For decades, IFMA has recognized and championed the business case for energy efficiency — highlighting its role in enhancing U.S. economic competitiveness, reducing environmental waste and strengthening national security.

Consumers and businesses alike rely on Energy Star ratings when making informed decisions about appliances and equipment. Eliminating this publicly funded resource without consulting the industries and individuals who depend on it is shortsighted and irresponsible. Dean Stanberry, immediate past chair of IFMA

Facility managers face the realities of energy management every day. Commercial buildings are among the largest consumers of electricity in the United States, making them key targets for energy-saving opportunities. Facility managers not only reduce operational costs through energy-efficient strategies but also educate building occupants on best practices and emerging technologies.

Energy Star is not just for U.S. households — it’s a global benchmark with far-reaching influence across commercial facilities of every type. From HVAC systems to lighting, life safety equipment and manufacturing tools, Energy Star provides independent, trusted confirmation of quality and efficiency. Facility managers, building owners and employers depend on this program to maintain healthy, sustainable workplaces that support core business functions. Michael V. Geary, CAE, President & CEO of IFMA

IFMA says it remains committed to collaborating with policymakers and industry stakeholders worldwide to promote efficiency, innovation and sustainability in the built environment.

The post IFMA urges Congress to preserve Energy Star and other critical building sector programs appeared first on FMLink.

The annual recognition was announced at the 2025 Green Schools Conference in Orlando in collaboration with the Green Schools National Network (GSNN). The Green Schools Conference is said to be the only event to unite everyone involved in creating and advocating for green schools. The two-day event provides a platform for the green schools community that inspires and facilitates the movement’s progress.

Anisa Heming, director at the Center for Green Schools, stated:

This year’s Best of Green Schools awardees are individuals and organizations dedicated to improving our schools and creating healthy and resilient learning environments. The awards are an opportunity to spotlight how anyone can make an impact in their community and support students and educators. We are grateful for all those who believe in our mission and join us in achieving it.

Ileana Albareda, executive director at the Green Schools National Network (GSNN), pointed out:

The 2025 Best of Green Schools honorees are proof that sustainability in education is not just a goal, it’s a movement. Their work is transforming schools into healthier, more resilient places for students to learn and thrive. They are part of a growing network of changemakers, and their leadership is inspiring others to take action, push boundaries, and create lasting impact.

This year’s Best of Green School winners represent some of the most engaged individuals and organizations in the green schools movement. In 2024, the Center for Green Schools reached over 600 unique individuals from over 350 school districts at its educational events. It published an online School Health Research Library and several new publications and briefings, including individual school health research highlights, a School District Indoor Air Quality Management Plan Toolkit and executive-level briefings on decarbonization and climate resilience planning.

The awards were presented to organizations or individuals that have worked to move green schools forward in eight categories. This year’s recipients are:

K-12 School: Rochester School

• The campus for Rochester School, in Colombia, was built in 2012 and was designed for sustainability, learning, and health. The school has achieved over 70% energy savings and 40% potable water savings compared to a conventionally-built school of the same size. The campus features a solar aquatic center, intelligent classroom hubs, and other campus features that serve as a living textbook for the curriculum. The school takes pride in graduating students who embody the principles of these innovative systems and contribute to the world’s sustainable future.

 Ambassador: Lauren Click   

• Lauren Click from Arizona is transforming food waste education in public schools. In 2024, Let’s Go Compost expanded from a single school to 111 public schools, 75% of which are Title I. Under her leadership, the nonprofit provides hands-on composting educational tools that make waste reduction education accessible and impactful for students nationwide.

School System: Denver Public Schools

• Denver Public Schools has worked on sustainability initiatives since 2009, focusing on environmental protection, economic prosperity, and social development. The DPS Sustainability Team approaches its work with bold action, innovation, and accountability while engaging students and staff in creating a livable future and thriving learning environments.

