Greetings!
 
We are pleased to bring you the first annual Trends Issue of the AGPOM Monthly!
Read on to learn what the industry experts believe are the top trends for 2014.   
  
Features include:
The Association of Green Property Owners and Managers Newsletter
  

 

By Annie George

 

Following are several of the trends we'll be seeing in the hotel and resort industry:

 

Targeting Millennials: Those born between 1980 and the early 2000s will be the hospitality's customer in the next five to 10 years. What does this mean for this niche? Millennials are willing to pay more for a unique and novel experience so we will be seeing more adventure-exploration type packages being offered.  

 

In addition, within this group, you have "foodies" looking for a gourmet experience, which means hotels will be revamping lobby bars, restaurants and food service in general. Some hotels are featuring well-known chef names, concept-driven restaurants and artfully crafted menu items. Others are reinventing room service with digital in-room dining menus, online ordering, and brown-bag meal deliveries.

 

Sustainability is the New Standard: According to the U.S. Green Building Council, in the U.S., hotels represent more than five billion square feet of space, nearly five million guest rooms and close to $4 billion in annual energy use. This illustrates the scope of the impact the industry can make and has made on the environment (the hotel industry has led in green practices) in an effort to make sustainability the "new standard" along with appealing to environmentally conscious business and leisure travelers. We should expect to see even more eco-friendly practices in 2014 with standard "green" practices, products, programs and packages. In fact, according to research released earlier this year by Travel Advisor, nearly 62% of travelers expect hotels to have some type of environmental program in place and the majority (84%) do not see these practices as having a negative impact on comfort or luxury. The message that sustainable practices can save money for a hotel operation has come through loud and clear.

 

Mobile Booking Apps: Smartphones represent 50% of new mobile devices being purchased and the growth of connected devices will only continue its upward  trend. Furthermore, there will be over 50 billion connected devices in circulation by 2020, including laptops, tablets and smartphones, according to telecommunications firm Ericsson. Even more importantly, 2014 will mark the first year in North America that online access is greater from mobile devices than a desktop or laptop. Mobile applications will be of tremendous value to hotels and resorts.

 

It's an exciting time for the hotel and resort industry with continued growth expected, new customer demographics, expanded services, standard sustainability practices, technology innovation, etc. As the industry capitalizes on these trends, AGPOM's insurance partner Fulcrum Insurance Programs will continue to help you insure the risks they face with creative solutions. Read the full article on Fulcrum's Blog

IncidentTrending Now: Incident Analysis and Use of Risk Management Center Reduces Incident Frequency

 

Results from a study released in 2013 found that organizations who use the Risk Management Center Platform demonstrates that over time, the reported incident rates decline significantly and reach a level that represents a significant and sustained reduction in frequency from when the organizations first started using the application.

 

While workplace accidents cannot be completely eliminated, they can be effectively managed by organizations that employ a holistic, multifaceted approach to workplace safety including: incident analysis plus near-miss data tracking and reporting; rigorous employee orientation and ongoing safety training targeted to specific loss sources; and behavior-based safety programs that ensure individuals know their responsibilities. Read more here

 

 

OSHAFree OSHA 300 Log Reporting Through AGPOM's Risk Management Center Platform - Incident Track 

 

  

New OSHA Requirement for 2014: The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requires that many organizations summarize and conspicuously post workplace injury and illness records for the 2013 calendar year beginning February 1, 2014.

 

Your AGPOM Risk Management Center Platform has the tools and resources you need to fulfill this mandate. Incident Track™ is an easy to use and comprehensive software solution that lets you report workplace incidents and claims, conduct incident analyses, and manage required OSHA forms.

 

View this short video to learn more about the simple, automated OSHA Log reporting process available within Incident Track.

 

Incident Track
Incident Track Video

As required by law, you can

  • Track and trend employee injuries, employee illness and time off work 
  • Generate incident reports
  • Complete First Reports of Injury
  • Prepare all OSHA Logs, including 300, 300A, and 301 forms 

We are offering a free webinar entitled "OSHA 300 Reporting Made Easy with Incident Track™" to review the OSHA reporting requirements and to explain how to use Incident Track and the OSHA 300 reporting tool to ensure you remain compliant.

