The nonprofit National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) has partnered with commissioning industry associations ASHRAE, BCxA, ACG and NEBB to advance and revise the Building Commissioning resources on the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG). The WBDG’s Building Commissioning section presents information about current approaches and processes as well as overcoming challenges and emerging issues. It also has been expanded to address Existing Buildings and Ongoing Commissioning.

Stephen T. Ayers, FAIA, interim CEO of NIBS, stated, "The Whole Building Design Guide is a crucial resource. The built environment should be informed by the latest in research. The WBDG is the only web-based portal to provide one-stop information on a wide range of building-related guidance, criteria, and technology."

The WBDG is organized into four major categories: (1) Design Recommendations, (2) Project Management / Operations & Maintenance, (3) Federal Facility Criteria, and (4) Continuing Education. At the heart of the Guide are hundreds of Resources Pages, reductive summaries on a variety of topics.

by Mike Mitchum — This article originally appeared in the May/June 2022 issue of FMJ

Most of the time demolition projects are akin to watching paint dry, but bad things can happen very quickly if risk is not managed correctly. Management of change takes on an entirely new meaning on a project where the skyline is changing by the hour. The safest and most cost-effective way to get a project through completion is to spend more time on planning upfront. Extra due diligence during the planning stage can also result in innovation.

Different people in different industries, or even different departments, use relative terms for the closure process, also referred to as demolition. In general, there are two types of demolition contractors:

Companies that are seeking top-tier, or Class A, office space are now leading a stabilization of the commercial office real estate market after the shock of the pandemic, according to the newest NAIOP Office Space Demand Forecast, published by the NAIOP Research Foundation.

"Class A buildings are driving net absorption rates in many parts of the country, such as the Sun Belt, and firms consider quality office space necessary to attract skilled employees. Suburban markets and life sciences hubs are recovering better than the national average as more employers embrace a return to the office and the pandemic eases. According to Kastle Systems data on office utilization, office occupancy across the 10 U.S. cities that the company tracks reached 43.4% on April 27, a new record since the pandemic began," states the report.

by John Rimer (Originally published on fnPrime) — While it should be seemingly obvious that operating and maintaining buildings costs money, we, as facility practitioners, are continually battling for funding and constantly pushed to justify reinvestment into the organization. There is this perpetuated misnomer that facilities can always do more with less. However, the truth is, we can only do less with less; we are just good at kicking the proverbial can down the road (by the way, the can gets much bigger and heavier the further we kick it).

The past two years of Covid-19 restrictions have been a challenging time for students, staff, faculty and parents/guardians. Campus leaders are concerned about how the lingering effects of the pandemic will impact school communities going forward, especially if the right resources and safety measures are not put in place. To better understand these concerns, Rave Mobile Safety, provider of a critical communication and collaboration platform, fielded its second annual national survey of over 400 K-12 employees and over 380 higher education staffers in February 2022. 

Key findings of the 2022 Crisis Communication and Safety in Education Survey include: 

Automated Logic has released new BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC) solutions for the WebCTRL building automation system (BAS), making it easy to implement the latest BACnet security model on new and existing WebCTRL systems. BACnet/SC secures building automation and control networks from possible threats using standards widely accepted by the information technology (IT) community. Automated Logic, a leading provider of innovative building management solutions, is a part of Carrier Global Corporation, a global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable and intelligent building and cold chain solutions.

Mead Rusert, president, Automated Logic, stated, "We are proud to bring our BACnet/SC solutions to market. As an early adopter of the BACnet/SC protocol, we are committed to providing both existing customers and new customers a path forward for implementing the most secure building automation networks in the industry."

Behr Paint Company debuted its game-changing antimicrobial paint, Behr Copper Force Interior Paint, along with its curated Designer Collection of paint colors, at NeoCon 2022, the commercial interiors show in Chicago.

Copper Force Paint is powered by Corning Incorporated’s Corning Guardiant particles, which harness the benefits of naturally occurring copper by stabilizing the most bioactive state of the metal (copper ions) in a glass matrix to provide antimicrobial properties. The paint is designed for use on hard, non-porous surfaces (properly prepared drywall, wood, concrete, masonry, metal, etc.) found in residential and commercial settings, transforming them into surfaces that work as part of a comprehensive infection control program.