Optimizing Energy Usage is First Step in ‘Going Green'
Ever-increasing concerns about the environment and rapidly rising energy costs have forced owners of high-performance buildings to examine ways to cut energy use. Today's evolving "green" technologies offer plenty of sustainable solutions to help businesses and the environment. Money not spent on energy is money available for other expenses.

Presbyterian College
The faculty and students of Presbyterian College's (PC) biology department recently moved into their new home, a 28,600-sf building that houses teaching and research laboratories, faculty offices, and generous interaction spaces. Lassiter Hall, which was occupied in February, is a $12-million expansion project that adds a two-story wing to Richardson Science Hall, originally built in 1964.

First Company to Earn Four Existing Building LEED Certifications
During the last eight years Adobe Systems Inc., based in San Jose, Calif., has invested more than $1.4 million in energy-related facility projects and carbon-reduction efforts and received close to $400,000 in rebates from local energy suppliers. These green initiatives have helped the technology company to save more than $1.2 million annually, which translates into a 121 percent return on investment with an average 9.5-month payback.

New IWMS Provides Comprehensive Automation, Integration, and Innovation
The Government of Alberta's Infrastructure and Transportation Ministry is using a new software program to help implement a comprehensive integrated Building and Land Information Management System (BLIMS) throughout the Province.

Lean Management Approach Eliminates Waste and Enhances Project Outcome
Integrated project delivery (IPD) is emerging as the way to organize project teams to achieve lean construction at a time when the industry is searching for ways to eliminate waste, cut costs, improve productivity, and create positive outcomes. This approach to project delivery does just as the name implies by integrating all team members--owner, architect, construction manager, engineers, and subcontractors--to form a collaborative effort. IPD uses a three-pronged platform with the owner as one entity, the architects and engineers as the second, and the contractors or builders as the third. The owner, architect, and contractor act as the core group to manage the integrated project delivery process.

Requirements Needs Analysis Aligns Stakeholder Expectations with Project Objectives
Delivering completed projects that successfully meet user expectations depends on the ability to communicate how various facility features are derived from program requirements. South San Francisco-based biotechnology leader, Genentech, has developed a powerful decision-making tool called the Requirements Needs Analysis (RNA) that is used to systematically characterize the complexity and subsequent cost of various project elements in a way that all stakeholders can understand. The company's RNA tool allows a diverse core project team--including non-facilities people who are tasked with approving scope and budget--to conceptualize project requirements in the very early planning stages to avoid the wasted time and expense that result from miscommunication.

Children's Hospital of Boston
Children's Hospital of Boston has completed an extensive $130-million building in the city's Blackfan Research District. The overall project included construction of a 300,000-sf building, which houses new research and laboratory facilities, in addition to a five-story underground parking facility and widespread upgrades to underground utilities.

Change Has Saved Millions, Increased Customer Satisfaction
The Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. has found a way to manage its North American facilities in a manner that has saved millions in operating costs while still meeting customer expectations. By switching to a management system that focuses on performance and outcomes, Toyota has eliminated wasted expense and freed operating dollars for more effective use.

Cleveland State University
The Cleveland State University Recreational Center is one of the first collegiate recreational facilities to make sustainability a key component to its success. The design / building team responsible for the project set its sights high from the outset, making LEED Silver a high priority.

Simple System Empowers Workers While Tightening Control
Managing facilities projects can be like playing the schoolyard game of "telephone." Information passes from one person to the next, changing slightly each time until the last person hears a completely different message. In the telephone game, the end result can be funny; in capital planning, it can be very costly. The solution is to simplify communication, says Arnold Breen, an experienced director of facility solutions and capital projects manager for a variety of industries.

Programs Integrate Biomedical Research, Medical Training and Patient Care
Academic medical centers are meeting the demand for enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration by employing strategies to create a synergy between research scientists, clinicians, physicians, and medical educators. Traditionally, academic medical centers have attempted to link relative disciplines by being affiliated with local hospitals; operating a school of medicine, nursing, or allied health; conducting clinical trials for pharmaceuticals and medical devices; or developing alliances for joint funding to attract top researchers and clinicians.

R.W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center Stresses Collaboration
Emory University has allocated $521 million to expand and modernize the R.W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center to address a predicted critical shortage of physicians, and to position itself as a national leader among academic medical centers by 2012. The University's investment includes nearly one million sf of new construction for a pediatrics clinic and research building, a new medical school facility, and most recently, the Rollins School of Public Health. Together, they create what Emory calls the "synergistic triangle" of research, patient care, and education.