As a school administrator, you are already well aware there are no easy answers regarding the best way to re-open schools. While there is heavy focus on the importance of masking and surface cleaning, even more important is addressing your schools’ indoor air quality (IAQ) to meet appropriate and ever-evolving guidelines.

Schools, including K-12 institutions, can now take advantage of more than $80 billion in funding within the Education Stabilization Fund to improve their learning environment — including optimizing their indoor air quality (IAQ).

Imagine being able to hit one “shutdown” button, to manage the process of preparing those dozens, hundreds or even thousands of facilities for a shutdown. A manager responsible for approximately 200 retail facilities, most of them including commercial kitchens, for example, recently became the envy of his fellow facility managers when he shared during a pandemic update that he was able to do just that: complete what was essentially a “one-button shutdown.”

To support building owners and others navigating this new IEQ era, Trane recently launched the Wellsphere platform. Designed to offer high-level thinking around IEQ, Wellsphere is our holistic approach to building wellness.

With COVID-19-related cases continuing across the nation, many businesses remain focused on safely operating and maintaining their buildings. In some cases, small changes are making big improvements and in others, long-term building health is getting much-needed attention.

It’s critical for organizations to have an effective, proactive power and HVAC contingency plan in place. Not only can it reduce financial risk, the contingency plan can help protect the health and safety of building occupants and increase peace of mind for the organization and its stakeholders.

The trend to decarbonize is transforming the U.S. power grid. The grid increasingly depends less upon fossil fuels and more upon distributed energy resources or technologies such as solar photovoltaic and offshore wind alongside new energy efficiency, demand response, energy storage and other customer-based technologies.

With 2020 driving unprecedented demands – at work and home – you may not yet have prepared your building for colder days. There’s still time! Here are a few tips and recommendations from Trane® building professionals that can help you save energy and lower your utility bills during the colder months ahead.

More popular than “toilet paper in April.” That’s how a recent CNBC story described the current shortage in high quality air filtration systems, many of which are currently back ordered. Due to COVID-19 and the subsequent ASHRAE® guidance to upgrade filtration to MERV 13 or greater, demand for MERV 13 pleated filters has hit unprecedented levels. Complicating this demand, both MERV 13 pleated filters and high-demand N95 masks depend on the same media: high electrostatic non-woven polypropylene fiber.

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology is becoming an increasingly common choice for commercial HVAC projects through its ability to provide outstanding efficiencies to not only the end user, but to engineers as well as contractors. Trane® / Mitsubishi Electric is uniquely positioned to offer complete VRF system solutions, including all VRF and ductless equipment, an integrated controls platform, Tracer® SC+ and industry-leading expertise you can rely on.

Learn how you can get ahead of future strains on the power grid – whether due to temperature spikes, intermittent or variable renewable resources, or raging wild fires Discover why and how to optimize your building’s grid resiliency from systems, services and controls to energy sources.

With HVAC demand expected to triple by 2050, connected buildings that incorporate digital controls will play a crucial role in ensuring ongoing efficient energy management and sustainable building operations

When it comes to VRF installation, risk management is crucial. Contractors want to know their partners have the experience and information to help guide them from system installation to building opening. That’s why Trane offers a one-stop solution that includes a vast product portfolio featuring Trane® / Mitsubishi Electric VRF technology, backed by the knowledge and expertise of industry leaders.

Qualified districts may be able to complete IAQ projects immediately by bundling the cost of an IAQ Assessment, pertinent solutions and even ongoing service into one convenient financing solution, provided by Trane.

Available grant money may provide the funding schools need to improve air flow, filtration and air cleaning technology that can help mitigate the spread of airborne pathogens,

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems are soaring in popularity throughout the HVAC industry thanks to their ability to offer contractors and engineers the freedom to design and install systems tailored to customers’ specific needs. The experts at Trane have taken these benefits a step further by integrating the Tracer® SC+ controls platform with the Trane® / Mitsubishi Electric N-Gen CITY MULTI® series, creating a fully integrated VRF system.

Working outside the confines of a professional, well-designed office space can be chaotic for an engineer (or anyone) who thrives on process and organization. While working remotely from home, Ken Durham, Trane’s Regional Operational Excellence Leader for the Pacific Southwest, took steps to restore his sense of order, and his advice can help anyone do the same.

While masking, surface cleaning and social distancing can help mitigate potential virus spread, considering other measures can help restauranteurs reduce potential spread of certain airborne virus in a restaurant environment.

Connectivity can drive significant results for building owners and managers. After all, connected buildings open the door to better service and technology for building owners and managers. Insightful data allows for solutions that improve a building’s performance — including decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy savings, and helping building owners make the right decisions for both their facilities and the planet.

As we talk to customers today, it’s easy to recognize they’re being asked to think differently. Our products and services must also morph to meet these new challenges and opportunities. What used to be a seemingly endless drive towards energy efficiency is now a balance between indoor air quality and energy efficiency – and connectivity will play a huge role in achieving this goal. How will we offset the costs of conditioning this extra outside air?

Tenants are innovating to facilitate social distancing, and that is causing headaches for facility managers. Trane streamlines tenant occupancy management, allowing occupants to change system scheduling by interacting directly with the building automation system (BAS). This process also optimizes energy use.

With the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19, restaurant and retail building facility managers have an even greater opportunity to create and maintain healthier building management practices. However, maintaining, and in some cases creating, those practices are pushing facility managers to face new challenges – especially in commercial kitchens.

We have all had to change the way we interact with customers and coworkers and find ways to stay positive during these challenging times. Kasey Connor, Trane’s Sales Engineer, New England, sees opportunity in the adversity and believes it may make us all better people in the long run.

By integrating work orders with the building automation system (BAS), Trane’s work order management software makes it easy to order parts and perform maintenance based on actual equipment run time.

Building a strong and differentiated brand matters now, more than ever, as building owners and managers navigate the challenges of the global health crisis. Clients are looking for a solid “say” + “do” ratio and commitments from their partners to listen, and to be transparent and authentic.

Building owners and managers are facing new pressures as we all navigate the “new normal.” While budget pressure may be higher than ever, there is also a pressing need to optimize the indoor environment – and progressing so can meet multiple business objectives.

Although we honor June 26 as World Refrigeration Day, focusing on refrigeration – and the sustainability opportunities it offers – is a year-round emphasis for us at Trane. Through our enterprise-wide climate commitment, we are directly addressing climate change by offering alternatives to the way the world heats and cools buildings and moves refrigerated cargo.

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems are an increasingly popular choice regardless of a building’s size or intended use. VRF systems focus on heating and cooling only the spaces that require individual temperature control by circulating the optimal amount of refrigerant required for each zone, resulting in advantages with system operation and occupancy comfort.

There’s an old saying that adversity is a great teacher. If that’s the case, the current situation is certainly doing a lot of teaching, and we’re all doing our fair share of learning. It's testing our mettle as individuals and as organizations. It’s challenging us and pushing our limits in ways we couldn’t have possibly imagined 6 months ago. But in many ways, it’s also taking us to new heights.

Use of LED lighting is transforming the role that lighting can play in an environment. Some LED lighting technology allows for variation in lighting intensity and color temperature that can help people augment their environment.

