An Energy Upgrade Can Do More Than Just Trim Energy Costs

An energy upgrade can do more than just trim energy costs. It can help boost productivity, reduce maintenance costs and improve overall facility performance. But success is far from assured. When planning and carrying out an energy project, the facility executive must avoid common pitfalls that can doom a project before it even gets under way.

Before doing anything else, the facility executive should understand the financial aspects of the project. Most finance departments view the facility group as spenders of money rather than producers of money. An energy upgrade project can reverse that perception. Seize the opportunity to communicate the idea to the chief financial executive.

First, determine if the contemplated project is being done on a “capital” or “performance” basis. A capital project entails spending company money and needs to be budgeted accordingly. Myriad financial hurdles need to be analyzed, including costs, benefits and return on investment. Will the project involve spending company cash or will some or all portions of the project be financed? If the latter, will it be traditional financing, a capital lease or an operating lease?

The facility executive should work closely with the organization’s financial group as the project is planned. That way, the facility executive is part of a team as the financing rationale is being formulated by the accounting department.

The facility executive can expect such comments as, “Why do we have to fix or replace the lights, boiler, or HVAC systems, etc.? They work just fine.” The reason is that the project will improve the bottom line and create positive cash flow with solid return on investment. Before saying this, however, the facility executive should be well aware of the financial hurdles and return-on-investment marks that the financial officer will be using to analyze the project.

The second financing model, being used more and more in recent years, is the performance-based energy upgrade project. In that approach, the contractor or energy service company (ESCO) is compensated based on performance (with performance being measured as energy and savings), in some cases guaranteeing that energy savings will result from the upgrade initiative. These guaranteed savings are then used to pay all project costs. Generally, these projects require a long-term service agreement with the contractor to be put in place, with the guarantee validated from year to year.

Performance-based financing mechanisms can take several forms. The project capitalization value can be either on balance sheet or off balance sheet.

Of course, in a performance-based upgrade with guaranteed savings, the contractor or ESCO will charge for taking on the risk that savings will not be as high as anticipated and will have its own overhead and margins to cover. As a result, projects of this nature will generally cost more over the long term than traditional capital projects; that is, the contractor or ESCO will keep a portion of the energy savings to cover those costs, as well as the costs of planning the upgrade and installing the new equipment. A company that can fund an upgrade itself will maximize savings; if funds are available, that’s clearly the best choice. Nevertheless, a performance-based approach is often a very effective way to get energy upgrades accomplished.

There are four basic kinds of performance contractors or ESCOs: those tied to utilities, equipment vendors, mechanical and electrical contractors, or independent engineering firms (consulting/developer based). Performance contracting is a highly competitive arena with marketing sizzle and aggressive savings offerings as the norm. A performance contract can serve an organization very well if critical details in contract negotiation and financing are handled carefully.

Of course, financing is only one element that has to be considered in planning. A good project plan includes a clear statement of vision, goals, objectives and methodology, along with a simple cost-benefit schedule that describes how much money will be spent and what benefits will be achieved.

Inviting Help

Initially, the plan should be packaged as an executive-summary type report for presentation to the financial group. By labeling the first version of the plan a draft, the facility executive invites the finance department to help shape the project — a good way to build an alliance and gain buy-in before requesting formal project approval and financing.

A clear, concise plan, approximately three pages, will illustrate and highlight the financial return or savings associated to the project. In the first version, don’t include any cost-benefit analysis or return-on-investment schedules — the idea is to solicit help from the financial officer in this process and, in the best scenario, get his or her help with the project.

Because the goal is to present energy savings as revenue rather than expense, be sure to capture operational savings beyond energy costs. The project will have an operations budget that will likely be established from a previous year’s expenditure; from the perspective of a financial officer, that baseline operational budget is somewhat fixed or a given. If the facility executive can show that an upgrade will reduce this baseline operational budget, the financial reality is that the savings will go directly to the bottom line or will minimally go into an “other income” category on the balance sheet.

The secret is to not give away all of the potential savings: Some should be reserved or scheduled into an incentive or reserve fund to be used for other project initiatives that may not necessarily reduce energy costs, but may improve the business environment or facility portfolio.

There’s another reason not to build the maximum proposal savings into a proposal: Projects rarely achieve the greatest savings that seem possible on paper. If the facility executive promises that maximum level of savings — and the financial officer builds it into the budget — any shortfall could make the project a failure from a financial perspective, no matter how much money it actually saves. And the financial department will be skeptical of future proposals for energy upgrades; that will help build a bridge between the facility and finance departments, not a wall. Far better to be conservative in estimating savings, and look like a hero if the project actually does better than budgeted.

