David Karpook talks to Eric Teicholz about his scholarship and its impact. Hear from previous recipients Mike Mafa and Richard Gunpat about their work in water management and FM consulting.
We are delighted to present the latest episode of the IFMA Foundation series, titled "Rework The Sustainable Development Chronicles." In this installment, host David Karpook engages in a conversation with Eric Teicholz, President of Graphic Systems, Inc. and the visionary behind the Eric Teicholz Scholarship. They delve into the scholarship's inception, its present status, and the exciting prospects it holds for the future. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to gain insights and discover remarkable achievements from two previous recipients of the scholarship: Mike Mafa, whose expertise lies in water and wastewater management in Botswana and other parts of Southern Africa, and Richard Gunpat, a Facilities Management Consultant hailing from Trinidad and Tobago.
Resources from the episode:
Eric Teicholz: [00:00:00] The SFP was, came out at a couple of hundred recipients. It was proving to be very effective. It was a major sustainability credential at that point. And I think it really was very powerful. In terms of helping our members be able to produce sustainable buildings. So that led me to basically support a number of scholarships over, I think, three years.
Host: Welcome to Connected FM, a podcast connecting you to the latest insights, tools, and resources to help you succeed in facility management. This podcast is brought to you by IPHMA, the leading professional association for facility managers. If you are ready to grow your network and advance in your career, go to IFMA. org to get started.
Today we are back with another installment of the latest series by the IFMA Foundation, Rework, The Sustainable Development Chronicles. In this installment, host David Karpook [00:01:00] sits down with Eric Teicholz. President of Graphic Systems, Inc. and the visionary behind the Eric Teicholz SFP Scholarship Program.
Together, they delve into the scholarship's inception, its present status, and the exciting prospects it holds for the future. Furthermore, you have the opportunity to gain insights and discover incredible achievements from two previous recipients of the scholarship. Mike Maffa, whose expertise lies in water and wastewater management in Botswana and other parts of Southern Africa.
And Richard Gunpat, a facilities management consultant from Trinidad and Tobago. Lastly, make sure to congratulate the latest recipients of the Eric Teicholz's SFP Scholarship Program on September 1st. Now, let's get into it.
The IFMA Foundation is a non profit organization and a United Nations NGO offering scholarships to future facility managers and other professionals within the built environment. The Foundation programs focus on workforce development, [00:02:00] career building, and academic education. Contact the IFMA Foundation and learn how your company or organization can impact lives at foundation. ifma. org.
David Karpook: Welcome again to our podcast series, Rework, The Sustainable Development Chronicles. I'm your host, Dave Karpuk. In each session of this series, we'll focus on one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their impact on the profession of facility management. The Sustainable Development Goals, part of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, constitute an urgent call for global action to end poverty and other deprivations with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Today, we'll be looking at SDG 13, Climate Action, [00:03:00] SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG six, clean water and sanitation and more. My first guest today is Eric Teicholz, president of Graphic Systems Inc, author of many books on facility management and technology, and IFMA fellow, who is really one of the titans of the organization.
Eric also is the founder in 2019 of the Eric Teicholz Sustainability Scholarship Program, which offers financial support to individuals interested in earning the Sustainable Facility Professional Certification. Later, we'll be talking to scholarship recipients Mike Mafa and Richard Gunpat about the work they do and how it has been impacted by the Sustainability Scholarship.
But let's get started. Welcome, Eric.
Eric Teicholz: Thank you, Dave. It's a pleasure to be here. Great.
David Karpook: Well, I want to start off, Eric, by asking you, the scholarship program you founded provides support [00:04:00] for people who want to earn their SFP certification from IFMA. Can you tell us about what inspired you to make this investment in the planet and the future?
Eric Teicholz: I certainly can. I'd like to be able to sort of back up first. And I knew about my 50 odd year career and how I arrived at the scholarships, and you'll see, you know, why I really feel so strongly about them at this point in time. My first part of the career really sort of spanned from, I would say, mid 1960s to perhaps 1980, and it related to academia.
