About FM's Operational Efficiency
Facilities Management (FM) has a large and complex operating budget. Over the past five years, FM has been committed to driving efficiency and realizing cost savings, guided by our FM Three Year Plan. Our approach has been focused on proactive and predictive measures, resulting in several notable achievements.
Responsible Stewardship
The examples below showcase FM's commitment to maximizing efficiency, controlling operational costs, and ensuring prudent resource utilization — aligning with our ongoing efforts to demonstrate responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to us.
More Efficiency Examples
Cold Weather Protocol
FM's implementation of a Cold Weather Protocol has been instrumental in preventing cold weather damage to buildings across campus. This protocol includes coordination of building walk-throughs and monitoring, removal of building HVAC schedules, and other strategies.
Cold weather-related damage claims were reduced by roughly 60% within the first year of the Cold Weather Protocol (2018) and sustained reductions of more than 85% through CY23.
Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD)
FM’s Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) integrates three different building automation systems (BAS) to identify building operations issues before major failures occur. The system uses 104,114 points of data to assess 13,184 pieces of equipment.
This tool realized $600,000 in energy savings in just the first six months it was deployed and approximately 432 Fault Detection and Diagnostics work orders were completed in 2023, preventing equipment failures and occupant discomfort in buildings. These work orders resulted in approximately $318,000 of realized savings.
Flexible Fuel Strategy
FM's flexible fuel strategy and innovative biomass program proved invaluable during an event where natural gas prices spiked by 10X over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. By strategically reducing the use of natural gas, FM saved approximately $160,000 in fuel costs over that three-day weekend.
Custodial Supply Delivery Optimization
FM redefined its custodial supply delivery strategy when a campus delivery driver position was not backfilled. FM Custodial Services and its partner, Home Depot Pro, worked out a delivery solution to have suppliers deliver directly to each building. This strategic change not only streamlined the overall process but prevented FM Custodial from having to hire 2 full-time employees to deliver supplies.