In discussions about the financial justification for an energy project, it’s important to keep life-cycle costs in a prominent place on the agenda. Many times, a good project is turned down because the financial study is based solely on first cost rather than long-term costs, including operations and maintenance expenses.

Often, a higher first cost will result in lower operating and maintenance expenses; the added expense is recouped over a very short period of time when the cost of operations and maintenance is factored in. This analysis is very easy to assemble; most equipment vendors and contractors are able to produce it.

When doing performance-based energy upgrades, the contractor will most likely promote a more efficient system that may have a higher first cost because of superior return on investment and cash flow impact. An energy project analysis that does not study the long-term operating and maintenance aspects of the improvement may very well leave money on the table. It makes good business sense to look at the project both ways, even if the final decision is to go with lower initial cost.

Because energy upgrade projects don’t happen often, it is worthwhile to consider getting an experienced outside firm involved.

A long-term perspective is also important in preparing an upgrade strategy to present to the finance department. A long-term outlook might help prevent this all-too-familiar refrain: “I did a large lighting retrofit project last year that produced great results — now if I could only get management to approve fixing my boilers, chillers, HVAC or control problems. I wish they had returns like the lighting project.”

Many energy upgrade projects focus strictly on lighting. While this approach certainly will result in a winning project, many times a great opportunity is lost because the lighting initiative isn’t integrated with other energy upgrade projects. The facility executive should consider bundling the lighting upgrade with other measures and build a larger project.

One reason this integrated approach isn’t taken, say many facility executives, is that management won’t approve more money for the other projects. But companies are sometimes willing to expand the budget if a good plan is presented with the budget ramifications for bundling, or if both a capital and performance-based budget are presented. Facility executives who do lighting work as a stand alone and then undertake other energy upgrades afterwards risk being seen by the financial side of the organization as a constant drain on capital reserves or budgets.

Control and Monitoring

When energy upgrades are not monitored and tracked, the initial savings often dwindle over time. In most cases, it’s a combination of small things: temperature set points that are overridden and never reset, or lights that are left on longer. But whatever the causes, the end results are too often the same: The absence of a verification mechanism and lack of interest in validating economies means that costs creep up.

The control and automation system in place is the most effective process for validating and monitoring performance. But that system has an even more important role: turning things off.

In simple terms, a control system comprises two types of points. Monitoring points — inputs — supply critical information regarding status and values associated with measurements; control points — outputs — signal the on-off mechanism of devices. The best way to save energy is to turn things off: shutting off lights when no one is in the room, for example, or turning air handling equipment off at proper times. While there will always be more inputs than outputs, it is important to make sure that there are enough outputs. As a rule of thumb, if less than 25 percent of the points are outputs, it’s worth taking a close look at the whole proposal to assure that it is really capable of producing significant savings.

Reshaping Perceptions

A successful energy upgrade project can bring benefits beyond energy savings. One of those benefits can be a change in the way the facility department is perceived by top management.

More and more, the facility department is expected to be a business unit as opposed to a service unit. That seems completely appropriate, given the range of contributions the facility can make to the bottom line. No matter what the title, the time has clearly come for the facility executive to be part of the top management team. But the facility executive has to take the initiative. An energy upgrade is a good place to start.

Julian Arhire is a Manager with http://DtiCorp.com – http://DtiCorp.com carries more than 35,000 HVAC products, including industrial, commercial and residential parts and equipment from Honeywell, Johnson Contols, Robertshaw, Jandy, Grundfos, Armstrong and more.

Common Use For Spatial Data Validation

Government initiative

In 1995, the General Services Administration (GSA) made an effort to capture accurate spatial data through the process of measurements of facilities, verification of space classifications, and implementation of data maintenance processes to ensure ongoing data accuracy. This is now known as the Spatial Data Integrity Initiative (SDI).

GSA's SDI has contracted a handful of private organizations to carry out the operation. The response to the initiative has sparked innovative and highly accurate measuring methods in accordance with Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) standards, creating a new, revenue-increasing tool that will carry private building owners, facility managers, and real estate companies into the 21st century.

Using a combination of new technologies, managers and owners can track real estate and enables an organization to use space more efficiently, while at the same time, increasing their annual real estate revenue by up to 6 percent. The revenue is obtained by charging the tenants for the correct amount of space that they actually use.