The impact of such a pandemic is real and harsh. With most of us juggling different roles in our life, the question on how we stay safe and productive in tough times surface to the top. As a good citizen, we should follow the guidance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for personal actions. For many of us serving in the commercial HVAC field, many industry resources have become available recently.

The narrative around connected building technology has shifted, at least for the time being. Efforts around comfort, sustainability and reducing energy costs through improved building management now include strategies for doing it all remotely, when uncommon circumstances might make it difficult to work on site.

Keep your training and certification current with Trane's Engineers Newsletter Live! (ENL), a complementary learning program taught by a panel of experienced and knowledgeable applications engineers.

As the needs of facilities are rapidly changing during these unprecedented times, Trane wants its customers to know we're here to help.

International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated annually on March 8, provides an opportunity for countries around the world to recognize women’s contributions to society and calls for the acceleration of women’s equality. This year’s campaign theme, #EachforEqual, focuses on the concept that ‘An equal world is an enabled world’. It encourages each individual to take an active role in helping to broaden perceptions, promoting gender equality, and celebrating the achievements of women.

Although light-emitting diode (LED) applications have been available for decades, their use in commercial lighting has rapidly grown in recent years. While LEDS made up just 13 percent of the market in 2017, according to the latest LED adoption report produced by the U.S. Department of Energy, in 2035 they are expected to represent 84 percent, according to the same report.

Energy storage may be the technology that fundamentally changes the grid. It’s important to know that buildings have two types of energy loads, electric and thermal, and each one has an optimal storage method.

Zero energy building growth has increased by 700 percent since 2012 and revenue from these buildings is expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2035. Buildings with the greatest flexibility can offer multiple benefits to the grid and to the owners and managers of those buildings.

Zero energy building growth has increased by 700 percent since 2012 and revenue from these buildings is expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2035. Buildings with the greatest flexibility can offer multiple benefits to the grid and to the owners and managers of those buildings.

Green plants, such as lettuce, kale, basil, and other crops, are being grown by indoor agriculture producers around the world. Maintaining an optimal environment is just as important when plants are grown indoors as when they are outside.

When data centers want to reduce non-IT energy costs, there is no single solution. Many strategies come to mind, and the best one…depends. It depends on utility rate structures, local climate and natural resources, and on the type of IT equipment and how the center is laid out. Experienced HVAC system designers begin with energy efficient base equipment—and then we get creative. Many of the available solutions for reducing energy costs aren’t new, but we’re finding new ways to apply them to reduce the energy intensity of data centers.

Data centers and computer rooms are being built everywhere to accommodate the rapidly increasing demand for data processing. Too often, systems that are designed to manage human comfort are being applied to data centers, and they simply aren’t up to the task. Using a comfort system where precision cooling is required inevitably results in unplanned downtime, excessively high energy costs, and diminished ROI due to shortened equipment life.

No matter what industry you are in, it is critical to develop a power and HVAC contingency plan as part of a comprehensive crisis-response plan. Interruptions to power and HVAC – whether from a natural disaster or other challenges – can cause millions of dollars in damage, disrupt operations and erode stakeholder confidence. Developing an effective power and HVAC contingency plan minimizes financial risk, while protecting the health and safety of building occupants and providing peace of mind for an organization and its stakeholders.

It’s one of the biggest paradoxes of our time: The world needs to build more energy-intensive data centers to meet growing demand. Meanwhile, it has become imperative to reduce carbon emissions to put the brakes on climate change. It’s both a challenge and an opportunity to introduce technologies that could transform building energy use forever—across all sectors—including machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Data centers and computer rooms are being built everywhere to accommodate the rapidly increasing demand for data processing. Too often, systems that are designed to manage human comfort are being applied to data centers, and they simply aren’t up to the task. Using a comfort system where precision cooling is required inevitably results in unplanned downtime, excessively high energy costs, and diminished ROI due to shortened equipment life.

While the focus on climate change has driven reduced energy consumption, attention to water conservation is increasing because fresh water supplies are diminishing. At the current consumption rate, this situation will only get worse.

Business values are driving even greater progress

As the dynamic HVAC industry continues to grow and change, it finds itself faced with a growing skilled labor shortage.

After you’ve decided variable refrigerant flow (VRF) is the best HVAC solution for your building, you’re tasked with another important decision: do you choose two- or three-pipe technology? The answer can depend on many variables, including the building application, architecture and age, to name a few.

The calendar just closed on the 2019 celebration of International Women’s Day. With a new flood of college graduates poised to hit the job market, our leaders remain focused on encouraging increased representation of women in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) jobs.

Didn't make it to the 2019 AHR Expo or just want to re-live the excitement? Check out our booth tour video and read about booth highlights from this year's show.

Based in San Francisco, PG&E is the largest utility in the nation. It provides electric and natural gas services to 16 million customers across a 70,000 square mile area of northern and central California.

You may be at a crossroads between replacing or retrofitting your building’s HVAC equipment due to age. We know this because the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that nearly half of all commercial buildings were constructed before 1980.1

Closing Wednesday at $4.84 per MMBtu, prompt-month natural gas prices have soared to their highest levels since 2014. Despite the multi-year high levels, this move wasn’t totally unexpected and Trane has been warning clients about the possibility of a winter price run-up since signs started pointing that direction in the summer months.

What’s in your sustainability playbook? Purchasing renewable energy from a local provider, reducing overall energy consumption and installing distributed renewable energy sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines, should all be considered as part of a holistic approach to energy and environmental impact.

An independent study recently calculated the cost of processing a single energy invoice at $13.04. A line item under $20 probably won’t catch the attention of the finance director, but a deeper look into missed benefits and opportunities elevates the priority.

With the winter just a few weeks away, it has become increasingly clear that the U.S. will go into this heating season with the lowest amount of gas in storage since 2003. Storage is now expected to be at just 3.25 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), well below the 3.8 Tcf that was seen last year and the record 4.05 Tcf that we had to start the winter of 2016-2017. Some colder temperatures to end October are expected to put injections below normal over the next few weeks.

As corporate sustainability efforts are at an all-time high, there is increasing interest in how these efforts are reported and how they impact overall business. While many companies wish to be seen as leaders in sustainability, some question if these efforts are compatible with their core business functions. This dilemma is best exemplified in two incidents from the past several weeks.

Commercial buildings are facing a challenge rooted more than 20 years ago. Before 1980, large heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units were often placed in hard-to-reach areas — basement-level mechanical and utility rooms — to hide their bulky large appearance.

After years of waiting in uncertainty, LNG Canada, a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction and export project in British Columbia, is finally moving forward.

Delaying building improvements because of budget can ultimately cost more in reduced performance and inefficiency. So don’t wait. Here are four opportunities for building optimization on a budget.

Electricity bills can be painful. Ask businesses about their operating expenses, and most will say that energy is in their top three. If the utilities in your state are regulated, look to optimize your utility rate schedule.

With two new pipelines entering service in June (Nueva Era and El Encinco-Topolobampo), U.S. piped gas to Mexico has been soaring to all-time highs.

Would you feel more confident in your building’s performance if technology could predict equipment failures before they happen? In the Internet of Things (IoT) age, this level of insight is possible and is known as predictive analytics.

When customers ask for our help in analyzing their energy bill, we start by building a fundamental understanding of the influencing factors.

