9/1/2011
Phil Berman, executive director for building services at CMS, was one of five winners of the national FMXcellence award, given to outstanding facilities managers.
The award is given by Building Operations Management magazine, which featured Berman and the other four winners in its August issue. The magazine created the award to acknowledge facilities management teams that “embrace and respond to their organization’s initiatives.”
For Berman, that means embracing and responding to Area of Focus 5, Environmental Stewardship, in the CMS Strategic Plan 2014: Teaching Our Way to the Top. It calls for the district to reduce its utility consumption by 20 percent, solid wastes by five percent and pollutants by 20 percent by the year 2014, and to engage all stakeholders in conserving resources.
It’s a big job and it makes a big difference in the future not only of CMS, but of Mecklenburg County as well, says Berman.
“CMS has the largest environmental footprint in Mecklenburg County – we have 649 buildings, more than 18,000 employees and more than 141,000 students,” Berman says. “We occupy more than 21 million square feet of building space on nearly 5,000 acres. The district uses more than 350,000 reams of paper each year, 3.5 million gallons of fuel in its buses, 226 million kilowatts of electrical power and 3.5 million therms of natural gas. All of this consumption is part of the district’s daily business cycle of educating children and it all affects the environment.”
The size of the district and of its resource use means that careful environmental stewardship can make a big difference. CMS has reduced its environmental footprint. Over the last three years, the total energy savings have exceeded $15 million. More than 60 CMS schools have received the Energy Star designation for efficient use of energy and resources. CMS recycles more than 1,300 tons each year, or about 11 percent of the solid waste removed from schools each year. Streamlining of transportation routes has not only saved fuel and money, but it has reduced the district’s daily carbon emissions by 31.6 metric tons.
“We recognize the importance of conservation and wise use of resources district-wide,” says Guy Chamberlain, associate superintendent of auxiliary services. “As we are proving on a daily basis, wise use of resources often brings decreased costs – and that’s another reason to practice good stewardship.”
Chamberlain said that the CMS commitment to energy conservation through the Duke Energy rebate program has also helped the district save money. CMS has received more in rebates than it has invested in the program, which awards rebates for energy-saving equipment purchases.
To see Building Operations Management magazine’s story on the FMXcellence awards, click here.