By Michael Arny

Emeril Lagasse, the TV chef, is always talking about “kicking it up another notch.” He is of course usually talking about adding more spices or another pound of butter to one of the recipes he is preparing on his show.

I thought of Emeril while attending the recognition event for Today’s Facility Manager (TFM) 2006 Facility Executive of the Year at the TFM show in Chicago in early April. This year’s recipient was Stu Carron, Director of Global Facilities & Real Estate for JohnsonDiversey, Inc. This is a fitting award for Stu, who has responsibilities for 586 facilities in 60 countries,

In addition to all his other responsibilities over the last four years, Stu has lead the work on earning the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Gold certification rating for JohnsonDiversey headquarters in Sturtevant Wisconsin. He has also served on the USGBC’s LEED-EB Committee since 2001, becoming committee Chair in 2005. Bottom line is that Stu is been doing great work on facility management for JohnsonDiversey and making great contributions to the development of sustainable building standards in his work on the LEED-EB Committee.

But what made me think of Emeril? Beyond all the other good things he is doing, Stu, like Emeril, is “kicking it up a notch” and taking facility management at JohnsonDiversey to a new level.

What is this new level for facility management? It is connecting facility management to the mission of the organization. Stu has done this by working with his team to connect facility management at JohnsonDiversey to JohnsonDiversey’s work at manufacturing and selling commercial cleaning supplies. Making this connection justifies the importance of facility management within the organization, transforming good facility management into a tool for advancing the corporate mission rather than a burden or a necessary evil. This transforms good facility management into a CEO-level consideration, which unfortunately in most organizations it is not.

So, what does Stu and his team do to accomplish this?

• They used the LEED-EB certification application development process to fully integrate and improve the existing cleaning and facility management processes at JohnsonDiversey headquarters. While the building already had many of the required programs in place, the process helped buff up the programs and integrate them to make the building a showcase for sustainable cleaning and facility management.
• They work with the JDI marketing department to highlight the building as a shining example of sustainable cleaning and facility management.
• They participate in sales training for inside and outside sales staff, conducting tours of the headquarters facility to help salespeople understand how green cleaning fits into overall sustainable facility management. 
• They get on the road to make presentations on sustainable cleaning and facility management at numerous meetings and tradeshows.
• They give numerous sustainable cleaning and facility management tours of the headquarters building to important customers and other interested people.
• They are planning to recertify the JohnsonDiversey headquarters building, an action that will help drive a continuous improvement process for building and staff, as well as keeping the marketing story fresh. It is great for marketing and salespeople to be able to say things such as: “This is how we do it at our headquarters”, “This is how it fits into the overall sustainability achievements at our headquarters”, “This is how we further improved our buildings sustainability score in our latest recertification”

After Stu’s recognition event, I asked myself this question:  Is Stu’s situation a special case or can other facility mangers also take facility management to another level?

My first observation is that every facility manager’s situation is a special case—the type of organization, its mission, the financial situation, the location, the organization’s internal politics, etc. In spite of this, I can think of many facility managers who have taken facility management to this next level, each in their own unique situation.

• Ward Komorowski, Director of Facilities and Building Services at Johnson Controls, used LEED-EB Gold certification of the Brengel Technology Center to make internal facility management a key component of marketing JCI products and services. Ward, by the way, was the 2005 TFM Facility Executive of the Year.
• Craig Sheehy, Directory of Property Management at Thomas Properties, also took facility management to the next level by working with management to make sustainable facility management a key component in the Thomas Properties’ business strategy. The California EPA headquarters earned Platinum certification through LEED for Existing Buildings.

So how do you connect your facility management team’s work with your organization’s mission?

Since each situation is unique, you will have to figure our how to actually take facility management to the next level in your organization. Some ideas:

• Educational Organizations – Understand and integrate into the organization the benefits of sustainable facility management to students and learning
• Health Care Organizations – Benefits to staff and patients
• General Organizations – Benefits to building occupant health and productivity

Let’s all work to join Stu Carron and the many others in taking facility management to the next level. Let me know about your thoughts on this topic, your achievements, and the challenges you encounter along the way.

Speaking of Emeril and TV shows, you can download the video about Stu and his achievements from the TFM website at: www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/facilityexec.asp. It might be that the movie helped me to make the connection between Stu and Emeril.

Let’s kick it up a notch!

About the Author:
Michael Arny is frequently called the "Father of LEED-EB." He founded the Leonardo Academy in 1997 and has guided the continued growth and accelerating impact of this organization. He has worked on energy and environmental issues his entire career. After earning a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and a BA in Psychology and Russian language at the University of Wisconsin, Michael was on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission staff for 14 years. He was the chair of the State of Wisconsin committee that developed the State of Wisconsin Greenhouse Gas emissions inventory; emission reduction cost analysis and the economic benefits analysis for emission reductions.He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Wisconsin and a LEED® Accredited Professional, was the Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Committee frin 2001-2005 and c ontinues to serve on this committee.

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