R-22 was the most popular refrigerant used in commercial and residential air conditioning units for many years because it was considered a safe and cost-efficient refrigerant choice by the HVACR industry. But as anyone in the industry knows, R-22 was phased out in the U.S. beginning in 2010 because it is ozone depleting.

With natural gas first and solar third, wind has been the second most prolific source of new U.S. power generation capacity over the past 15 years or so.

Nationally, the trend of power deregulation seems to have largely stabilized. While there are some occasional efforts in states like Ohio or Michigan to re-regulate, these rarely make it past the introduction of a bill or speculation on the part of a utility spokesperson. Similarly, few states seem to be interested in deregulating (or in the case of California and Michigan, further deregulating) their power sector.

In the warm summer months, electrical demand goes up, driving prices higher. Meanwhile, HVAC equipment kicks into high gear to keep occupants cool. It’s the annual conundrum as building operators struggle to maintain the balance between cost and comfort. It’s time to take on a few summer energy projects.

The ability to connect building systems and equipment through the internet has been around for years thanks to advancing technology and better equipment design. This capability has led to a trend in connected or smart buildings where connected devices (e.g., lighting, security systems and HVAC equipment) produce data that can be captured and applied to significantly increase efficiency and save money.

Is sub-$3.00 natural gas the new normal? Can the NYMEX prompt-month contract actually make a rally? In short, do the bulls have a chance anymore?

Fueled by new regulations such as those being imposed in California and Vancouver, Canada, requiring net zero new construction; challenges by organizations such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for all new buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030; new building codes encouraging less energy use; real estate firms wanting to differentiate their holdings in the competitive marketplace; and building owners just wanting to do the right thing for the environment, the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) concept is receiving increased emphasis in the commercial real estate industry.

Let’s Go Beyond™ -- The tagline permeates Trane literature, advertisements, vehicles, videos, websites and tradeshow materials. Used to convey our company’s personality and character, the tagline elevates us beyond the simple and known, onto bigger thinking and bigger problem solving, showing that Trane is leading the way beyond just products to systems, services and total solutions.

According to a recent research project, Valuation of Thermal Energy Storage for Utility Grid Operators, conducted by the Western Cooling Efficiency Center at University of California-Davis (UC Davis), thermal energy storage can provide significantly greater benefits to utilities and electricity grid operators than previously thought.

From the OPEC-led production cuts to global geopolitical turmoil to surging demand in China, a variety of factors have been pushing oil prices to four-year highs. U.S. WTI has recently been up 20% this year to over $71 per barrel, and the possibility of $100 oil has entered the market.

The energy market is going through a mass transformation. Fossil fuels are being used less and less and renewable energy is on the rise. As a result, an important element is disappearing – energy storage.

Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) is the ideal HVAC technology for facilities that need an energy-efficient solution. Unlike other options, VRF systems can produce 30 to 40 percent energy savings, which is significant when 50 percent of a building’s energy usage comes from its HVAC system.

Over the last five years, the terms “smart” or “connected” buildings have been used regularly, but what does that look like in practice? And how does it equate to business results?

With Women's History Month and International Women’s Day both in March, it was the perfect time for companies like ours to reflect on what we’re doing to inspire and encourage women in HVAC — and what more could be done.

With every breath you take, you’re measuring the air quality around you. Maintaining good air quality is key to creating a comfortable environment in a facility, for patrons and residents. But how do you attain good air quality, especially when you’re dealing with multiple factors like climate, the building systems, and regulations?

Reliability has long been associated with the power sector and is, in fact, one of the cornerstones of the modern electric grid. Defined broadly as a utility’s ability to supply as much power as is needed at any given time, it is encoded in standards at every level, from NERC to state regulatory commissions. Significantly, these standards are quantitatively backed, enabling outcomes to be analyzed in detail to identify problems and ensure that expensive solutions to edge case scenarios are not over applied.

We talked to Charles Abbinanti, Product Manager for Trane® large commercial rooftop equipment, to ask him what’s in store for the latest product release, coming in May. What’s new? What’s improved? And how Is Intellipak maximizing outcomes for our customers? Read on.

PJM Interconnection, the Regional Transmission Organization that serves over 65 million people in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, is one of the most poorly understood entities in the U.S.’s electric landscape. PJM is the grid operator in 13 states plus Washington, DC, controlling and optimizing the flow of power through 82,000 miles of transmission lines spanning Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Washington Beltway, and much of the Midwest.

In the average school day, children spend 75 percent of their time listening. They listen to their teacher, they listen to each other, they listen to presentations and videos and readings — they listen to learn.

Summer power is always more expensive in Texas. This is not surprising as ERCOT, the corporation that runs the power grid for most of the state, has eschewed a capacity market and instead allows price spikes to compensate occasional generation.

Despite not producing any themselves, the six states in New England have surged their reliance on natural gas-fired electricity generation. ISO New England now receives approximately 50% of its power generation from natural gas, versus 10-15% a decade ago.

We spend roughly 90% of our time inside structures, and these structures require cooling to offset heat generated by us, our computers, lighting, and the ambient temperatures outside. Most cooling systems demand electricity during peak-demand periods. These demands are usually > 50% of the entire energy demand of the building.

As buildings age, so does the equipment that keeps the environment comfortable. There are options for older infrastructure to improve efficiency.

Regardless of the ups and downs of regulations in the U.S., the transition is going forward and has already begun. Our next generation products are available throughout our portfolio and are nonflammable so our customers have choices today.

The PJM Interconnection has in recent months put forward two proposals that could have significant impacts on delivered power prices in the region. One would alter how LMPs (Locational Marginal Price, the technical name for the cost of energy) are calculated while the other would change how capacity charges, fixed fees paid to generators, are created.

With people spending approximately 90% of their time indoors, the correlation between illness, respiratory problems and other issues with the indoor environment is quite strong.

On Monday, January 22 President Trump approved new tariffs on imported solar panels and solar cells. The decision is in response to claims from SolarWorld and Suniva that increasing imports from foreign companies were negatively impacting domestic solar companies.

Last year was a down one for adding new oil and gas discoveries to the global stockpile. Less than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent were discovered, the lowest total since the 1940s.

Finding the sweet spot of energy efficiency and comfort is challenging enough for a standard building, but it truly gets tricky when multiple areas are thrown in the mix. “We have all sorts of spaces — Omnitheater, gift shop, exhibit halls, restaurants and catering facilities, exhibit and graphic production shops, meeting rooms and classrooms, and a parking ramp — that all have different energy needs,” said Todd Gray, assistant superintendent of facilities, Science Museum of Minnesota.

With the signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, many state Public Utility Commissions (PUC) are now looking at how the bill will affect the utilities that they regulate.

In its monthly Drilling Productivity Report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has recently combined its production data on the “Marcellus” and “Utica” shale plays into...

Learn about the different types of HVAC equipment that are essential when building and maintaining portable ice rinks.

Robots… drones… wearable technologies… the smartphone we carry in our pocket. As consumers, we constantly look for the latest and greatest technologies, designed to...

On October 31 Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 1501. This bill would give the state’s only nuclear generator, the Millstone nuclear facility, the chance to...

Connected buildings, the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart devices are popular industry buzzwords. But do your clients have a true understanding of what a connected building..

Now at their highest levels since mid-2015, oil prices have steadily increased in recent weeks. International benchmark Brent has breached the technical and psychological barrier of...