 Student Leader: Molly and Emma Weber

• Emma Weber and Molly Weber from Boulder, Colorado, spearheaded a local campaign for climate justice in their school district and later expanded to a statewide movement. They built a network of over 60 students in their school district, won a first-of-its-kind Green New Deal for Schools resolution through their school board, and are currently working with state senators and representatives to pass legislation. Their efforts have focused on implementing sustainable infrastructure, climate curriculum, climate disaster plans, and pathways to green jobs in public schools.

 Business Leader: Texas Disposal Systems 

• Eco Academy, an education program of Texas Disposal Systems, is designed to help minimize waste in Central Texas schools by educating K-12 students about trash, recycling and composting options on their campuses. The program provides training, curriculum, signage and other educational materials for staff, administrators, and students to make recycling fun and enable real-world application. Each school’s participation is documented, and diversion data is made available.

Policy Maker: U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott and U.S. Senator Jack Reed 

• U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) have been steadfast in supporting a federal role that ensures that high-need communities have resources to build and repair healthy, green schools for their students. They introduced the Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which, if passed, would invest $130 billion in school buildings. They have led the way for their colleagues for many years. In 2023, their offices were essential in funding a national clearinghouse for school infrastructure and a grant program to help states serve their school districts better.

  K-12 Educator: Erin Stutzman

• As an educator in the Boise School District, Erin empowers students through community outreach and project- and place-based learning, helping them use their voices to create meaningful change at local, state, and national levels. In collaboration with Nez Perce youth and tribal elders in Lapwai, Idaho, her students have had the opportunity to learn from Indigenous customs and build partnerships around shared environmental goals. Together, they have secured rooftop solar panels through grant writing, advocated for climate action in schools, and supported the nationally recognized Save Our T-Pack initiative to protect Idaho’s wolves.

School District Champion: Darien Clary

• Darien Clary, the director of sustainability at Austin Independent School District, has led efforts to integrate sustainability across 130 facilities, serving 73,000 students and 10,000 staff since 2016. Her work has influenced green building practices, renewable energy, and sustainable food systems, earning recognition in the New York Times and Forbes. She has also authored publications on whole-school sustainability.

For more information and links to individual recipients, visit 2025 Best of Green Schools.

The post Best of Green Schools Awards honor work to advance safer and more resilient campuses appeared first on FMLink.

The newly formed team will be led by James “Woody” Woodruff, who was recently promoted to vice president of Commercial Business and is a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team.

The announcement comes after significant product launches focused on the commercial segment including its most recent introduction of Rinnai Commercial Boilers, a full line of wall hung and floor standing commercial grade boilers ranging up to one million BTUs. The new organizational structure includes a dedicated commercial heating and water heating sales team, a team of engineers specializing in system designs, and an operations team focused on supporting the company’s national account business.

Woodruff commented:

I’m excited for the opportunity to take on this new leadership role at Rinnai as we continue to focus on developing and expanding our product and service offering in the commercial segment. We have a great team in place and are ready to aggressively pursue new growth opportunities.

Frank Windsor, president of Rinnai America, remarked:

Woody has a solid track record of developing and executing strategies to grow in the commercial segment. Under his leadership we are well positioned to grow our commercial market share in the North American market.

Woodruff joined Rinnai in 2017 as director of Commercial Sales and was later promoted to senior director of Commercial. Prior to joining Rinnai, Woodruff held sales leadership positions with other well-known organizations including Rheem and Kohler Company. He earned his undergraduate degrees from Western Carolina University and Florida State University, and earned his MBA from Auburn University.

The post Watch for innovations in commercial water heating from Rinnai’s expanded team, led by new VP Woodruff appeared first on FMLink.

Peter Templeton, president and CEO, USGBC and GBCI, explained:

PERFORM helps organizations advance sustainability across their real estate portfolios, ensuring every building — regardless of type or starting point — contributes to achieving organizational performance goals. USGBC and the green building community are committed to wholesale market transformation, which means accelerating and scaling measurable performance improvement across the built environment. PERFORM will enable organizations to meet sustainability and regulatory goals while addressing the urgent needs to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen resilience, protect human and ecosystem health, and advance equity across all communities.

