Author: Andrew Warth

We kicked off Monday with a look into an essential part of cleaning FMs should be concerned about right now—pest control in shuttered retail spaces. Carl Money, Business Development Manager at Terminix Commercial National Accounts, highlighted the need for a comprehensive commercial pest management program during COVID-19 to ensure your facilities are pest-free.

·        Pest don’t self-quarantine – they multiply

“As we all know – pest don’t quarantine, and they don’t practice social distancing,” joked Money. “They don’t know there is a global pandemic on right now. All they know is their world has changed. Their former food locations may have closed or become more restricted, and they’re adapting.

Take rodents for example; they’re looking for three major things: food, shelter, and a place to multiply. They don’t need much space to access abandoned buildings seeking shelter. Thanks to the last few thousand years, we’ve trained them well to live along side us.

They know there is food and shelter wherever we go. Ewe provide everything they need to survive and thrive. And, now that we’ve abandoned new areas, thanks to the pandemic, they’re becoming more brazen and invading quicker than ever.

·        Inspect facilities weekly

If you suspect pest issues are occurring at your facilities, don’t hesitate to contact your pest control provider to come out and perform an inspection. Its your property to protect, and rest assured the pests don’t respect landlords.

If a location is closed – make sure you go inside the building at least once per week. Bring a flashlight to do a thorough inspection. You should look under and behind things, with an eye for pest invasion such as spiderwebs, rodent droppings and chewed materials. Rodents love nesting materials so cardboard boxes, curtains, etc., are all fair game and signs your facility is under attack.

·        Ensure doors are closed tightly

You should also bring water with you to put into your floor and sink drains. This keeps the dew trap wet which prevents flies and roaches from infiltrating your location and creating new problems. If your location is open, do the same inspections, but do them more frequently.

Also ensure your doors are closed as much as possible and ensure good door sweeps are installed and work properly. A good way to determine if you need to replace a door sweep is to check to see if light comes through under the door while the door is closed. If you see light; it’s time to switch it out,” concluded Money.

Managing facilities during a pandemic is difficult. Establishing a routine pest control inspection and control program will enable FMs to protect their facilities more efficiently and avoid costs that could result from the damage pest can cause.  

Today on the Daily Grind, Ron Prager, Executive VP and COO, Brinco Mechanical Management Services, Inc., highlighted ASHRAE’s air quality COVID-19 guidelines, and provided actionable steps to keep HVAC systems functional now and after multi-site facilities reopen. Brinco Mechanical Management Services are committed to providing the highest quality of national HVAC and refrigeration management services nationwide.

“ASHRAE (American Society of Heating / Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) is the ultimate authority and resource for all things HVAC,” Explained Prager.  “They perform base research, write papers and recommend base standards. Those standards are then adopted into almost every mechanical code world-wide. ASHRAE provides 5 broad recommendations for control of indoor air quality when pathogens are involved.

1.      Dilute contaminates by increasing ventilation rates. By bringing in outside air and exhausting indoor air, your dilute existing contaminates in the facility space.

2.      Increase air filter efficiency. Obviously if you can strain whatever pathogen out of the air, you create a healthier environment.

3.      Treat your space with ultra-violet light. We know UV light will kill pathogens and viruses

4.      Maintain humidity levels between 40%-60% to minimize airborne transmission of the virus. As recommended on an earlier session of The Daily Grind.  

5.      Ensure proper maintenance and operation of HVAC systems including the cleaning of coil services and any surface the air may pass over.

FMs need to examine possible measures and what makes sense for specific sites, based upon what we’re need to accomplish, both during and after the pandemic. We also need to look at the cost and practicality of those efforts versus real benefits.

So which measures make sense for closed sites versus ones that remained open?  What measures have a proven effect on indoor air quality and reducing the spread of the virus versus the steps needed to present the best perception to both employees and guests visiting those sites. That perception is real and will make a difference.

We also need to consider measures required by law and codes, both existing, and soon to be created and implemented as a result of the pandemic. It will all be locally and regionally based, and in an uncertain future, staying up to date as codes and regulations unfold will be crucial.

Lastly, we need to consider limiting liability. If you do everything according to the new codes and what is expected and required – gross negligence is not involved. If you do not comply with codes or do the bare minimum of what’s expected and there is an incident, you will be held to a very strict standard. We need to ensure we limit liability and project the perception that makes people feel comfortable when visiting or working in our sites.

And now we get to my favorite subject – proper maintenance. Most retailers have put maintenance on hold. If we’re looking at businesses re-opening sometime in June or July, some stores will have been without maintenance for up to six months.

