Building & Facilities Operations

Do you know the Fiery Five? No, they don’t occupy an attractive, elite table in cafeteria, but checking them out will be much more rewarding. They represent our latest and greatest in educational resources to help you properly assess and optimize your Fire & Life Safety systems. Not lighting your fire? The importance of Fire & Life Safety improvements can be summed up in four words: property loss and occupant injury.

The Fiery 5 in Fire & Life Safety:

1. Video (1:38)

3 Must-Do Fire & Life Safety Activities

Peter Harrod of RJA outlines three important steps to take when assessing your Fire & Life safety system, features and compliance.

-

-

2. Microsite

Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

View the complete Conquering the Code webinar presentation, bonus videos, a sample Fire & Life Safety Assessment Report, resource links, and more Risk Management tools!

-

-

3. Video (2:07)

Potential Costs of Not Following FLS Best Practices

Peter Harrod of RJA speaks to the risk involved when fire life safety due diligence isn’t achieved.

-

-

4. Blog Post

10 Biggest Mistakes People Make with Fire & Life Safety Systems… And How to Avoid Them

Fire & Life Safety systems are in place because unplanned incidents and mistakes happen. Those mistakes shouldn’t be the way you use your system. See if you’re guilty of the 10 common mistakes building owners and managers make with their Fire & Life Safety systems.

-

-

5. On-Demand Webinar (35:40):

Conquering the Code with Peter Harrod, Fire Protection Engineer at RJA

This complimentary webinar will share how to recognize deficiencies in your equipment, identify code violations, and plan the retroactive and forward thinking changes that will attract and retain tenants, mitigate risk and positively position your property for resale.

-

Manage fire & life safety, visitor access, incidents, certificates of insurance and more with Building Engines Risk Management Tools.

Are you hanging on to a dinosaur of a life safety system? Avoid extinction and prove that you are up to snuff with the codes and standards. Fire Protection Engineer, Peter Harrod of Rolf Jensen & Associates, shares his insights in our recent webinar, Conquering the Code! Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems.

One trend that we continue to see is that the inspection testing and maintenance of fire life safety systems generally are deferred entirely to the fire alarm and fire life safety contractors. On the surface that is the right expectation and those folks should be servicing your systems. However, the challenge is that the contractors oftentimes are providing quality and documentation that is less than what is otherwise required by the applicable codes and standards for all life safety systems that we have in our existing facilities.

You can now watch the webinar highlights in our Executive Summary (8:43):

Like options? Access the full webinar On-Demand, read the transcript, or download the mp3!

Manage fire & life safety, visitor access, incidents, certificates of insurance and more with Building Engines Risk Management Tools.

Fire and Life Safety systems are in place because unplanned incidents and mistakes happen. Those mistakes shouldn’t be the way you use your system. Don’t fall trap to #4 and confront the responsibilities that building owner and managers are liable for! Start dishing on the condition of your system and be wary of the common mistakes below.

The Top Ten  Fire & Life Safety System Mistakes to Avoid:

Continuing to band-aid an outdated system, rather than replace it.

Missing the Big Picture: Have all the little one-off improvements and renovations necessitated a change to the entire system?

Not implementing building and portfolio-wide fire and life safety standards.

Passing the Buck to Service Providers.

Thinking you can catch up later when the market turns around. Codes change. Tenant demands change. New technology is introduced. Don’t fall behind your competition!

Not doing an Assessment of Condition of your Fire & Life Safety systems at each building.

Diving into a Fire & Life Safety overhaul without first outlining and prioritizing baseline requirements and goals.

Choosing the wrong person or team to spearhead the project.

Share is Caring: Making sure that all appropriate building representatives get their hands on the final report.

Neglecting to utilize technology in the process.

If any of the above mistakes sound a little too familiar, register for our free upcoming webinar with speaker Peter Harrod of Rolf Jensen &Associates:

Conquering the Code! Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

Date: Wednesday, January 25th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Guest Speaker: Peter Harrod, Senior V.P. of Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc.

Conquering the Code!

Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

Are unknown fire and life safety violations and out-of-date standards putting your property at risk? Can you not only speak confidently, but prove that your building or portfolio is being properly inspected, tested and maintained? Learn More!

In 30 minutes, you will learn how to:

• Implement an Assessment of Condition of your Fire & Life Safety Systems
• Plan the forward thinking changes that will attract and retain tenants
• Avoid the 10 biggest Fire & Life Safety management mistakes
• and more!

“We might feel that we’re passing on the liability to our service provider, but there is still a responsibility as a building manager and/or owner to ensure that we’re testing, inspecting and maintaining our fire life safety systems in accordance with the jurisdiction’s codes and standards.”

-Peter Harrod, Senior VP at Rolf Jensen & Associates

On September 27th, the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC released a preparedness checklist as part of its Rad Resilient City Initiative to prepare cities for a nuclear detonation response.

