Where does your carpet go to die?

No, it's really not a slow blog day.  I just skimmed an article in the trade publication Building Operating Management about this.  Consider a statistic quoted by the article:  "Recycling one ton (2,000 lbs) of VCT (vinyl tile) saves 2,670 gallons of water, the equivalent of 70 kiddie pools."  This is from Armstrong Commercial Flooring, not exactly your typical tree hugger.

As Property Managers, we make sure the tile gets installed correctly.  When it's time to replace, where it goes, nobody knows...right?  A few years ago I had a conversation with a colleague who was involved in the early stages of carpet recycling, it sounded like a good idea, but at what cost of effort, energy, and yes, dollars, to make that happen? 

As this article outlines though, the effort to recycle or re-use flooring materials is starting to go mainstream.  There was even a "third party" re-use company mentioned that I googled, and it seems to be legit - a representative from http://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com was quoted in the article. Apparently this company takes in materials and either re-use them as they are, or for a different use. An example cited was a basketball court - once it's sanded three times, it can no longer be used for a basketball court, but it could easily be used in a restaurant or other retail store.

As I have mentioned before, our company buys carpet and vinyl flooring in bulk from the manufacturer (used to be Patcraft, now is Mohawk).  Maybe recycling the old carpet is not such a big leap after all.

 

JPM Article: Project What You Expect - Will Do!

There's no sugar coating it, this is budget season.  Everyone I know in Property Management is knee deep thinking about 2017.  I read the Journal of Property Management, and a recent article about budgeting, Project What You Expect caught my attention.  The main take away for me, reflecting my own bias, is that a budget is a "living, breathing document."  Back in the day, it was common practice to spend September and October reading our crystal balls and sending tomes of paper purporting to declare to our clients rosy leasing projections and reasonable operating expenses, resulting in copious cash flow.  Then we would explain variances throughout the year.  A valuable lesson I learned goes something like "Keep It Real."

Now that I'm in a position to organize the budget process, I am applying that valuable lesson.  Our budget format is a constantly updated excel document that gets updated with every lease renewal, move in, move out, and rent increase.   There's a tab for Property Managers to list any cash outlay not considered an operating expense.  The operating expenses themselves don't change all that much from year to year, so by capturing the tenant income changes and one time expenditures, we can pretty much take a look at the budget any time and get an idea of the cash flow for the next few years. What we don't do is budget leasing.  That violates my Keep it Real rule.  If we budget leasing, it's just a guess, and guesses don't pay the bills.

To read the JPM article, click HERE

Do You Know CPR? We AEDo!

A huge part of our culture is being goal oriented.  We find an endless number of ways we can improve, whether that's good news or bad news I will reserve for another post.  Anyway, for 2016, Property Managers and Maintenance Engineers set a "Sharpening the Saw" goal (continuing education) of completing at least 8 hours of outside training.   We put our heads together and decided to host a CPR training course as a way of achieving the goal.  We now find ourselves red cross certified to provide first aid and CPR. Who knows when one of us will be called upon to use our training, but given our role in the buildings we manage, we all feel better having the skills we learned that day.

That day we also trained on the use of AED devices.  AED stands for Automatic Defibrillator Device. Used correctly it can supplement CPR by delivering a mild electrical current to re-start a person's heart if needed.  We learned that if an AED is around, it greatly improves the survivability of a cardiac arrest.  In August we had a representative from the Red Cross address one of our PM Huddles to discuss how to install and deploy them in our buildings.  

When we set that training goal we didn't realize it would lead to adding AED devices to our buildings, but we're happy to be taking our training as far as it can take us, because it's the right thing to do, and by adding these devices to our properties we are showing our tenants that we care about the well being of their employees. For our owners, we're taking care of their customers. I do love a win win!

Have a Great Labor Day 2016 with documentary: Trash Dance

I am smitten with a documentary I just saw on PBS called Trash Dance directed by Andrew Garrison. One reviewer wrote:  Austin Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks. The documentary follows Allison for over a year as she works with sanitation workers in Austin to develop a dance recital with the tools of their trade, from one individual picking up trash to 16 trash trucks, cranes and workers lifting cans and working levers to music--performing for an audience of several thousand people in the rain in Austin.  No tax dollars were involved, only private grant money and time of these unsung heroes went into the project.  I don't know whether you may have contemplated how and where the trash on your curb goes and how it gets to where its going, I cannot claim to much expertise on the subject.  This documentary tells some amazing stories.  I recommend it.

If you've been following my blog for long, you know by now that I find inspiration for being a Property Manager from just about everything I come in contact with, and Trash Dance is no exception. Like the individuals who are portrayed in this documentary, those of us in Property Management sometimes feel we labor in obscurity, that we only deal with problems, that we don't get credit for keeping the lights on and the toilets flushing.  Seeing this documentary reminds me, and I hope everyone who maybe sees themselves in less than "sexy" occupations take heart that their work has as much meaning and value anyone else's.  For this Labor Day 2016, here's to all of us who keep the trash picked up.  Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!