Meeting Review by Doug VerBockel

On April 25th, 2012 Northwestern Mutual‘s Franklin facility was the location for IFMA’s latest lunch and learn event. The topic this month was Energy Star and an introduction to IFMA’s sustainability initiatives. Our host,  Scott Wollenzien, provided lunch and a great tour of the facility after the presentation.  Thank you Scott for your hospitality.
The meeting began with a few IFMA housekeeping announcements from our Chapter President, Brian Parrish.  Brian also asked for any nominations for the new SEW IFMA Chapter elections coming up in May.

Frank Falsetti with Hunzinger Construction talked to the chapter members about his Sustainable Liaison position for our SEW IFMA Chapter.  This past year Frank set the foundation for communicating National Chapter sustainable strategies to SE Wisconsin. Each month 30-50 chapters communicate via a teleconference to discuss and exchange ideas on Sustainability. Topics have included: The Energy Star Challenge, water usage & water conservation, the role of the FM in benchmarking metering, monitoring and managing energy and carbon and driving sustainability beyond the “low hanging fruit”.  Frank mentioned that his four goals for his liaison position are:

1. Creating awareness of The Energy Star Challenge.
2. Creating Awareness of the SFP Professional certification.
3. Introducing the SFP Professional Credential.
4. Networking with other Chapters.

His immediate goals are to:

1. Develop enough interest is the Sustainability to drive the topic to a committee level in our organization by 2013.
2. Host 2 events scheduled in the 2012-2013 program related to Sustainability.
3. Generate a higher level of interest in sustainability via enhanced website links.

Next,  Andy Thorsen , Sr. Sustainability Analyst for Kohl's Department Stores demonstrated how easy it is to enter your facility into the Energy Star Portfolio Manager database.  Kohl’s corporation has 1,159 locations currently entered into the Energy Star Portfolio Manager.  Andy encouraged everyone to have their facility or facilities entered in Portfolio Manager.   He actually showed us how to do it on the Energy Star web site proving it is not difficult to do.   Once you have 12 months of data entered for a specific site you will get a score (0-100).  This score is a great way to benchmark your facility.  If you have a score of 55, it means your energy usage at that facility is 5 % better than the national average of 50.  Andy pointed out that even if your building scores a 75; you have lots of opportunities to save energy.

Lastly, Paul Oswald with ESI (Environmental Systems Inc.) gave a case study on their building which scored a 99 (out of 100) on the Energy Star system.  This is the highest Energy Star rated building in Wisconsin.  He stressed how once you have a process in place you need to monitor the process to make sure it is in compliance.  This also allows for continual process improvements.