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At a time when the federal government is debating a drastic shift in budget priorities — changes that would affect billions of dollars in appropriations and have a direct impact on the lives of millions of Americans — the fate of the Energy Star program might seem like a small issue. But Energy Star, one program that may be cut in the new budget, is a vital tool for making organizations more efficient by reducing...

It’s often said that the devil is in the details. I’d like to propose a revision: The answer is in the details. The question, in this case, concerns the proliferation of smart technology for facilities. These days, smart technology isn’t just coming from building automation companies that have been talking about smart buildings for years, even though BAS vendors have improved their own usability and...

Some ideas are just born to be buzz words, and big data — or Big Data — is certainly one of them. While no one would deny that vastly more data is now available than ever before, the phrase “big data” is sometimes used in a way that suggests vast amounts of data exist in readily usable form. As facility managers are only too well aware, the quantity of data is no guarantee of its being helpful...

Testing and Inspections have become big business. Fire alarms are a highly regulated and closely watched part of our everyday lives. The National Fire Protection Association (nfpa.org), International Building Code (iccsafe.org) and countless other code writing bodies have always included the mandatory annual testing of fire alarm systems as a means of good and proper Life Safety living. In the latest NFPA National Fire...

Most companies have a process for reviewing the performance of employees, to gauge whether the individual is meeting the needs of the organization. Maybe it’s worth adding a twist to that end-of-the-year ritual: a beginning-of-the-year review of the organization, to see if it’s meeting the needs of the individual (i.e., you). Take one common topic for a review: productivity. The question for an individual...