Energy and asset management 101 comes to Harvard

Engineered Systems, Jan, 2005 by John W. Fortin, Daniel O. Beaudoin

What's a facility condition index? It's part of the evaluation this team undertook as a way to introduce retrocommissioning and a set of workable action plans to the Harvard School of Public Health. With an emphasis on practical results and an estimated savings of $268,000 on two projects alone, this is one report card worth reviewing.

With winter upon us and energy prices higher then ever before, the Harvard School of Public Health has already been aggressively working to curb their operating costs. This effort is challenging every facility manager as each must grapple with increased pressures from shrinking budgets, raising operating costs, increased deferred maintenance backlog, and an aging workforce.

While there are a variety of utility/energy, cost sharing and rebate programs available, who has the time to research, apply for, and execute these programs? The practice of conducting facility condition assessments has always been a routine approach to collecting and organizing a deferred maintenance list. But how many times have these detailed engineering reports just provided "planning level" project cost estimates, and then collected dust on the office shelf? When asked about the status of condition assessment documents, many managers simply point to the three-ring binder and say "There they are," and "We had one done several years ago without ever executing any of the work."

There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Some groups and facility teams are beginning to take a more holistic approach to controlling rising energy costs and deferred maintenance through innovative asset management programs. The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in Boston is well known among its peers for its progressive and innovative facility management style. HSPH houses a variety of office and laboratory space throughout its 540,000-sq-ft home to many important research programs that aim to improve public health around the globe. So, for Dean Paul Riccardi and operations manager Dan Beaudoin, tenant satisfaction is of paramount importance. Providing comfortable space with reliable infrastructure at a reasonable cost is their top priority.

HSPH is proactive in the area of energy conservation and is very active in the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI, www.greencampus@harvard.edu) that engages both facility managers and tenants to "achieve the environmental, human health and financial benefits of high performance campus planning, design and operations." A major component of this program has been energy conservation/-reduction. Another is their participation in the LEED[TM] program where HSPH recently received LEED certification for 42,000-sq-ft of renovated space at its landmark facility.

In the spring of 2003, Riccardi engaged the management team of Bond Brothers Inc., and Richard D. Kimball Engineers, a Massachusetts construction management firm and consulting engineering firm (Bond/RDK), to provide the HSPH with a practitioner's approach--to combine energy saving programs with campus deferred maintenance into an executable program--one that would not sit on the shelf. In addition, the energy/asset team of Bond/RDK/HSPH (TEAM) was joined by NSTAR, the local utility service provider, which agreed to provide funding support for the HSPH energy study and implementation.

Together, the diversity of experience worked well, and the TEAM developed an Assess--Implement[TM] approach, an organized methodology to help HSPH analyze its operations against both master planning goals and industry benchmarks, develop short- and long-term projects in support of these, and implement the projects in a timely fashion. Key drivers were system reliability (to protect research lab projects) and reduced operational costs from energy conservation.

BUILDING 2 FACILITY ASSESSMENT: LOOKING FOR ELEPHANTS

With a good handle on conditions of three of the four buildings, the team focused its initial efforts on completing a facility assessment on Building 2. Historically, research tenants have often funded their own space renovation to support their unique programs, while the major support equipment/systems are under the control of HSPH. Concurrent with this study, Harvard announced that there was consideration being given to a possible relocation of the HSPH operations to another Boston site. If it were decided to relocate, the HSPH would move in approximately seven to 10 years. So, the TEAM's effort needed to incorporate a "programming" component to their approach and recommended action plan.

The TEAM employed a three pronged approach to the assessment and prioritization of deferred maintenance projects, including programming, a facility condition index, and an energy review as follows.

PROGRAMMING

Before the on-site condition assessment work commenced, a facility programming meeting was held to review the historical, short-, and long-term use/planning of the building. This approach ensured that the recommended deferred maintenance projects were closely coordinated with the building's future use, and provided a focus on the cost-effective use of available project funding.