Blogs

This isn’t good. Two years in a row I’ve gone to visit a college campus with my son. Both times I’ve come back with disasters on my mind. This year it was shooters. The most attention-grabbing part of the orientation program for parents of incoming first-year students was a video showing...

I'm interning at the University of Connecticut and we are currently in the preliminary stages of gathering pertinent information for a facilities/operations overhaul particularly regarding strategic sourcing, inventory and supply chain management processes. Have you or any others you know of recently...

We didn’t plan it this way, but it just so happens that the 2011 FMXcellence honorees provide a pretty good picture of how FM departments are using sustainability to meet organizational goals. The FMXcellence program isn’t limited to green efforts. The ultimate test is adding value —...

The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District’s strategic plan is to reduce all utility consumption by 20%, solid waste by 5%, and pollutants by 20% by the year 2014 and to hit those goals on a cost neutral basis. Click here to find out how facility strategies are playing a key role in achieving those...

The Hayes Consolidated Independent School District has held electric consumption flat even as the building square feet jumped 75 percent. Click here to learn what steps Hays took and how the district is reinvesting the money that would have gone to pay for electricity. Click here for management reports...

The facility department at the Western Michigan University has a longstanding commitment to sustainability. That commitment moved to an even higher level beginning in 2008, when the College of Health and Human Services building earned LEED for Existing Buildings Gold certification. Today, Western Michigan...

Give Your Building a Boost with Retro Commissioning that Helps it To Go Maximize its Performance For Your Staff Endurance And Have Lots of Savings to Show "In the area of Energy Efficiency in Buildings, there is a lot of low hanging fruit. In fact, I'm fond of saying there is a lot of fruit...

School Districts that have been making budget cuts to in-house custodial staff for several years, are finally getting to the point that the learning environment is suffering along with push-back from staff and community members that are finding the working conditions and environment unacceptable and...

One of the biggest and most difficult obstacles to outsourcing a facilities support service (custodial, grounds, or other) in the public sector is the ability of staff and community to accept the change, or even the consideration, in spite of current budget pressures and economic realities. The survivors...

Increasing public education funding shortfalls and cuts are having a cumulative deteriorating effect on facilities readiness from support services…custodial, grounds, and overall general maintenance. The one up-side to our support services cuts, … if there can be one…., is that our...

5824.MTCS - Sample Report- Water Spray Rack Test.pdf

The accomplishments of facility managers can be as much out of sight as chilled water running through a pipe, as much out of mind as the structural steel behind the walls of a building. But the actions of facility departments add significant value to many organizations. Building Operating Management...

Last November, Building Operating Management ran a cover story about proposals to let college students carry concealed weapons on campus. At that time, only one state — Utah — required colleges and universities to allow concealed weapons on campus. But several state legislatures were considering...

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the economic stimulus package last Wednesday, K-12 school districts and colleges and universities had reason to hope. Almost one week later, that hope has been replaced by uncertainty. As part of the $819 billion measure the House passed on...

Presidential candidates make a lot of promises. It’s part of the game, so nobody believes they’ll keep most of them. Presidents-elect do the same thing, but maybe there’s a difference. Maybe — given they’ve already won election — there is reason to hope a president...

The dire condition of facilities in the District of Columbia (D.C.) Public School District is no secret. The district’s reliance on deferred maintenance and its lack of facilities planning has resulted in crumbling schools and plenty of negative attention in the media. But it appears the district...

Public school facilities across the country received a much-needed boost last week when the House passed the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act . But the bill – H.R. 3021 – is awaiting Senate approval, and the White House has “threatened a veto, saying it...

Anyone who turned on the news or accessed the Internet after the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16, 2007, will never forget the images that flashed across television and computer screens. But imagine how first responders and others involved with campus operations had to feel after those tragic events...

During an interview for a recent article in Maintenance Solutions magazine, Brad Dow, director of properties at Mohonk Mountain House, talked about various energy-saving initiatives implemented at his facility. One of those green efforts addressed lighting in the 266-room hotel, located 90 miles north...