facility focus Achieving Energy Savings And Healthier Workplaces Audits and procedures to increase efficiency and decrease a facility’s energy bills. By: Carolyn Sarno T The world is changing in terms of expecta-tions on building operators. In the past, it was enough for these pro-fessionals to keep buildings clean and stay on top of regular maintenance tasks. Today, they are expected to follow “sus-tainable” or “green” practices — even when those terms are not well defined — while al-ways looking for ways to reduce costs. And, as Judy Gillies pointed out in the November 2013 issue of Cleaning & Mainte-nance Management , one must stay abreast of the changing expectations in order to stay competitive. Luckily, a new publication offers soup-to-nuts guidance: The Regional Operations & Maintenance Guide for High Performance Schools and Public Buildings in the North-east and Mid-Atlantic , published by North-east Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP). The guide contains operations and man-agement (O&M) procedures that will lead to overall improvements in the working and learning environment, including reduced op-erating costs, healthier indoor air, improved comfort, reduced water consumption and improved environmental stewardship. O&M procedures targeted at energy ef-ficiency can save 5 to 20 percent on a build-ing’s energy bills. These savings can total up to hundreds of thousands dollars annually, and many can be achieved at no to little cost. The guide also offers short case studies — “See it in Action” — for each recommen-dation and links for more details. Here is a sampling of topics covered in the guide. Energy Efficiency Start by benchmarking your building’s en-ergy usage. When you benchmark your facility’s energy use, you have reliable data to make improvements. 44 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • February 2014 Image courtesy of Csaba Deli/iStock/ThinkStock
CMM – Archives February 2014: 44