And I was a student in architecture, involved in technology, working at Harvard University. And what I found, and I also did a lot of traveling at that point in time. So what I found is that the travel was associated often relating to things that related to climate change. For example, Harvard had a group called the Harvard [00:05:00] Institute for International Development.
And what they did is they, when countries came to Harvard in order to help really implement various types of projects in their country, They, Harvard would put together some of their academic faculty and send them over to work on it. So in my case where I had some very early history in computer graphics, I would go to these countries.
And similarly, I worked in a research lab, a very large research lab at Harvard, and they were working in contracts. I would be traveling around Wisconsin projects, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where I saw that climate, climate change at that point was very impactful. In terms of what was going on. So the various droughts, floods, and other activities sort of registered saying that this is really important.
The second part of my career lasted probably from let's say 1980 to the year 2000, [00:06:00] and that was really associated with a, or even actually the last 19, up until maybe 1980. And what that had to do with my professional career in graphic systems. And how that related to the scholarships was as follows. I began to focus on sustainability and energy at that point.
And also as we found that the technology became more sophisticated and integrated databases, my clients changed from architects and engineers and contractors to facility managers. So I started to become much more engaged, both in IFMA as well as aspect of facility management that related to energy. So a lot of our projects involve dealing with energy audits.
Dealing with track systems, building automation systems that help, you know, focus on interest in sustainability. The third aspect of my career, I would say relates to IFMA more than anything else. [00:07:00] Now we're in the year 2000 or 2004. I was a trustee of the Foundation at that point in time. I looked around, found that there were some other people like myself that were interested in this field.
We were down, I remember when we were down in Georgia, I think it was look range in 2004, and I prepared a little PowerPoint for the foundation that tried to, uh, basically get them more involved in structuring, you know, the sustainability efforts within IFMA and I. The PowerPoint was called, it's Not Easy Being Greed, and it turned out that David Brady, who was the president of vma.
And he came over to me afterwards and he said, well, Eric, that was interesting. And I think you're absolutely right that we should be doing more. What do you suggest we do? And my response is, well, I haven't the foggiest idea, but it is, I have to figure it out. So I spent the [00:08:00] next six months running around and I was very happy.
If I actually pick up on my travel, I would spend time at things like places like GSA and some private organizations, other government agencies, and I And after six months, I came back and said, David, you know, here are a number of things that I think are highly relevant to what IFMA does. And so David says, okay, now put together a task force and let that task force go out and see if you can come back with some kind of plan, some kind of map that shows us, you know, what we should be doing, what kind of obligations it would have, what kind of costs are associated with it.
And we will then, you know, proceed if we can. So I did that. So after the task force, we became the IFMA committee and basically the IFMA committee was charged with implementing a lot of these activities. And we, I think did some fairly good work. There were a lot of people that were really smart involved at this point.[00:09:00]
And eventually IFMA committee, the sustainability committee became what is currently ESIS, which is environmental stewardship. Utilities and sustainability group within IFMA and at this point I obviously was completely committed and that's what led to the scholarships. And perhaps I'll take one more minute and just give you a brief history of the scholarships at this point.
Sure.
And this. Okay. We're now in the year 2020. The S F P was came out probably four or five years before that, had a couple of hundred recipients. It was proving to be very effective. It was a major sedentary sustainability credential at that point. And I think it really was very powerful in terms of helping our members be able to produce sustainable buildings.
So that led me, and I was lucky enough to afford it, to basically support a number of scholarships over, I think, three [00:10:00] years, figuring that, figure out whether this was useful or not. At that time frame achieved the 450% growth over the time frame. So at this point, we're all fairly cautiously optimistic.
This thing is a useful scholarship.
