duke University, and the U.S. Air Force and General Services Administration, among others, will present. World Workplace educational sessions will be held on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 8-9.

Conference attendees can add to their Orlando experience by attending any of six different facility tours throughout the city. Among the facilities open for touring will be the Walt Disney World® Resort, Lockheed Martin, Darden Restaurants corporate headquarters and JetBlue University. Facility tours will be held before the conference begins, on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 5-6.

Following in the tradition of previous conferences, this year’s event has again received Cleaner & Greener® certification from Leonardo Academy, a non-profit environmental consulting group. Organizations seeking Cleaner & Greener certification make a commitment to gather emission reductions, offsetting the emissions caused by events.

Early registration for World Workplace 2009 is available through July 17. To learn more about the conference or to register, visit www.worldworkplace.org. Members of the media may register at no cost here.

IFMA’s World Workplace Conference & Expo is an annual three-day educational and networking event focused on the future of the built environment. Building on the professional development opportunities available through the association year-round, the World Workplace experience includes a conference focused entirely on education and an exposition incorporating product demonstration and instruction. This year’s conference will be held Oct. 7-9, 2009, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit www.worldworkplace.org. To join and follow IFMA’s social media outlets online, visit the conference’s NETworkplace page.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which just passed the House in a close vote, is being seen by many energy and environmental advocates as an important step forward towards the comprehensive approach needed to reduce climate emissions and increase clean energy usage in the United States. As the Senate takes up its version of this legislation, Senators are being urged to build on the work of the House and strengthen the legislation to create accelerated reductions in carbon emissions, a faster phase out of dirty coal plants, and greater funding of clean energy sources.

The ACES bill, the first climate change bill to reach the Congress, includes the following key elements:

• Clean energy: promoting renewable energy, low-carbon transportation fuels, electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission;
• Energy efficiency: increasing energy efficiency across all sectors: buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry;
• Global warming targets: placing limits on emissions of heat-trapping pollutants with a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050;
• Economic transitioning: protecting U.S. consumers, and promoting green jobs during the transition to a clean green economy.

Climate change legislation may also include a new lighting standard. Liz Sidoti of the AP reports:

Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.

“I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7% of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses,” the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.

Obama said the new efficiency standards he was announcing for lamps would result in substantial savings between 2012 and 2042, saving consumers up to $4 billion annually, conserving enough energy to power every U.S. home for 10 months, reducing emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars a year, and eliminating the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants.

The president also said he was speeding the delivery of $346 million in economic stimulus money to help improve energy efficiency in new and existing commercial buildings.

Green America (formerly Co-op America), a nonprofit consumer and business membership organization founded in 1982, is encouraging the Senate to strengthen the bill through:

• Greater funding and a faster timetable for a transition to clean energy sources, particularly solar and wind, which will reduce carbon emissions and increase green jobs.
• Retention or expansion of the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to clean up dirty coal plants.
• Reduction of allocations for polluting companies. Polluters need to pay for their pollution in order to fund increased investment in clean energy and green jobs.
• Establishment of greenhouse gas emissions caps that achieve a 25% reduction below 2005 levels by the year 2020.
• Nuclear power needs to be excluded as a clean energy source. Nuclear power is low-carbon, but with environmentally damaging uranium mining radioactive waste, proliferation potential and safety hazards, it is not clean energy.

“The world needs real U.S. climate leadership. ACES is a start, but we have a long way to go for legislation that addresses the scale and scope of the climate crisis,” states Todd Larsen, Green America’s director of corporate responsibility. “We look to the Senate to really step up to the plate. The future of our economy and our society hangs in the balance.”

House passage of ACES is seen by many as the first step toward building U.S. political will to address climate change. Strong U.S. action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to invest in renewable energy will be crucial to the global movement addressing climate change and to the success of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December of this year.

Armstrong Ceilings has introduced DC FlexZone, a ceiling grid system with the ability to distribute safe, low voltage direct current (DC) power to lighting fixtures, sensors, and other electrical devices in a ceiling.

