After moderating a panel discussion this morning at the National Facilities Management & Technology conference in Baltimore, an attendee approached me and felt compelled to offer feedback immediately after the session concluded. His tone was one of...

Much of the discussion surrounding Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race two weeks ago centered on the election’s impact on the proposed health care bill. Brown’s win means Democrats no longer have the 60...

Wouldn't it be nice if managers had one guide they could use to navigate the challenging journey of operating and maintaining sustainable facilities? While one guide never could be all-encompassing, managers do have plenty of resources at their disposal...

Read an interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune profiling Microsoft Corp.'s $500 million, 707,000-square-foot data center in suburban Chicago. The article touts the rather nondescript facility - at least from the outside - as a one-stop...

That is a question managers feeling pressure to make their facilities and operations more sustainable ask themselves every day. Tried-and-true tools to measure the impact of sustainable technologies on an organization's bottom line are hard to find...

Changes taking place at the Sears Tower go beyond a name change, though "Willis Tower" will become the Chicago landmark's official name in July. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune , the owners of the tower unveiled a plan Wednesday...

The U.S. Capitol Complex features buildings between 25 and 215 years old. The Architect of the Capitol – the group responsible for the maintenance and operations of the Capitol Complex – not only must maintain the integrity of the historic...

The Modesto Medical Center is the most environmentally responsible hospital in the Kaiser Permanente chain. Kaiser, based in Oakland, Calif., is a reputable organization that features more than 450 medical facilities, so being known as the company’s...

Cost-saving strategies are a hot topic these days, for obvious reasons. Through this Web site, we've been asking facility professionals to submit tips for saving their organizations money, and I received an interesting insight from a member the other...

What is the first thing you see when you drive alongside a major college or university campus? How about walking up to a massive hospital complex? Typically, the first thing that catches the eye of occupants and visitors is the organization's landscaped...

While attending a handful of educational sessions at NFMT 2009 in Baltimore, one comment stood out above the rest. For those of you who don't know, NFMT (National Facilities Management & Technology) is a trade show for facility professionals in...

For those of you interested in learning about evolving trends in commercial and institutional grounds care management, feel free to attend a panel discussion at the NFMT Conference and Expo in Baltimore. The session, Grounds Management, Sustainability...

Are you nervous about specifying a vegetative roof? Does the thought of planting vegetation – and testing the waterproofing capabilities of your roof while irrigating those plants – make you cringe? You are not alone. Many facility professionals...

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...

For those of you interested in learning about evolving trends in commercial and institutional grounds care management, feel free to attend a panel discussion at the NFMT Conference and Expo in Baltimore. The session, Grounds Management, Sustainability...

Time is money. No group of professionals has come to realize that fact more than maintenance and engineering managers. With that thought in mind, welcome to myfacilitiesnet, a new social networking site for managers in commercial and institutional facilities...

I attended the Green Industry and Equipment Expo last week in Louisville, and as I do with all trade shows, I came away with interesting observations. The show featured outdoor power equipment, lawn and garden products, and light construction and landscape...

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...

Each month in Maintenance Solutions magazine, I profile an organization that has completed extensive building renovations or system retrofits, largely to improve energy efficiency and promote environmental responsibility. During interviews for these articles...

Risk comes with the territory for professionals managing high-profile buildings. But that doesn’t mean maintenance and engineering managers still don’t get butterflies before undertaking huge renovation projects or mechanical-system retrofits...

For many people, hearing the phrase “social networking” conjures up images of high school and college students glued in front of their computer screens updating Facebook pages at all hours of the day. Those images are accurate in some cases...

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...

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...

Three yards and a cloud of … crumb rubber? Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it? But instead of a cloud of dust hovering over football fields on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, athletes are getting a face full of rubber pellets...

When the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last August, I tried to make a series of cell-phone calls to my friends residing in the Twin Cities. I spoke to one person right after I saw the news coverage on TV. After that, I was out of luck. Hours went...