This is a mistake I understand the need to minimize expenses. However, we are going to end up with a lot of equipment in very bad shape. You’re trying to convince guests coming into your space that you are doing everything you can to protect them, having multiple HVAC units offline when they visit is not going to do that.

I think we will experience a shortage of air filters as stores begin to reopen. Some of the air filter companies have shifted to produce PPE. We will also experience a contractor shortage as stores come back online. The workforce is already strained from the shutdown. I really think FMs and suppliers need to work with landlords and building owners to get maintenance up to standards 30 to 60 days before opening to ensure everything is ready to go when the doors open,” concluded Prager.

On Wednesday’s episode of The Daily Grind, James Walton, Vice President, ENTOUCH, discussed HVAC issues multi-site FMs will face with shuttered stores, and provided advice for FMs as stores begin to open again when the COVID-19 pandemic slows. Entouch empowers multi-site owners and operators with data, analytics and insights to enable smarter buildings and smarter business models.

“It’s been interesting, during the last few weeks as each business has faced its own set of unique challenges,” said Walton “Some are absolutely shutter-in-place. Some unfortunately are closing permanently, and others are considered part of essential business. So, the needs for each situation are very different. Currently we focus most on those choosing to shutter-in-place.

During these trying times its difficult for owners to really focus on “the business” because they are also focused on personal and family issues. Our teams have stepped up to take the burden off them, and to provide experienced guidance.

While our daily lives at Entouch are typically focused on HVAC, we’re here to help manage the rest of the building as well. There are other opportunities to save money as building shut down, and we can help identify those savings.  We’re all in this together and we owe it to our clients to help whenever and wherever we can.

Moving forward its really going to be about how we all get back to normal. Every business will face different issues as they decide how to reopen. We need to ensure we use the time that we’ve been given with this event and really learn from the data collected.

We’ll be looking across all building systems during this time and establishing new benchmarks that can be used to set a new baseline to move forward efficiently and effectively. We need to be able to reassure customers re-opening stores that it is safe and reassure the marketplace that we’re taking proven, data-based precautions and smartly scaling up as the economy re-opens.

Having the right HVAC, the right airflow, safety equipment, and even hand sanitizer will be critical to success. Anything we can do to assist during this time will help our clients better serve their customers as we all strive to get back to work,” concluded Walton.

Today on the Daily Grind, Rob Almond, CEO, NEST, discussed disaster planning and crisis management, and provided key takeaways as multi-site facilities businesses continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. NEST is a national multi-site facility services and management company that helps build, manage and track construction and facilities maintenance management projects.  

Almond discussed how NEST has been working with St. Joseph’s University. “During the last few years, and more importantly, the last few weeks we have been meeting with graduating seniors to discuss crisis management planning, awareness and preparedness,” Almond explained.

 “Our relationship with St. Joseph’s goes back roughly ten years now, as a sponsor of their business policy competition. Each graduating class has a cap stone class project during which they select a publicly owned company – they identify challenges the company is facing and develop a business plan to guide the company through those issues. For six years, two semesters per year, I served as a judge when the final six projects were presented.

What we discovered was interesting. Almost every semester one group had presented a case study about a NEST customer. We have always found it fun to and beneficial to share the information from the graduating class with our client. One time the seniors had the opportunity to present their findings to the client. We also allowed the students to sit in on our business review with the client. That was always our intent – to bring them into a real world setting and provide them that experience.

Five years ago, we pivoted and went to their financial planning and business intelligence department and created a co-op program. They presented some of the analytics and reporting we had developed earlier as it now relates to the current Covid-19 crisis. So again, we’re really all about providing students the opportunity to interact with real organizations.

As we look forward to getting back to normal, everyone has choices. You could wait to see how things will go. However, we all agree that’s not going to be the case. Everything’s going to be different going forward, from this type of virtual conferencing, to the way we conduct business.

Obviously, we know brick & mortar is not going away, but things are going to be different. Maybe that includes less of a store presence and more of a curb-side delivery presence.  Therefore, you’ve got to think differently.  One student asked me for advice, and I suggested two things:

1.     Give back. No matter how small the gesture is. Right now, that’s so important. Even if it’s just putting on some gloves and helping am elderly neighbor with their trash. People are going to ask what you did during the crisis. Have a positive answer.

2.     Realize opportunities are going to change Job offers from a month ago may be gone. Don’t let that discourage you. Take advantage of what is there. Take it as a challenge and adapt to the challenges and opportunities this crisis has presented.