The new grid system is designed to improve the flexibility and reuse of interior spaces by enabling faster and easier repurposing and reconfigurations to satisfy the changing needs of the occupants without the need to rewire. By providing “plug and play” modularity, DC FlexZone simplifies the management and control of lighting and other devices normally found in the ceilings of commercial buildings.

It can also contribute to the energy efficiency of buildings by enabling the use of more energy efficient devices and controls. For example, the DC FlexZone grid system can help accelerate the use of DC-based light emitting diode (LED) and other solid-state lighting devices. Additionally, the distribution of DC power directly through interior infrastructures such as ceilings can be a key component in systems that make more efficient use of on-site, DC-based renewable energy sources, such as solar.

Available in two Armstrong grid designs (Suprafine® T-bar and Silhouette® bolt-slot) the new system’s DC main beams with integrated electrical conductors are used with 9/16″ tegular ceilings and available in four different lengths.

Note: Armstrong is a founding member of the EMerge Alliance, an open, not-for-profit industry association launched in 2008 to create a new standard for the rapid adoption of safe, low-voltage DC power distribution and use in commercial building interiors. The EMerge standard will integrate interior infrastructures (like ceilings, furniture or walls), power, controls and peripheral devices, such as lighting, in a common platform. The standard will be released this summer, with EMerge-registered products from member companies expected to be available later this year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded contracts with a shared capacity of $650 million to eight contractors who will perform utility monitoring and control systems work in federal facilities throughout the continental U.S. and overseas. These contracts are for the procurement and installation of utility monitoring and control systems; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to include chiller/boiler systems installation and/or integration, supervisory control and data acquisition systems; and other automated control systems including fire alarm and life safety systems, chemical/biological/radiological contaminant detection/filtration/response, utilities (electric/gas/water/steam) metering; Electronic Security Systems; and security and/or force protection measures worldwide.

The USACE has contracted with eight service providers for energy and technology upgrades.

The total capacity of these contracts is $650 million, with shared capacity among eight contractors:

Ameresco, Inc., Framingham, MA

Honeywell Products, Inc., Austin, TX

Johnson Controls Building Automation, Huntsville, AL

Siemens Government Services, Inc., Reston, VA

TAC Americas, Carrollton, TX

Teng & Associates, Inc., Chicago, IL

Trane U.S. Inc., La Crosse, WI

Williams Electric Company, Inc., Fort Walton Beach, FL.

The multiple award task order indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity service contracts have a three-year base period and one optional two-year period for a total of five years. The Huntsville Center solicited this acquisition on a competitive basis.

“The Army Corps of Engineers is focused on continuous process improvement, and this program creates a standard procurement vehicle for boosting safety and comfort for employees and citizens, and reducing operating costs at facilities,” said Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions of his company’s part in the project. “We have the technology, experience and footprint to help meet these goals.”

Honeywell also recently received similar contracts from the DOE and Army Corps of Engineers for programs that could provide nearly $6 billion of energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements in government buildings combined.

Earlier this month, Tyson Foods Inc. was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Arkansas to pay the maximum fine for willfully violating worker safety regulations that led to a worker’s death in its River Valley Animal Foods (RVAF) plant in Texarkana, AR, the Justice Department announced. The court ordered Tyson Foods to pay the $500,000, the maximum criminal fine as well as serve one year probation. [See the original FacilityBlog post on this article from 1/7/09.]

According to the court documents filed in the case, Tyson operated several RVAF plants that recycled poultry products into protein and fats for the animal food industry. As part of the rendering process in four of the plants, the company used high-pressure steam processors called hydrolyzers to convert the poultry feather into feather meal.

Decomposition of biological material such as poultry feathers produces hydrogen sulfide gas, an acute-acting toxic substance. Employees at the Tyson facilities often were exposed to the toxic gas when working on or near the hydrolyzers, which required frequent adjustment and replacement.

