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Many a step in the march of sustainability within facilities has occurred in California. The state has been a cauldron of developments, both regulatory and technological, that have helped organizations operate more efficiently and minimize their impacts on the environment. As they say, “As goes...

What good is technology if people don’t know how to use it? More specifically, what good are high-performance buildings if maintenance and engineering departments can’t maintain them properly? Managers have struggled for years to find and keep qualified front-line technicians, and their frustrations...

One day, facility designers will learn it pays to listen to maintenance early in process of designing a facility. Unfortunately, that day still seems far away for many organizations. Chris Matt, the associate editor of Maintenance Solutions , recounted a recent conversation he’d had with a maintenance...

In some form or fashion, all information seems to be on the Internet. For more than a decade now, managers have been able to tap into its power and find information on solving nearly any problem that arose in their facilities. One problem with this information explosion — finding exactly the information...

Roofs are about to step into the high-tech era, and the step could create new challenges for facility design and construction. My most recent Technology blog discussed possible practicality challenges posed by installing solar technology on existing facilities. The technology has advanced to the point...

After years of promise and potential, solar technology finally might have arrived as a viable alternative for institutional and commercial facilities. Or has it? The industry recently has added several thousand jobs in the production of solar cells and the installation of solar panels, reports The New...

Crises and breakdowns come and go in facilities, but energy use remains a constantly high priority. It’s nearly impossible to have a conversation with a manager these days that doesn’t touch on using and saving energy. In light of that, it’s hard for me not to be surprised by two results...

Talk about your low-hanging fruit. Saving energy doesn't get much easier than WiLight, an inexpensive wireless lighting control system developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . Consider this description from LBNL: "Using a battery-less transmitter instead of a normal wall switch,...

Feeling a bit bloated after Thanksgiving? Weary and inefficient? Chances are, your facilities feel the same way. Their HVAC systems struggle to keep up with heating and cooling loads. Their electrical-distribution systems are overtaxed and unreliable. Their plumbing systems work endlessly to keep up...

The first job of any roofing system is to protect a building and its occupants and operations from the weather; anything else is gravy. The balance of benefits quickly shifts, however, when the gravy in question is energy savings. By October 2007, researchers at NIST's Building and Fire Research...