David Karpook: Well, that's, thank you so much for that detailed dive into not only your background and the journey you went on to, to this goal, but also the education. I think you've given a lot of listeners about how IFMA draws you in and supports the kind of work you want to do.
So I really appreciate it. So I want to follow up by asking you about the criteria for the scholarship. What are the most important criteria for people who are interested in applying for the scholarship? And, you know, what kind of individuals are you looking to support?
Eric Teicholz: We have found over these three years, their three year period, that four particular criteria are important to us.
[00:11:00] Certainly the financial need is one of those four. But it turns out that's a very difficult criteria to really evaluate unless, of course, you know, people have various loans out from banks or other, you know, supporting groups. So when we have a questionnaire that tries to quantify, you know, some of the responses that we get from the applications, we really don't count sustainability very much because all we can do is ask the person filling out the application.
On a scale of one to five, how much they, you know, need financial support. So whether one equals one, you know, from one applicant to another, and it's very hard to evaluate much more significantly, what we care about is diversity of our membership. If you remember back in my Harvard days, we were traveling all over the place, visiting places, looking at.
A lot of very impoverished countries undervolved with that climate playing in that, we [00:12:00] really thought that importance of the scholarship and the importance of diversity in terms of who we brought in and from where we brought in. Would be an important criteria and it turns out that Harvard, and I'm sorry, certainly the United States is accounting for something like 45% of the awardees at this point, but certainly there's a lot of diversity within that 45%.
I think Africa, which has over 25% of the scholarships. It's also in there. You have some people from Botswana and Ghana and Nigeria and Egypt. At this point, age is important. We can't. People from Beijing, as well as from Hong Kong that have awarded it, have the award. And we have a couple from Europe and from, I guess, South America as well.
So that's one criteria that's ranked very high. And the questions that relate to that count, you know, quite a bit. The third criteria we're looking for relates to youth. We're trying to [00:13:00] get young professionals involved that are at the beginnings of their career. They don't necessarily have to belong to IFMA, even though that would certainly be a plus since that's our constituent, constituency that we're trying to award, trying to educate, but we want the idea to people that people be at the beginnings of their career in terms of using the scholarship to its greatest benefit.
And on a couple of occasions, we actually gave students the scholarships because they were very involved in establishing sustainability programs in their school. And the final criteria that Evano had to do when looking at the social impact that the scholarship might have on the individual, in other words, how would this scholarship impact that individual in terms of, you know, how they work and where they work and where they anticipate they're going to end up in that college.
David Karpook: Okay, that's fantastic. Thank you for that. So coming out the other end, now that [00:14:00] there's a few years of experience with this, what new skills and perspectives do you see scholarship recipients developing as a result of attaining the SFP? You know, what are they bringing to the work that they might struggle with otherwise?
Eric Teicholz: Let me take one brief side show, one, one piece of information that would be helpful to answering that question. Okay. A couple of months ago, the foundation and myself put out something called the bullet ETSF people, and which, which basically is, it was really like a, almost like a magazine or whatever it is for ages.
David Karpook: I have to say that the bios and the stories that are in the bulletin are really remarkable. What can you tell us about the accomplishments of the recipient? What kinds of work are they doing in support of a sustainable planet? And the U. N. sustainable development goals.
Eric Teicholz: Good. Let me answer those two [00:15:00] separately.
Biggest impact that we found is coming in the developing countries. That individuals that were involved in that are rising much faster in their careers than let's say somebody in a well established, you know, environment that often exists perhaps in Europe and the type of responses when I got there, which was also part of the survey that are reflective of the awardees at this point.
We're as follows team member and standards body looking at FM sustainability standard gauging more platforms with senior government official officials at policy now talking to clients on strategic level organizational rather than tactical or building level understanding the need financial incentives to enable efforts towards sustainability speaker at major conferences.
A regular contributor in local [00:16:00] media, mentor to several students, providing consultancy services on sustainable facilities management to several companies. So to me, that was really, again, very positive. People were obviously moving forward in their career. They were looking at a much more holistic, you know, world.
