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FROM THE EDITOR
These days, it’s not enough simply to operate a high-performance building to save energy and be occupant-friendly. Facility managers are duty-bound to be educators about not only the particular strategies that are saving resources (and money!), but also why these results are important in larger context.
For instance, investing in a cool roof for a building not only saves money on air conditioning costs (which can make a business more profitable), it also reduces the urban heat island effect, which has human health benefits in terms of reducing smog. Facility managers can use the dashboard kiosk in their lobby, or regular e-newsletter updates, or even a monthly display in the lunch room to explain ideas like this. Doing so moves high-performance building initiatives from the realm of something that occupants don’t care about or think isn’t applicable to something much more tangible, of which they can easily see the benefits.
In many cases, “architecture as pedagogy,” as some experts refer to this idea of using buildings as teaching tools, is executed in schools as part of the curriculum. Students learn about energy and how it’s generated. They can do experiments with their building’s solar panels to learn about light absorption and reflection. And they can understand why greenhouse gas emissions are cooking are planet.
It may sound cliché, but making learning accessible, urgent, and ultimately, fun, is a huge step in getting students to care about what they’re being taught. The same goes for adult building occupants — tell them you’ve just purchased a new efficient chiller, and their eyes glaze over. Tell them the new chiller is the equivalent of taking 1,000 cares off the road, helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and saves the equivalent of three salaried positions per year, and you might have better luck getting their attention. And their help!
As always, I’m interested to hear from you. What have you found to be effective in showing occupants your high-performance building strategies, and making them care?
Cheers,
Greg Zimmerman, editor
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