When I recently read Green Building Services’ Blog “The Top 10 Green Building Trends to look for in 2010,” I smiled, realizing the potential this year for Sustainable Facility’s audience. The consultants at GBS are right on! I won’t share all 10, but thought you’d appreciate the following excerpts from the GBS blog:

“Existing Building Sustainability Focus: the other 300 billion square feet: …the virtual collapse of new development has helped the industry to refocus on the real solution: greening existing buildings.  There are many strategies one can employ to green existing buildings, but the most recent upgrade to LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance is like your one-stop shop for all things to green O&M.  Implementation of building audits, ENERGY STAR benchmarking, retro-commissioning as well as policies and practices will not only green your building, but may just lead to the greening of your entire organization.  Now is the time!”

“Visibility of Building Performance Data: providing feedback loops: Metrics, Metrics, Metrics! Seizing scale-appropriate information is the key — from building portfolio tracking, whole building performance, down to the individual occupant or receptacle, real change will come when the data is in clear view.”

“Occupant Engagement and Behavioral Change: the final frontier in building efficiency: To bring about the kind of dramatic energy reductions we have to make in the next decade, occupants have to be engaged early in the design process, trained on how to occupy and operate the building and provided with detailed feedback on their own resource use within the building.” 

“Green Leasing: putting it in writing: Owners and tenants can forge partnerships and come away with a win-win scenario with thoughtful approaches to green leasing.  For both tenants and landlords who are interested in green measures for the space, education and relationship building facilitates making green building and operations part of the lease.”

I encourage you to focus on your existing buildings, engage your tenants and measure your performance. Take these ideas from GBS to heart and run with them! To read more on the above or see the rest of the trends, you’ll have to visit blog.greenbuildingservices.com.

Online at SustainableFacility.com

While you’re online, be sure to check out Sustainable Facility’s regularly updated website, www.SustainableFacility.com. It’s filled with news, products and information to engage and assist the facility manager and building owner/operator looking to go green. Below is a short list of what was visited most often online in 2009, which also provides an introspective as to what we might expect in 2010.

Two of the most popular articles, in case you missed them the first time, were:

•           “Green Building and its Impact on Roofing Material Selection” from April 2009; and

•           “Shedding Light on Energy” (advanced lighting in the New York Times building) from January 2009.

You can find these, and other articles, in our archives.

Anything related to LEED and the program’s costs/impacts also caught your eye online last year. So it came as no surprise that Michael Berning’s regular columns “LEED EB: O&M: The Building Owner’s and Operator’s Sustainability Solution,” garnered a lot of attention. Be sure to follow this valuable series and read his past articles online.

In 2010, Sustainable Facility will continue to offer editorial insight on green jobs and energy incentives, as well as educational services to help you green your buildings. With the endless opportunities to improve the existing building stock, www.SustainableFacility.com is here to be your online partner for success and we wish you the best.