‘Net positive hospitality’: Hotels, resorts agree to 5-year sustainability strategy

‘Net positive hospitality’: Hotels, resorts agree to 5-year sustainability strategy

A broad coalition of hotels and resorts have pledged to work toward achieving “net positive hospitality” promising to take action to protect nature, enhance climate resilience, and reduce the environmental impact of their operations. This week, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, a group which represents more than 50,000 properties and 7 million rooms globally, unveiled a five-year…

Shear Wall Selection for Wood-Framed Buildings

Shear Wall Selection for Wood-Framed Buildings

Shear walls are walls specifically designed to resist lateral loads, transferring the load from the wall above to the wall below and, ultimately, out through the foundation. This is a critical role in a building’s structural frame, as walls that do not properly manage lateral loads can experience racking, base shear and overturning. The Importance…

Improving Your Facility’s Security with Window Film

Improving Your Facility’s Security with Window Film

The right window film can improve the look of your facility, but more importantly, it can also protect occupants from outsider threats that are especially problematic to schools and retail stores, such as active shooters, civil unrest, and natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent over time. Jamie Hamilton, Senior Building Security, Energy, and Branding…

How Crisis Architecture can Complement Business Continuity Plans

How Crisis Architecture can Complement Business Continuity Plans

Physical attacks — be they against businesses, banks, critical energy infrastructure, or places of worship — continue to tragically dominate the news cycle. Business continuity plans (BCPs) have now become commonplace for institutions that once never expected to need them. BCPs are designed to enhance responses to various crises, including natural disasters, technological failures, industrial…

Learn the pros and cons of centralized and decentralized generator systems

Learn the pros and cons of centralized and decentralized generator systems

Generator insights When designing or assessing campus-style distribution systems, it is important to focus on centralized versus decentralized standby power systems. Decentralized standby generators offer electrical and geographic diversity to prevent single points of failure and can be less expensive due to localized and right-sized electrical distribution. Centralized standby generators offer shared capacity and N+1…

Case study: Moving to centralized power generators with utility backup

Case study: Moving to centralized power generators with utility backup

An existing hospital campus is undergoing a master planning effort to determine strategies for growth and infrastructure improvements. The campus is currently fed from two utility sources, Circuit A and Circuit B at 13.8 kilovolts (kV). The two sources serve 15-kV switchgear that distributes power throughout the campus through underground duct banks with taps made…