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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released two new reports quantifying methane emissions from landfilled food waste and updating recommendations for managing wasted food. Over one-third of the food produced in the United States is never eaten, wasting the resources used to produce, transport, process and distribute it — and much of it is sent to landfills, where it breaks down and generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
The reports’ findings emphasize the importance of both reducing the amount of food that is wasted and managing its disposal in more environmentally friendly ways. Based on these findings, EPA is releasing an update to its Food Recovery Hierarchy, a tool to help decision makers, such as state and local governments, understand the best options for managing food waste in terms of environmental impacts.
The release of the new ranking — called the Wasted Food Scale — marks the first update since the 1990s, reflecting more recent technological advances and changes in operational practices. EPA’s research confirms that preventing food from being wasted in the first place, or source reduction, is still the most environmentally beneficial approach. The second step emphasizes directing food that has already been produced but is either unsellable or not being used by the consumer to those who need it or to companies that can process it in a different way.
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Marmoleum Solid contributes to the well-being of individuals by bringing nature inside, creating healthy spaces to work, learn, heal and play. The Solid collection is minimalistic, pure, and timeless, providing a long-lasting foundation that never goes out of style and mixes well with other interior finishes. Made from natural, renewable and recycled materials, Marmoleum is unique, as carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by its raw materials. The combined photosynthesis of all plants used in Marmoleum achieves CO2 uptake that is greater than the CO2 emissions resulting from production and transportation.
Marmoleum relieves the environment of carbon dioxide, and it is climate-positive from cradle-to-gate, without offsetting. Marmoleum’s natural ingredients provide it with inherent anti-microbial and anti-static properties that won’t diminish over time, contributing to a healthier indoor environment. Marmoleum Solid’s Topshield Pro finish provides the best in durability with lasting wear performance and improved stain-resistance, including those from hand disinfectants.
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The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has released a first-of-its-kind standard, ASCE/COS 73-23: Standard Practice for Sustainable Infrastructure, that provides guidance for infrastructure owners to develop and implement sustainable solutions through a project’s entire life cycle. It is a non-mandatory, performance-based standard designed for civil infrastructure ranging from transportation projects to water systems to the energy grid, developed over a period of five years involving a multitude of diverse stakeholders.
Sustainability as it pertains to infrastructure includes projects that are planned, designed, constructed and maintained in a way that balances the economic, environmental and social benefits over the entire life cycle of the project. To achieve this, ASCE/COS 73-23 calls for infrastructure owners to develop infrastructure that achieves environmental benefits and resilience measures while ensuring equity, mobility, inclusion and the preservation of cultural heritages and resources.
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The CC-140 self-contained coil cleaning system from Goodway® gives you everything you need to clean your PTACs, evaporator and condenser coils and more. This unique coil cleaning system features onboard water and chemical tanks to maximize continuous usage and produces a strong yet safe-on-coils 200 PSI cleaning pressure.
This system is most effective when used with Goodway's exclusive CoilShine® coil cleaner, which produces a powerful foaming cleanser that is safe on all metals. Supercharge your system efficiency this spring with the CC-140 Coil Cleaning System.
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Due to its location in Baltimore, Maryland, a cradle of research institutions, colleges and universities, higher-education facility managers from institutions such as Johns Hopkins, U of Maryland, Loyola Maryland, Duke, and Wisconsin-Madison, among others are attending NFMT, looking for training because new tech, building operations and maintenance techniques are always emerging. Further, government building and facility managers from the Architect of the Capitol, the U.S. Army, NYPD, and others are known to attend sessions and walk the NFMT show floor.
For FM leadership and the staff they manage, it’s important to keep abreast of developments through education and visiting with suppliers. Training, networking and product knowledge have a solid home at NFMT 2024, the National Facilities Management & Technology show in Baltimore, March 12-14, themed, “We Are FM.”
As the first FM show every year, The McMorrow Reports & FMLink always attend, eager to see what’s concerning industry professionals and exploring sessions that are relevant for our readers. Our education picks include:
NFMT offers educations sessions in the following tracks: Asset Management; Energy & Sustainability; Future Trends; Health & Safety; M&O; Security; and Technology.
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BOMI's FMC (Facilities Management Certificate) program provides an overview of vital information for running an efficient facility. Upon completing this program, you will have a comprehensive understanding of managing and maintaining cost-effective facilities that operate at peak performance levels.
Courses include:
- Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Building Systems, Part I
- Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Building Systems, Part II
- Fundamentals of Facilities Management
Upon successful completion of all three courses, FMC holders will be able to:
- Keep their property in top operational condition;
- Manage personnel and projects to ensure success;
- Build a career in facilities management; and
- Improve overall efficiency.
The certificate from BOMI is for those who manage the ongoing operation and maintenance of facilities. Advance your career today! Learn more >>
Visit with BOMI at Booth 710 during NFMT, March 12-14, and learn more about the FMC.
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Employees rarely have a pleasant, hygienic locker room experience, suffering lockers and storage areas that are often too small, offering unsanitary metal, wood or plastic lockers that are used at high volume and infrequently sanitized.
Designed to improve hygiene in professional and healthcare settings where people have to change clothing and shoes for their jobs, Zippsafe is transforming the way employees, their managers, and interior designers look at one of the most neglected spaces in commercial buildings. A smart storage solution, automated for greater safety and convenience, Zippsafe is made of a flexible, polymer-based textile to optimize storage per square foot.