They were given the confidence they need to work at a higher level and to deal with management that they hadn't had before, then what have you. In terms of the essence, SDG goals UN has for 2030. What we found is that a lot of people are indeed dealing with issues that directly relate to that, but we're not necessarily focusing on that as an end in itself.
So we found, for example, that when we viewed some of these goals, that many, majority goals of the SDGs directly related to things that they were involved [00:17:00] doing, but they were not really yet focusing on those. And be able to provide specific research that IFMA looking for as it relates to these goals.
David Karpook: So if we could take out the crystal ball for just a second, Eric, what do you see as the future for this program and for in general, the important work on environmental issues that you're doing?
What can we look forward to next from you?
Eric Teicholz: Okay. That is something that I have been giving. Given a great deal of thought, I am getting on in age. I started this thing with saying I had well over 50 years of professional life, but here are the things that I think we need to make this thing sustainable in its own right.
I think we need to scale scholarships at a much larger level, outside administration and financial support. The foundation has his hands full, they've been enormously [00:18:00] effective, but I really feel that I obviously at some point going to have to slow down and turn over money for this link, that we need some entity that will provide the long term financial support that is required.
Our scholarships are relatively inexpensive, most of the scholarships come in at the 5, maybe 15, 000 level. That means a lot of my time is spent, you know, trying to find additional sponsors for the program. The administration to take advantage of what I think the opportunities are, and for what the potential is of the scholarship given today's climate change crisis, is great.
And that's going to take, you know, a larger entity than currently exists. I have to deal with issues of management transition, so I'd like to keep, you know, the management obviously is going to stay working with the foundation, but I feel that there needs to be another entity to take over [00:19:00] that role from me at this point in time.
And I'm looking and I'm talking to groups like the young professionals that can provide that kind of flow as well. And I guess on a personal basis, I'm getting old and I want to spend as much time with my grandchildren and my children as I possibly can. I adore them. And when they hit me, I really love spending time.
So that's, that's as far as we've gotten.
David Karpook: It's a good launch. I certainly can't disagree with you on that last point. Grandchildren are the best that life has to offer us, I think. That said, I also can't imagine a world in which Eric Deisholtz slows down. But I want to thank you, Eric, for your time today, and for the work that you've done in support of the environment.
The IFMA Foundation and the U. N. Sustainable development. So let's now pick a short break. And when we come back, I'll be talking with scholarship recipients. Mike Mafa and Richard Gunther.[00:20:00]
Welcome back. I'm speaking now with Mike Mafa, a 2020 recipient of the Eric Teicholtz Sustainability Scholarship, who works in the field of water and wastewater management in Botswana and other parts of Southern Africa. Mike, welcome.
Mike Mafa: Thank you very much Dave. Thank you for having me.
David Karpook: It's great to be talking to you today.
So, so Mike, you have a long list of professional accomplishments as a consultant, a trainer, a public speaker, and a master maintenance specialist. Can you tell us a bit about your career and how the work you do supports the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all?
Thank you very much.
Mike Mafa: Yes, I've been in the field for quite some time, first as a professional, and then now as a facilities management consultant, and yeah, being [00:21:00] the recipient of the 2020 scholarship. And yes, I've been doing this consultancy. I get to interact with many facilities managers from the government, prostitutes and private, and, and yes, focusing on the whole sustainability spectrum, but this time really zooming on the underwater conservation.
As you know, a part of the world, particularly in Botswana, Southern Africa. Botswana is landlocked. It sits on the Kalahari Desert and on our left is Namibia, which is also in, you know, has the desert. So water is really, really, really, really scarce, scarce in this country. And, you know, we've got very few rivers that flow throughout the year.
And then we've got high evaporation rates because our summers are really hot. Because of all these different issues, water is really scarce. And as facilities managers, we need to conserve this water. And so issues of recycling our water, free water, or properly brown water for reuse is [00:22:00] it's really, really critical.
