From the Editor
In researching an article recently for the September issue of Building Operating Management, I asked a facility manager with IFC Bank about the first thing facility managers should do after getting their LEED certification plaque.

Rob Pearlman, senior facilities and administration officer at IFC, didn’t hesitate: “Throw it out,” he said. Pearlman, who headed the effort that resulted in the organization’s LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) Platinum certification on its 1.1 million-square-foot headquarters in Washington, D.C., was only being a little bit facetious.

His point is LEED certification, even a Platinum one, is no excuse to rest on laurels. Continuous improvement is just as critical as the lead-up to the certification itself. The LEED plaque says nothing except that for a certain period of time, you’ve done well in terms of operating efficiently and sustainably, says Pearlman. And so maintaining the policies and procedures, data collection and analysis, and overall focus on sustainability must be a long-term goal. LEED is a journey, not just a destination, as the cliché goes.

This idea of continuing to improve after LEED certification is a critical point to keep in mind as more and more facility managers are achieving LEED-EBOM certification. There is never a shortage of opportunities. Ways to improve are limited only by facility managers’ imaginations.

How about you? What have you done (or plan to do) after you’ve received LEED-EBOM certification? How do you keep your occupants and staff engaged and interested? As always, I’d love to hear your success stories!

Cheers,

Green Strategies
LEED-EB Can Pay Off

Formal certification offers multiple benefits — and it can be less expensive and difficult than many facility managers think.

In the News
USGBC Opens Building Performance Partnership to Existing LEED-Certified Buildings
Building owners and facility managers with existing LEED certifications can now take part voluntarily in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Building Performance Partnership. Participants will receive yearly data from other participants, specifically focusing on modeled vs. performance data.

Green Multimedia
What Comes After LEED Certification?
Rachel Hardesty takes a break from GreenTech 2010 to follow up on her presentation (link below) and explain how to keep the momentum going after LEED certification and how to continue to budget for improvements.

GreenTech Conference & Exposition

My LEED Plaque is Hung – Now What?

This presentation from GreenTech 2010 by Rachel Hardesty, director of business development for SDK, provides insight into how facility managers can get vendors to work for them, how to keep occupants and staff engaged, and how to do ongoing processing and tracking of facility and budget data.