Magazine

  When it comes to healthcare facilities, taking initiative has long been important — after all, preventing infections sounds a lot more positive than extinguishing an outbreak. Yet, staffing constraints and simple oversight have often led healthcare facilities to inadvertently stray away from the optimal amount of infection prevention, sometimes allowing a breakout to occur. That can…

While new construction allows for incredible levels of customization, there’s no denying that new buildings can have adverse impacts on the climate, budgets, schedules and even the cultural and historic fabrics of communities. While any responsible architect will design buildings to minimize these impacts, there is no avoiding them entirely. One proven strategy to limit…

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how important it is to have a healthy work environment. The recent webinar “Healthy Building Strategies: Putting Sustainability and People First,” sponsored by biosafety technology company R-Zero, featured three facilities management professionals who explained what healthy buildings are and what can be done to make buildings more healthy. Healthy buildings are…

  A study by Finnish scientists shows that air-circulating indoor green walls can improve employees’ health. Conducted as part of the ADELE 2 (Immune Defence and Living Environment) project between Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and two major Finnish universities, the study is the first of its kind linking exposure to living green walls with improved skin integrity and…

Data center insights Penn State researchers received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to make data centers more sustainable. Data centers play a key role in manufacturing and other industries and require a great deal of energy to operate. Syed Rafiul Hussain, assistant professor of computer science and engineering in the Penn State College of…

  Elon Musk has found himself in hot water with the city of San Francisco after reports surfaced that the newly minted Twitter owner had arranged for sleeping quarters to be added to the social media company’s San Francisco headquarters. The San Francisco Department of Buildings Inspection said on December 7 that it would launch…