Optimize Your Facility Without Breaking the Bank: How FMs Can Become Sustainability Heroes For Less (IFMA 2024)

Doing more with less is a well-known concept to most facility managers. But what happens when you’re charged with not only meeting tight budget constraints but also achieving sustainability goals?

These two things aren’t at odds. In fact, they’re part of the same goal—using fewer resources, which are growing increasingly expensive to purchase.

Arapahoe County, Colorado, is committed to meeting this goal and doing more with less. Lisa VanderHeyden, senior project manager for Arapahoe County Facilities & Fleet in Colorado and an active IFMA collaborator and volunteer, led a Friday morning educational session at the 2024 IFMA World Workplace Conference & Expo where she explained how the county has delivered on its sustainability commitment time and time again, saving money for taxpayers along the way.

Start with a Plan

“If you don’t have a plan, you flounder around and don’t know how to get where you’re going,” VanderHeyden said. “When you put a formal structure to your efforts, it helps you set targets, secure that financial support, find those collaborators, and set benchmarks.”

Benchmarks are critical tools for seeing where you are currently and where you want to be, VanderHeyden added.

Win with Water

Lowering your water use doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if you can get your water utility on board with your efforts, VanderHeyden said. Focus on four key areas: irrigation and landscape, systems, leaks, and engagement.

Irrigation and landscape: How much money could you save if you didn’t have to water turf grass? VanderHeyden’s team proposed removing the Kentucky bluegrass turf at the administration building—the most prominent lawn in the county—and replacing it with non-irrigated native plantings. “We didn’t talk about it as cost savings or just as the metric of water saving,” VanderHeyden said. “We talked about it as doing the right thing and setting the right example.” The county landed a 75% match grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board to convert all three acres.

Arapahoe County Facilities & Fleet set a 64% water reduction goal, representing roughly 1.5 million gallons of water per year. This figure acknowledges that the county will still have to consume some irrigation water to care for trees, shrubs, and other decorative plantings. However, the actual reduction during 2023—the second year of the project—was more than 2 million gallons. “We adjusted that for evapotranspiration and it’s still an 88.7% reduction,” VanderHeyden noted.

Systems: Work to discover and remedy deficiencies, VanderHeyden urged. Have you ever seen a sprinkler spraying a sidewalk instead of green space? That’s a deficiency you can fix today. Arapahoe County discovered that it needed to fine-tune its irrigation system after the conversion to native plantings. Test aerators until you find a model that doesn’t spray people when they wash their hands, then install it on your faucets.

Leaks: Arapahoe County launched a “See something, say something, do something” campaign for staff resetting priorities around leaks and running faucets and toilets. “The new priority is, if there is a leak, you fix it,” VanderHeyden said. “They get an alert [about unexpected gallons-per-minute flow rates] and the expectation is they’ll take care of it immediately, report it, and deal with it.”

Engagement: Teach building occupants what to look for when it comes to water waste, VanderHeyden urged. “Teach them what to do about it and tell them why,” she said. “Help them understand their impact and how they can make things better.”

This includes teaching occupants new behaviors, VanderHeyden added. Put up signage near sinks asking people to turn off the water while they wash their hands. Share your data with the public via a dashboard or other tool so people understand what you’re doing to save water.

Fine-Tune Energy Use

Energy costs a lot of money, VanderHeyden noted. Easy wins with your energy use include managing your building automation system, tuning operating systems, replacing lighting, and establishing ongoing standards for any modifications you make.

Actively manage your BAS: Does everyone know how to use your building automation system? Has it been tweaked to change setpoints or implement other energy-wasting changes? Review its operation and make sure it’s functioning optimally.

Tune up operating systems: Monitor your peak energy demand and consider changing how you do things during your highest usage period, especially if you have peak demand pricing in your area, VanderHeyden said. Arapahoe County discovered that its peak demand occurred first thing in the morning when systems were ramping up to start the workday. The county didn’t replace its equipment, but it did change startup sequences, so the county wasn’t peaking so high in the mornings.

“We had eight buildings that all had peaks in the winter when the control systems enabled the VAV fan power box heat,” VanderHeyden said. “[Dawn Smith, the county’s energy/resource manager] tweaked that so that only one stage of heat comes on at a time and the second comes on only when we need it. Just that improvement saved over $40,000 a year without spending any money.”

Replace old lighting: “People think that saving money with lighting is outdated or past its prime. It isn’t, and it makes a difference,” VanderHeyden said. “All of these cumulative things add up.” Figure out where you can replace older lighting with LED lighting and look for grants to help defray the cost of new lighting equipment.

Establish standards: Don’t rely on a like-for-like replacement of your old equipment. Things have probably changed in your building since you last bought major equipment—maybe you’ve upgraded your lighting to newer lighting that doesn’t emit so much heat, insulated your envelope, or installed better controls. You may not need as much HVAC capacity as you had the last time you bought HVAC equipment, VanderHeyden suggested. “I strongly advocate for never doing a like-for-like replacement on your HVAC systems,” she said. “Do that engineering. Make it worth your while to do something that’s smaller and more efficient.”

The county developed facilities design and construction standards, so its engineers know what to look for. “We’ll never again have ‘This is what you had before so this is what you should buy,’” VanderHeyden said.

5 Tips for Getting Started

1. Take charge. “Put somebody in charge of this, or you get in charge of this and start talking to people who care,” VanderHeyden said.

2. Talk to your local utilities. Arapahoe County received not only utility rebates but also several grants from organizations they connected with through their utility companies. “Watch for rebate opportunities and ask them about rebate opportunities,” VanderHeyden said. “We’ve been awarded over $300,000 in matching funds. Watch utility websites.”

3. Look for partnerships. “This is not something that happens instantly,” VanderHeyden said. “You have to make resources and management part of your job. Find others in your community who care about the same thing. Network through IFMA. There are probably people who share your pain points.”

4. Develop and promote in-house programs. Talk to people and engage them. Let occupants know what they can do to save energy and water at work and at home. Get them involved in savings.

5. Report progress. Tell people the story of what you’ve done and how successful it was—and if it wasn’t successful, tell them that too, along with what you learned and what you’d do differently.