Magazine

All systems are perfectly designed to produce their results — even when their results are far from perfect. Engineer Edward Demings observed that decades ago. Don’t like the results? Change the system. Potential systems change exists on a continuum, from wholesale system destruction and reconstruction to incremental system shifts. The former is often due to…

Corporate America’s commitment to environmental justice has been tepid to non-existent. Several factors explain this absence of commitment, including a fear of lawsuits from high community pollution levels, opposition to revising operating permits by regulatory agencies, potential citizen protests to plant site expansions, and corporations’ broader reluctance to discuss their economic and political power in…

Universities across the country are embracing solar energy to help power their campuses, become more sustainable, and save money. Proving that point, here are three major announcements U.S. universities made in late May alone. Brigham Young University–Hawaii Brigham Young University–Hawaii announced completion of a campus-wide renewable energy system that includes rooftop solar, carport solar, and…

Comprehensive retrofits of commercial buildings can reduce their energy use by up to 40 percent but are not happening anywhere near the scale needed to meet climate goals, according to a report released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). With new federal funds available for such energy-saving upgrades, the report offers a…

NFPA Today – June 03, 2022 Over the past several months, I have noticed a few incidents occurring in mercantile occupancies that have raised some questions related to the allowable delay between sprinkler activation and fire alarm notification in the event of a fire, which is governed by NFPA 72®, National Fire Alarm and Signaling…

  I don’t do well with unresolved conflict. If there’s an elephant in the room, I want to address it. One of our family legends stems from a time we were driving in Sydney, Australia with an unspoken conflict brewing between my daughters in the back seat. I asked them to sort it out but…