Some Unexpected Places to Look for Energy Savings for Your Building

“11 Surprising Ways that Your Building Wastes Energy“
by Leah B. Garris at Buildings magazine.

I was most interested in the following two energy drains, but there are 9 more in the article:

2. Dirty Filters, which make fans work harder.

5. Cleaning After Hours: janitorial staff can impact energy consumption for better — or worse.

Included in the article is a chart by Scott Easton listing how much money can be saved by rectifying each area.

Preventive maintenance scheduling is another way of keeping equipment in an optimal state, which saves energy.

What are some other places to look to cut energy costs?

Selection Criteria for Facilities Notification Software

Buildings magazine has a helpful article on selecting a mass-notification tool for use by building owners and facility managers during emergencies.

Selecting a Mass-Notification System
by Edward Brown III

At the conclusion of the article is a table detailing the advantages of a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool compared to previous technology of Application Service Provider (ASP) and On-Premises installation. The table summarizes benefits in terms of costs, scalability, throughput, upgrades & maintenance, pricing, availability, security, and personnel costs.

As part of integrated messaging capabilities, PropertyTrak includes Notification by email and text messaging, templates for sending new messages quickly, and message logging to record message history. Notification is also available as part of our Incident Management Logging module for emergency preparedness and disaster recovery.

Well-Maintained Facilities Stop Crime Before It Happens

Graffiti study bolsters ‘broken windows’ theory (LA Times)

Dutch researchers find that in the presence of graffiti and trash, people are more likely to commit small crimes.

New study confirms the common sense observation of facility managers that maintaining the environment well encourages people to do the right thing.

Thanks to Eldorado Park Resource Technician blog (Eldorado Canyon State Park) for the article.

Disaster Recovery for Iowa Facilities

Buildings magazine has an impressive, detailed report on the 2008 Iowa floods. Facility managers from 7 different facilities tell what worked and what didn’t in meeting this unprecedented challenge:

1. Mercy Medical Center - By Jana J. Madsen
2. Alliant Energy Tower - By Jenna M. Aker
3. The University of Iowa – By Leah B. Garris
4. City of Cedar Rapids – By Jenna M. Aker
5. Guaranty Bank & Trust - By Linda K. Monroe
6. Quaker Oats – By Jana J. Madsen
7. Cedar River Tower – By Linda K. Monroe

Ready.Gov Launches New Video Blog to Highlight Emergency Preparedness

Ready Video Blog

You can use any recording device to record your video clip (such as a cell phone), clips should be no shorter than 60 seconds and no longer than 3 minutes. Upload the video to http://www.YouTube.com/FEMA by responding to the video that requests submissions. Submissions will be chosen on the basis of content, helpfulness in encouraging preparedness, and general clarity of your message. Good quality cell phone videos can qualify, make sure your lighting and audio will come out well before shooting the video!

Issues with Voice over IP VoIP phones & Video over IP

Today’s Facility Manager: It’s All About The Network: This often overlooked component can be the key to success when implementing facility systems.

Tom Congdon reminds us that when adding services to the computer network, make sure that there’s enough capacity and that the network is ready for these services. At the end of his post is a checklist for things to take into account.

World Workplace Wraps Up

The world Workplace blog has issued its final post of the year: The last day…until next year. Lots of good photos and other information below that, too.

New Graduate Certificate in Facility Management

Attend the informational session on Thursday, October 23rd at the KU Edwards Campus to learn about the newly created Graduate Certificate Program in Facility Management. Stay on top of the latest building technologies, management approaches and facility related business methods.

For more information go to www.IWentBack.com or contact Mike Swann at 913-897-5652 ext 3180.

From the latest chapter newsletter of Kansas City IFMA.

Tenant satisfaction pie chart

Tenant Satisfaction Pie Chart

Like the Employee work quality bar chart, this pie chart summarizes data that is also available in detail form. In this case, the data is feedback received following completion of service requests. Tenants here includes both external or lease tenants as well as internal tenants. The ability to survey tenant satisfaction on a case by case basis can be a powerful tool for managers to make decisions regarding training, staffing, and more. This surveying capacity contributes to internal and external marketing of facilities services. And it provides documentation over time which can balance out those incidents which are substandard.

Facility managers and workplace violence

Facility Blog has a post on the IFMA Foundation’s new workplace violence report.

The report itself can be downloaded in PDF format at the IFMA Foundation publication page.

Violence in the Workplace–The Role of the Facility Manager (.PDF)
As the title implies, this guide was written with the facility manager and property owner in mind.  This perspective has been seriously neglected, as the majority of workplace violence publications see the issue as a human resources matter.  By reading this publication, you will see that the facility manager and/or property owner can have a significant impact on the prevention, response and recovery from workplace violence.  In addition to information about previously mentioned topics, the guide contains over 30 pages of functional tools that can be used as is, or modified to fit your specific needs.