And then again, even the kind of plants that we, we grow, we need to be looking at native plants, which don't consume a lot of water. And then again, looking at issues of, you know, the fittings that we need to use, you know, uh, you know, or the bathrooms, you know, our sinks and so forth, they need to be fittings that conserve water.
And apart from that, again, going into a smart metering so that, you know, we can see how much you use as well as to be able to see where the leaks are immediately when you see those leaks. Because like I said, in our region, we end up pumping water from very long distances. And so it is very, very important for facilities managers.
So now as a consultant, what I do, host an annual event, the World Facilities Management Day commemoration every year. And last year, the focus was on sustainability. This time it was FM making a real difference. And so still stressing further, you know, we need to make a difference in practicing facilities [00:23:00] management in a sustainable way.
And so water conservation and use of all these technologies that we have. Nowadays, but we turn, like I said, entry, recycling the water that we have, you know, ensuring that we reduce evaporation in, in every way that we have, whether it be boots that are covered and, and so SFP, the scholarship has really gone a long way, you know, into equipping me in this.
So sharing the knowledge and then again, some, something that I, that I do as well an achievement with IPMA was to be an instructor. Now I'm the IPMA recognized instructor. And teaching, particularly in the introduction to facilities management, I ensure that we stress the sustainability, you know, issues with the new facilities managers or those that come into the, into the course and, and, and, you know, giving them all these ideas and tips that, you know, I got from, from the SFP.
And the nice thing is that now helping them to do things in a systematic way and all that gives me [00:24:00] the confidence, you know, in delivery of the subject matter. And as we look at water conservation in this particular instance. And then again, uh, rainwater harvesting, you know, encouraging our people to, to harvest rainwater, you know, to use some, you know, either underground catchment areas or probably even some, some type tanks that would be, you know, uh, getting water from the roots through the gutters and, and yes, in this region we have, uh, in Southern Africa, we have these tanks, we call them Jojo tanks.
They'd be either green or something. Made of plastic. Yeah, those are, these are, these are common. And so these are the areas that we just encourage our people to use. And then again, when we use this smart technology, it helps you to appreciate the amount of water that you use because you see all these figures that you are able to follow.
And, and in a way it helps individuals to see that, you know, here I need to conserve because the issue of behavioral change as well, you know, it goes a long way in issues of sustainability. [00:25:00]
David Karpook: That's really interesting. I mean, it certainly sounds like working in the area you do, a landlocked country perched on the Kalahari Desert, that you're really a living laboratory for testing and making strong use of conservation techniques and new technologies regarding marine life water savings. So that's an inspiration to everyone. And I love, by the way, your theme of World FM Day today, making a difference. I think facility managers make an enormous difference and until recently weren't getting enough credit for the difference that they do make. I salute you and the facility managers you work with for performing a vital service, I think for the entire world in teaching us about conservation techniques and testing out.
What works? I wanted to ask you, how would you describe the place of sustainability in [00:26:00] kind of the African cultural environment? Is it, is sustainability recognized as an important priority by the governments? And I know there are so many diverse populations throughout the continent. How prominent is the issue of sustainability in your part of the world?
Mike Mafa: Yeah, thank you for the question. It's interesting because there was a thought among some where people would say the African continent is not reliable for all these emissions and degradation to the ionosphere, for example. But then we're beginning to experience all these now catastrophe. Now we are facing them in our continent.
Particularly in the last few years, the temperatures that we have been having in the recent years have been the highest, I think, in history, in just the last three, four years. And then now we've got all these floods in all the, all our countries here, Malawi was a very bad one quite recently, South Africa, Mozambique, you know, even [00:27:00] Botswana, we're seeing floods that we never saw before.