PERFORM is designed to track and improve sustainability performance of diverse building portfolios, enabling incremental improvements across all owned, occupied or managed assets. Through PERFORM, organizations set their own goals, implement plans and strategies, measure improvement, and communicate improvements to stakeholders. It includes a suite of complementary tools, including:

• Standardized portfolio-wide guidance and assessment to help organizations develop actionable plans, goals and strategies
• Measurement and verification of portfolio-wide performance improvement relative to organizational commitments, including emissions, energy, waste, water and more
• Technical support for existing building portfolios at various levels of performance aligned with their unique organizational goals, strategies and circumstances

PERFORM empowers organizations to bridge the gap between their sustainability targets and actionable, measurable outcomes, particularly in a global context where many companies are looking for tangible ways to demonstrate real progress toward their emissions reductions and sustainability goals.

Recent research by the Financial Times with Smurfit Kappa found that while many organizations set ambitious sustainability targets, they lack robust and actionable plans to achieve those goals.

Additionally, a report by New Climate Institute found that many organizations with corporate net-zero commitments have not meaningfully improved the quality or credibility of their net zero strategies. PERFORM aims to bridge that gap.

PERFORM complements USGBC’s globally recognized LEED green building system, which certifies buildings and projects to a defined, consensus-based, leadership standard. PERFORM works with entire real estate portfolios to help set customized goals, implement plans, measure improvement over time, and verify achievements. In addition to verifying the achievement of energy- and climate-related sustainability goals, the PERFORM program can be used to verify progress and achievements across a holistic set of environmental, social, and resilience metrics.

Sarah Zaleski, chief products officer, USGBC and GBCI, stated:

Organizations that have set portfolio-level sustainability goals to satisfy stakeholders, meet public commitments, and comply with evolving regulatory standards are now looking for pathways to make meaningful and verifiable progress. PERFORM builds on USGBC’s decades of expertise as a market accelerator to partner with organizations around the world to achieve their portfolio goals.

In 2023, USGBC and GBCI launched a Portfolio Accelerator program to test and refine the program to meet evolving market needs. With the input of global portfolio owners, USGBC has established a comprehensive assessment process, including an evaluation of progress against performance commitments, and verification of portfolio-level progress and performance. Program participants include Grubb Properties, Proximity Parks and others.

Zaleski added:

As part of PERFORM, we are expanding our partnerships with Schneider Electric, ClimateFirst, Carbonsight, and Kode Labs to collaborate on data exchange, streamline portfolio-level data and introduce new portfolio-level tools that drive improvement.

In addition, USGBC and GBCI will strengthen partnerships with Measurabl to enhance data sharing for verification of portfolio-level sustainability metrics and with GRESB, Nareit, and ISSP to support organizations in the early stages of their sustainability journey, focusing on guidance and education.

PERFORM, officially known as Arc PERFORM, can be accessed on Arc, a new digital platform and workspace that brings together all of USGBC and GBCI’s products under one seamless, easy-to-use, and intuitive user experience. From the Arc dashboard, organizations can select PERFORM, which provides access to a custom target-setting tool where users can indicate the metrics to be tracked, set targets from their sustainability action plans and existing tracking systems, and submit to GBCI for verification of performance claims, for an additional cost.

The post USGBC’s PERFORM program offers tools to meet sustainability and regulatory goals across real estate portfolios appeared first on FMLink.

First published in June 2023, ASHRAE Standard 241 establishes minimum requirements to reduce the airborne transmission of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 (which causes Covid-19), the flu, and other pathogens. This standard applies to various building types, including single- and multi-family homes, offices, schools, and healthcare facilities. Recognized as the first consensus-based, code-enforceable standard of its kind, it has been praised by former White House Covid Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha as “one of the most important public health interventions seen in years.” The potential for federal adoption highlights its crucial role in protecting public health across the built environment.

2024-25 ASHRAE President M. Dennis Knight, P.E., BEMP, Fellow Life Member ASHRAE, stated:

Standard 241 reinforces ASHRAE’s dedication to improving the health and well-being of building occupants. The Society supports legislation to improve indoor environmental quality (IEQ), which we know is a long-term solution in mitigating disease transmission and this standard is a foundational piece. By making the integration of strategies to control infectious aerosols the norm, we are helping to create safer indoor environments.

