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Translate Building a culture of trust starts with a shared vocabulary of simple—yet powerful—phrases that leaders use to say thanks, show empathy, and provide support. Relationships of trust are rooted in understanding. Leaders who engage team members with compassion and gratitude encourage them to mutually invest in the teams and the clients they collectively serve. When […]
Educating Our Schools: Building Decarbonization and Embracing Energy Efficiency
We have recently come off a summer of unprecedented global heat waves when some areas reached new scorching temperature records. And it’s only getting hotter. A new study from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found that there is a 50% likelihood of a 1.5ºC increase in average global temperature by 2026. We need to quickly […]
Infrastructure Law’s Potential Benefits for Higher Education
Last fall, President Joe Biden signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Allocating billions of additional dollars in appropriations for myriad aspects of U.S. national infrastructure, IIJA is one of the most significant infrastructure bills put forward in recent decades. As these dollars are deployed, higher-education […]
IoT Technology Makes Life Easier for Campus Facility Managers
Internet of Things (IoT) technology is a game changer for facility managers facing the unique challenges of maintaining the complex array of residential halls, labs, libraries, classroom buildings, and dining halls that comprise a campus. IoT-empowered sensor technology can assist facilities managers monitor buildings for vulnerabilities to water damage and changes in humidity and temperature, […]
It’s a Brave New World: How to Leverage Contact Tracing to Navigate the New Normal in the Facilities Industry
Recent Reopenings Have Brought New Risks As cities across the country continue to reopen we have seen an acceleration of the spread of COVID-19. Like the mandate for masks, we need to have a mandate for contract tracing to reduce the spread. For employers and facility managers tasked with the responsibility of enabling employees to […]
Lab Technologies Can Create Healthy Buildings Campus-Wide in a Post-COVID World
The era of “healthy buildings” has arrived. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, building owners increasingly recognized the bottom-line benefits of implementing measures to optimize indoor air quality (IAQ) and other critical environmental measures. While COVID may not have created this trend, it has certainly given it high-profile momentum. The requirements for creating healthy buildings are […]
Six Ways Facilities Managers Provide Leadership during COVID-19
The call for amplified health and safety measures across schools and workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the role of the facility manager. Prior to the pandemic, facilities management functioned as an invisible operation—one that was often viewed as a reactive cost center rather than a proactive leadership arm of an organization. But the […]
Technology Offers Facilities Managers O&M Transparency
“Seeing is believing,” as the old saying goes—but these days, it’s much more than that. In the realm of facilities management, new visual documentation technologies are giving managers important new tools to ensure proper maintenance of expensive systems. It’s difficult to understand how useful a visual intelligence tool can be until facilities managers see it […]
The Case for the Circular Economy in Campus Facilities and Procurement
The circular economy is a new economic system that delivers better outcomes for people and the environment. Business models, products, and materials are designed to increase use and reuse, replicating the balance of the natural world, where nothing becomes waste and everything has value. A circular economy, increasingly built on renewable energy and materials, is […]
To Save Energy, Wield the Power of Many Small Changes
Few things grab attention quite like a big, bold move. Think of the professional gambler who goes all in with a stack of chips; a business leader who donates a single, massive amount to charity; or the quarterback throwing a bomb downfield with seconds left in the game. Managing a facility isn’t all that different […]
University of Georgia’s Facility Innovation, Diversity, Collaboration
Kimberly J. Thomas, senior director of services in the Facilities Management Division (FMD), leads a team of 700 facility professionals at the University of Georgia. UGA is the flagship institution for the state and was chartered in 1785. There are 465 campus buildings at Athens’ locations, with 300 residence-instruction facilities maintained by FMD on over 760 […]
We’ve Fallen Down on Our Assets
You know the list. It is a mile long and incomplete. When it comes up during your leadership meetings, you sink in your seat, nod in dismissive agreement about the hole your organization is in, and choose to allow this thought to rush out of your mind as you proceed to the next pressing challenge. […]