The SDI project is primarily the combination of two actions; the first is the physical calculation and verification of spatial data. The second action is the use of high-tech software to store and manipulate this information. The SDI project uses highly precise, laser devices for space measurement, accurate to one-eighth inch over 300 ft. Laptops are taken into the field where software is used to electronically manage the measurements. Facility managers obtain real-time information about their facility for marketing and client assurance while monitoring from a single terminal.

The process

BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) has developed a handbook that permits standardized measurements and categorizations of all the spaces within a building, effectively removing all the guesswork. This standard was developed for private sector office buildings and is used by several large corporations. GSA adopted this standard for all of its buildings. The process of spatial validation goes through the following four stages:

• Space measurement: during space measurement, an accurate laser tool, a laptop with CAD software, and a trained team of professionals verify every element of the building. This is accurate one-eighth to one-half inch. The electronic drawing is produced to a standard that will be consistent across all facilities.

• Linking to the database: The resulting drawing is then linked to an external database. Every space acquires its own distinct "tag" that identifies the user, calculates the square footage, and links to the database. Any changes made to the tag in the CAD drawing will automatically occur in the database as well.

• Testing: The drawing and the database then go through an extensive series of tests that weeds out any possible errors. Accuracy of one-one hundredths of a sq.in. over an entire floor are routinely obtained. The database is now ready to generate tenant information reports.

• Maintenance: The existence of the electronic drawing facilitates easy maintenance to reflect changes. This allows the organization to focus on their core competencies.

Advantages

In the realm of costs saving by tracking real estate, facility managers and owners are provided with accurate electronic drawings with endless advantages. Building owners are able to increase their revenue not by raising the rent, but by charging for real space that was previously lost in old drawings. As a manager or owner, not only does your confidence increase in the figures, it also increases the tenant's confidence that rent has been established using commonly accepted building standards. This information is kept neat and clean in one central location; all data is stored in an electronic document management system that can be maintained and easily accessed by the facility manager or property owner. At any time, the facility manager can get a snapshot of the information for that building. With a touch of the mouse, the facility manager can calculate appropriate cost based on square footage and potentially increase their leasing revenue.

By knowing the correct square footage, one could possibly cut back on contracting costs that were initially set on incorrect square footage. Another benefit involves furniture ordering. Typically, furniture is ordered based on inaccurate drawings of a tenant's space. By obtaining the exact size of a space, one can be confident that the furniture will indeed fit. This has been a large problem to private organizations and realty companies where time and money have been wasted. For most facilities the validation process has paid for itself within the first few months followed by future revenue increases. The advantages are discovered daily by companies that realized what spatial validation could do for their organizations.

Like most new technologies, spatial data validation was pioneered by the "big boys," but it is now ready for the private sector at any level. A building can be spatially validated and drawn to the standards as one option. If there are multiple buildings involved in the process, then the addition of new software would help the building owner in maintaining and managing the information produced.

Julian Arhire is a Manager with DtiCorp.com - DtiCorp.com carries more than 35,000 HVAC products, including industrial, commercial and residential parts and equipment from Honeywell, Johnson Contols, Robertshaw, Jandy, Grundfos, Armstrong and more.

For Facility Executives, The Bottom Line Can’t Be Measured Only In Dollars And Cents

When it comes to the bottom line, there are two ways that organizations can look at the facilities they occupy. The traditional approach is to see facilities as a cost. This focus on the inputs to a business process leads naturally to cost control and expense cuts as organizations strive to reduce expenditures, cut staff, economize and minimize. Many real estate and facility executives report that their organizational culture and priorities drive them to this exclusive focus on cost containment.

But there is another way of looking at facilities, and it gets back to the reason organizations have buildings in the first place: to get work done as efficiently and effectively as possible. Seen from this perspective, the facility can have a positive bottom-line impact by helping improve employee productivity.

We might call the older approach an input-oriented perspective: Corporate real estate and facility executives are simply suppliers of workplaces, providing complex products - buildings, furnishings, technology - and services. These executives have little direct concern about the ultimate impact of their products and services on the organization as a whole.