Standard 241 provides detailed guidance on the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to control the spread of infectious aerosols. It covers ventilation rates, filtration and air-cleaning technologies and includes a building readiness plan to evaluate the performance of existing or new HVAC systems.

Additionally, the standard addresses Legionellosis risks by focusing on potable water systems, decorative water features, whirlpool spas and cooling towers, with appendices on U.S. drinking water regulations, Legionella testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) guidance. Further building occupant safety guidance can be found in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems.

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality and Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings are also key resources for tackling poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in both commercial and residential buildings, impacting health, comfort, and productivity. These standards provide three compliance methods: prescriptive, performance-based, and natural ventilation approaches.

To purchase these and related resources, visit the ASHRAE Bookstore (click on specific links above). Also listen to the ASHRAE Journal Podcast: Infectious Aerosol Control: Understanding Standard 241.

The post ASHRAE’s airborne pathogen control guidelines provide crucial support during flu/virus season appeared first on FMLink.

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan remarked:

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is the industry-standard tool — already used to measure more than 22% of all commercial floor space in the United States. Increasing accessibility to the tool for Spanish-speaking facility owners, managers, and occupants will provide their businesses with the data and insights to drive energy efficiency improvements, cost savings, and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The launch of Portfolio Manager in Spanish supports Executive Order 13166, which encourages federal agencies to provide meaningful access to information to persons with limited English proficiency. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 13% of the U.S. population spoke Spanish at home in 2019, with 5% saying they speak English less than “very well.” Offering Portfolio Manager in Spanish increases access for facility owners and managers in Puerto Rico, those in disadvantaged communities, as well as those in dozens of cities and states that require use of Portfolio Manager to measure, track and report energy use.

The interactive tool, previously only available in English and French, includes features such as:

• 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score: This simple number evaluates a building’s energy efficiency relative to similar buildings across the country. Fifty represents the median. The score accounts for the building’s physical assets, operations, and occupant behavior, as well as weather and operating characteristics.
• ENERGY STAR certification: Buildings that earn an ENERGY STAR score of 75 or higher can apply for the EPA’s ENERGY STAR certification — identifying the nation’s most energy-efficient buildings.
• GHG emissions tracking: Calculate a building’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy use.
• Water and waste tracking: Measure and track a building’s water use and waste.

The EPA will also provide live training, printed training materials, and user support in Spanish to further assist Spanish-speaking users.

Energy use in commercial and residential buildings accounts for one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. A recent EPA report estimates that under the Inflation Reduction Act, these same buildings have the potential to cut their CO2 emissions by up to 63% by 2030 through a combination of energy efficiency, efficient electrification, and clean energy.

Learn more:

• Benchmarking in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
• Realice una evaluación comparativa de su edificio con ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager

The post EPA launches ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in Spanish, expanding access to industry-standard energy management tool appeared first on FMLink.

As the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, Tampa General Hospital remains open and our teams stand ready to care of our community. Last night, our storm mitigation efforts stood strong against #HurricaneMilton. TGH Brooksville, TGH Spring Hill, and TGH Crystal River are operating as normal, serving our community throughout this challenging time.

The update was posted again 7:00 p.m. Sunday, October 13, confirming that Tampa General’s defenses had withstood the ensuing storm surge of some six feet.

So what did the hospital do to prepare for a near-direct hit from Hurricane Milton and for Hurricane Helene, which had devastated the region only two weeks earlier? Emergency preparations included the previous construction of an on-site energy source and water source, and assembling an AquaFence water-impermeable barrier just before each storm to protect against the storm surge.

TGH posted the video below on X during Hurricane Helene to show that the AquaFence barrier was holding:

View more emergency preparation details in the statement that Tampa General released below preceding Hurricane Milton’s landfall.

Tampa General Hospital statement preceding Hurricane Milton

Tampa General Hospital has opened the incident command center and activated its hurricane preparedness plan in advance of Hurricane Milton. The health and safety of patients, team members and community are top priority.

