Facilities Council Formed

DFW AIRPORT — In March, more than 100 industry representatives fromairports, consulting firms, and others met at the DFW InternationalAirport energy center for the first meeting of the Airport FacilitiesCouncil. The goal: Build facilities that reduce cost, improve efficiency,and take into account life cycle issues, not just up-front design cost.

The AFC is being directed under the International Facilities Manage-ment Association (www.ifma.org), based in Houston, which actively promotes "green" design of facilities and has a reputation for collecting and disseminating data for various industries.

According to DFW's Robert Barker, who was named the first AFC president, a central theme for the new group is to design facilities that take into account level of service standards and integrate operations staff recommendations.

Eric Dillinger, a consultant with Carter & Burgess, a sponsor for the AFC event, says new design considerations focus on the total lifecycle cost of a building. Typically, he says, the construction of a building accounts for 25 percent of total lifecycle cost. More consideration needs to be given to how design ultimately affects operations and maintenance. He calls it "maintaining the Total Cost of Ownership balance sheet."

Comments James Crites, DFW executive vice president, "Smart design with the environment in mind is the order of the day." Such smart design, he explains, will increasingly involve criteria promoted by EPA and the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDS) standards. In fact, he says, airports are beginning to require LEEDS certification from respondents to requests for proposals for new structures. "We're going to reach out to EPA," he says.