Contrast that worldview with a newer outlook - output-oriented, if you will. These facilities organizations focus on helping the core business to be more effective and competitive by helping employees to be more productive. To them, the buildings, with their furnishings and support services, are means, not ends. Economy, efficiency and skillful management of physical assets are still necessary, but will no longer suffice. These workplace service providers are committed to outcomes such as improved productivity, rather than inputs such as desks and chairs. Top priority goes to meeting the needs of the occupants, by adding value to core business processes, and responding to changes in the core business workforce, all to best contribute to organizational success.

Top facility executives have only recently started to think about how to increase the added value to the primary process, or core business, of their organization. These executives realize that they must not only address the issues of cost control and income, but also must develop and implement a strategy to support the core business.

What kinds of facility and real estate departments seem to be focusing most on productivity? Interestingly, the move toward productivity generally began in centralized facilities and real estate departments, not departments that are part of individual business units. That's the opposite of what one would have expected: Decentralized departments should, in theory, be closer to their customers and have a better sense of the real needs of the organization. But, in reality, these executives typically focused on cutting costs or on increasing the value of the real estate portfolio.

By contrast, adding value to the core business, or optimizing the core business, became a top priority for a surprising number of centralized facility and real estate departments. This was true even though, in traditional corporate organizations, the central units are the least integrated with specific processes of the business units.

Why did this role reversal happen? Perhaps because the centralized departments saw that their internal customers - the core business units - might decide at some point to buy workplace services and support direct from the marketplace, i.e. not from or through an in-house facilities department. That meant the facilities department had to see itself as competing with firms already in the marketplace - powerful discipline to focus on the customer.

In any case, over the last few years, there have been signs that the decentralized departments have also begun to focus on productivity. To the extent that this trend continues, decentralized departments should be well-positioned to add significant value to their organizations.

Of course, not all organizations - centralized or decentralized - walk the talk when it comes to management priorities. Some do indeed give first priority to serving occupants; for years their management has been building this perspective into their group culture. For the rest, the focus on the customer is the destination, but not yet the achievement, at the hands-on staff levels.

Satisfaction Plus Delight

Adding value to the core business includes meeting the needs of work processes as well as of people; it also includes going beyond what is recognized as necessary and is explicitly asked for. Economy and efficiency are of course necessary but not sufficient. This is periodically confirmed by an ongoing survey of true facility end-users: hundreds of thousands of occupants of facilities provided by the U.S. General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service. The survey has found that good service and good technical performance are expected, even taken for granted. They only become an issue for occupants if significant deficiencies exist.

PBS established a goal of increasing customer satisfaction to a specified level. It found from the survey that a huge increase in effort to upgrade basic technical performance, such as HVAC or cleaning, in thousands of smaller buildings would not bring occupant satisfaction up to target. Nationally, the top driver of overall satisfaction was "responsiveness with regard to procedures for obtaining services" and that was more of an issue in large buildings than small.

The added value, expressed as delight, comes when workplace innovations make it easier for people to do the new necessary tasks that are being invented at the same time. Workplace changes must keep pace with changes in work processes and people while respecting the workers' priorities for quality of life.

Integrating Facilities

To be fully effective, workplace improvements need to be integrated with appropriate technology and work processes. As time goes on, the management of workplaces will be integrated into the management of business processes. Consider the history of corporate management information systems (MIS) over the last two decades. MIS was once a stand-alone department. CEOs relied on their MIS managers to oversee the corporate computerized business systems and the mainframe hardware on which they ran. Business units and headquarters each identified information technology (IT) requirements and relied on the MIS department to develop application programs and deliver information. CEOs and line managers delegated to the MIS people the role of identifying needed IT investments and of recommending priorities in MIS support for the business.

That is no longer good enough for companies that use IT to gain strategic advantage. IT has become a core element of their business plans. It can make viable a widespread empowerment of managers and staff by giving them access to the information they need for decision-making. It can be the core of new products and services. IT is integrated into almost every work process of retailers and petroleum, pharmaceutical, airline and trucking companies.

CEOs are recognizing that strategic management of IT is at the heart of companies' business processes. These processes, such as the order fulfillment cycle or the product delivery process, bridge divisions or departments of the organization. Today, some CEOs are former senior executives of MIS, and many have sufficient expertise to manage IT as an integral part of their role. Further, they are distributing IT expertise and leadership in support of business processes instead of delegating IT responsibilities to a central, separate support group.

As IT becomes pervasive, it enables a transformation of the workplace. Much work that a decade ago could only be done on corporate or government premises has become location-independent. New processes made practicable by IT happen in places chosen for convenience of the buyer, not the seller. For instance, making a bank deposit or transfer was once done by going to a branch bank or mailing paper to the bank; now it is done by the customer, whether at an ATM in a shopping mall or on the street, over the telephone, or from a desktop computer in the customer's office or a notebook computer anywhere.