“We have a proactive and comprehensive plan in place to protect our locations against severe weather so we can continue to provide the exceptional care for which our patients turn to Tampa General,” said Erinn Skiba, Assistant Director of Public Safety, Tampa General Hospital. “Our fence around the Davis Islands campus is up, supplies are stocked at all hospital locations, and the teams stand ready to provide care through Hurricane Milton.”

Tampa General leadership and team members engage in emergency management training with government and community partners several times throughout the year to plan for and practice response to various emergencies, such as severe weather events.

As the region’s only Level I Trauma Center, the academic health system stands ready to meet the needs of patients throughout the state who require care after the storm has passed.

Details on preparations at Tampa General Hospital on Davis Islands include:

• On-Site Energy Source – Tampa General completed construction in 2022 on a 16,000-square-foot Central Energy Plant. Located 33 feet above sea level, this energy plant provides a reliable, protected power supply in the event of power disruption. It is built to withstand the impact and flooding of a Category 5 hurricane. The plant houses generators and boilers that can create steam and hot water.
• On-Site Water Source – In the rare event that water service is disrupted, a well is available to supply water needs. In addition, more than 5,000 gallons of water was moved on site to support patients and team members.
• AquaFence – Tampa General has completed assembly of the AquaFence to protect vulnerable areas of the campus against storm surge and flooding. The AquaFence is a water-impermeable barrier that can withstand storm surge up to 15 feet above sea level.

At Tampa General’s main campus, as well as the three hospitals that make up TGH North, preparations include:

• Supplies Stocked – More than five days of supplies, including food and linens, are on site to support patient care and team members.
• Patient Care – Tampa General health care providers and staff who are trained in emergency management will remain on-site throughout the storm to care for patients. As soon as the storm passes, and the roads are safe, additional providers and staff will return to work to relieve teams and continue supporting response and recovery efforts.

As Tampa General continues to monitor Hurricane Milton, any changes to hours of operation, services available or the visitation policy will be shared online.

For images and B-Roll of the hurricane preparation efforts at Tampa General, visit TGH Hurricane Milton.

The post How did Tampa General Hospital stay operational during hard-hitting Hurricanes Helene and Milton? appeared first on FMLink.

Alongside the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, EPA is announcing $2.6 billion in newly available drinking water infrastructure funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This funding will flow through the drinking water state revolving funds (DWSRFs) and is available to support lead pipe replacement and inventory projects. Additionally, 49% of the funding must be provided to disadvantaged communities as grant funding or principal forgiveness that does not have to be repaid. EPA is also announcing the availability of $35 million in competitive grant funding for reducing lead in drinking water. Communities are invited to apply directly for grant funding through this program. Additional federal funding is available to support lead pipe replacement projects and EPA has developed a website identifying available funding sources.

EPA estimates that up to 9 million homes are served through legacy lead pipes across the country, many of which are in lower-income communities and communities of color, creating disproportionate lead exposure burden for these families. Eliminating lead exposure from the air people breathe, the water people drink, and the homes people live in is a crucial component of the Administration’s historic commitment to advancing environmental justice.

The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements establish achievable, common-sense practices which have been implemented by several states and cities. The public health and economic benefits of the final rule are estimated to be up to 13 times greater than the costs, and together with new funding announced under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, water systems will be able to accelerate removal of lead pipes and create good-paying local jobs in the process.

The science is clear: Lead is a potent neurotoxin and there is no safe level of lead exposure, particularly for children. In children, lead can severely harm mental and physical development, slow down learning, and irreversibly damage the brain. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and cancer. If someone is impacted by lead exposure, there is no known antidote, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements strengthen nationwide requirements to protect children and adults from these significant and irreversible health effects from lead in drinking water.