As of October 2003, corporate safety and regional management were aware that hydrogen sulfide gas was present in the RVAF facilities and three of the four facilities with hydrolyzers had taken measures to protect employees from hydrogen sulfide gas near the hydrolyzers. However, Tyson Foods did not take sufficient steps to implement controls or protective equipment to reduce exposure within prescribed limits or provide effective training to employees on hydrogen sulfide gas at the Texarkana facility despite an identical exposure, resulting in hydrogen sulfide poisoning of an RVAF Texarkana employee in March 2002.

As a result, at approximately 1 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2003, RVAF maintenance employee Jason Kelley was overcome with hydrogen sulfide gas while repairing a leak from a hydrolyzer and later died. Another employee and two emergency responders were hospitalized due to exposure during the rescue attempt. Two employees also were treated at the scene.

“Federal laws require employers to undertake steps that limit exposure to dangerous substances like the gas that killed Jason Kelley. Today, Tyson Foods is paying the maximum fine for failing to abide by these laws,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Justice Department takes its enforcement responsibility seriously and companies that ignore these laws and risk their employees’ lives will be prosecuted.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) requires that employers furnish places of employment free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees. This includes taking steps to ensure that employee exposure to dangerous substances such as hydrogen sulfide gas remains within prescribed limits.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Labor and prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas under the Environmental Crimes Section’s worker endangerment initiative.

Outgoing students from Sutton Grammar School went to new lengths to pull off a rude, but imaginative joke. The joke, which was unspotted for years, proved to be an amusing exercise in engineering and spelling, but unfortunately, it was for dubious purposes. It was recently discovered by Google Earth.

TransWorldNews reports:

Several students used bricks to spell out the word “C**K” on the school’s roof. The prank went unnoticed for years until it was spotted on Google Earth. The head of the Surrey school, Gordon Ironside, is having the bricks removed.

“It was a light-hearted act. But I’d prefer it wasn’t there - or if it wasn’t rude,” Ironside says.

 

On a personal note, my son graduated from high school this week, and of course, his class couldn’t resist its own parting prank. Apparently, members of the Ocean Township High School Class of 2009 thought it would be amusing to rearrange the library…not the furniture, but the books. Fiction was swapped with non-fiction, and Dewey Decimal organizational systems were tossed aside. Fingers crossed that my offspring took no part in this prank. Innocent until proven guilty, right? Note to facility managers in education: make sure you have CCTV in your libraries! When compared to the Sutton Grammar School, this sounds tame (but it will probably take much more time to undo).

This Friday Funny was provided by Mike Christian.

The Sports and Exhibition Authority (SEA) of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County has awarded Smart City Networks a three-year contract to provide event technology services to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. In providing services (including telecommunications, Internet, networking, data services, and Wi-Fi™), Smart City Networks will be performing upgrades to increase the network backbone capacity by tenfold and expand the Wi-Fi™ network.

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center is the site of the G-20 Global Economic Summit this September.

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, managed by SMG, will be the site of the G-20 Global Economic Summit this September. Smart City Networks, which has corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, NV and Lake Buena Vista, FL, is working with officials at the convention center to determine the event’s technology needs that will host some 4,000 delegates and 2,500 domestic and foreign members of the media.

In addition to full telephone services for the center’s 2,000 phone lines, Smart City Networks offers high-speed Internet access using Ethernet protocols. Network service professionals offer turnkey data networking services including local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and private networks. Smart City Networks also provides an entry level wireless service for Web surfing and checking e-mail which can be accessed by using a Wi-Fi™-compatible network card. The wireless network offers Internet access of up to 256k of bandwidth.

“Smart City Networks has extensive experience in providing superior telecommunications services for high-profile events across the county,” said Mark Haley, president of Smart City Networks. “We’re honored that the SEA approved our contract and look forward to working with the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on all types of upcoming events, including the G-20 Summit. We will ensure all of the attendees and personnel at this global event have the world-class Internet and telecommunications connectivity they need.”

Smart City Networks has provided telecommunications services for various large-scale national and international events, including the G8 Summit as well as Republican and Democratic National Conventions. (Read FacilityBlog’s coverage of last fall’s Conventions.)