As with IT a decade ago, workplaces are starting to become an identified component of business competitiveness. They are becoming key to emerging business processes. To some companies, the automobile has already graduated from a transportation vehicle to a primary workplace. A field engineer who has the tools to operate anywhere, anytime, may need an office desk, not a private, permanent office. Indeed, small cubicles in an open-plan office might be shared among several engineers on a part time, as-needed basis.

The corporate paradigm is shifting from command-and-control hierarchies to teams that drive processes. Expertise in providing and supporting workplace facilities and services will be a necessary and accepted component of those teams, as today's CEOs recognize the corporate advantage in their interconnected information processes.

Julian Arhire is a Manager with DtiCorp.com - DtiCorp.com carries more than 35,000 HVAC products, including industrial, commercial and residential parts and equipment from Honeywell, Johnson Contols, Robertshaw, Jandy, Grundfos, Armstrong and more.

How To Find Big Savings In Construction Projects

Knowing what to expect - including the places costs typically "hide" - provides an edge for efficiently managing the construction process.

Step one

A well-defined interview process will assist you in selecting the best construction manager (CM) for the job. Be thorough; replacing the CM once the job has begun is costly and raises serious questions of liability.

For renovation work, invite only CMs with considerable related experience. Interview previous clients to determine the CM's ability to handle change orders, unforeseen elements and client decisions.

Insist that the project executive, project manager and project superintendent assigned to the job be present at the interview. (The executive represents the company, the manager spends the owner's money and the superintendent is the on-site contact.) Closely observe the interaction between these people. A successful project can hinge on the working relationship between them.

Require all interviewing CMs to submit a detailed account of what they heard and agreed to at the interview. This important document will reflect the CM's understanding of your conditions and form the basis for contract negotiations. This document will also serve to suppress potential disputes arising from construction contract issues.

Where costs hide

The construction contract between the owner and CM is a legally binding contract but its terms are not universal. The owner should negotiate the specifics of the contract requirements and the particular needs of the project.

The more knowledgeable the owner - often represented by the facility executive - is about the nature of the terms of the contract, the greater the awareness of the potential for hidden costs. Uninformed owners can unwittingly agree to pay more money for a longer period of time than necessary.

Demonstrate your understanding of the construction process by first knowing the unit prices and labor costs of every item you agree to purchase and negotiating the following standard construction contract line items.

• General Conditions. General Conditions should only be those non-construction costs that are necessary to get the job done and are directly applicable to the project. All general conditions should be a line item amount agreed to and guaranteed before the start of construction. Typical components of general conditions include funds for a site office, on-site project administration labor and necessary office equipment. Do not accept an amount that is expressed as a percentage of the cost.

Substantial savings can be realized by asking the right questions about general conditions. For example, question the site office requirements presented by the CM, including how much new equipment is necessary. Who should assume the cost of purchasing and installing the computer equipment and software the CM lists as a site office requirement?

• Overhead. Overhead is the CM's cost of doing business. Should the owner be responsible for that cost? An argument can be made that the owner need only pay for costs directly applicable to this specific project, and not for costs the CM incurs on other jobs. This line item in particular is often the subject of legal disputes. Do not be afraid to eliminate elements of cost contained in this category and, again, do not accept an amount that is expressed as a percentage of the work.

• Hourly Wages. Agree to pay only the wages for work on your project. The actual hourly wages, taxes and benefits (not a multiple of these) are the owner's responsibility. Time off and educational seminars are not. Avoid a situation where you are asked to pay wages for a general superintendent or any other part-time supervisory personnel.

• Construction Fees. To determine a fair construction fee, negotiate a percentage based only on the cost of the work. Be careful of the language of the contract. All fees are a direct percentage of the cost of the work, before the contingency and general conditions are added. A fair 4 percent construction fee could be 4.5 percent if taken as a percentage of a cumulative total. On multi-million dollar jobs, this can represent a substantial amount of money.

Insist that the fee be converted from a percentage to a fixed amount before construction starts. Once construction starts and the potential for change orders (that can increase the cost of the work) exists, the fee will continue to rise without limit. Don't allow the construction budget to be compromised in this way.

