Forbes Natural History Building

Prizing Performance (with 🍕pizza🍕)

Good behavior nets pizza, especially for administrators and building liaisons at six Grainger College of Engineering buildings. So when this multi-year energy avoidance project, completed through Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) team at F&S, came to an end, already showing $2.9M in cost avoidance, a few folks celebrated, alongside Associate Vice Chancellor and Executive Director Ehab Kamarah, and Utilities & Energy Services Director Rob Roman. Sylvia … Continue reading Prizing Performance (with 🍕pizza🍕)

Powering Up: Apprentice Certifications Show Employee Development

Welders have a lot to learn. There’s various techniques, each offering their own challenges, before even considering the plethora of materials one can weld. All in all, there might be 100 certifications in pipe welding mastery alone. Before you know it, a couple of apprentices at F&S will have learned a bunch of them! Utilities pipefitters apprentice Brandon Lovett received two United Association (UA) Pipe … Continue reading Powering Up: Apprentice Certifications Show Employee Development

Tours Open Again

The impact of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is widespread. Most operational aspects at F&S continued, but under much different guidelines and challenges than before. One that couldn’t continue: public tours. As a university resource provider, F&S offers facility tour opportunities, especially to students and children. Garage and Car Pool; Waste Transfer Station Nobody loves big trucks more than a bunch of little kids! … Continue reading Tours Open Again

Four and Looking for More

After winning four straight times in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge, the U of I can still save more energy and money in the future, particularly if Paul Foote has his way. “I want every lab on campus to know about and participate in the Freezer Challenge,” said Foote, energy conservation specialist. “Small changes, like defrosting a freezer or adjusting its temperature, can have a … Continue reading Four and Looking for More

Big Plans Ahead

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Daniel Burnham, legendary architect: Plan of Chicago, 1892 World’s Columbian … Continue reading Big Plans Ahead

A Big Operation in the Cold

Cause and effect: What started with a water pressure failure led to a loss of electric power—but where? Then, when the location was found, Facilities & Services professionals were ankle-deep in new, cold challenges. During a mid-afternoon shift on a frigid Sunday, F&S Utilities & Energy Services (UES) professionals observed a loss of pressure in the Campus Chilled Water System. The system which typically operates … Continue reading A Big Operation in the Cold