Poll results released in February, 2022, reveal that 74% of people indicate they wash their hands more often now than they did before the pandemic, and 88% say they will continue to wash their hands more often than before the pandemic. Further, 70% said they wash their hands for 20 seconds or less, contrary to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation of 20 seconds or more. These are among the compelling results of a consumer snap poll of October 2021, conducted by Cascades PRO, a professional hygiene solutions company.
Supporting these findings is the Healthy Handwashing Survey that reveals a handwashing decrease of 25% among adults compared to when Covid-19 arrived. As of January 2022, Americans are washing their hands 7.8 times per day, a drop from the 10.5 times in Spring 2020, says the handwashing survey, conducted by Bradley Corp., a leading manufacturer of commercial handwashing fixtures and washroom accessories.
|
|
by John Wang — This article originally appeared in the March/April 2022 issue of FMJ
Last year concluded with little more order to it than 2020. Organizations announced hard dates or a return to the office and quickly found themselves at odds with reluctant employees. Meanwhile, COVID-19 had plans of its own — organizations had to change their strategies and reprioritize to meet both the needs of employees who were no longer happy with being put back in their boxes and a virus that could change the rules of the game at a moment’s notice. The need arose to reassess business requirements to champion a model that was both sustainable in a business sense and one in which the employee experience was paramount.
Flexible, remote or hybrid working is now formalized company policy rather than a temporary workaround. The shift to decentralized working models that embrace flexibility at their core — heeding external conditions and employee sentiments, rather than just the opinions of upper management — do better to guarantee long-term organizational resilience.
|
|
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced that 93 U.S. manufacturing plants earned the agency’s Energy Star certification in 2021. Energy Star-certified plants are verified to be among the most energy-efficient plants within their industries. Together, they prevented more than 5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector, which is responsible for nearly a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan remarked: As these companies demonstrate, improving energy efficiency serves to confront climate change while strengthening our economy. Manufacturing plants that reduce energy consumption as part of the transition to a zero-emissions future save money and create the resiliency needed for the long-term health of their operations, our economy, and our planet.
|
|
A fresh new aesthetic and solid reputation for durability drive the HON Company’s competitive edge
Diana Mosher, an editor with The McMorrow Reports & FMLink, connected with The HON Company team, Anna Wizner, Leslie Eichelberger, Jeremy Tinkler, and Ben Daufeldt, to discuss marketplace insights.
What trends are you seeing regarding the hybrid workplace?
Wizner: We’re all talking about “hybrid work,” in which employees split time between home and the office. We gleaned a lot from Microsoft’s recent 2021 Work Trend Index, which surveyed more than 30,000 employees. According to the Index, 66% of business decision makers are considering redesigning physical spaces to better accommodate hybrid work environments. The data is clear: extreme flexibility and hybrid work will define the post-pandemic workplace.
|
|
Like many facility managers, Richard Conohan, ProFM, CFM, AssocRICS, FMP, SFP, CRL, didn’t begin his career intending to work in facility management. Instead, he found himself there as many do, by accident. Before beginning his current role as an Alliance Director at CBRE, Richard got his start as a security officer at a major shopping center. From there, he made connections with the maintenance team and began his journey into the FM profession.
“The operations supervisor at the time took a chance on a young me with no maintenance experience,” Conohan said. “And with his support, my first steps towards being in an FM role were taken.”
From there, Richard moved into the semiconductor industry as a building operator, which turned into a role as a Health, Safety and Environment manager before transitioning to CBRE as a senior facility manager, and finally to his current role as an Alliance Director at CBRE in the Energy, Oil & Gas sector.
|
|
Automated Logic is bringing reliable and flexible building automation to customers with its new hosted and managed software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, WebCTRL Cloud. This new solution for the WebCTRL building automation system (BAS) brings deployment flexibility, while helping them scale for growth and reduce their support burden. Automated Logic Corporation, a provider of innovative building management solutions, is part of Carrier Global Corporation, a global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable and intelligent building and cold chain solutions.
The new WebCTRL Cloud solution is available for a subscription fee, providing a predictable cost of ownership, explains the company. The subscription fee includes cloud hosting, server maintenance, WebCTRL site reliability monitoring, database redundancy and backups, and software upgrades. This eliminates the need for customers to install, configure and manage a building automation server in the building. In addition, there is no costly information technology (IT) infrastructure to maintain, and IT compliance directives for the server — including reliability, security, and uptime — are managed by Automated Logic.
|
|
Higher-education facilities managers have been working non-stop since the pandemic began, first transitioning their professors and students from on-campus to virtual learning and then keeping the buildings in sound condition while they were unoccupied. Since January, 2021, when campus life returned with limits, education facilities planners, engineers, and administrators have been creating new solutions for educational experiences on campus.
Their colleagues in government facility management are also facing demands with their buildings figuring out how hybrid work applies to their government employees and contractors and how it will impact government real estate holdings. Their unique needs are addressed in a selection of sessions during the National Facilities Management & Technology (NFMT) Conference & Expo, March 29-31 in Baltimore.
|
|
New events posted this week
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