We are hearing a lot about replacing wired with wireless solutions today. While many agree with the wireless benefits, they also wonder which technology...

Domestic dry natural gas production reached a record 75.8 Bcf/d on Thursday, October 26 as output continues to grow and infrastructure projects start to come online or near completion. The record production comes after relatively flat...

In most regions, the hot summer days are finally behind us. Even though the temperature is falling, your HVAC system will still work hard over the coming months. October is National Energy Awareness Month...

On October 10th the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, announced that he was signing a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan (CPP), effectively ending the embattled program. This move was largely...

On September 25, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted unanimously to side with Suniva Inc. and SolarWorld Americas Inc.’s claims that foreign-made crystalline silicon solar cells and panels were...

On September 28th, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) require independent system operators make whole certain “baseload” energy generators. This is only the second time in the history that...

After eight years of success at their original location, co-owners John and Jen Kimmich decided to open a second Alchemist Brewery location to help meet their growing production needs...

The impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma on natural gas prices was mostly muted. In fact for futures contracts, on Friday August 25, right when Harvey's Texas landfall was imminent, prompt-month...

Ingersoll Rand, a world leader in creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments, joined international leaders from business, government and civil society at Climate Week NYC 2017 in New York City to discuss the momentum of global climate action.

Nearly half of the nation’s school buildings have reported problems related to indoor air quality (IAQ). Why does IAQ in school buildings matter? Numerous studies link IAQ to student health and...

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) released its anticipated study on wholesale electricity markets and reliability. Commissioned by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the report examines if...

Both Trane® and Ingersoll Rand remain committed to reducing the environmental impacts of the company’s operations and product portfolio. In fact, we reported significant progress toward...

In recent months, there has been more talk around the creation of a new Independent Service Operator (ISO) in the western U.S., sparked by Nevada’s November 2016 preliminary vote to...

Although EVs are gaining in popularity, they remain a niche market. A stronger future seems assured.

In November 2016, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, announced that it would start to curtail its crude oil production in January 2017 for the first time in nine years...

Failing building systems, unsafe conditions and exorbitant energy repairs were a wake-up call for the city of Birmingham, Alabama...

The Aliso Canyon natural gas leak was a public health and environmental catastrophe. Thousands of families were relocated from their homes, many complaining of health issues. The damage done to...

Fixing problems in aging buildings was taking a financial toll on the city of Birmingham, Alabama. City leaders spent emergency funds to make repairs and keep facilities in working condition. Failing building systems forced the closure of...

From natural disasters to everyday mechanical failures, all facilities face some level of risk due to power, HVAC or compressed air failure. A failure could result in anything from minor discomfort due to lack of temperature control to losing hundreds ...

In October 2015, Southern California’s Aliso Canyon, the second largest natural gas storage site in the U.S., sprung a leak. It took over four months to plug the blowout, which more than doubled the...

K-12 schools spend $8 billion annually on energy costs — more than they spend on computers and textbooks combined — and Energy Star® estimates about...

For many builders and property managers, the biggest reason to switch to a ductless heating and cooling system is the overall ultimate cost savings...

When natural gas producers successfully drill a new well, they do not automatically extract all the gas. Some of these wells are capped, their gas to be used another day...

Climate action is a global issue and we strive to offer our customers around the world choices about when and how they want to achieve both their business and sustainability goals...

The link between crude oil and natural gas prices is critical for end-users: these two sources are increasingly being produced by the same companies and together supplied 70% of U.S. energy demand in 2016. To set the context, Figure 1 demonstrates oil and gas prices since 1997.

Power pricing in PJM is down. Since 2015, we have seen average prices for 2019 power drop from $45 per megawatt hour (MWh) to $35/MWh, with 2020 prices even lower than that...

When you think of most HVAC systems, you likely don’t think of a ductless system if you’re in North America. But in Europe and Asia, ductless HVAC has been the industry norm for more than 30 years and has been used extensively...

On May 25, two nominees for positions at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Neil Chatterjee and Robert Poweleson, were interviewed by...

Ingersoll Rand remains committed to climate action, including reducing energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions related to our products and operations. Regardless of political opinion...

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of high producing allies, including Russia, have agreed to extend their combined 1.8 million barrels per day production cuts for...

Restaurant owners and facility managers are challenged every day to improve energy efficiency and reduce utility costs. So what can be done about it...

With summer right around the corner, energy efficiency is at the top of every facility manager’s mind. No one wants to be forced into the position of having to choose between increases costs – either due to...

Simply put: the role of today’s facility manager is tough. Every day, in every corner of the world, facility managers are hard at work making a positive impact on our environments, people and communities. They do this while...

Buildings today are full of hidden potential and more connected than ever – with access to valuable data and insight, new levels of efficiencies can be reached. In honor of World FM Day, we’ve compiled a few tips from our experts to help you...

Thanks to a shale production boom, falling prices, and its cleaner burning and versatile nature, there has been a rush to utilize natural gas in the United States. Looking forward, there are three sectors that will significantly increase demand...

In the past months two states have passed legislation creating Zero Emissions Credit, or ZEC, programs. While the name “Zero Emissions,” seems to hint at a...

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to our national goal of deploying more wind and solar energy is their incapacity to be physically transported to a power plant like coal or natural gas. Because of this, the generating facility must be...

In the past weeks, two different efforts to change MISO’s capacity system have concluded. One, an in-the-weeds discussion on how transmission affects capacity pricing, ended with a...

The natural gas and crude oil exploration and production (E&P) sector took a hit in 2016. A downturn in both gas and crude pricing, where both traded at prices not seen in more than...

In late January, the New York Independent Service Operator (NYISO) released its updated Distributed Energy Roadmap. This document aims to address many of the concerns around...

All natural gas consumers should understand the dynamic U.S. gas demand structure as the competition for gas is becoming increasingly fierce. Given low prices and broadening environmental goals, natural gas is easily...

Independent Electricity System Operator, the Independent System Operator for Ontario, Canada, recently changed its capacity market to give medium-sized industrial customers the option to augment...

The U.S. nuclear power industry faces an uncertain future. While nuclear has held its 18-20% share of U.S. electricity generation, the total number of nuclear reactors/plants has fallen to...

Over the past decade, the “shale revolution” has redefined natural gas production in the United States. The combination of advancements in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling opened up numerous new drilling basins in...

Even since the price collapse started 2014, natural gas production in the Marcellus has increased nearly 15% to 18.3 Bcf/d, with output in the neighboring Utica up 130% to 4.1 Bcf/d. These two northeast shale plays are almost single handedly reversing the U.S. gas market to flow more north to...

On December 5th the New England Clean Power Link (NECPL) received its Presidential Permit, a required license for any transmission project that links the U.S. power grid to that of another country. The $1.2 billion project, financed by...

Today, only about 33% of all natural gas used is traded internationally, versus 66% for oil. Gas has typically been sold in three regionalized markets with different contract structures; North America (hub-based), Asia Pacific (oil-indexed), and Europe (hub-based and oil-indexed). But, the sale of LNG is transforming natural gas from...

After weeks of negotiations, OPEC ministers in Vienna on Wednesday agreed to lower their oil supplies to ease a global glut that has halved prices since 2014. The 14 Member Countries worked a deal to cut crude production by...