 

Please select the time that works best for you and register today!

 

January 21, 2014 at 9 am PST

 

January 23, 2014 at 11 am PST

 

 

Please note: Even if your organization does not use Incident Track today, this presentation will let you know how you can easily and quickly get started with this cost-effective and comprehensive solution.

 

Click here for the Incident Track brochure to learn more!

MultifamilyDevelopment & Design: Trends in Multi-family Properties

  

By Jeffrey Steele, Contributing Editor of Multifamily Housing News Online

 

Micro Apartments
Trending: Micro Apartments - Photo credit: RentReporters.com
From smaller units to wellness initiatives, use of componentized construction and more, the following are the trends to watch this year:

 

Micro apartments

Once, apartments of 550 square feet were considered small. But the standard has been reduced, and today, 380 is the new small, Mark Humphreys, CEO of Dallas-based Humphreys & Partners Architects says: "It's a price-point thing." We've seen rents going up over the last couple of years. So by making apartments smaller, as a property owner you're lowering the rent per month, but your rent per square foot is going up."

 

Wellness built in

Photo Credit: NY Times

Those heading to Las Vegas can book one of the StayWell rooms at the MGM Grand Hotel, which promote wellness through features that include air purification, lighting systems and even Vitamin C-infused showers. They claim they can generate a 30 percent premium versus one without the features they offer. But you spend far more time in your apartment than you would in a hotel. Some of these things are bound to make their way into the apartment industry.

 

Also likely to be witnessed are more bike storage and bike repair spaces, and a continued increase in the quality of equipment in exercise rooms. Thirty years ago, you equipped those rooms with the cheapest equipment available. Now, you have a focus on the widest array of equipment of the highest quality, because people do use the equipment.

 

Greater wireless control

The cost of energy will continue to increase faster than inflation. That trend is certain to propel greater use of devices and systems that save energy and enhance lifestyle. For instance, we'll see wider use of Nest Learning Thermostats that not only can be adjusted via smart phones, but that also learn residents' behavior, recognize they like their living rooms at, say, 72 degrees, and automatically adjust when they enter or leave the room.

Photo credit: TheePochTimes.com

 

Charging stations

With the all-electric Tesla rapidly assuming the title of the nation's most talked-about and-among the affluent-highly-sought vehicle, watch for more buildings to feature charging stations for electric cars, Humphreys says. "We were starting to do that a while back, but with the Tesla's success, particularly in California where they have knocked the door off the market, we've had no second thoughts," he said.

 

"If you have a Tesla, where are you going to live? If we build a high-density building, and we have not allocated for charging, it's very tough to retrofit. Our designs allow for a certain number of charging stations now, and more can be added later if demand requires."

 

Remanufactured products

Granite counter tops are out, recycled glass, recycled mirrors, recycled windshields, and recycled porcelain, are in. According to Humphreys. "We're actually using some broken bottles from manufacturers," he reports. "That's the ultimate green product. You're using a remanufactured product, and that is the highest level of green."  Continue reading...

Office2014 Commercial Office Trend: Smaller Workstations  

 

Article by: Don Jacobson, Special to the Star Tribune

Photo credit: Bangalore

 

With technology quickly changing how people work together, one of the major commercial real estate trends of 2014 will be a push by building owners and corporate tenants to remodel and reconfigure their spaces, a pair of Twin Cities experts predicted.

  

Richard Keller, a first vice president in the Bloomington office of CBRE, and Julie Wischnack, community development director for the city of Minnetonka, spent the past year watching commercial real estate trends play out from the private and public sectors respectively and seeing some sure bets move forward into 2014.One they both mentioned is the reconfiguring of offices to keep up with new "paperless" environments, which have had the effect of reducing space requirements for individual workstations and instead emphasizing open, collaborative areas within offices.