“Over the years, Smart City Networks has provided us with excellent customer service as well as a distinctive program of data, telecom and technical services that we will continue to rely upon in the upcoming years, especially as we welcome world finance leaders at the G-20 Summit in September,” said Mark Leahy, SMG general manager of the Convention Center.

On March 19, 2008, FacilityBlog posted the article below which touched upon the decaying state of Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate (which was sold last year). Abandoned and tied up in legalities for many years, the piece of property symbolized some of the financial turmoil and legal woes that swirled around the late Michael Jackson.

A comeback tour due to start in just a few weeks was supposed to help pull the King of Pop out of his economic meltdown. Despite being a billion dollar business, the singer was in about $400 million in debt when he died yesterday.

There have been reports from some companies that people would be dressing up in Michael Jackson attire today. What has been the reaction to this news, if any, in your facilities? Is it just another distraction during a slow Summer Friday? 

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Staco Energy Products Co. has introduced FirstLine® 924 three-phase Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for 20kW and 30 kW central emergency lighting system. This true on-line, double-conversion central inverter provides computer grade power quality for virtually any lighting system.

In addition to providing a continuous power supply during blackouts, the FirstLine 924 isolates and protects the connected load from damaging sags, swells, harmonics, noise, and voltage imbalances in the primary AC supply. Isolating the connected load from irregularities in the primary AC supply can significantly increase the life expectancy of lighting systems. Applications include public buildings, commercial and industrial facilities, high security areas, schools and universities, and more.

In the event of an AC power failure, the FirstLine 924 automatically transfers to battery power, providing a continuous power supply for 90 minutes, as required by NFPA 101. When power returns, the FirstLine 924 automatically recharges the batteries in preparation for the next power disturbance. Input voltage rating is 208Y/120 or 480Y/277, Delta connection with optional isolation transformer. Input voltage range is +/- 10% system start up, and +10%/-20% from nominal. Output voltage is regulated to +/-1% of nominal at full load. Total Harmonic Distortion is < 5% for non-linear loads, and < 2% for linear loads.

A front panel LCD display includes 2 x 24 character display, which shows system status and alarms. The user-friendly control panel located on the front of the freestanding NEMA 1 enclosure allows remote monitoring through an RS232 connection. Seismic Zone 4 certified, the FirstLine® 924 is made in the USA and backed by a two-year On-Site Warranty (covering both parts and labor).

On June 16, 2009, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Chairwoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), and Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced H.R. 2868: The Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Act of 2009. This vital legislation makes the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) permanent and enhances the program by making facilities, as a part of their vulnerability assessments, analyze how they can change their internal processes to reduce the consequences of a terrorist attack at their facility.

Chairman Thompson released the following statement:

This legislation will help ensure that this vital industry, and the population that lives around these facilities, are safe and secure. After years of work and discussions with key stakeholders, we have produced a comprehensive and common-sense chemical security bill.

Chairman Waxman released the following:

Chemical facilities are often terrorist targets because of the lethal chemicals they use and store onsite. This bill will protect workers at and neighbors of chemical facilities by asking the highest risk facilities to switch to safer chemicals and processes when feasible. I will also continue working with members of the Energy and Commerce Committee to complete legislation to give EPA the authority to require strong security standards for our nation’s drinking water facilities.

Chairwoman Jackson-Lee added the following statement:

I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of this important legislation that will work to close a threatening vulnerability that was only made more real by the attacks of September 11, 2001, and other international incidents over the past several years. As the Chairwoman of the subcommittee with oversight over this important program, I believe that we have worked in a bipartisan manner with all relevant stakeholders, including DHS, to author a bill that builds on the current program in order to best protect this Nation.

Chairman Markey released the following statement:

By requiring the highest-risk facilities to switch to safer chemicals or processes when it is economically and technologically possible to do so, this legislation will make our communities less vulnerable to a terrorist-designed Bhopal in Boston, Baton Rouge or Buffalo.