Communities across the country have already begun to tackle lead pipes:

• Milwaukee Water Works is on track to replace all remaining lead pipes within the EPA’s 10-year timeframe. In 2024 alone, Milwaukee received approximately $30 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to replace 3,400 lead service lines.
• The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has received $90 million from the Administration and will replace more than 8,000 lead service lines this year, putting the city on track to replace all lead pipes in 10 years.
• The Erie, Pennsylvania Water Works has received $49 million from EPA to enable the city to replace all lead pipes within 5 years instead of 25 years.
• Denver Water has accelerated its efforts through $76 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allowing the city to be on track to replace all lead pipes within a decade.

The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements will help protect millions of Americans from exposure to lead in drinking water. EPA estimates that on average, every year after the LCRI is issued it will:

• Protect up to 900,000 infants from having low birthweight
• Prevent Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in up to 2,600 children
• Reduce up to 1,500 cases of premature death from heart disease
• Prevent up to 200,000 IQ points lost in children

Investments in identifying lead pipes, planning for their removal, and replacing them will create jobs in local communities while strengthening the foundation of safe drinking water that supports economic opportunity.

For more information about the final rule, including a pre-publication version of the federal register notice and fact sheets, visit the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements rule page.

Background

EPA is taking a comprehensive approach to getting the lead out, including:

• Regulatory Framework: EPA’s final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements follow the science and EPA’s authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to strengthen regulatory requirements to address lead in drinking water.
• Funding: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $50 billion to support upgrades to the nation’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. This includes $15 billion over five years dedicated to lead service line replacement and $11.7 billion of general Drinking Water State Revolving Funds that can also be used for lead service line replacement. There are a number of additional pathways for systems to receive financial support for lead service line replacement. These include billions available as low- to no-cost financing through annual funding provided through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program and low-cost financing from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program. Funding may also be available from other federal agencies, state, and local governments. These efforts also advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
• Technical Assistance: EPA’s water technical assistance (WaterTA), including the LSLR Accelerators and the Get the Lead Out Initiative, helps communities identify lead services lines, develop replacement plans, and apply for funding, including DWSRF funding, to get the lead out.
• Practical Implementation Tools: Through training, tools, webinars, and case studies, EPA provides support to drinking water systems to reduce lead exposure.

The post EPA issues final rule requiring replacement of lead pipes within 10 years, and invests in clean drinking water appeared first on FMLink.

For the first time, the report charts and historical data are available at a dedicated website, including pull-down menus for sorting data by facility characteristics (for instance, hospitals with purchased steam or in-house laundry). These tools will make it easier for users to make comparisons between the survey data and patterns in their own facilities.

Users can also choose some aspects of data presentation (for instance, $/therm vs. $/MMBtu in the fossil fuel energy chart).

Since GBA initiated the survey more than 25 years ago, hospitals’ overall fossil fuel use has trended downward, but electricity use isn’t declining as much. The average combined Btu/ft² (electricity plus gas/steam) for participating facilities was 223,778 in 2021 and 226,081in 2022, both down from the 236,743 Btu/ft² reported in CY2020. However, interpretation of year-to-year trends should be tempered by the realization that the respondent pool for 2020-22 would have usage patterns influenced by the Covid`-19 pandemic.

Square-foot prices for gas/steam rose ($0.75 in 2021 and $0.98 in 2022, compared with $0.65 in 2020). Square-foot prices for electricity fluctuated ($2.40 in 2021 and $2.78 in 2022, compared with $2.44 in 2020). The overall result is that total reported ft² costs for energy (gas/steam plus electric) have increased: $3.16 in 2021 and $3.76 in 2022, compared with $3.09 for 2020.

Hospitals’ average carbon footprint has remained fairly steady at 50 to 60 pounds of CO₂ equivalent per ft² per year since GBA began calculating carbon data in 1999. Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO₂ footprint in 2022 was the lowest it has been since GBA started reporting on carbon emissions (36.96 average CO₂ equivalent per ft² per year). This pattern is likely related to changes in the electric grid, as utilities themselves strive to decarbonize.

Participating facilities displayed a broad range of energy usage patterns. For instance, a few of this year’s survey participants reported fossil fuel consumption of more than 200,000 Btu/sf/year, compared with the general mid-range of facilities (about 130,000 Btu/sf/year) and those that used the least (75,000 Btu/sf/year or less). These variations mean that hospital fossil fuel energy costs may exceed $2.00/sf/year or come in at less than $0.50/sf/year.