One- or two-tier metal lockers are unwieldy, inefficient and prone to pathogens. Zippsafe replaces these bulky boxes with a series of soft textile bags that flex and expand to hold more and bulkier items. Retractable hangers and side pockets neatly organize belongings. With two interior compartments in each bag and a separate shoe drawer at the bottom, clean and dirty items are easy to segregate.
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Western Specialty Contractors – Des Moines, Iowa, Branch assisted with a major project to replace the fabric roof on the University of Northern Iowa’s iconic UNI-Dome. A campus landmark, the UNI-Dome has been the home of UNI Athletics since its opening in 1976. As the facility approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026, UNI Athletics launched a $50 million, three-phase campaign in 2022 to completely renovate and renew the beloved building.
The first phase includes replacing the dome’s nearly 25-year-old fabric roof, which has reached the end of its lifespan, with a more durable fabric to better withstand the region’s cold winters and humid summers. General contractor Enclos Tensile Structures hired Western to perform a portion of the roof replacement project focused on extending the life of and restoring a concrete ring beam that encircles the entire dome.
Western’s scope of work included completing concrete repairs and epoxy injections around the ring, plus applying a full acrylic coating system on the exterior post-tensioned concrete ring beam. Western’s craftsmen used a specialized lift called a Bridgewalker Type 1 to descend off the building’s roof to access its concrete ring beam.
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NextUp, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing all women in business, saw its membership grow to a record-breaking 17,131 members and 100+ corporate partnerships in 2023. This surge is attributed to the influx of women in business, especially Millennials and Gen Z’ers who now make up 38% of NextUp's members. One of the preeminent member associations in the United States, especially in areas where Fortune 500 companies are located, such as in northwest Arkansas (Walmart’s headquarters) and Cincinnati (Kroger and P&G headquarters), NextUp has many education, training and networking options. Women in facility management, interior design and architecture who are looking for opportunities to connect can investigate a regional community.
NextUp also attributes much of its recent success to its “You Are NextUp” campaign, which showcases more than 100 NextUp members and leaders from companies across the country, such as Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hallmark, Target, and more, who highlight the power of what women can do in business. “NextUp has seen a huge surge in young members,” notes Lisa Baird, CEO of NextUp. “We know that young women tend to feel some isolation when starting their careers. It’s often hard to find mentors and advisers when working remotely or jumping in and learning in a very fast-paced environment.
NextUp Membership is open to individuals or members of a partner organization. When you join NextUp through The McMorrow Reports/FMLink, you are entitled to 20% off an individual membership when you enter the code: NextUp24McMorrow at checkout. Visit NextUp for more information.
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has chosen JE Dunn Construction with its design partner SmithGroup to design and build a new research facility on the east side of its South Table Mountain Campus in Golden, Colorado. The 127,000-square-foot Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) laboratory will be a signature facility that will enable collaboration with industry partners, universities and other DOE laboratories to accelerate laboratory-scale innovations in energy materials to market-ready products and processes.
EMAPS will create a direct path from bench-scale materials and process innovations to pilot-scale integration and production. The laboratory design will facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to materials research and development (R&D) by providing opportunities for engineers, scientists, and industry partners to work together in shared laboratory facilities to greatly accelerate process scale-up and market adoption of the advanced energy materials needed for a clean energy transition. It will serve to maximize collaboration, facilitate cross-functional innovation, and accelerate discoveries to market-relevant technology solutions.
The building’s research capabilities and applications will enable materials and process innovations in energy storage, advanced manufacturing, grid modernization, and net-zero chemicals and fuels for transportation and industrial decarbonization.
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Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, recently announced that construction is complete on 20430 & 20440 Century Boulevard, two office buildings converted to a cGMP-ready white box facility and state-of-the-art lab facility respectively, located in Rock Creek’s four-building Precision Labs campus in Germantown, MD. Ware Malcomb provided lab planning, site design, and interior architecture and design services for the buildings, encompassing approximately 32,000 and 52,000 square feet, respectively. The project was recognized as the winner of the NAIOP DC | MD Design Excellence Award for Best Life Science Facility.
Located off I-270, the buildings are within one of the largest life sciences clusters in the country and a showcase for creative repositioning of office property. The campus is owned by Bethesda, MD-based Rock Creek Property Group. Ware Malcomb’s Science & Technology studio worked in tandem with its Interior Architecture & Design and Site Planning studios to complete the project. Converting the two buildings into move-in ready speculative BSL-2 lab suites and cGMP-ready space represented a complex adaptive reuse effort as the buildings were originally constructed as office space.
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This week's Featured Book from FMLink's Books section is from the Costbooks category. This collection of peer-reviewed books has been curated by the editorial team at FMLink to provide facilities, engineering and A&D professionals with access to publications relating to the Costbooks topic.
All of the cost data in the new 2024 Interiors Square Foot Costbook is based on the most up-to-date price data available. With this guide you won't have to worry about losing money to an estimate that's been thrown off by the crazy ways inflation is impacting some costs and not others. The 2024 Edition features 65 illustrated cost studies covering:
- Office buildings
- Municipal facilities
- Schools
- Medical buildings
- And many more
This and other Costbooks titles are now available for purchase on FMLink.
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