#51 Phoebe Beierle: Sustainability in K12

Griffin Hamilton  

Welcome to another episode of The Modern Facilities Management Podcast, brought to you by Flowpath. I'm your host, Griffin Hamilton. This is the show where I interview industry experts who share their stories, strategies and insights into modern day facilities management, from hospitality to commercial real estate and everything in between. We'll learn what it really takes to succeed as a facilities manager. Welcome to another episode of The Modern Facilities Management Podcast, today's guest comes from Massachusetts, this is Phoebe Beierle. Phoebe, how you doing?

Phoebe Beierle  

Good, thanks, Griffin. Thanks for having me.

Griffin Hamilton  

Of course. And Phoebe, I know that we were just talking before the record button about what you guys are doing at the US Green Building Committee, which is going to be a little bit of a mouthful here. But why don't you give the audience a little bit more background on who you are and how you got into the industry and what exactly it is you do?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, so I work for the US Green Building Council, which is best known for the LEED green building rating system that many of you may have projects that have been rated with. And we've been around for several decades, working on transforming the built environment, both operations and new construction and we also spread to the community scale as well. And at the Center for Green Schools, we're a program within the US GBC and our focus is on supporting and training those that are implementing sustainability at the school system level. So, that might look like a Green School lead, lead school or it might look like supporting best practices more generally for operating a Green School.

Griffin Hamilton  

Now, how did you get into the space because that's such a niche role there and so I'm curious how you got into it?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, I blame my father, who is a former contractor and worked at Cornell University's facilities department. My brother's an architect, our whole family has a joke that we have buildings in our genes. And besides that, I went to school actually at Oberlin College, a liberal arts school and studied environmental studies and psychology and had the privilege of working in a State-of-the-Art Green Building there and sort of fell in love with how buildings can be amazing, like learning experiences, as well as reduce the impact on the environment in big ways. So, I moved to Massachusetts and have kind of remained in that K 12, Green School space, which is a niche and it's a wonderful place to be working because there's lots of impact to have, I love it.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And that is something where I mean, we're going to be talking about something as we're forward thinking about the changes that we've seen and what changes we foresee coming up in the near future. And what impact we could have but you just mentioned, that was something that you noticed when you were in school was how a building can impact just the environment. I guess the impact that a green building has and so that's an interesting thing to notice, as you're in environmental studies and psychology, was that just because of what you mentioned of that background of just being able to point out the details and be like, hey, this is something that, you know, I recognize that not many people do.

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, I mean, we're in buildings 90% of our time. And so, as a human, we interact with those buildings and those buildings interact with us whether we like think about it that way or not. And I was really fascinated about how buildings impact people and in my work now, it's that but also how can buildings be teaching tools for a K 12 school system? Because again, classes are in schools, in these buildings, teachers don't have the resources to take their students on field trips all the time. So, how can the actual K 12, the school building those four walls and also spaced outside be a teaching tool? And there's amazing examples of that happening, especially in partnership with a facilities division to really bring that building to light for educators and for students.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and what would you say is one of the more unique aspects of K 12 building in particular?

Phoebe Beierle  

Unique aspects? I mean, and I think one of the things that one of my colleagues points out is that we have an audience. Those students are audience, they're like your business case, right? So, they're soaking up everything and an opportunity to really like change their behavior and change their sustainability lifestyle while they're in that building. So, that's one unique thing is that we have young people who were there to learn and we can use that opportunity to teach them about our awesome buildings, how to maintain them what energy means, what water conservation means, what an HVAC system is? There's a lot of opportunities, especially given the challenges and workforce shortages in the space and facilities managers face. There's some cool opportunities there to engage young people in, in our built environment. Yeah, there's also an opportunity to like promote health, which is I think, a key focus in COVID, especially as like, our young people are more susceptible to illness, to asthma. And if our school buildings where we're spending a lot of time are not healthy, then our kids aren't going to be healthy. So, there's a huge opportunity to make improvements there.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And that was actually, it's funny you mentioned that because you touch on COVID, right? And that being something that, again, is brought, really movement of indoor air quality and that the importance of that to light and specific to the K 12 space, majority of the schools that our kids are in aren't brand new buildings with brand new equipment. And so that is something where we're having to make these adjustments and ensure that we're doing, you know, the little things to make sure that our students and the faculty in these Cato buildings are, you know, in a healthy environment. So, what has really been some major changes that you've noticed over the last couple of years with that focus on a green building sustainability due to COVID?

