Each year on World FM day, the global facilities management community takes time to celebrate the profession and its successes.
For this year’s theme, Leading the Sustainable Future, we talked to some of our leading subject matter experts about the evolution of sustainability efforts.
Matt Montanez, Engineering Manager
“When I was 27 years old and one of the youngest chief engineers in San Francisco, I had a crew of five people for a 650,000 sq. ft building, and we took our energy score from 92 to a 98 within the first year.”
We also saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in utility bills just by changing the way we ran the building, with a retro commissioning of all equipment. The electric and gas provider here actually taught a class on retro commissioning, energy efficiency, and energy saving ideologies using our building as a case study.
Jon Legnitto, Engineering Manager
“I’m passionate about water chemistry because historically it is often overlooked. Staying on top of it is not only the smart thing to do environmentally, it also makes everyday maintenance easier and extends the equipment lifespan.”
COVID has pushed us to think differently about sustainability. Initially, we focused on maximizing the use of outdoor air. Now, we are helping customers understand how they can operate their buildings more efficiently when buildings are at lower occupancy rates due to hybrid or remote work.
Paul Faleschini, Engineering Manager
“Back when I was an engineer in the field, we saved six months’ worth of water in a 50-story high rise by implementing water saving measures and automating all water faucets and toilets. A major trend today is filtering and reusing the water from cooling towers instead of dumping 1200 gallons every time you clean them.”
Battery load shedding backup systems have been the trend over the last several years, and implementing them has become more feasible for building owners and managers. In our region, from August through January, you have what they call load shed period with premium charges for peak demand use. Buildings are innovating by setting up battery banks with stored energy to avoid those peak periods.