The oil and gas price collapse has discouraged investments in future production in recent months and is setting up a potential spike in prices. The industry is caught in an underinvestment cycle that could reverberate much sooner than most realize...

President-elect Donald Trump is now in place. While promising to “cancel” the COP21 Paris Accord accepted under President Obama and pushing a fossil fuel-led revival to underpin job growth, a Trump administration will rearrange domestic energy and...

It’s an often-repeated statistic: about 40 percent of the energy used in this country is consumed in residential and commercial buildings. That’s more energy than is used in both the transportation and energy sectors. Alarmingly, however, much of that energy is wasted — 30 percent in the average commercial building, according to Energy Star. So, what can be done?

It’s an often-repeated statistic: about 40 percent of the energy used in this country is consumed in residential and commercial buildings. That’s more energy than is used in both the transportation and energy sectors. Alarmingly, however, much of that energy is wasted — 30 percent in the average commercial building, according to Energy Star. So, what can be done?

The catalyst for Mexico’s historic 2013 Energy Reforms was the 2004 peaking of the Cantarell oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, once responsible for over half of Mexico’s energy production and the second largest oil field in the world.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Weekly Storage Report and the overall natural gas storage inventory have long been drivers of NYMEX natural gas pricing in the United States. The weekly report, released at 10:30 AM ET on Thursdays, details the weekly changes to domestic natural gas storage inventory levels and tends to be followed by a quick flurry of trading activity....

On September 27th the DC Circuit Court held hearings on the Clean Power Plan (CPP), an action that many have wanted since its proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last August.

With over 80% of all capital decisions being made by Executives, many healthcare organizations since 2009 have downsized their middle management ranks and thus more scrutiny is being placed on lower dollar capital decisions...

With the North American shale revolution the key energy development of the past decade, it’s surprising to know that Canada’s natural gas production has actually been...

Despite some of the lowest prices in 20 years, U.S. natural gas production has continued to increase. Thanks to the widespread deployment of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies, national output has gained every year since 2006 and is closing in on...

The dog days of summer will soon be in your rear view mirror. Even though the temperature is falling, your building and equipment will still be called upon to work hard in the coming months...

Even though the temperature is falling, your building and equipment will still be called upon to work hard in the coming months. And now is the time to look ahead to ensure your systems and equipment are up to the task...

The U.S. natural gas industry has gone global via the export of LNG. In the first six months of this year, nearly 50 Bcf of LNG was shipped out, and the U.S. is set to become a net LNG exporter in 2017. The rapidly globalizing gas market is a critical new outlet for...

In most cases in life, it’s better to be proactive than reactive, and now is the time to consider what improvement projects need to be done that will pay off...

As summer winds down, you likely have a better idea of what improvements can be made in your building to help optimize energy efficiency, occupant comfort and equipment performance. Now is a good time to consider...

Taking stock of issues as summer wraps up — and getting a clear picture of the health of your systems and equipment — will help you prepare for the next summer season...

Each season is like a history lesson about your building — allowing building owners and managers to capture a snapshot of equipment performance, efficiency, energy use and...

Renewable energy solutions can be a feasible option to help reduce your building’s dependence on the grid so you are buying less energy in the summer...

Renewable energy solutions can be a feasible option to help reduce your building’s dependence on the grid so you are buying less energy in the summer — and all year long.

Renewable energy solutions can be a feasible option to help reduce your building’s dependence on the energy grid so you are buying less energy in the summer — and all year long...

With summer temps hitting record levels in May and June, it is important to look for ways to control energy costs. Energy spend is a big part of your budget, and...

With summer temps hitting record levels, building owners and managers are looking for ways to control energy costs. Your energy spend is a big part of your budget, and there are two main ways to impact it...

A power outage can result in business interruption that is costly for you and your building tenants...

With the North American shale revolution the key energy development of the past decade, it’s surprising to know that Canada’s natural gas production has actually been falling. Canada is still the world's...

Summer’s extreme heat and potential for severe weather increase the risk of unexpected equipment failure and power outages. These disruptions can occur for many reasons...

Regulators are facing a dilemma of what to do with nuclear power generation in the coming years. Over the past two months, the retirements of four nuclear power plants across Illinois, California, and Nebraska have been announced...

Commercial building owners and managers know that summer typically brings much higher utility bills. But what you may not know is that even simple changes can have a big impact on your utility bills...

Commercial building owners and managers are often searching for relief from the much higher utility bills that summer can bring. This is especially true in California, where average electricity prices for commercial customers last summer were...

Finding performance-improving solutions for commercial buildings is important all year long, but it is especially critical in the summer. The increased demand on your building and its systems can result in...

Finding performance-improving solutions for buildings is important all year long, but it is especially critical in the summer. The increased demand on your building and its systems can result in...

There are steps you can take to minimize the impact summer’s increased demand has on your building, even on the hottest days. Equipment is often...

Summer in New York City can present a unique set of challenges for commercial building owners and managers. Beyond the need for increased power to cool buildings, there are a number of...

Beyond the need for increased power to cool buildings, there are a number of factors that can put increased pressure on your building systems in the summer months, including...

Last week, fear of increased heat across Texas pushed ERCOT North’s August peak contract price to $89.90 per MWh, an increase of...

Ongoing validation of your results is a key step to help ensure your strategies are yielding big results. Validation helps keep your building on track, while also gaining...

Validating your outcomes is a key step to help ensure your strategies are yielding big results. Validation helps keep your building on track while also gaining the buy in, resources and funding you may need for...

Summer’s extreme temperatures and unpredictable severe weather can result in equipment or power outages. Being prepared for unexpected building failures can save you valuable time and...

On June 21, U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) does not have the authority to create new rules and regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on...

Once your building is summer-ready , it's important to be aware of some common pitfalls that can keep your building from performing at its most efficient level...

From small improvement projects to large energy strategies, there are steps you can take to reduce costs during the summer months, transforming your building into an asset that can make you more profitable...

We all know it is coming, but somehow it still sneaks up on us. Summer. It brings hotter temperatures, severe weather, and greater demand on building systems and the bottom line. Commercial customers typically pay...

Summer brings hotter temperatures — and higher energy bills. Energy costs for commercial buildings can run up to 35 percent higher in the hottest months of summer compared to other months of the year...

Last month, the PJM Interconnection's Market Implementation Committee advanced proposals related to capacity performance, agreeing to add three items to the list of parameters by which a resource’s schedule might be limited.

With the release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) yesterday came finalized figures for December 2015, allowing for balance of the year analysis, and revisions to forecasts.

Regardless of the ultimate end game for U.S. LNG exports, this week’s shipments from Sabine Pass represent a noteworthy step in exposing a generally-insulated domestic market to more international influence.

When Hopkins County Jail discovered outdated gas heat exchangers were at risk of leaking CO2 into a building with hundreds of inmates, its technicians knew they needed to take immediate action...

Whether you’re part of a small business, or a multinational corporation, no business is immune to the effects of an underperforming building comfort system. When a chiller failed at Mercedes-Benz USA, they turned to Trane, a longtime partner, to find a permanent, cost-effective solution.

Advancements in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technology have given restaurants a powerful system with a dual purpose — chilling refrigeration appliances while keeping facilities comfortable...

Extreme weather conditions underscore the need for facility teams to prepare for the worst that nature can throw at their buildings. Given their critical missions, healthcare and educational organizations must be prepared to respond quickly and efficiently when a blizzard, flood, tornado, hurricane or other disaster — natural or man-made — strikes...