And so now it's a wake up call. I mean, people who said, no, it's somebody else's problem. It's the first one. We realize that well, we get affected as well. And the fact that the world is a global economy, when we get into each of ESG's penalties and so forth, you know, those now have applicable here. And as well as a trade doing trade, I mean, we should be seen to be, you know, practicing good governance and being sustainable.
And that of course attracts people to our businesses. So now we see that change that's going on. For example, when we look at these electric vehicles now at 2035, they won't be producing any. You know, combustible engines. So now we don't have a choice, but you know, we have to follow through, change our ways.
Otherwise, you know, that won't be helpful since the world. It, it's, it's, you know, now a village, we cannot say, okay, who is responsible? We all have to get [00:28:00] in as collective effort. And of course with the facilities management, the building does the contributing that 40%. And so the, the, there are challenges.
Yes. Like for example, our governments, most of governments in the African continent, of course, still use coal as their source of energy. And, uh, you know, and a lot of countries still have reserves. I mean, even my country still has a lot of coal reserves. So now to convince people to move to something else, sometimes it becomes a challenge and government becomes slow because they say we still have a lot of this resource, but then again, at the same time, you know, we say.
We've got abundance of sunshine in this whole part of the world. So we need to move on that way. So now we've seen a whole lot of, several, probably 12 solar farms that have been created in this country. And then South Africa, as you know, they've been having huge electricity problems and their power stations.
Now they need maintenance. They're not coping at all. I mean, the load [00:29:00] shedding is terrible so now there is a huge uptick in energy.
As well as now in all the Southern African countries, you find in the shopping malls, for example, you know, kind of a lot of solar PV is coming. So we can see that. And particularly in the areas like where a lot of energy is used, because when one goes sustainable way, then they begin to now bring down their operation costs, particularly in facilities management.
And so now, yes, a lot of facilities managers are moving the sustainable way because, you know, when we recycle water, our, our water bill comes down. When we use renewables, we bring down the electricity costs. When we look at the demand side, energy management. You know, all the different areas. But you know, like I say, you know, when you look at water and electricity, I mean, those are really, really huge.
And, and of course, you know, other areas are very, very important in addressing the sustainability issues. So, you know, there's a [00:30:00] serious mind change. I mean, now even in my country, now you hear a lot of, about ESG. I mean, last year you'd hardly So we see this huge change, like in, in, in my case, you know, through the company that I run for, for seven years now, we've been commemorating this world facilities management day from 2017.
And so as we move on in all these years, we see that behavioral change, even in our facilities managers. So yes, with our people, our facilities managers, as well as with governments. Now we see that coming up. There was resistance. People were slow. And I know one of the reasons has been knowledge, but now, you know, with SFP, now we are able to, to go around and have all these webinars with, you know, fellow, fellow FMs around, around the African continent and different conferences.
And so now we are able to stress, you know, sustainability in every conference that we have. So you can see the knowledge is getting there. We see a great [00:31:00] change and appreciation. But then as well, you know, we continue to lobby even with our governments, different platforms to show that we need to grow the sustainable way.
And conferences, several conferences that take place in the country, we've been taking part. I've been taking part in a lot of those. And now almost whether it's an architectural association, whether it's the Botswana Facilities Management Association, which I'm also part of the council, and then Botswana Bureau of Standards, where now we are looking at facilities management standard and we are adopting the standards.
Thank you. 14, 001. And so all of these become platforms, you know, where one is able to continue stress needs to practice FM in a sustainable way. We tell people, uh, gone are the days to just practice facilities management. Now it's facilities management in a sustainable way and in a smart way through the use of technology.
And technology will further help us, you know, be more sustainable. So yeah, we've seen that and we're loving governments as well in [00:32:00] doing the same.
David Karpook: Sounds like things are hopeful. I'm glad to hear that that momentum has developed. So, so Mike, it's really been a pleasure talking with you. My final question today, what's next for you in your professional journey?
