The First Facility Management Blog

Let’s all take a moment to applaud ”big media” for cultivating a culture of ignorance, fear, and “crisis saturation.” How many examples can we count where big media was fanning the flames of global hysteria for relatively minor incidents? From religion to politics to the environment (is there really a difference between these three subjects any more?), how can anyone really know when they should start paying attention to the 24/7 news cycle?!

Pick your favorite crisis and decide which of these REALLY justified sounding the global panic alarm:  Pending Ice Age?  Killer Bees?  Y2K Meltdown?  SARS?  EBOLA?  AIDS?  Ozone Layer?  Global Warming?  Avian Flu?  CO2?  Polar Bears? 

Are things different this time?  Is the so-called “Swine Flu Virus” a potential global pandemic that could kill millions similar to past epic plagues?  Or will it prove to be another Y2K media-fueled exaggeration?

Only time will tell, but have you ever considered how many college kids and business travelers returning from Mexico have brought back a sexually transmitted disease compared to the numbers that may have contracted a unique strain of flu?
 
A few more questions to ponder: 

• How many pedestrians will be hit by vehicles in New York City today? 
• How many murders took place in Detroit last year? 
• How many women are chronic victims of domestic abuse or rape? 
• How many fatal vehicle accidents are caused by drunk drivers each day? 
• How many children will be molested or abused by family members this year? 
• How many people of faith are assaulted, maimed, executed, and denied basic human rights in various parts of the world each day? 
• How many homeowners and convenient store clerks have prevented a crime by owning a gun?
• How many terror plots have been disrupted by the U.S. and international allies since 2001?
• How many terror plots might be resurrected as the new administration “stands down” and refuses to even utter the word “terrorist”?
• How many people vote but pay ZERO income taxes?
• Are obese kids the victims of child abuse?

 
Are any of these stories worthy of “epic” media coverage today, tomorrow, next month?  Which of them should earn the most “buzz” and attention?
 
So thanks for nothing, big media.  How does it feel to help the ignorant masses go on living from one soundbite to the next without any real sense of priority, scale, or context?
 
Poor Richard

[For FacilityBlog's coverage of swine flu, click here.]

IMPORTANCE NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES!

All personnel will now be required to look happy while working. Company approved supplies will be provided to each employee at little or no cost.

Feeling stressed? Too many priorities and assignments? Here is the new, low cost, company approved solution to cope with multiple priorities and assignments.

Supply each employee with two paper clips and rubber bands. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1

Assemble items as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Apply as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Enjoy your day. This new office equipment will help you to reach the end of a productive work day with a smile on your face!

Sincerely,
Management

Many thanks to Poor Richard for sending along this post.

Do you know any environmentally responsible facility managers deploying reusable toilet wipes in their restrooms? This is not a misprint! There is a company called Wallypop (Des Moines, IA) offering cloth toilet wipes as an environmentally sensitive alternative to conventional toilet paper.

Features and benefits include:

• More comfortable and soft “on the most delicate body parts”.
• More economical to launder than purchasing toilet paper.
• “Basic” and “Premium” options with either flannel or velour layer.
• Hemp option includes two layer of “hemp terry”.
• Sherpa option includes two layers of soft cotton fleece.
• Two layer construction for “soft strength”
• Can be used wet without the “sopping disintegration” associated with toilet paper.

Using cloth toilet wipes actually has many advantages. For one, it’s a lot more comfortable and soft on your most delicate body parts. It’s also more economical and uses less paper. Best of all, cloth wipes can be used wet without any of the sopping disintegration that regular toilet paper is prone to.

Ummm…if you say so.

The New Buildings Institute (NBI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Washington State, published an interesting report last year that unfortunately didn’t get very much attention.  It documented a study attempting to quantify the actual performance of all 552 buildings that had earned formal certification under LEED-NC v.2 through 2006.

While the executive summary of the report states, “…on average, LEED buildings are saving energy,” this conclusion was based on a VERY UNIMPRESSIVE number of buildings for which actual performance data was obtained. According to the NBI study, ONLY 121 of the 552 LEED-NC v.2 certified buildings (22%) responded to the invitation to participate in the study.

The figure above (taken from the full study) reveals another VERY UNIMPRESSIVE trend: the number of buildings whose actual performance does not resemble the design performance and a disturbing number of buildings whose actual performance falls WELL BELOW the design expectations.

This study begs the following critical questions:

• Why didn’t 431 out of 552 LEED-NC v.2 buildings respond to an invitation that simply requested one full year of measured post-occupancy energy usage data?
• Did the non-responders not have access to this data? Or were they unwilling to expose their actual performance?
• From among these 552 buildings, how many fawning press releases were issued about their decisions to seek LEED certification and their commitments to “going green”?
• Should NBI have drawn any meaningful performance conclusions based on a dismal 22% response rate? 
• Should LEED-NC certification requirements include one full year of operational performance documentation?
• Could architects, engineers, LEED consultants or USGBC end up on the witness stand when facility managers and owners realize their LEED certified buildings lack the superior performance that was promised when justifying a 2% construction price premium?

The industry should petition NBI or USGBC to follow up with the non-responders and attempt to quantify the actual performance of the other 78 % of LEED-NC certified facilities.

