Facilities Management: Building success

	The University of Iowa is gaining recognition as an emerging leader in renewable-energy strategies and sustainable practices, because of innovations like the biomass fuel project—adding oat hulls to the coal that the UI Power Plant burns. This and other cutting-edge accomplishments led to a No. 7 spot on Buildings magazine's A-list of facilities managers. The University of Iowa is the only institution of higher education to crack the top 10 on this year's list. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

The people in Facilities Management at The University of Iowa have a big job to do, with more than 15 million square feet in 267 educational buildings across campus under their purview. And apparently, they’re doing their job well.

For the second year in a row, UI Facilities Management is one of the top 10 industry leaders in Buildings’ A-list of “Who’s Who in the Buildings Market.” The University even moved from its No. 10 spot last year to No. 7 this year, sharing a list that includes industry giants like Wal-Mart, the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service, and the Smithsonian Institution.

What makes Facilities Management so good? fyi sat down with a few of the staff members to talk about what Facilities Management has done to merit the distinction. Sharing their thoughts were Don Guckert, associate vice president of Facilities Management; Dave Jackson and Jeri King, assistants to the associate vice president of Facilities Management; and Wendy Moorehead, communications specialist for Facilities Management and the person, according to the rest, who deserves the credit for responding to Buildings’ request for information that led to this year’s ranking.

What is Buildings? And what’s the significance of making its A-list?

Dave Jackson: Buildings is one of several respected publications for those of us in the facilities management business. There are journals like this that focus on higher education, others that focus only on industry—this one covers both, and it reaches a wide national and international audience.

For their A-list, Buildings looks for organizations that do more than just keep up with the industry; they’re looking for cutting-edge accomplishments and for vision. The distinction for us comes partly from being the only university named among a lot of the giants in the industry. Our move up the list this year had to do with making substantial progress in initiatives like our campus master plan. Our No. 7 ranking also had to do with our energy conservation and safety initiatives.

Could you elaborate on the initiatives you mentioned and how they contributed to capturing this distinction?

Don Guckert: Our campus master plan, released in April, was a built on a high degree of engagement with the rest of the campus. It was a collaborative process involving many campus and community leaders and constituents. We believe it offers a fresh approach to responding to increasing academic and research demands while preserving the unique identity and beauty of The University of Iowa campus, as exemplified in our plans for the River Park along the part of the Iowa River that runs through campus.

What makes our campus master plan unique in higher education is our focus on facilities stewardship—taking care of what we have, assessing the condition of our buildings, and integrating care and rejuvenation of our buildings into the plan.

It sounds like you must have had to cover a lot of ground to respond to Buildings’ request for information.

Wendy Moorehead: We cover our progress on our initiatives on our intranet. Because we were already keeping track of our accomplishments through these news stories, we have a record of what we have done. Our intranet is a key resource.

Jeri King: The intranet was part of what attracted Buildings—our strategic initiative to improve communication. We’re an organization of about 650 people, and we’re a 24-7 operation. We used to publish a printed newsletter every other month or so, but we decided that we needed to find another way, a faster way to share what is happening. So we developed an intranet that captures “Today’s News.”

In addition, we have also improved our Internet pages. That web site was a big help after last April’s tornado hit town. Through the Internet, we were able to keep our own staff and any interested others up-to-date. For a while, we were gathering and posting information every hour or two on the aftermath of the tornado and the cleanup of the campus.

The University of Iowa Energy Conservation Initiatives caught the journal’s attention.

Jackson: These initiatives expand our renewable energy options while also focusing on conservation and building-system efficiencies.

Last year, the magazine recognized the University as an emerging leader in renewable-energy strategies and sustainable practices because of our Biomass Fuel Project—the use of oat hulls in the power plant [Editor’s note: see fyi story, “Biomass for the masses: an innovative oat-hull project at the UI Power Plant energizes campus,” at http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2002_v40/07042003/biomass.html].

With help from people like Jerry Schnoor and Andrew Kusiak [UI professors of civil and environmental engineering, and industrial engineering, respectively], we’re now looking at things like wind and hydroelectric power.  Student efforts are also helping to create awareness of energy conservation on campus.

Guckert: It’s important to note that the Energy Conservation Advisory Council (ECAC), chaired by Jerry Schnoor, has been instrumental in helping guide our efforts to manage costs through our energy conservation awareness programs. About three years ago, the ECAC was formed, and we’ve made a lot of progress.

We are adopting a lot of technological know-how and best practices to control rising energy costs at The University of Iowa. There have been other benefits that have derived from this, such as our efforts to look into renewable energy—like hydroelectric power and wind.

The wind-power idea is interesting. 

Guckert: I think the success of the biomass-oat hulls project has given us the confidence to explore things like wind power that could lead to a more energy-independent future on our campus. This initiative is uniquely supported by faculty research and student initiatives. We have the advantage at The University of Iowa of having partnerships with students, researchers, and others whose main interests are in these very things. We have seven student groups working with us, including the UI Student Government and the local student chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World. 

What about your safe workplace initiatives?

Jackson: We started a new safety initiative a couple of years ago. We’re not where we want to be yet, but we are making progress. Safety is all about caring for our coworkers. We are embedding safe practices into everything we do—trying to look out for ourselves, and for those around us. Right now, we’re encouraging everyone to identify hazards and develop safe practices. As part of this, we put in place a new safety program, called Route 66, which provides a road map for work units to track progress on their journey and to change the way Facilities Management staff members think about working safely.

We’ve hosted an annual Safety Best Practices Conference for the past two years that showcases organizations in Iowa with the best practices in safety. It offers our staff and others an opportunity to hear about what works well and why it works well. This conference brings together businesses, business agents and associations, regulators and university staff, as well as others interested in adopting and sustaining safe practices.

Anything else new?

King: We are very excited about our new building coordinators network. The building coordinators network is to enhance communication between Facilities Management and the building occupants, and provide a way for the building coordinators to get together to share ideas. The network is a partnership to help provide perspectives on energy conservation, card access and security issues, and a number of other initiatives.

Guckert:  Partnerships are a key part of the way we approach our business. We strive to build partnerships, not only within Facilities Management but also across the UI campus, and with our surrounding communities, businesses, and organizations. Our partnerships bring new ideas and more sustainable results.

I can’t say enough about the way that The University of Iowa works together to make things happen. The No. 7 ranking by Buildings reflects this and the success of our collective efforts.

by Gary Kuhlmann