Phoebe Beierle  

I think the most obvious is just to focus on air quality. We have seen a huge number of school boards and superintendents, parent groups that are focused on understanding these issues and sort of demanding that their school systems take action on them. And I worked in Boston Public Schools for five years in the facilities division, did a lot of work on environmental health and you know, there's a real challenge there with school systems not wanting to understand how their buildings are performing or unhealth because there's a risk if, depending on what they find, they may need to take action. And we've seen for way too long school systems, avoiding that measurements and transparency around that data, so that is changing for sure. And just, you know, I think having teachers and staff understanding building systems a little bit more means that our buildings are going to be better performing longer term. So, it's not just a couple people who understand or get that this is where your ventilation comes from and it's important to open windows, you know, certain times of the year but, you know, keeping in mind other implications, all of that makes for a healthier, better performing building overall.

Griffin Hamilton  

It's specific to indoor air quality, what are some steps that someone could take just to begin that process? Because to your point, not everyone, especially within k 12 is taking that step to address these issues, what can someone do to bring that to light?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, well, I mean, we were talking about this the other day on a webinar, we host monthly webinars for our networks. We convene a peer networks to share best practices and hosts regular content, so that's one way, signing up for our newsletter list, getting engaged in those monthly webinars will be one way. On that call, we were talking about simple ways of measuring. So, using handheld devices, getting those in the hands of students potentially, partnering with students to take measurements and using a dashboard similar to we have one called Ark, Ark SCO Ru is the website, not ArcGIS. And we have the ability to upload TVOC, co2, as well as a whole slew of other air quality measurements and you can track those over one building our portfolio of schools over time. And we have partnerships [unsure 09:49], we have examples of schools that we've partnered with, where students are actually working with facilities and governmental health teams to take those measurements, upload that data and understand okay, these classrooms are egregious, you know, there's an issue here, we should probably take a look. So, that's certainly one step is using ARC, it's a free tool, getting some measurement and data there. Another is maybe joining our network that we're about to launch in June, which is similar to our sustainability Leaders Network. It's focused on environmental health professionals, though. So, HVAC technicians, folks who are like, dedicated to managing air quality and environmental health in schools, we're creating a peer learning community within those professionals around the country. So, that'll be really great opportunity to share best practices, understand what other school districts are doing. 

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, that's great and just understanding, like you mentioned, just what is everyone else doing? Because I think a lot of people will kind of look around and say, okay, this is important, I get that but what are other people similar to me, my school, my school district, what steps are they taking to make sure we've got this covered? And so that's going to be an excellent resource there, we'll certainly have that plugged into the show notes for folks to access. But beyond indoor air quality, what are some other big initiatives that you've seen pop up recently?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of focus on the building so that's exciting. Decarbonization going off of fossil fuels to electric systems is a huge one and it depends on where you are in the country to like how many case studies and examples there are. But here in Massachusetts, we're seeing pretty much every new school project striving for being NetZero energy. So that's a big one that impacts how, you know, the technology that's in buildings, how that's maintained, the type of systems and changes the course of, you know, facilities management long term in terms of training and understanding those technologies.

Griffin Hamilton  

Are you finding that older buildings or schools are trying to retrofit older buildings, as well?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, and I mean New York City, for example and also Boston as their cities that have climate action goals. And if you're not addressing the existing infrastructure, you're never going to meet those goals because, you know, near these big cities aren't building many new schools. So, New York City is doing a lot of investigation into how to retrofit those existing buildings, how to do that efficiently at scale. DC is also looking at that, Washington DC, so a lot of these big cities that have progressive carbon reduction targets are really facing that.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And so, another question I have surrounding those initiatives because I think we're all thinking that well that is an investment. It's a long-term investment and I'll defer to you on the data on, you know, what you can expect in that returns from a financial standpoint but from, you know, the occupants in there with the students being, you know, Front Center, as well as faculty members? What are those benefits, again, beyond the financials that one could expect when making those types of investments?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, I mean it depends on where you are in the country, certain schools are actually going electric, right off the bat or even retrofitting with electric systems is cheaper, depending on your you know, utility, makeup and utility rates. In terms of additional benefits, I mean there's the climate, basic like existence on this Earth really is a huge benefit and my opinion that we've got to make a shift quickly and so, school buildings are like an awesome place to do that. One, they use a lot of energy and again, two, you have this student body that is watching and interested and can learn how to shift behavior and shift technology to be more environmentally friendly. Honest, on a different note, the electric school bus effort, which is not buildings focus but one of the really key benefits there, in addition to reducing our fuel emissions is pollution and aggravating health impacts with students who are on the bus and also like standing around bus. So, you know, these strategies to get off of fossil fuels and move towards a healthier, more environmentally friendly technology across the board has definitely has health impacts for sure.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, absolutely. Kind of in that same mindset, looking ahead, right where I haven't really heard of too many school districts moving towards that electric bus initiative. Are there any other ideas or initiatives popping up in the same neighborhood, I guess that are having these types of impacts that maybe you have some more forward-thinking school districts investing in that you'd think would be more common in the years to come?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, I tend to look at Higher ED, as an example of where K 12 will be in the next 5, 10 years or so. And so decarbonization, electrification is definitely a key one, a focus on, like health and wellness and the whole, like sort of integrated campus design or making sure that outdoor spaces are inviting and resilient. The other one is sort of focused on climate resiliency unfortunately as storms become more prevalent for school districts to really figure out how to keep their doors open given these changes in climate. I mean, in the northeast, it might just be heat days and figuring out how to keep your building cool when it's 90 degrees on, you know, of May 16. So, these are real things, so resiliency, climate resiliency, environmental resiliency is absolutely another one.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and now I'm from Florida and I know firsthand of just the impact that, you know, a large storm could have and you know, being more inland, we're not talking about a catastrophic hurricane by any means, you're not going to have school during that. But the exhilarated benefits or impacts of that with flooding, you know, trees being out, so on and so forth, they're getting more and more frequent. And it's one of those things we are going to have to learn how to adjust to it and what can we do to prove it, you know, long term damage to physical buildings, we're going to and, in this case, making sure we have kids in school as long as possible.