 

This is a fundamental shift from the traditional formula in which office workers have been assigned around 225 square feet for individual work stations and is causing corporate tenants to rethink their space needs, Keller said. "The trend of space optimization, or space compression, will really be coming to the forefront this year," he said. "It's the goal of every business to become as cost efficient as they can be without creating an uncomfortable environment for their employees."

 

The ratio of square footage per employee is quickly coming down, aided by advances in wireless technology and a preference by younger workers to work in team settings. "There are lot of companies that want to break [the] 200-square-foot barrier and get down to about 150," he said.

 

Meeting this new goal will require many office buildings to make major modifications - a trend that's evident in Minnetonka, Wisch­nack said. "We're seeing a lot of commercial reinvestment, a lot of office remodeling projects going on," she said. "The seems to be pretty strong going into the new year." 

RMCA Trend We'd Like to See for 2014:
  
Your Property Saving Money, Time and Reducing Risk By Utilizing the AGPOM Risk Management Center Platform!
 
 
 

  

Through your membership with AGPOM, you have access to a comprehensive, completely virtual Risk Management Center, which provides an important solution to organizations like you who want to proactively manage and reduce risk in the workplace. Access the Risk Management Center here.

 

View a pre-recorded training or attend a live training webinar on Mondays at 9:00 am Alaska, 10:00 am Pacific, 11:00 am Mountain, 12:00 pm Central, and 1:00 pm Eastern Time Zone

 

These trainings will help you get more out of your platform and improve your productivity. 

 

Note: Over the next few weeks staff from our Risk Management Partner, Succeed Management Solutions will be contacting all of our AGPOM Members to answer any questions you might have about the Risk Management Center and provide your login information if needed. 

 

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BuildingWhat's the Future of Green Building in 2014?

Industry Leader Offers Top 10 Megatrends

 

Article by: Yudelson Associates  

 

Green building consultant, speaker & author, Jerry Yudelson has announced his annual list of major green building trends that will affect the industry in 2014 and beyond.

 

At the top of Yudelson's 2014 list is the prediction that Green building in North America will continue its strong growth in 2014, with the ongoing expansion of commercial real estate construction together with government, university, nonprofit and school construction.

 

The second megatrend on Yudelson's list is the growing focus on energy efficiency in all kinds of buildings, including the increasing role of building automation for energy efficiency using cloud-based systems.

 

The third megatrend is the design and operation of zero-net-energy buildings. Yudelson says, "We know that green building has hit the mainstream. To distinguish themselves, many building owners and developers are taking the logical next step: getting to zero net energy on an annual basis; Why? The most widespread reason is that more people than ever believe it's the right thing to do."

 

Rounding out Yudelson's top ten trends for green building are the following:

 

4. LEED will attract competitors as never before. Yudelson says, "It's likely that LEED's cost and complexity will open up the market to other competitors such as the Green Globes rating system offered by the Green Building Initiative."

 

5. The focus of the green building industry will continue its switch from new building design and construction to greening existing buildings. This trend has been in place since 2010.

 

6. Green Buildings will increasingly be designed and managed by innovative information technologies that are based in the "Cloud." In fact, Yudelson calls 2014, "The Year of the Cloud," for how quickly this trend will become fully established.

 

7. Green Building Performance Disclosure will continue as a major trend, highlighted by disclosure requirements enacted in 2013 by more than 30 major cities around the country, laws that require commercial building owners to disclose actual green building performance.

 

8. Healthy Building Products, Product Disclosure Declarations, along with various "Red Lists" of chemicals of concern,' will become increasingly contentious, as manifested through such tools as Health Product Declarations. We also foresee that industry-developed disclosure systems will compete with systems offered by dozens of third-party rating agencies.

 

9. Solar power use in buildings will continue to grow. Yudelson expects that third-party financing offerings will continue to grow and provide capital for larger rooftop systems on low-rise commercial buildings, parking garages, warehouses and retail stores, as well as on homes.

 

10. Yudelson says, "Awareness of the coming crisis in fresh water supply, both globally and in the U.S., will increase, as global climate change affects rainfall and water supply systems worldwide. Read the full article.

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