Category: Maintenance and Operations

back to school

5 Back-to-School Cleaning Tips for Healthy Buildings

The first day of school is coming up soon for many students, teachers, and staff. To help custodial teams prepare for the new year, Cintas Corp. has shared a list of five recommendations to promote healthy practices this year. “Helping keep all school occupants healthy, especially students, is a top priority for all school custodial teams,” said […]

A Primer on Landscaping Hazards and Safety

Landscaping plays a major role in ensuring facilities look inviting and well maintained from the outside. However, landscapers are exposed to all kinds of different hazards on a daily basis, ranging from heat and weather hazards, chemical exposures, accidents with machinery or tools, construction dangers, and the physical stress of lifting and other awkward postures. […]

Webinar Watch: Healthy Buildings Week 2023

Healthy buildings mean healthy people. A person’s environment has a major impact on mental and physical well-being, so it’s incumbent upon facilities managers to help protect building occupants and provide a positive experience. Join Facilities Management Advisor throughout Healthy Buildings Week 2023, Aug. 14-18, for FREE educational webinars and resources exploring the many tools available […]

OSHA Cites Petco for Vermin, Chemical, Electrical Hazards

On July 21, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced it cited Petco’s North Andover, Massachusetts, pet supply store for routinely exposing employees to live and dead rodents, as well as their droppings and urine. Agency inspectors also found that the North Andover store exposed employees to electrical hazards by blocking access to electrical […]

FMA Shorts: How Is the Labor Shortage Impacting Organizations?

On this latest episode of FMA Shorts, John Swofford, vice president of sales for TMA Systems, offers insight into ways that today’s labor shortage is impacting companies. This clip was taken from a recent webinar titled “How to Address the Labor Shortage with Technology.” The full webinar is available for FREE on-demand here.

Three Natural Alternatives for Industrial Cleaning

For a large corporation, a safe and hygienic workplace is essential. In the United States, the standards of industrial cleaning are set out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). These guidelines are strict to protect the safety of workers, so the process of industrial cleaning will often make use of harsh and potentially […]

Back to Basics: What Flooring Types Are Best for Your Facility?

Back to Basics is an article series that highlights important, but possibly overlooked, information facilities management professionals should know. Whether facilities managers are constructing a new building, taking on a major renovation, or simply redoing a small office, deciding what flooring to purchase is important. Considerations should include how the right flooring can affect occupants’ […]

Employee Behavior Has Changed: What Does It Mean for Facility Maintenance?

As the modern workplace has evolved to become more flexible in recent years, the building and facility teams behind these spaces have been pushed to adapt alongside them. With the day-to-day uncertainties of the COVID era largely in the rear view, most organizations have implemented policies to give direction to their workforce on the company’s […]

EPA Announces $58M to Reduce Lead in Water at Schools and Childcare Facilities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $58 million in grant funding to help protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities across the country. Thanks to an expansion under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, projects that remove sources of lead in drinking water are now, for the first time, eligible […]

The CDC Ventilation Update Couldn’t Have Come Sooner: Real-Time Monitoring Is Needed Now

Editor’s note: The views expressed in op-eds are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of Facilities Management Advisor. The recent Canadian wildfires greatly impacted air quality hundreds of miles away in major American cities, demonstrating how disasters in one country can affect the health of others. This issue also came to light in […]