Managing the built environment has evolved just like every other aspect of our lives. We expect more than the minimums of code compliance and a roof that doesn’t leak. Healthy, productive, secure and sustainable — all are words that apply in today’s facility management world. This post is part two...

Buildings impact business results. Or, perhaps better said, the environments we create to work, eat, play, learn, and live in impact the quality, productivity, quantity, and efficacy of all indoor activities we do in our modern society...

When the heat of summer sets in, shoppers seek relief in shopping malls where they can shop, dine and spend time in air-conditioned comfort. But when indoor comfort systems aren’t getting the job done, it can impact summertime traffic, and the bottom line, for mall owners...

For the 78th Civil Engineering Squadron at Robins Air Force Base (AFB), home to 60 military units and the largest industrial complex in Georgia, the poor lighting levels in its hangars and engine shop was a cause for concern in regards to safety and convenience...

When heat exchangers on the rooftop units at Murfreesboro School District’s high school cracked, administrators had to act quickly. Without a budget to completely finance a repair or upgrade, the district needed to rely on matching funds from the state...

There are three main factors that combine to impact how much money building owners and operators spend on energy. Think of these factors as three legs of the same stool — letting any one factor get out of balance will result in an unstable situation...

Higher education institutions face unique challenges when it comes to reducing energy costs. Colleges and universities often have multiple campuses, each with numerous buildings that may alternate from full capacity to empty several times each day. This can create challenges not only for heating and cooling, but lighting and water resource planning as well...

Contractors and developers may face various challenges throughout the construction of a new building. Missed construction milestones and bad weather delays are a couple of the multitude of issues that a developer must be prepared to deal with...

(Hint: It has nothing to do with room rates or green fees) Owners at Pacific Palms Resort in City of Industry, California were at a crossroads. Many of the resort’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems were original to the facility...

This week, Trane launched the new Trane Building Advantage brand at the National Facilities Management and Technology (NFMT) Conference in Baltimore. The brand represents the suite of energy services...

It’s important for municipalities to manage their water treatment facilities with an eye to efficiency in every phase of the water treatment cycle. Trane, a known performance leader in the wastewater treatment industry, helped a client do just that in...

In Vestavia Hills, Ala., a suburb outside of Birmingham, city leaders knew that the cost to illuminate their sports fields, pools and tennis courts wasted budget dollars. Light fixtures were greater than 30 years old — so old, in fact...

For Hardin Medical Center in western Tennessee, an outdated HVAC system affected its ability to create an optimal environment of care, especially in the critical labor and delivery areas. Read how Trane helped update its HVAC system.

With continued variability in temperatures throughout the year, increasing energy efficiency becomes a top priority for organizations across many markets, including the government...

At Trane, we think it’s important to enhance sustainability education among the upcoming generation of FMs. A recommendation by the Center for Green Schools at USGBC and Houghton Mifflin Marcourt (HMH) advocates for just that...

Research results from Ecova predict that 2014 will be a challenging year for those responsible for managing energy resources. According to the research, 2014 will be the year that forces companies to take steps to improve results and build...

According to a ACHR article, ASHRAE’s latest revision to its Standard 105-2014 spells good news for the number crunchers among us as it creates a common basis in reporting performance data for...

In today’s cost-sensitive market, building and facility managers are proactively seeking solutions to help control costs while improving building efficiency. They all want to know, “How do I get more for less?” I aimed to answer this question in my presentation...

This year promises to be another strong one for energy efficiency. For example, several actions included in Climate Action Plan will take place in 2014, such as the release of draft CO2 emissions standards for existing power plants. We think these measures are taking us...

Web-based tools can help building managers optimize building operation to meet tenant needs and energy consumption goals, utilizing alarm functions that alert the property manager if temperatures fall outside of desired levels...

In February, Trane featured a post highlighting Hammer & Hand’s top 10 predictions for the high performance building industry in 2014. Today, we offer thoughts on these predictions and how our company and solutions fit into forecasted trends...

When working with historic buildings, one of the unique challenges we face is upgrading building infrastructure systems without disturbing the unique architecture or the priceless and irreplaceable artifacts within.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill designed to ramp up efficiency in commercial buildings and data centers known as the “Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014.”

Green construction is expected to increase along with overall construction activity in 2014. Despite market pressures, or perhaps because of them, companies and building owners are emphasizing sustainability measures that lead to greater building efficiency, lower costs and a more productive workforce.

An inside look at why it is important to engage in modelling before you make retrofit decisions, including financial factors to consider and how to use energy modelling to predict results

Green builder Hammer & Hand recently released its ten predictions for the US high performance building industry in 2014. To no surprise, the predictions cover a wide-range of variables, including the impact of new products entering the market, procedural and policy shifts that focus on performance-based measures, and the international energy efficiency movement’s effect on the US market.

More than 1.4 million places – including buildings, districts and landmarks – are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which receives more than 30,000 applications each year. Most are at least 50 years old and meet one or more of the following four criteria for historic status: recognized as the site of an historic event, associated with a famous person, designed or built in a distinctive way, or yielded important historic or prehistoric information.

Energy efficiency is a journey, and the sooner started the better. Waiting for the next generation of technology sacrifices a significant net present value opportunity, and can also lead to the paralysis of...

Energy efficiency is a journey, and the sooner started the better. Waiting for the next generation of technology sacrifices a significant net present value opportunity, and can also lead to the paralysis of...

When most people hear the word “sustainability” they think of consumer products, like post-consumer paper cup`s from a local coffee shop. It’s harder to get people to understand how sustainability applies to our infrastructure, like the buildings in which we all live, work, learn and play.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) launched the newest version of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Program, LEED v4, at the Greenbuild International Conference on November 20, 2013 in Philadelphia.

Is there money hidden in your building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system? One often overlooked cost savings opportunity may be lurking in your ducts if your building uses a traditional...

There is a huge opportunity to expand the number of green buildings in India, which currently make up less than five percent of the market, according to recent discussions at the 2013 Green Building Congress...

The role of energy efficiency in our daily lives is a complicated one, according to an article from Greentech Media.

A recent Washington Post story noted how green construction has become a common trend for new office buildings, with one-third of all new office space completed in 2011 being designated “green.” But beyond the...

The BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations, recently released a new policy report on industrial energy efficiency. It notes that America’s manufacturing sector – the world’s largest – can keep its lead by taking advantage of the huge opportunities to increase energy efficiencies, cut waste and save on operating costs.

Although several U.S. cities have energy efficiency requirements for large commercial and residential buildings, Chicago has become the first one to mandate the verification of building energy data.

There has been a lot of discussion in the industry lately about the factors that are really driving how people are thinking about high performance buildings.

According to a study by Navigant Research, the worldwide market for green construction materials will more than double in the next seven years to more than $250 billion by 2020. Just how this impending spike in demand will impact the cost of green construction is difficult to predict, but it's safe to say that construction costs will increase for projects that involve these materials.

A recent Environmental Leader article claims that decision-makers at many organizations are faced with budgetary restrictions that often hinder the adoption of the best suited technology or project, even when the better solution will cost less over the long haul.