Mike Mafa: Yeah, I'd say for me now, I'll continue as an instructor, FM courses. And then my, my intention is to, to, to go on to PhD now, because I, I, I'm not sure if, if that in the States, it's like with us here, you know, you realize that sometimes the higher the education you achieve, the more credible. And the more people would listen to you, you know, like, you know, I speak as Dr.
Mafa, it'd be different than when I speak as Mr. Mafa, there will be more audience, a lot more audience. So just looking forward to that, you know, be looking at the sponsorship to, you know, to do that and be more, more effective, yes.
David Karpook: I wish you good luck in that venture, and I think the situation is the world [00:33:00] o, the same the world o works.
Dr. Mike Mafa means a little bit more than Mr. Mike Mafa, so you did it very well there. I want to thank you again, Mike, for joining us today and for sharing your insights.
Mike Mafa: Thank you very much, Dave. The pleasure is mine. You know, like, I always feel that I haven't said much. I wish I could say many more, much more.
Thank you very, very much. Really appreciate the opportunity.
David Karpook: Been wonderful talking to you.
Our final guest today is Richard Gunnpat, a 2022 recipient of the Eric Teicholtz Sustainability Scholarship, who lives and works in Trinidad and Tobago. Richard's work focuses on developing sustainable facility management programs at the Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, for which he works. In particular, he's interested in sustainable facility condition assessments.
Welcome, Richard. Thank you, David. Great to be here. Let's go ahead and dive right in. [00:34:00] Richard, you've written about the importance of taking a sustainable approach to facility condition assessments. Can you please talk to us about why this is so important and what benefits it yields?
Richard Gunpat: Absolutely. So, firstly, I would like to thank Planon for sponsoring my IFMA SSP scholarship.
It's an honor to be a recipient, but more so to have contributed to the development of the SFP updated program. So let's first start off with what's an, what's an FCA about, right? So, a facility condition assessment is a systematic process. of establishing the physical condition and current performance of your facility assets and building systems with associated costs for repairs and replacement.
A facility condition assessment allows for priorities prioritization of asset repairs according to priority levels and a plan of action that can be established for a defined period. [00:35:00] As an FM, you must be able to conduct a facility condition assessment periodically, that being every five years, for your facility from during the operations phase to assess the physical and performance of war related facility systems.
Some of these facility systems or sustainability measures include HVAC, baggage handling systems, Lighting, transportation systems, fueling systems, water recirculation systems, and so on, depending on your particular facility. A facility condition assessment allows any facility manager or FM professional to leverage an analysis of individual facility equipment and systems from a sustainable point of view.
Some key benefits include. Energy reduction from high energy consuming equipment to include chillers [00:36:00] and lighting. You also have the opportunity to perform life cycle assessment for different systems from a sustainable point of view. Prioritization of capital assets. Replacement or repairs and your facility condition assessment becomes a high level strategic document available for the C suite and you to continue throughout the course of your building operations.
So we might ask ourselves, how can all systems be more sustainable? Do they require replacement repairs in order to achieve that? And the simple answer to that is yes. A facility condition assessment is an important tool. for any FM practitioner to achieve sustainability targets. And as we all know, commercial buildings, and that being existing buildings, consume a large portion of energy.
And we must be able to, as FM practitioner, achieve [00:37:00] sustainability targets. And these are the benefits that FCA can achieve in that regard.
David Karpook: Well, thank you for that explanation, Richard. I'm sure that that enlightened a lot of people about these complex things that, that we take for granted. We live and work and sleep and eat in every day, but which are, as you pointed out, you know, responsible for about 40%.
of the world's production of greenhouse gases. That's right. Now, a lot of your work appears to align with the United Nations SDG 7, which is focused on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. Why is that so important in the air transportation industry in which you work?
Richard Gunpat: Okay, so any typical airport occupies a large amount of space. We're talking tens of thousands of square feet. A facility space [00:38:00] that we have to manage with that comes a lot of energy consumption, right? When we speak about energy consumption, we're speaking about the energy use index, right? Which basically is the index of how well we consume energy at our facility.
