The detailed findings in this Getting Started Guide include a step-by-step process for assessing your organization, finding your starting point, identifying initiatives, evaluating their value, and implementing, measuring and monitoring their effectiveness. Those steps include the "how-to" suggestions for:

• Taking your organization’s temperature
• Creating alignment
• Establishing your starting point
• Creating and prioritizing sustainable initiatives
• Implementing, measuring and monitoring your plan

Getting Started also includes information on making the business case for a SFM program. This includes outlining a process for the program and finding the right approach for your organization that is aligned with available time and resources.

Finally, one of the most valuable sections of this guide includes case studies of three organizations that are on the path of Sustainable Facility Management. In looking at how it’s done, we were able to solicit input from three organizations that are taking different paths, with different levels of available resources. They have shared their goals, approaches, results, and their lessons learned.

Energy management is an integral part of the day-to-day operations of facility managers and operators of existing facilities. Rising energy costs and increasing interest in sustainability are driving us to scrutinize energy consumption in our buildings and develop strategies for better management.

Successful energy management starts with understanding the units of energy and power, and becoming comfortable with the terminology. This guide will highlight essential terms and why they are important. In addition to knowing terminology, we need to understand what our monthly and annual energy consumption is in our buildings and how it is changing over time. Do you know how efficient your building is? How does your overall efficiency compare to buildings in your portfolio? Or, how does it compare to other similar buildings regionally, nationwide or internationally? This Guide will help answer these questions as the authors walk you through the online tool from the Environmental Protection Agency, the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.

Food service management is one of many activities in commercial and institutional buildings. Often a very complex work environment, the decisions and practices in food service can have a significant influence on the social well-being, environmental health and economic security of both surrounding communities and those around the world.

This guide provides practical, real-world guidance on how to introduce and advance sustainable practices within the food service environment. The guide provides direction for individuals in leadership and management positions within the food service environment, as well as general information for professionals within the operation and management of buildings, including real estate management, property developers, architects, engineers and government entities. Students in facility management degree programs will also find the guide relevant.

This No-Cost/Low-Cost Energy Savings guide is principally derived from the BetterBricks article Common Opportunities: The Top Four, which can be found at BetterBricks.com, under Building Operations. The goal of the guide is to provide facility operations personnel with a practical document that will provide the resources to initiate no-cost/low-cost energy-efficiency measures at their sites. This is not a theoretical piece, but aims to present specific maintenance targets in a “here’s where to go, here’s what to look for” format. The Web site articles from which this guide was derived have several bullet lists that can be translated to spreadsheet templates and used as checklists for facilities managers to reference.

This guide has been written to explain the benefits of investigating and upgrading lighting systems in and around facilities.Based on extensive research, input from lighting specialists and general experience, it provides a broad description of options available to facility professionals to enhance the indoor quality of buildings while saving energy, dollars and manpower to maintain proper lighting.