FacilityBlog » sustainability

Green Seal Introduces Standard For Specialty Cleaning Products

Chad Safran — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:41:15 +0000

With this new standard, virtually all cleaning products used in institutional and industrial settings can now be Green Seal certified.

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Yahoo! Corporate Campus Receives LEED EBOM Gold Certification

Chad Safran — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:34:32 +0000

Yahoo!'s 1 million square foot campus consisting of seven buildings is the first of its kind to receive LEED EBOM gold certification.

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Free Whitepaper: Crossing the Sustainability Chasm: Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Sustainability Goals

Mary Ellen McCandless — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:43:55 +0000

A recent study by Gartner, in collaboration with TRIRIGA, an IBM Company, surveyed 130 professionals responsible for the planning and implementation of sustainability initiatives across large corporations. This paper provides a thorough analysis of these survey results. Download the Whitepaper

Building Code for Sustainable Construction Emphasizes Functional Resilience

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:38:28 +0000

The PCA/IHBS ordinance provides mandatory requirements for increased resistance to natural disasters with the goal of reducing the number of destroyed buildings, protecting property, and saving human life.

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Free Webinar: Learn How to Implement Lighting Management Technologies and Practices to Drive Building Efficiency

Mary Ellen McCandless — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:05:11 +0000

Join Us For a Free NEMA Webinar: Implementing Lighting Management Technologies and Practices to Drive Building Efficiency

Energy is the largest operating expense for commercial buildings, and more site electricity is consumed for lighting than for any other end use category, such as cooling, ventilation, or refrigeration. Therefore, planning for lighting management systems in building renovations, retrofits, and new construction is crucial for ensuring lighting energy savings, meeting sustainability and code mandates, driving building energy efficiency, and enhancing occupant comfort and productivity.

This webinar will cover all of these topics and will review traditional lighting management strategies, and

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Earth Day Employee Engagement

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:24:55 +0000

Earth Day is April 22, 2011, and businesses around the world are commemorating the occasion in many different ways. Some employers are going so far as to reward proactive staff members through incentives that encourage environmental awareness.

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Results: CoreNet Global/Jones Lang LaSalle Sustainability Survey

Heidi Schwartz — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:47:00 +0000

Results reveal a corporate real estate industry in the process of reconciling the focus on reducing environmental impacts of buildings with the need to control costs and support corporate financial performance.

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President Talks About Better Buildings Initiative (UPDATED)

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:34:20 +0000

President Obama has unveiled his plan to make America’s commercial buildings more energy- and resource-efficient over the next decade.

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Football Stadiums: The Power Plants of Tomorrow

Heidi Schwartz — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:23:13 +0000

With the Super Bowl shining a spotlight on the NFL, fans of another stripe are cheering sustainable developments at Philadelphia’s eight-year-old Lincoln Financial Field, which recently announced plans to go to net zero and generate power needs through onsite sustainable or renewable sources.

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Open For Comment Until 1/14/11: LEED Rating System

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:49:53 +0000

The public comment draft of the next version of LEED is an update and expansion of the technical content from LEED 2009.

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Election Means Changes, Challenges For Construction Industry

Heidi Schwartz — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:57:34 +0000

Following an election that brought sweeping changes and switched the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, construction industry observers foresee changes in policies impacting this sector.

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Tips on Making the Holiday Season More Sustainable

Heidi Schwartz — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:33:38 +0000

"There are lots of ways to make this a more sustainable holiday season," says Stephen Ashkin, president of The Ashkin Group. "And just remember, every sustainable gift we give is also a gift honoring our planet."

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Update of LEED Opens for First Public Comment

Heidi Schwartz — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:15:24 +0000

The proposed update builds on the foundation of LEED 2009, including the alignment and weighting of credits and further advances the “bookshelf” framework where credits are applied to specific building types.

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ASHRAE Competition Gives Students Practical Experience

Heidi Schwartz — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:57:58 +0000

Engineering practices such as building information modeling (BIM), geothermal, and combined cooling, heating, and power were highlighted in the winning entries in the 2010 ASHRAE Student Design Competition.

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FRIDAY FUNNY: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Hotel????

Heidi Schwartz — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:29:23 +0000

Guests at Treehotel, which offers rooms incorporated into their natural surroundings, may need more than the most accurate satellite system to find their rooms in the sky.

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Institute Brings Industry Perspective to DOE Initiatives

Heidi Schwartz — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:03:05 +0000

NIBS has encouraged DOE to use a holistic approach to achieve sustainability in federal buildings; look at lifecycle costs instead of first costs as a basis for sustainable decision making; and include operations and maintenance staff and building occupants in the long-term strategies for sustainability.

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WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extending Motor Life

Anne Vazquez — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:28:11 +0000

This Web Exclusive article is contributed by Electro Static Technology, maker of AEGIS shaft grounding products.

Increasing Sustainability Of Motors In Manhattan’s Time & Life Building

A preventive maintenance plan that reduced the total life cycle cost of operations in a prominent building at the heart of New York City serves as an example of how the push for more sustainable building management has led to a growing awareness of a chronic, widespread problem with HVAC motors — electrical bearing damage.

The 48 story Time & Life Building in New York’s Rockefeller Center

The problem is all too

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FM Sustainable Landscaping Guide Released

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:56:55 +0000

The Groundskeeper and the IFMA Foundation are pleased to announce the release of Sustainable Landscaping, a practical, real world guide on how to introduce and advance sustainable practices in landscaping.

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Survey: Healthcare Needs More Sustainability Managers

Heidi Schwartz — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:02:44 +0000

The survey, podcast, and seminar series are part of the IFMA Healthcare Council’s mission to keep health care professionals abreast of the most critical trends in 21st Century hospitals.

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Revised U.S. Forest Management Standard

Anne Vazquez — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:17:51 +0000

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) recently announced revisions to its Forest Management Standard for the contiguous U.S.

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Update—IFMA Energy Challenge: ENERGY STAR®

Andrea Sanchez — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:02:44 +0000

In March 2010, the IFMA international sustainability committee (ISC) launched the IFMA Energy Challenge: ENERGY STAR® which encourages facility professionals to track energy consumption in facilities and embark on a continuous monitoring and energy improvement program.

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Administration To Act On Greening Of U.S. Building Stock

Heidi Schwartz — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:23:11 +0000

Under current executive authority, the Obama Administration has the ability to use over 30 existing federal programs worth $72 billion to enhance efficiency in commercial buildings and multifamily housing, with no new legislation.

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Green At Work, Home, And In Community?

Anne Vazquez — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:13:54 +0000

Facility managers with sustainable actions in these three spheres can enter to win Zeftron nylon's 2010 Sustainable Practices Award.

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Capital Chapter of IFMA Hosts Sustainability Summit

George Deutsch — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:54:54 +0000

The Capital Chapter of IFMA today hosts a sustainability summit at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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Princeton Review & USGBC: “Guide To 286 Green Colleges”

Heidi Schwartz — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:21:31 +0000

Just in time for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day (April 22), "The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges" – which is based on a survey of hundreds of colleges nationwide – profiles the nation’s most environmentally responsible campuses.

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