Right. So as an, you know, as a facility practitioner in an airport environment, it's important that your facility is one operating in the most sustainable and efficient way. And that will transmit to the lowest amount. Of energy demand possible for your facility in your respective country. The power grid has only a certain amount of capacity, right?
And an airport can account for a significant portion of that utility grid power. It's important that the power produced is able to meet the demands of all facilities in that [00:39:00] particular country. And as an airport is important that your facility. Is operating at its highest, efficiently and lowest demand in order to achieve that.
And this is where the facility condition assessment comes. It's very important to ensure that your high energy consuming equipment and systems operate efficient. So in that regard, you have to ensure that your energy energy consumed is at its highest in terms of demand and efficiency. Secondly, it's a sustainable.
In that regard, you also have to look at alternative ways and means of producing your power. In my organization, we supplement the energy produced from the grid by our solar farm that we have in operation. So that supplements our building load, and in so doing, contributes to the overall reduction in the demand.
[00:40:00] And in that way, we ensure that our, our energy produced is And is produced sustainably and an alternative form of energy. In that regard, we, as, as any responsible organization that has an impact on sustainable goals, we have to ensure that we meet these targets.
David Karpook: Thank you for that. Again, I loved hearing that you have a solar field that supplements the grid.
At the airport. It's nice to know that all that sunshine you get in Trinidad and Tobago is being used for more than just enjoyment and recreation.
Richard Gunpat: It's a lot of sunshine. I could tell you that.
David Karpook: Okay. So another topic, optimizing lighting through retrofits and implementing lighting schedules through the building management system also play a big role in your face study at one of the airports. Can you talk about the [00:41:00] savings you've achieved through that strategy?
Richard Gunpat: Oh, absolutely. So any airport, as you know, will consume a lot of energy, particularly with lighting.
We have indoor lighting, we have exterior lighting, and we have security lighting. And some of these lights must stay on, right, particular periods of time. One of the strategies as an FM, you must look at lighting from a sustainable point of view, that being strategy one and your scheduling the other. So with regards to our airport, I was able to implement a complete lighting retrofit.
Through our existing billing management system, which was recently upgraded over the last five years. The lighting system was outdated, that being legacy type, and we needed to upgrade the system, right? And include [00:42:00] an integration into our existing billing management system. So one of the strategies we used was, one, ensure that the lighting and fixtures was indeed of the highest efficiency LED type.
And secondly, we want to optimize the schedules, right? So one of the tasks I was had to do was ensure that lights come on and cut off at the exact precise type. So in, in fact, that you wanna stagger the lights to come on as late as possible and then cover off as little as possible. And the benefit management system have that feature that you can optimize throughout the year and you can, you can shift that schedule.
Depending on, you know, the time of year and on all the things to ensure that you maximize efficiency because lights off translate to energy savings and more importantly, [00:43:00] based on the number of nights we have for the airport, which includes up to in the in the thousands, you're talking about at least 10% savings on your utility bills and for airport facility, you're talking a lot of months.
Yeah. So this was one of the projects that was able to roll out as part of the building management system and facility condition assessment, identifying the lighting project as a sustainability initiative going forward. So we'll be able to achieve that as well as ongoing monitoring of the lighting.
show the BMS and adjusting and optimizing the schedules accordingly throughout the year.
David Karpook: Well, 10% savings is, I mean, that's really significant. And I think most of us, you know, might not suspect that something as simple as lighting, which again, we, we completely take for granted could be optimized in, in a way to save that much in [00:44:00] energy use.
Well, thank you, Richard, for all of these insights today. This has been a really fascinating conversation. And I look forward to hearing more about your efforts in the field of sustainability and especially in your use of the facility condition assessment as the foundation for sustainability measures.
Have a great day.
Richard Gunpat: Thank you, David, for having me. It's been a pleasure.
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