A recent GreenBiz.com article highlights a report by Navigant Research that says the global smart grid market will more than double by 2020. We’re not surprised to read this, as we’ve long said that when it comes to satisfying the world’s almost insatiable appetite for energy, "nothing beats energy efficiency." Smart technology is at the heart of today's greatest advancements in building energy efficiency.

Are small and mid-sized businesses being left out of the global race to improve energy efficiency? That’s the argument made by a recent article by Greentech Media.

The global drive to improve energy efficiency, manage overhead costs, and reduce environmental impact has given facility managers in most organizations a seat at the table—or at least the attention of top management. Buildings are organizational assets, after all, and organizations need to achieve an acceptable return on their enormous investment in facilities.

We’ve discussed the critical importance of evaluating high performance buildings often on this blog (for example, here and here), and a recent article from Greentech Media highlights this again. In short, it’s never enough to simply cut the ribbon on a high performance building and pat ourselves on the back. Continuously evaluating and benchmarking against business goals is the only way we will continue to strengthen our technology, the buildings we support and the industry as a whole.

The research firm Frost & Sullivan recently noted the changes and evolution of the high performance building industry in the last several years, driven in large part by the growing IT influence on physical systems and the recession’s financial pressures, have sped up the development and adoption of many efficiency technologies.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an international nonprofit environmental organization, has released a case study of the energy savings of Godrej Bhavan building in Mumbai, India. Trane was a significant partner in the upgrades and transformation of this high performance building, including manufacturing and installing the HVAC and building management system with digital energy meters that continuously monitor and adjust energy use.

Can ‘the Next Big Thing’ Wait? In a recent article published in Sustainable Industries, Ingersoll Rand and Trane experts Randy Newton and Matt Gates analyze today’s business trends to talk about how emerging technologies, as well as the basics of energy efficiency, can have a significant impact on individual building performance as well as the overall global demand for energy.

We often think about high performance building construction or retrofits as large, multi-month or multi–year projects. But it’s important not to overlook the small things that may end up making a huge difference in the performance of your building and the health of your occupants.

When measuring the performance of a building, whether new or retrofitted, it’s easy to get caught up in the metrics: the speeds, the volumes, the percentages, the of lengths time…the list goes on and on. But what many of us forget is the importance of subjective assessments when evaluating the operations of our high performance building (HPB).

In Part 1 of our series, we examined how commercial building managers can create a strong business case for investment in energy conservations measures (ECMs) as part of their high performance building journey. In this piece, we will look further into the strategies and tools for justifying the up-front costs using a holistic approach that includes tangible and intangible benefits.

Energy conservation measures (ECMs) in commercial buildings can range from CFL lighting to the installation of a maximum efficiency HVAC system, but they typically fall into the categories of water, electricity or gas. When considering ECM investments, building managers must weigh the upfront costs of the investment with the energy and financial savings, and make the argument to leadership as to why the investment is worth precious capital dollars in the journey to becoming a high performance building.

An office is building in Seattle is taking the concept of sustainable building to a whole new level: Think LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification on steroids.

A building envelope is the outer shell of the building that is used to help maintain the indoor environment and control its climate. There’s been a lot of discussion in the high performance building industry about how to leverage this component efficiently and how to manage any trade-offs with occupant comfort, so I read with interest this article from Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine about testing and commissioning best practices.

In the last post we talked about how modern technologies and building practices are boosting building performance. But with construction starts remaining low, the real opportunity to unlock energy savings potential lies within the current building inventory. In this post we’re expanding on the energy saving opportunities with existing buildings.

Sustainable technologies like wind and solar get a lot of press coverage, but when it comes to satisfying the world’s almost insatiable appetite for energy nothing today beats energy efficiency.

The World Green Building Council (WGBC) released a report this month that found the cost of constructing a green building is typically on par with a conventional one.

The construction or retrofit of a high performance building is exciting: The new technology, the gadgets, the occupant buzz and the eventual launch can all make for a very dramatic affair. But what’s less sexy – and no less important – is what happens afterwards.

Although the International Air-Conditioning Heating Refrigeration (AHR) Expo was held in January, concerns about optimizing a building’s cooling system didn’t go away with the winter temperatures. Many expo attendees wanted to hear more about the efficiency tools that could help them achieve a high performance building year-round. I was especially excited to talk with them about the latest, ultra-efficient cooling system from Trane: The IntelliPak™ I Unitary Rooftop System.

I recently returned from the 2013 International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigeration (AHR) Expo in Dallas, where there was tremendous interest in Trane energy efficiency solutions. In fact, according to HPAC Engineering Magazine, the Trane booth was one of "the most talked about and most visited booths at the event."

Trane celebrated 100 years of innovation at the 2013 International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigeration (AHR) Expo in Dallas recently. At the show we presented and demonstrated several new forward-thinking building solutions that create comfortable, efficient and productive environments to benefit industries like healthcare, education, retail, data centers and others.

Sometimes the most important energy problems are ones we can’t see. Unlike pollution streaming from a power plant or exhaust billowing from a car’s tailpipe, other forms of pollution and waste are not so easy to spot.

The Center for Health Design (CHD) estimates that as many as 30 percent of hospital infection threats are airborne and numerous cases of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and other types of infections have been traced directly to problems with ductwork, ventilation controls, air exchange ratios and room pressure balance.

Reducing the incidence of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) is a priority for everyone connected with the healthcare industry. The reasons are obvious. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, improving HAI rates by 40 percent from a 2010 baseline would save more than 60,000 lives and prevent 1.8 million patient injuries by 2013.

Financial institutions handle critical data every day – data that requires specialized environments to ensure that information is processed without interruption. If a data center goes down for even 15 minutes, an organization could lose millions of dollars in information. Data centers have significant and specialized cooling needs in order to handle the heat loads associated with computational processes. Hot spots and inadequate cooling can cause costly disruptions and are daily concerns.

Infrastructure upgrades at the Republic Plaza building, one of Singapore’s tallest skyscrapers, have made it one of the most efficient buildings in Singapore. The anticipated energy savings are estimated at four million kilowatt-hour of energy, or an annual savings of S$870,000. This is equivalent to powering 1,300 four-room apartments annually. The 66-story, 280-meter high Republic Plaza is a Grade A office building located at Raffles Place in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District.

Old Colony is a regional vocational technical high school offering a broad range of vocational careers for students in the Rochester, Mass., area. Energy efficient infrastructure upgrades at Old Colony have reduced energy consumption by more than 50 percent while improving the learning and teaching environment. An ongoing service and maintenance program helps ensure that all systems continue to run at optimum levels.

The primary concern for food manufacturers is meeting or exceeding customer expectations by ensuring the consistency and quality of their product. This approach helps shape how these manufacturers view their building systems and manufacturing processes as well.

As the global demand for energy continues to rise, real estate developers are increasingly called upon to build more energy efficient structures that cost less to operate and have minimal environmental impact. One Trane customer that is raising the bar on green buildings is the K. Raheja Corp. in Mumbai.

Hurricane Sandy and the Nor’easter that followed a week later left a swath of destruction and a soggy mess in their wake. With the storms behind them, owners and operators of tens of thousands of commercial buildings – including office buildings, schools, hospitals, malls and factories – face the cleanup and remediation challenge of a lifetime. They need to get their buildings up and running quickly, but they also need to make sure that they are restoring a safe, healthy and comfortable indoor environment for building occupants and visitors.

