Sustainable Facility - November 2008 - (Page 42)

Sharing the Facilities Management Burden >> BY WILLIAM HOLLAND, AIA, LEED AP and creates a corporate vision for operating the business, and the ofﬁce environment, in a sustainable way. Execution of this vision then trickles down through the departments, with sustainability remaining the common goal. For example, Hobbs Brook Management, LLC, a commercial real estate management ﬁrm in the suburban Boston area, made the decision in 1989 to embrace green maintenance and operations for all of its properties in an effort to improve the health and safety of the ofﬁce park, staff and tenants. Ronald Shaw, facilities manager at Hobbs Brook Management, says that the company implemented speciﬁc measures such as thermal water storage, green housekeeping, and ofﬁce park-wide recycling policies to make its facilities more cost- and energy-efﬁcient. Hobbs Brook Management’s corporate vision provides a great example of a facility manager working with colleagues in the purchasing, human resources, and even legal and real estate departments, to operate and maintain green buildings. THE FACILITY MANAGER IS STILL KING Under LEED-EB O&M, the facilities manager will continue to own the custodial and engineering aspects of building maintenance, but the outcomes now have a broader effect on employee health, energy consumption and the company’s bottom line. By reducing water and energy usage as well as solid waste disposal and increasing recycling efforts, companies can realize significant financial savings. LEED-EB O&M also calls for reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in carpeting and promoting more local control of heat and ventilation, through windows that open for ventilation, natural light, and views. Collectively, these measures can help improve indoor air quality and employee health, and even boost productivity through reduced illness and absenteeism. Because energy consumption and associated costs receive a lot of attention these days, facility managers are motivated to seek more efﬁcient products and procedures. Hobbs Brook Management requires that its buildings be at least 15 percent more energy efﬁcient than a traditional spec ofﬁce building, and the company has made the appropriate upfront invest- ■ Hobbs Brook Management, LLC, a commercial real estate management ﬁrm in the suburban Boston area, has embraced green maintenance and operations for all of its properties in an effort to improve the health and safety of the ofﬁce park, staff and tenants. >> Photo courtesy of Margulies Perruzzi Architects. J ust as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes more than a facility manager to operate and maintain a green building, and the newest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program sees to that. The LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB O&M) program for the ﬁrst time addresses the ongoing and sustainable operations and maintenance of existing buildings. What’s unique is that the LEED-EB O&M rating system is designed to capture both a building’s physical systems (equipment, design, land use, etc.) and the way the building is occupied and operated by its managers (waste management, temperature, monitoring, NOVE M B E R 2008 commuting programs, etc.). The intent is to promote high-performance, healthy, durable, affordable, and environmentally-sound practices in existing buildings. With this new focus on a sustainable building with green practices and policies, various corporate departments need to work together to accomplish the shared goal. With LEED-EB O&M, the facility manager has the good fortune of sharing the burden with other departments. SETTING GREEN GOALS From the outset, LEED-EB O&M certiﬁcation is most successful when a green operating mandate comes from the executive suite 42 S U S TA I N A B L E F A C I L I T Y

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Facility - November 2008

Sustainable Facility - November 2008 Contents Editorial Industry Watch Web TOC New and Notable The Case for Daytime Cleaning Commitment to Energy Effi ciency and Sustainability Finding the Green Solar for the Commercial and Industrial Sector: What’s Hot Now? Connecting Sustainability and Green Cleaning Recycling Rechargeable Batteries Sharing Best Practices The Consultant Conundrum Sharing the Facilities Management Burden The Building Owner’s and Operator’s Sustainability Solution: Energy Audits Greenbuild: Green Product Buzz Guide Product Focus Marketplace and Classifieds Advertiser’s Index Initiatives

Sustainable Facility - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.