Poor Richard

To request a PDF of the study, send an e-mail to tfm@groupc.com with the words “LEED NC Study” in the subject line of your e-mail.

With the recent introduction of LEED 2009 and with major revisions to LEED EB (now EB-OM) and serious structural changes to the LEED Accredited Professional requirements—one must wonder if USGBC is killing the goose that lays their golden eggs. 

After thousands of professionals have spend countless hours and tens of millions of dollars ”LEED-ing” project teams through the registration and certification process, does the industry really have unlimited resources (or patience) for constantly adapting to expensive and increasingly fluid LEED requirements? 

According to USGBC in a press release dated November 18, 2008, “Coupled with a credit alignment structure designed to create a more elegant and harmonized rating system, LEED 2009 will reset the bar for the certification of high-performance green buildings.”

All these changes sort of beg the question:  If the original LEED rating systems had been properly vetted and represented the ”best practices utopia” they claimed to be—why are so many wholesale revisions necessary?  This would be like a casino constantly changing the rules at a poker table to make the game ”more elegant and harmonized”.

According to GBCI (the educational wing of USGBC), there are currently over 60,000 LEED Accredited Professionals.  When considering the AP exam costs about $300, study materials are about $500 and a USGBC workshop costs about $400—that represents an investment of well over $1,000 per student (not to mention the percentage that don’t pass their first test—or ever).  Add in the cost for tens of thousands of project registrations & certifications and you don’t have to be a physicist or a hedge fund manager to understand the true definition of GREEN…

Will these USGBC gambles pay off for “the house”?  Or will players simply leave the table in a backlash to constantly changing rules?  

To be determined…

Just read the editor’s letter in the October issue and I realize I should read Atlas Shrugged again - thank you for that reminder!

Also, I don’t mean to pick a fight but I had to chuckle when Ms. Schwartz suggested that “both” presidential candidates exemplify “outstanding achievement”.  Other than being annointed by the media as the Democrat’s nominee (over a slightly more qualified woman), specifically what were Mr. Obama’s achievements as a freshman senator, state senator, or community organizer?  And other than co-sponsoring a misguided and unconstitutional campaign finance reform bill that has ironically resulted in his campaign being outspent by a 4 to 1 margin (source: Wall Street Journal), what are Mr. McCain’s recent achievements as an eternal senator?

I suppose we must acknowledge Obama’s uncanny ability to sound very eloquent while not answering a question.  And we should concede his ability to jettison politically expedient alliances with a racist preacher, a despicable American terrorist, and an organization infamous for fraudulent voter registrations.  And I guess we should note McCain’s ability to select a self-made woman as a running mate and allow his handlers turn her into a caricature in front of drooling media jackyls.  Perhaps we should admire his “maverick” attempt to alienate (pun intended) the base of his party with an amnesty plan for illegal aliens.

Now please don’t misinterpret this post an endorsement for either candidate or party - quite the contrary.  I think the Democrats (including Obama) would be better off moving to Europe where they are realizing that socialist utopian dreams = financial nightmares.  And since Republicans (including McCain) have had ample opportunity to demonstrate leadership since 1994 — they deserve to get even more pink slips in November.  The public will deserve the socialist misery that will be inflicted on the country as a larger and larger segment of the population is exempted from federal tax responsibilites and continues to demand wealth redistribution with more and more entitlements coming from fewer and fewer taxpayers.

So what does this political diatribe have to do with facility management?  One word—EMPLOYMENT!  Higher unemployment means less demand for facilities and facility managers - that’s a very simple concept - even for those of us who are products of the nation’s politicized and failing public schools.

But don’t count on the dying, obsolete media to remind us that the past two years have featured big government Democrats in control of the Congress and a big government president.  It’s not a coincidence that the past two years have featured rising unemployment, oil and gasoline prices shooting through the roof, and a crashing stock market.  Wealth is being destroyed as it is being redistributed through corrupt taxation policies that punish work, achievement, and even death.  Unfortunately, the next four years will likely promise more of the same regardless of who wins in November elections.

The United States - we, the people - desperately need new leadership steeped in “old school” common sense.

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

Olympic athletes were prepared to don respirators and China was forced to seed clouds, idle factories and ban vehicles to temporarily lift a pollution fog that enveloped Beijing as recently as last month.

Very interesting (albeit ironic) for USGBC to award their “gold medal” for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to a country recognized as one of the planet’s top polluters.  

Thus proving that the politics of “green” have circled the globe and that lucrative consulting proposals can be generated in multiple languages and paid in a variety of currencies…

Poor Richard

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Beijing Air Improves, Olympic Village Earns LEED Gold

BEIJING, China, August 13, 2008 - Beijing’s air quality has improved, with the sky clearly visible today after rains on Sunday and Monday reduced the air pollution, heat and mugginess that made Olympic athletes, visitors and residents uncomfortable for days. 

Weather officials measured an Air Pollution Index of 32 on Tuesday, far below the benchmark API 100 set by the Chinese authorities. An Air Pollution Index of 50 and below is considered excellent by the World Health Organization.

To read the rest of this article, courtesy of Environment News Service, click this link.