MultiBriefs - Your source for industry specific News Briefs

Greenbuild offers a glimpse of emerging green building trends

Don Rosato Manufacturing

The U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild International Conference and Expo is the world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the USGBC put on quite a show for attendees in Philadelphia. This year, 30,000 attendees from 90 countries came to Greenbuild, which featured 1,000 exhibitors and sponsors with green products and service innovations and 100 education sessions led by business, environmental and social leaders.

Green-building applications: The road ahead

Don Rosato Engineering

Growth in green-building material demand will outpace the growth of building construction expenditures as green materials continue to account for an increasing share of building materials used. In the U.S., demand for green-building materials is projected to expand 13 percent annually through 2015, generating sales of more than $70 billion.

Maintenance tips for restaurant facility management

Bambi Majumdar Facilities & Grounds

Facility management is clearly defined as a comprehensive analysis, maintenance and management of everyday background operations so the core business can go on functioning, unhindered. This is important for all businesses, but for more dynamic operations like restaurants this means having access to instant and actionable data that can be used to stay ahead of problems.

The View from Europe: Taxing question

Andrew Gaved Construction & Building Materials

As the precise details of the forthcoming EU F-gas regulations are currently being hammered out in Brussels, many in the European refrigeration and air conditioning industry are bracing themselves for significant new cost to be added to the supply chain. The European Parliament has made plain its desire to effectively "penalize" those who use HFCs, by charging an allocation fee for production of the refrigerants.

Benchmarking in the green spa industry

Beatrice (Vallant) Hochegger Recreation & Leisure

Before describing existing benchmarks for the green spa industry, it is necessary to understand the term benchmark as well as its purpose. Therefore, this article will start with a short introduction to benchmarks in general and within the spa industry, followed by benchmarks for green spas.

Fabricated green building products rapidly advancing

Don Rosato Engineering

Green building technology redefines how we make and live in buildings. From a plastics processing standpoint, we can both reduce a building's energy consumption and simultaneously provide for a building's energy production.

Advances in remote controls for facility management

Joy Burgess Facilities & Grounds

The term "intelligent building" generally refers to a building that is able to control building systems via automation features. Building automation often includes automated communication, environmental monitoring, environmental control and automated security. A decade ago, this seemed to be an exciting idea for the future. But with recent advances in remote controls, intelligent buildings have become a reality.

Biophilia: The next step in green design

Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

As the U.S. Green Building Council gets ready to roll out LEED v4 at the Greenbuild conference Nov. 20-22, now is a good time to pause and reflect on how just how far green and sustainable design have come since LEED first launched in 2000. Once considered a fringe movement within A&D circles, green building and green products have helped to keep the industry afloat during the post-recession economic stagnation.

Disaster preparation: Helpful tips for businesses and facility managers

Joy Burgess Facilities & Grounds

A recent survey sponsored by the American Red Cross and FedEx showed that approximately 70 percent of small businesses do not expect to experience a disaster, and half of those surveyed do not have an emergency response plan in place. Surviving any kind disaster requires preparation, but many businesses and facility managers fail to put an emergency plan in place.

The View from Europe: The natural consequences of F-gas

Andrew Gaved Construction & Building Materials

The ATMOsphere natural refrigerant conference Oct. 15-16 in Brussels provided a good opportunity to test the potential impact of the forthcoming F-gas regulations on the world of "naturals." For the changing landscape of legislation, with upcoming potential bans on servicing high-GWP equipment, it looks highly likely that we'll see natural refrigeration techniques thrust to center stage in the European RAC industry.

Industries