Baxter International Inc., is a diversified healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets products that save and sustain the lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma and other chronic and acute medical conditions.

If someone told you that they had a service used by 267,000 buildings comprising 40 percent of the non-residential market in the United States you’d be pretty amazed right?

Long gone are the days of paper deposit books and hand written banking records, replaced instead by high-tech computerized data centers which make data readily available to allow banks to move at the speed of today's global business environment. While data centers have revolutionized the way businesses store and access information, the data servers themselves often consume a tremendous amount of energy.

Ferrero may be best known for delicious chocolate creations wrapped in gold foil, but the global confectionary company is setting an industry “gold standard” at its Belsk, Poland manufacturing plant by embracing environmentally responsible, energy-efficient systems.

We often focus on high performance from the perspective of building systems, but rarely do we get the opportunity to learn about “high performance" as seen through the eyes of a vertical industry.

If you asked 100 building managers to define good customer service from the technician's that service their building's systems and equipment, the top answers would likely include responsive, knowledgeable and reliable. For many building managers, the mere presence of a technician on sight is enough to instill comfort that building's systems are being brought up to, and kept in, good service.

A lot of buildings today run 24-7, even though they are unoccupied at night. But with energy costs making up a significant portion of operating costs, it makes sense for building operators to consider alternatives.

Occupancy rates in hotels vary greatly, requiring a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that can adapt to those types of changes while still providing an absolutely comfortable environment for guests.

The historic New York City Center is a 2,750 capacity dance theater in New York City. The 12-story building has been owned by the City of New York since 1943, when Mayor LaGuardia saved the building from being demolished for a parking lot and turned it into a performing arts center.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of developing and implementing effective operating, service and maintenance strategies required to sustain a new building’s original design performance expectations over its decades-long occupied life. In fact, according to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), operating and maintenance costs account for 65-80 percent of a typical commercial building’s total lifecycle costs.

Municipal Square is a five story commercial office building in West Orange, N.J. The building has more than 100,000 square feet of office space, occupied by 35 tenants, including law firms, architects, accountants and other professional service businesses.

In the last post we discussesd how technology and access to data gives building operators the tools they need to improve operations by performing maintenance when it is needed, rather than simply following a predetermined maintenance interval.

The combined effects of a sluggish economic recovery, high energy prices and changing environmental requirements continue to put pressure on owners and operators of high rise buildings. Facilities teams are constantly looking for ways to save energy, reduce operating costs, improve reliability and shrink their environmental footprint, while also creating a comfortable, healthy and productive place for people who work, live or visit in their buildings.

Smart organizations transform buildings from burdensome liabilities into business-essential, high-performing assets. This statement might seem simple on its surface, but the idea gets at the heart of what the high performance buildings approach is all about. For building owners who grasp this concept, the reward is a building that reinforces, rather than detracts from, the organizational mission.

Founded in 1967, Edmonds Community College (EdCC) helps students access educational and career opportunities in a supportive environment that encourages success, innovation, service and lifelong learning. The college spans 50 acres in the heart of a northern Seattle suburb and employs more than 1,600 people, contributing to the vitality of state and local economies. Edmonds has 21,000 students enrolled in Associate’s Degree programs, career training, adult literacy, or continuing education classes.

Located in southwestern Ohio, Lakota is the seventh largest school district in the state, and the largest school district in Butler County. Lakota has grown in the last 20 years from a rural district to a suburban district with more than 18,000 students.

Three Rivers Community recently completed infrastructure upgrades that district leaders anticipate will cut energy costs by more than 30 percent and save more than $197,000 in annual energy and operational costs. The upgrades were made to reduce costs while improving the learning environment within classrooms and increasing sustainability district-wide.

As a minor league farm club for the Colorado Rockies, the Tulsa Drillers understand the importance of performing in the clutch. In professional sports, game time performance is critical, and the same goes for its stadium's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Every building operator has a set of expectations and a budget to manage. With Trane Intelligent Services (TIS), Trane is able to offer performance enhancements to meet any building’s specific requirements through advanced automation strategies called Alarm Notification, Active Monitoring and Building Performance.

In business, access to the right information is the key to good decision making. As the world becomes increasingly networked and interconnected, the pace of business also increases, making timely access to information more important than ever.

As local governments look for ways to cut costs and save money, one suburban Atlanta county turned an investment in energy efficiency into six-figure annual savings.

From high tech engineering to consumer goods, Godrej is one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates. Recently the company decided to implement a more energy efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) solution in its Godrej Bhavan facility in Mumbai, India as part of the company's focus on creating carbon neutral, zero waste, water positive and energy efficient businesses.

In the last post I talked about how a building control strategy works in tandem with a building automation system (BAS) to operate a building efficiently and optimally. In this post I'll talk about the different approaches for new construction versus existing buildings, and the recommended approaches to ongoing building maintenance.

Most commercial buildings today have a building automation (BAS) system installed. While these systems are designed to help a building operator effectively manage a building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, the simple presence of a control system doesn't guarantee good performance.

Long before the information superhighway made the world more inter-connected, transportation advancements – trains, automobiles and airplanes – brought people together and gave them access to new and remote parts of the world.

As budgets tighten, school districts across the country are looking for ways to lower costs. For many districts, the cost savings of investments in energy efficiency upgrades can be significant enough to help districts avoid cutting back on staff or reducing school-funded programs to meet budget demands.

It's the situation every building owner wants to avoid –they've invested in new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and yet building performance is suffering.

For years, conservation groups , public utilities and government agencies have promoted energy conservation as a critical priority for the nation. But energy conservation doesn’t have to mean uncomfortable conditions for occupants. By taking a high performance buildings approach, organizations can engage in conservation efforts while promoting a comfortable, safe and productive environment for all building occupants.

Nestled just north of Atlanta and just south of the North Georgia Mountains, the City of Marietta, Ga., offers visitors the charm of a small city along with a stimulating urban environment. With a beautiful and vibrant downtown square filled with restaurants and antique shops, the city offers its 56,000 residents access to beautiful parks, quaint streets, Victorian homes and historic sites.

Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital (CRMH) knew that it had no control over utility rates, but that it did have control over its energy use. The hospital sought to identify and implement energy conservation measures (ECMs) to reduce costs, in alignment with its mission to provide quality patient care as efficiently as possible.

In this post we'll discuss the final piece, which is calling on partners to help deliver the mission.

This week I'll be building off the previous post about defining the building mission, and will talk about defining the operational priorities for the building, understanding the potential tradeoffs of efficiency measures, and measuring performance against the building mission.

In the previous posts in this series I've talked about how industry visionaries better align building life cycle performance with organizational objectives, and the five steps leaders should consider when developing a long-term approach to improving building performance.

In the previous post I talked a about developing a more effective decision-making model around system-centric life cycle economics and the need to look beyond “simple payback” energy economics to a more long-term approach. This post will take a look at the five key steps that leaders should consider when developing a long-term approach that reduces operating costs, improves asset value and supports the long-term mission of the organizations served by their facilities.

When it comes to improving building performance, it's easy to focus on short-term objectives and gains, and to gloss over the long-term effects of the path taken or not. A common short-sighted approach is to focus on individual component efficiency (chillers, air handlers, etc.) without understanding system implications of how these pieces integrate efficiently, or how investments in efficiency upgrades ultimately support the overall organizational mission.