• Contingency Fee. Most CMs require that a contingency fee be built into the guaranteed maximum price. The only responsible way to manage the necessary contingency fee is to insist that it be jointly controlled by the owner and the CM. Neither the design nor the construction process is a perfect science; CMs will insist that they need to "manage their risk" with the contingency fee. Maintaining some control over the allocation of funds will enable the owner to best justify the expenses.

When negotiating the contract, the owner must "buy the schedule" with the cost of construction and guard against it slipping. Extending the construction phase is a costly decision.

Agree on the completion date of the project and insist that a penalty be levied if the project is delayed. Do not agree, however, to a bonus if the project is finished before the scheduled delivery date. The CM might deserve a bonus for early delivery if extraordinary problems were overcome, but does not necessarily deserve bonus dollars for performing the job you hired them to do.

Change orders and substitutions

In negotiating the change order procedure in the construction contract, the owner should demand a "no work stoppage" clause. Too much time can be wasted if work ceases in anticipation of a general agreement of change order amounts and schedule implications.

When presented with a change order, the architect should consider both the money and time the CM is looking to add to the job. Each is open for discussion. Don't wonder why construction isn't finished and then discover the architect has authorized an additional week of accumulated change orders.

While the CM should aggressively pursue reasonable substitutions on your behalf, be sure you or your architect knows the cost of the originally specified product and the cost of the alternative. The construction contract should state clearly that cost savings realized by the substitution for a specified product go directly to the owner. Here, too, substantial savings can be realized.

As your architect's last element of control over the quality of the project, the punch list must be a thorough process. Accompany the architect to look at the job. Try to anticipate any problems that may arise once the space is occupied. If a fault is discovered after the owner has released the CM, the issue will be more difficult, time consuming, and expensive to remedy.

Secrets of a successful renovation

To successfully manage a renovation process while the facility remains in operation, consider the following ways to minimize cost and disruption:

• What you see is not what you get. In most cases, the older the building you are occupying and renovating, the greater the potential discrepancy between the budgeted and actual costs of the renovation. Work with an architect and a CM who have enough renovation experience to anticipate potential unforeseen elements (electrical, mechanical, environmental and code compliance) and to quantify the cost of the work before the construction contract is signed.

• Designating a "swing space." If your project requires renovating existing spaces while you are occupying them, provide a "swing space" for temporary use by each displaced department as its permanent space is modified. To determine the order in which the areas are renovated, consult with department managers and the CM to minimize the disruption to company productivity and maximize the efficiency of the renovating and moving processes.

• Building a "smart" addition. If your renovation includes building an addition onto the space you are occupying, minimize traffic, dust and noise by building as much of the addition as possible before breaking through to connect with the existing spaces.

• Establishing a presence. As the facility manager, your knowledge of the facility and daily operations makes your presence in the process invaluable. Attend weekly construction meetings and address issues before they become magnified and more costly. Often, because of your vast knowledge of the building and its systems, you will understand the issues and can offer a workable solution more readily than the construction team.

Opening the lines of communication

Precise communication with all of the individuals involved in the process, especially the clients you service and the employees who must be accommodated, is essential. One extreme case - the renovation of a hospital emergency room - demanded the cooperation of the local police, ambulance services, and other area hospitals to reroute and accept patients.

Common scenarios involve notifying staff of an activity or a move (start date, duration, specifics), discussing the arrangement for temporary facilities, ensuring safety and security, and providing additional signs to redirect visitors. The more accurate the construction schedule and the more open the lines of communication, the more efficient and less expensive the process.

Weekly progress coordination meetings should be attended by building administrators, maintenance and engineering staffs, and each subcontractor to review progress. Detailed meeting minutes should be distributed both internally and to the appropriate regulatory officials. These minutes will be the core documentation vehicle for the project.

Not every owner or facility manager has the time, interest or expertise to devote to project management.

The owner can still protect his or her interests by hiring an advocate to coordinate and oversee the construction process. As the owner's representative, this individual defines the development process, negotiates project contracts, schedules and monitors all stages of the construction process, and coordinates communication between participants.

The fee for this service can be offset by substantial savings in construction costs. Many clients hire these experts to "fix" a project that is already in trouble, but an advocate is most valuable if consulted from the start.

Julian Arhire is a Manager with DtiCorp.com - DtiCorp.com carries more than 35,000 HVAC products, including industrial, commercial and residential parts and equipment from Honeywell, Johnson Contols, Robertshaw, Jandy, Grundfos, Armstrong and more.