Hear about the new Modesto Courthouse, currently under construction. Located downtown, on an entire city block bounded by G and H Streets and 9th and 10th Streets, the full-service courthouse will replace seven court facilities – four in Modesto and one in Turlock, currently used by the court.  Court operations, including the Clerk’s Offices and Court Administration, will be consolidated into the new building, which will provide safe and secure access to all of the Court’ programs and services.   Construction is expected to be completed early 2025. The $279 million, 309,000 sq. ft. facility will feature 26 finished courtrooms, as well as inmate holding areas, a large jury assembly room, public lobby and service counters, and attorney-client meeting rooms.  The building will be LEED Silver Certified and is designed to achieve maximum operational and energy efficiency through the use of a fully integrated building management system.  

Facility managers are required by OSHA to have a written emergency response plan for their buildings.  But is your plan up-to-date regarding building employees who are disabled or with reduced mobility? You may have purchased stairway evacuation chairs or lightweight transport wheelchairs for emergencies.  If so, do people know where they are stored and how to use them?  And what about other planning? Do you have lists of the employees in your buildings who will require assistance in the case of an emergency, with details on what assistance they will need? Are these lists updated on a regular basis, to take into account employee accidents (broken legs, etc.) or other reduced mobility?  What about disabled people working overtime, outside of regular building hours – are these situations part of the planning? Learn about this important topic in this informative presentation.

Prescriptive maintenance is a step beyond predictive maintenance, prescribing actions that will keep the problem from occurring to begin with. The speaker will describe the key elements of deployment and commissioning of a prescriptive maintenance program. Learn how to apply failure mode and effects analysis for effective prescriptive maintenance and troubleshooting of critical facilities equipment, and reduced downtime.

Hear how Frito-Lay transformed its 500,000-square-foot Modesto manufacturing facility into an industry-leading showcase for environmentally sustainable manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Updating its fleet from diesel to zero emission (ZE) and near-zero emission (NZE) technologies is a main part of the achievement; other measures include application of solar power generation and storage. The transition to ZE and NZE vehicles and equipment reduces tailpipe emissions in the Central Valley, and is part of the State of California’s Climate Investments initiative. Gain ideas you can apply at your site.

This presentation will examine the topic of adaptive lighting (“smart lighting”) for indoor and outdoor applications.  Adaptive lighting involves automated implementation – where lighting output is adjusted based on environmental conditions to optimize occupant comfort and building performance.  Learn the details, and how adaptive lighting can provide multiple benefits for your facility.

The media are filled with climate change stories these days. But sometimes it’s difficult to determine how the changes may impact facilities locally. In this interesting session, several panelists will discuss aspects of climate change that may interest facilities engineers in the area: 1) Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Standard (A.Hosier) - Cal/OSHA’s heat illness standard applies to all employees who are working outdoors during times of excessive heat. However, hazardous heat exposure can occur indoors or outdoors and can occur during any season if the conditions are right, not only during heat waves. Learn what this means for your facility, and how to access important resources to help you with your program. 2) Wildfire Effects on Air Quality – N95 Masks and Other Worker Protections (K. Fliflet) - With wildfires becoming common occurrences in the Central Valley and Northern California, facilities managers need to make sure their outdoor workers are adequately protected against poor air quality. Hear about the hazards, and the importance of N95 masks and other protective measures for workers. 3) Project Nexus – an Innovative Water Conservation Measure (J. Weimer) - Solar panels over canals reduce water evaporation while providing renewable energy in the Turlock area. Hear about this innovative public-private-academic partnership, called Project Nexus.

Attendees will be taken on a tour of the Modesto Centre Plaza. Highlighted will be the open-system building automation system that controls the air-handling systems, chillers, related pumps and various VAV terminal systems. Other topics will include general building maintenance and fountain pump equipment.

When people hear the words “commercial kitchens”, they typically envision restaurants, but such kitchens are quite widespread among facility types – they are found also in office buildings, university and school buildings, hospitals, malls and other locations. When facility engineers do energy audits of their buildings, they need to keep in mind that commercial kitchens have their own energy management needs, which a targeted audit can address. This session will discuss the fundamentals of cooking appliance performance and energy use; and how to identify impactful low-cost or no-cost energy saving opportunities for cooking, exhaust and water heating equipment in commercial food service operations. The speaker also will provide resources offered by Frontier Energy’s Food Service Technology Center in partnership with PG&E, and information on rebates offered for energy-efficient commercial food service equipment through the CA Investor-Owned Utilities California Food Service Instant Rebates Program.

This session will discuss Lockout/Tagout for employers and employees, including what is required per the California Code of Regulations, Section 3314. Is your facility in compliance? The speaker will describe what facility operators need to know and where they can go for resources pertaining to Lockout/Tagout procedures. The presentation will address the practices necessary to disable machinery or equipment, thus preventing the release of hazardous energy while employees perform servicing and maintenance tasks.  Included will be some common Lockout/Tagout violations at various types of facilities, including examples where employees were injured during routine maintenance or service on HVAC units. Learn what you need to know to avoid injury and comply with regulations.

Boiler predictive monitoring (PM) allows operators to gain visibility of critical equipment in the boiler room and provide a holistic dashboard of the entire system application. PM controls provide actionable insights to increase efficiency and reduce unplanned downtime. Users can remotely monitor their boiler system, view key performance indicators, receive alerts, utilize an asset diagnostic tool, and review trend reports, moving from a reactive to a predictive stance to reduce boiler maintenance costs and improve uptime. This session will help you to identify operational trends to help address issues before they arise for efficient troubleshooting.

The University of California-Merced is a leader in sustainability in higher education. Since its inception, UC Merced has been Green from the Ground Up. The university has integrated various technologies into its campus design to reduce energy use and enhance performance. Hear about the campus efforts and achievements – including doubling the size of the university – and gain ideas you can apply at your site.

Join the speakers for a session on the benefits of system design using heat pump technology to improve HVAC and water heater performance, while saving energy, reducing costs, and satisfying California’s push for electrification and decarbonization.

This informative panel discussion is designed to help attendees understand the following project management concepts:  fundamental principles of project management, cost overruns, implementation delays, inefficiencies, improving project coordination, and challenges caused by variables outside your control. Gain information that will help you better manage your department’s projects.

In this session, hear an update on the State of California’s legislation that will affect commercial, industrial and institutional sectors, with information on what you can do to prepare.  Included will be details on tools and resources to help operators manage and conserve water use at their sites. Also, the speaker will provide a drought update for the Central Valley and Northern California areas.

This valuable film provides in-depth look at how the integrative design process happens for high-performance buildings. The film, produced by RMI, formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute, includes examples of how design teams collaborate with people involved in HVAC and other building systems in ways that integrate building design elements --such as daylighting and renewable energy -- into other building systems for optimal performance. Case history examples of this process include the Empire State Building retrofit, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Phipps Conservancy, the Desert Living Center, Willow School and Chicago Botanic Gardens.

This presentation will describe the pros and cons of different types of roofing systems for commercial and industrial facilities, including single-ply membranes, asphalt, and acrylic fluid-applied.  The speaker will point out typical roofing failure areas and what to look for, and will discuss the importance of roofing maintenance.