Similarly, several hospitals reported consuming more than 40 kWh/sf/year in electrical energy, compared with a mid-range of about 27 kWh/sf/year. A few survey participants squeaked in at less than 20 kWh/sf/year. The wide differences in usage mean that some of our participants are paying well over $4.00/sf/year for electrical energy, while many are getting by with less than $2.50 and a few with less than $1.75.

GBA-Illinois Chairman Dan Doyle stated:

Facilities that have high unit costs for energy should view this as an opportunity. For example, a project that would have a five-year payback at an ‘average’ facility may have a payback of just 2.5 or three years at a facility with higher unit costs for energy.

Hospital water/sewer use has been gradually declining, but was up in both 2021 and 2022, at 42 and 51 gallons per square foot per year, respectively, compared with about 36 gallons per square foot per year in CY2020. The leap between 2021 and 2022 was likely a statistical anomaly caused by different respondent mix between those two years. Costs for water/sewer are undoubtedly rising, however. Respondents reported costs of $0.46/square foot in 2021 and $0.43/square foot in 2022, compared with the $0.27/ft² that hospitals were spending in 2006, the year GBA began tracking water/sewer use.

Chairman Dan Doyle added:

GBA expects the general trend of rising water and sewer costs to continue. Price hikes not only reflect increasing costs to extract and treat the water, but also the expense of upgrading or replacing aging infrastructure. In addition, some cash-strapped governmental entities may view water as a revenue sources.

Since 1995, the GBA survey has provided a free annual benchmarking resource. Hospitals are invited to participate by submitting responses to a short list of questions. Information for this edition was provided by a combined total of 181 hospitals located in Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada and numerous other states coast-to-coast.

Full results and analysis, as well as information about participating in the 2024 survey (2023 data), are available at the GBA Hospital Energy and Water Benchmarking Survey website. 

The post Hospital utility costs are up sharply, finds GBA benchmarking survey appeared first on FMLink.

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan stated:

These new standards represent GSA’s decades-long commitment to sustainable design practices and will accelerate our progress toward achieving a net-zero emissions portfolio by 2045. We will continue to drive clean energy innovation and make smart investments in sustainability that get us a triple win: good jobs, taxpayer savings through increased efficiency, and healthier communities across the nation.

P100 requires that facilities adopt advanced energy conservation strategies and eliminate on-site fossil fuel use, directives that align with federal sustainability goals and will accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The industry-leading  standard calls for grid-interactive efficient buildings, leverages innovative technologies through GSA’s Green Proving Ground, requires the use of low-embodied carbon materials, and directs potable water reuse. These comprehensive measures ensure that new and renovated federal facilities achieve peak performance while minimizing environmental impact.

Public Buildings Commissioner Elliot Doomes, said:

What I’m particularly proud of is that the P100 includes new standards that will push the industry toward using more sustainable materials and pioneering practices.

The 2024 P100 establishes exceptional benchmarks for:

• Electrification: New standards for building equipment and systems to be powered by clean energy sources
• Embodied carbon: Requirement to utilize low-embodied carbon materials, including salvaged, reused, regenerative, and biomimetic options
• Energy efficiency: Enhanced building envelope performance to minimize energy loss and improve overall efficiency
• Grid-interactive efficient buildings: New measures to support a more resilient, responsive grid
• Water reuse: Mandating that buildings have a 15% potable water reuse rate
• Construction decarbonization: Ground breaking new low-carbon methods for constructing federal buildings including clean energy operations, material salvage, and offsite assemblage
• Labor practices: New standards protecting workers from unfair or unsafe labor practices, ensuring supply chains are free from child and forced labor and that workers are protected from the impacts of extreme heat

P100 is updated and published every three years.

For more detailed information on the 2024 P100 Facilities Standards and other GSA initiatives, visit GSA.

The post GSA’s 2024 P100 public buildings design standards will advance efficiency and resilience appeared first on FMLink.