IT PAYS TO BE Green

HEADNOTE

Maintenance management at California's EPA headquarters proves that green operations help the environment and the bottom line

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The

numbers were wrong, Craig Sheeny thought. They just had to be. As director of property management at the Joe Serna Jr. California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters building in Sacramento, Sheehy oversees the facility's daily operations and led California EPA's mission to reduce its environmental footprint in and around its headquarters.

When he began instituting green practices and energy-efficient technologies shortly after the 90,000-square-foot building was completed in 2001, he didn't realize how much of an impact they would have on operating expenses.

"A few months later, the financials started coming in," Sheehy says. "At first, I thought something was wrong because our operating expenses were a lot less than what I originally budgeted and a lot less than what downtown Sacramento averages. So I checked and double checked and, to my amazement, it was true that our operating expenses were dropping like a lead weight."