Building Engines client, Beacon Capital Partners, and their internationally respected expert on emergency preparedness, Joe Donovan, were among the new document’s recipients in the private sector. Having recently shared his insights on managing risk with us (watch his Emergency Preparedness Webinar), Donovan has established himself as a leader in the field.

As chair of the Building Owners and Managers Association preparedness committee, Donovan plans to include the checklist for the association’s 16,500 members. According to a Global Security Newswire article, the plan is also being reviewed by the Real Estate Roundtable’s Homeland Security Taskforce and the Commercial Facilities Sector Coordinating Council, organizations both co-chaired by Donovan.

At its Tuesday launch, Donovan remarked that the Rad Resilient City Initiative “is something that will only help us in the long term to foster, to nurture, to cajole, those conversations that have to take place.”

Monica Schoch-Spana, a member of the Nuclear Resilience Expert Advisory Group that developed the report, believes that the plan will help create an “all-hazards framework” whose implementation would promote preparedness measures for other disasters.

Open the Rad Resilient City fallout preparedness checklist!

Building Engines has developed its own Emergency Readiness Plan for property owners and managers. Download the Building Engines Checklist for Implementing a Successful Emergency Readiness Plan!

September is National Preparedness Month. Were you ready? Find yourself wishing you had more time and resources to enhance your emergency preparedness and response plan?

Don’t worry! Our team spent the last month scouring industry sources for the top components to Implementing a Successful Emergency Readiness Plan… and we’ve put it all in a checklist!

How do you track and document incidents?

What sort of emergency preparedness training do your employees have?

When was the last time you practiced a tabletop exercise?

… Time to assess your readiness?

Download the Building Engines Checklist to see if you may be at risk!

Like checklists? See the General Items to Include in Your Tenant Retention Plan!

This September marks the eigth annual National Preparedness Month- a perfect time for commercial real estate owners to assess their respective levels of readiness.

While it may seem difficult to plan for every unexpected event that can occur in your building, there are simple, cost effective steps you can take to minimize your exposure. Just five minutes can help you prepare for years to come!

Watch a short video from our emergency preparedness experts:

Emergency Preparedness “Best Practices”

Risk is defined as the probability or threat of a damage, injury, liability, loss, or other negative occurrence, caused by external or internal vulnerabilities, and which may be neutralized through pre-mediated action.  In short, bad things can happen due to the decisions that you make or don’t make.

We all deal with risk in our daily lives as well as the consequences of our actions in response to those perceived risks.  Managing the decisions we make with respect to risk is a tricky thing to do and takes years or practice to perfect – and in many cases, it cannot be perfected – but with patience and thoughtful decision making using the best information available, it can be minimized.

Aside from waiting for “life’s lessons” to come your way, is there any way to practice?  Is there any way to learn those lessons in a consequence free environment so that when the real deal comes your way you are prepared?  I say yes – the answer is an appropriately named board game – RISK.

Risk is a strategic board game in which players attempt to capture territories from other players by rolling dice.  The game is won when one player has managed to occupy ever territory on the board with his or her armies.  While this may seem like a game of chance (because it involves rolling dice), it most certainly is not.  Yes, a battle or two may be lost by chance, but the winner will almost certainly always be the player that has played with the best strategy – calculating the risks associated with attacking or fortifying their stronghold – and then proceeding accordingly.  The game requires long term strategy, vision, planning, and calculated execution.  These are the key components to reducing risk and achieving success in life and business.

So, before you rush out and make hasty decisions, please, think about the risks involved, strategize and execute accordingly.  And if you don’t believe me, take a look at what might happen:

http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DfzLtF_PxbYw&rct=j&sa=X&ei=3xORTKf9L8H98AbLpt3mAw&ved=0CBMQuAIwAA&q=Kramer+Risk&usg=AFQjCNEzmJAu_iOPPfQNU33XS6j7u6kpjA&cad=rja

As National Preparedness month continues across the country, property owners and managers follow guidance and suggested best practices delivered thru top 10 lists from partners like Building Engines (10 Best Practice Points for Property Team Preparedness) or BOMA (Preparedness Top Ten List for National Preparedness Month.) The question is, who is preparing adequately for the Black Swan Event?

In his 2009 book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author makes the case that business owners and risk managers place too much weight on the odds that past events will repeat.  Instead, the really important events are rare and unpredictable. He calls them Black Swans, which is a reference to a 17th century philosophical thought experiment. Nassim argues that most of the really big events in our world are rare and unpredictable, and therefore, trying to extract generalized stories to explain them may be emotionally satisfying, but it’s practically useless.