Phoebe Beierle  

Yep, absolutely. And that's, you know, when it comes down to it, that's what the facilities directors are held accountable for. And so, you know, there's funding at the federal government right now, through the bipartisan infrastructure bill to focus on these issues, electric school buses, there's billions of dollars that are allocated in that bill for E buses, which also can be a solution for keeping the lights on actually. There can be storage, battery storage, in the bus yard in an emergency, believe it or not, and there's also funding for resiliency projects, renewable energy. So right now, there's an opportunity for school districts to really sort of start looking at, planning for the future and be able to leverage and take advantage of some of these funds and partnerships that are popping up. So yeah, in addition to those other things I mentioned, I think, like looking at planning and taking a step back and really like understanding what are the needs of your buildings, whether it's from environmental health and air quality perspective or a climate perspective, are going to set districts up really well to be able to take advantage of the resources that are out there.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah and that's a great point because, you know, we talked to a lot of folks in facilities. And I think what really makes the difference between a good and great facilities manager or director is that forward thinking mindset of, yes, I need to be reactive, put out these fires. I need to have my preventative maintenance strategy in place but let's look longer than a quarter down the line. Let's look 1, 5, 10 years down the line, am I setting up this entire organization? Or in this example, school districts, am I setting them up for success, both operationally and financially? And you know, having those resources available is just so very important and so with that, where can someone find more information on the financial resources available?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah, we actually have been doing a lot of advocacy work on this area, so helping K 12 schools, in particular, understand what funding is available for COVID really funds and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. So our website, we have an article that summarizes all of the opportunities for K 12 and also a recent webinar that we hosted, which we can share, you can access the recording online. Those are good place to like summarize that work and you know, feel free to of course, reach out and find us at the Center for Green Schools, if you're interested in learning more or have questions, we're happy to help.

Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, we'll certainly have that in the show notes for folks to access that because it is so very important where you can't just fall back on you know, understaffed and I don't have the resources available. It's you know, I can't help out with the staffing but we can help out with some more information on how to get the resources that are available, so I absolutely love that. And I do have one last question for you that I ask everybody before I let them run but Phoebe, who or what has had the biggest impact on you and your career and I think you gave a little bit of insight earlier but I'll let you to address that again?

Phoebe Beierle  

I mean, there's definitely been a number of people along the way in different capacities but I think in terms of, sort of the way that I think about education and the environment and environmental policy is probably David Orr, who was a professor at Oberlin College and as a thought leader in this space. So, he really had an impact in my undergrad years.

Griffin Hamilton  

That's incredible. Yeah and just curious, are you in contact still or staying in contact, what they're up to?

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah. We run into each other occasionally at conferences or we used to or events. And, yeah, it's a small world, the Green School Space is a pretty small world, we do stay in touch.

Griffin Hamilton  

I can imagine. Well, I certainly appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and some really good action items that we could take parting ways here but again, thank you so much and looking forward to staying in touch.

Phoebe Beierle  

Yeah. Thank you, Griffin. Thank you so much.

Griffin Hamilton  

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Modern Facilities Management Podcast, make sure to subscribe for future episodes and follow us on LinkedIn for more facilities management content.

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