Tom Badrick
Sustainability Coordinator
Legacy Health System
Portland, Ore.
Podcast: Management Strategy
The Facilities Management Tip of the Day podcast discusses essential maintenance and engineering management issues. Topics include lighting, flooring, HVAC, ADA, emergency preparedness, security, plumbing, landscape management and roofing.
News: Education Department Funds Emergency-Management Plans
Public school buildings around the country could receive billions of dollars for renovation and modernization under legislation recently approved by a House committee. The House Education and Labor Committee passed the 21st Century High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, H.R. 3021. The legislation would provide funding to states and school districts to help ensure school facilities and learning environments are safe, healthy, energy efficient,
environmentally friendly, and technologically advanced.
Webcast: Cool Roofs: Energy and Environmental Benefits
This free Webcast shows how cool-roofing products can reduce energy consumption, minimize urban heat, and help slow the effects of pollutants without compromising the comfort of building occupants.
What You Say: IEQ Priorities
Achieving good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) often means taking a variety of factors into account. Do certain factors get priority when it comes to IEQ? Submit an answer and view results at:
Cybernetics: Building Automation on Steroids
The arrival of BACnet in the mid-1990s took building automation from concept to reality by allowing managers and operators to integrate the control of separate HVAC systems and components. Now, building automation for new construction and existing facilities is about to make the next technological leap.
Cybernetic building systems will enable organizations to control HVAC system operations, as well as energy management, fire, security, transportation, fault detection, diagnostics, and real-time electricity purchases.
The Building and Fire Research Laboratory is working with manufacturers, building professionals, ASHRAE, trade organizations, researchers and other government agencies to develop and demonstrate cybernetic building systems ...
Safety and Campus Security: The Human Impact of Virginia Tech
Anyone who turned on the news or accessed the Internet after the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16, 2007, will never forget the images that flashed across television and computer screens. But imagine how first responders and others involved with campus operations had to feel after those tragic events took place.
I spoke with one such person when I recorded a podcast with Bill Elvey, who was the assistant vice president for facilities at Virginia Tech during the shootings. He since has moved on from that position, to a similar role at the University of Texas at Dallas. But he still has a hard time coming to grips with what happened in the unassuming town of Blacksburg, Va.
Elvey graciously agreed to discuss what happened at Virginia Tech, but at the end of the podcast, he admitted talking about those events still evokes unthinkable memories. Elvey and his department had a great deal of responsibility after the shootings. Facilities management supported the needs of first responders and prepared a memorial for the evening following the shootings …
Green-Collar Jobs on the Rise
Does your organization have a director of sustainability or a vice president of environmental practice, or maybe just a green guru? If not, your organization might be in the minority.
Even as the economy slows and unemployment grows, green-collar jobs continue to rise. There is no specific definition of a green-collar job, other than a position for a person who spends his or her day trying to protect the environment and combat climate change.
An article in The New York Times reported a study by the American Solar Society that says there are about 8.5 million jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industry, and that number is expected to grow to 40 million by 2030. This trend is not that hard to believe …
The Grassroots Advocacy Center
The Grassroots Advocacy Center from the Security Industry Association identifies and provides analysis of bills impacting the security industry related to changes in security codes and standards ranging from video surveillance and biometrics to fire detection, access control, and procurement law.