In an October 2009 Harvard Business Review article entitled The Six Mistakes Executives Make in Risk Management,  Nassim and his co-authors summarize the primary points of his book and their research in the following manner-

Six critical mistakes that many executives and risk management professionals make in risk management:

1.       We think we can manage risk by predicting extreme events

2.       We are convinced that studying the past will help us manage risk

3.       We don’t listen to advice about what we shouldn’t do

4.       We assume that risk can be measured by standard deviation

5.       We don’t appreciate that what is mathematically equivalent isn’t psychologically so

6.       We are taught that efficiency and maximizing shareholder value don’t tolerate redundancy

They continue by presenting 6 answers or solutions to those mistakes:

1.       Instead of calculating the odds of whether things will happen, rather think about what you will do if they do happen (This is your response planning!). People who can handle one type of crisis, always have the potential to handle many types of crises.

2.       Hindsight can never be converted into foresight. Lessons should be learned from the past, yes, but the past should not be used to predict the future.

3.       A dollar not lost is a dollar earned, and preventing losses is perhaps a better strategy than gaining profits, and risk management activities are in fact profit-generating activities. There is no separation.

4.       Statistics is a complicated science and the often cited standard deviation is not average variation, but the square root of average squared variations. Although in a perfect world of randomness, most events fall within the -1 and +1 standard deviation, in real life (“Black Swan”), movements can easily exceed 10, 20 or 30 standard deviations. (…This is what your real exposure can be.)

5.       In absolute quantified numbers, two events may be equal, but subjectively, in a group of people, the same event may have very different value to each of them and may be understood entirely differently.  After all, number are just numbers, feelings, values, and risk acceptance are not so uniform. (…This is the real risk to your business.)

6.       Optimization of processes makes them vulnerable to changes, but robust processes can survive change.

There are no shortage of Black Swan events we can point from the past decade that have impacted the real estate ownership and management community.  Make sure that you give some thought to how you can apply some of these principles to your risk management plan during National Preparedness month.

What embodies risk within your real estate portfolio?  Is it the damage that could be caused by water, mold, wind, rain, or aging?   Is it a slip, a trip, or a fall?   Is it a prolonged elevator entrapment; a disgruntled tenant employee who acts out; a media blitz on your building, or a public demonstration?  Is it the failure to have valid insurance protection in place through your tenants and vendors?   Risk transforms to damage and costly repairs or claims.  Litigation is costly, both from an insurance and time perspective.

Do not wait to react.  Be proactive and follow these ten simple best practice points for risk reduction and preparedness.

1.      Assemble a Response Team:  Make sure that you have ownership and management representation on that team.  It should include some risk and liability expertise and remember to think outside of the building – e.g. the Government is a critical part of your team, as are fire, police and the local Department of Health.

2.      Outline Key Risks in Advance:   Remember that threat levels are unique to each building.  Think through what might happen to your building before it happens.  Get experts involved to help you see what you cannot.  Look at historic data to help your recognize likely events and insure your greatest areas of risk.

3.      Create A Response Plan: Write it down and publish it to those that should know. Match your risk to your response team.  Train backup employees to perform emergency tasks.  Create a business continuity plan – Make sure you tenants have a continuity plan.  Determine offsite crisis meeting places.  Test your plan to reveal and accommodate changes

4.      Run simulations:  Make sure that all employees-as well as executives-are involved in the exercises.   Practice crisis communication (employees, customers and the outside world).  Invest in an alternate means of communication.  Form partnerships with local emergency response groups.  Evaluate your performance – Continuity exercises should reveal weaknesses.

5.      Focus on Responsiveness:  Most claims result from failed responsiveness.  Put the right assets in place so that you can respond quickly.   Redundancy is key to reliability and response.  Immediate response enables real time advice, real time reaction and injury or damage mitigation.

6.      Capture all Relevant Data:  Data and information is your best defense.  Only with data can you make informed decisions.  Train you teams to identify incidents and record them.  Keep Data up-to-date and available.  Make it accessible from anywhere so that you can retrieve it quickly when needed.

7.      Leverage Technology:  Responsiveness relies on information and speed.   Redundant systems prevent data gathering and communications failure.  Establish preset response protocols for every situation.  Build your Response Team and your Response Plan into the technology.  Keep contact information up to date.  Go mobile while leveraging multiple communications points.

8.      Train Your Team and Analyze Your Response: Three rules of Team Preparedness = Practice, Practice, Practice.  Do a post mortem analysis of every incident.  Look for trends and opportunities.  Adjust your Response Team and Plan to fit the building risk profile.

9.      Involve Local Teams and Authorities: Police, Fire, DHS and DHLS are key partners in any response.  Relationships are critical to responsiveness.  Imagine calling your local Fire Department and the Chief knows who you are. Know your neighbors so that they know you.  Have regular meetings with Response Teams in adjacent buildings.

10.  Keep it current: Take your partners, colleagues and neighbors to lunch once a year. Review your plan annually. Practice regularly.  Never stop testing or improving your plans, practices and procedures and the technologies that support them.