Sustainable Facilities Management Trends & News for the Facilities Management market and building owners.

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Green Jobs expand, says report
A landmark study on the impact of an emerging global "green economy" on the world of work says efforts to tackle climate change could result in the creation of millions of new "green jobs" in the coming decades

Empire State Building Begins $500M Energy Retrofit
The Empire State Building, one of the world’s most famous office buildings, is undertaking a more than $500 million upgrade program to incorporate comprehensive project with goal to reduce energy use by nearly 40%.

Energy Audits on the Rise
WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a survey by FMLink, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Association for Facility Engineers (AFE), more and more facility managers are implementing re-commissioning and energy audits to measure and improve their building’s energy performance.

Green Building is the Economy’s Bright Spot
WASHINGTON, D.C.—New studies and reports point to green building as one of the growing bright spots for the U.S. economy. In fact, as economic experts call for a recovery plan focused on green jobs and infrastructure, as consumers look to live in more economically sustainable homes, as businesses strive to cut operating costs, and as our national security needs depend on an end to reliance on foreign energy sources, green buildings’ ability to deliver solutions to these pressing challenges promises to change the way we view the building industry.

Cleaning Product Standard Defines the Leaders
Washington, D.C.—Green Seal, a 3rd-party certifier of green products and services, has revised and re-launched its standard that takes environmental stewardship and the protection of human health to a new level due to increased concerns about the impact of chemicals on health, particularly our children’s health, and the environment. Green Seal first published its standard for institutional cleaning products—GS-37—in October 2000.

Green Seal Partnership Addresses Facilities Maintenance
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The introduction of Green Seal’s GS-42 Environmental Standard for Cleaning Services in 2006 ushered in a new era of understanding; laying out the requirements necessary for cleaning service providers (CSPs) to become Green Seal certified; CSPs attaining GS-42 certification are the vanguard of their profession, and demonstrate a greater understanding of the concept of “green” facilities maintenance operations.

Economics Drives Sustainability in Existing Buildings
by Christopher P. Hodges - If you've been watching the political landscape lately, you can't help but notice the sea-change in American politics. Rather than debating climate change and what we can do about it, the presidential candidates' platforms are narrowly focused on energy conservation, alternative energy exploration, and yes, even a reduction in our dependence on fossil fuels. The next few months will show if these stated initiatives will truly set the agenda for the coming years, or whether they are but a means to a political end. 

University of Maryland, Baltimore Reaps Energy Conservation Awards by Beth Leibson  - A series of official agreements, coupled with a long-term commitment to energy conservation, planted the seeds on the greening initiative at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). And now the facilities managers at UMB are reaping the results of their efforts: Energy load across the campus’s 62 buildings has fallen by 20 million kWh in two years. And hopefully, there are more savings to come.

Green Metrics for Facilities Managers 
by Fred Klammt - When it comes to the built environment, there are many measurements to assess how green a building is.  And measuring the green-ness of buildings is critical—our built environments are responsible for half of our emissions and consume about 76 percent of our electrical supply, according to Architecture 2030.
GHG (Greenhouse Gases) regulation is coming, and sooner or later, this regulation will affect every single existing or new building.

How Going Green Means $aving Green
by Scott H. Lawson - In recent years, there has been substantial growth in environmental awareness in a wide variety of industries. Green technology, green buildings and green products have entered the thoughts and lexicons of professionals world-wide. Major car manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Nissan and Ford constantly strive to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly growing green automobile market. Even the Nobel Prize for Peace was granted, not to someone negotiating a treaty between warring nations, but to people working to make peace between industry and the environment. 

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