It should be no surprise that the 2012 APPA Fellow is William (Bill) Elvey, P.E., FMP. He has served the association from the grassroots level up through its highest ranks and created a still-continuing legacy of excellence and engagement--his theme when serving as APPA President--that has led to new services, programs, and partnerships for the…

Awareness of expectations is so important in the facilities business. The author's experiences has taught him that it is essential to understand how expectations impact people's lives as well as those for whom they provide services for every day. This article presents examples and ideas that will provide insight and ideas to help educators…

At colleges and universities today, the increasing number of students is putting new pressure on facilities--and on facility staff. Student needs are also increasingly different, and most campus facilities have not kept up with the changing times. Facilities are expensive to build, maintain, and renovate, and costs are on the rise. Funds for…

The Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) (www.wbdg.org) is the only Web-based portal providing government and industry practitioners with one-stop access to up-to-date information on a wide range of building-related guidance, criteria, and technology from a "whole buildings" perspective. The resource is a product of the National Institute of…

Several colleges and universities participate in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star Buildings program, in which institutions commit to improving their buildings' energy efficiency and reducing energy costs. All participants must also be a Green Lights Program participant or agree to specific building-wide lighting upgrades. The…

Colleges and universities can benefit from the coming deregulation of utilities. Deregulation creates opportunity for facility managers to aggressively negotiate agreements, implement changes to the physical plant to make the institution a more attractive customer, and explore new, less expensive energy supply options and alternatives. Some action…

The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers offers Opportunity Assessment (OA) workshops to train campus decision makers in developing a business plan to fund campus infrastructure upgrades from energy operating budgets, by combining highly efficient building utility systems upgrades and controls with properly sized and efficient…

Reports on a conference of college facility managers at which facilities professionals identified forces affecting the profession's future in five areas (information technology, resource scarcity, societal changes, government role in education, environmental deterioration) and six important roles for the manager (operational efficiency expert,…