ABM hosts conference on green building practices.

Continuing its reputation as the innovator of facility management services and advocate on green building and sustainability issues, American Building Maintenance of New York recently hosted an informal symposium for corporate real estate and sustainability executives at The Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan.

Representatives from such leading institutions as the Bank of America, Citigroup, the Ford Foundation, Hearst, HIP Health Plan of New York and UBS received the latest updates on ongoing High Performance Green Building and sustainability issues from the US Green Building Council and New York City Economic Development Corporation. Topics included energy efficiency and clean energy alternatives, recycling, indoor environmental quality, reducing absenteeism, working with government agencies and capitalizing on available incentive programs.

"There is no doubt that this is an ongoing trend among responsible companies nationwide and this symposium is part of ABM's ongoing efforts to both monitor interest and focus attention on these important issues," said Paul A. Magda, senior vice president of ABM Facility Services for the Eastern US region. "We anticipate the market for these types of services will continue to grow, and ABM is proud of its reputation as the premier service firm in this area."

Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, according to Magda, who also serves as vice chairman of BOMA-NY's energy committee.

"One of the most interesting conclusions reached by our presenters and guests was the importance of bringing your facilities services and maintenance provider onto the project team early in the process to help make educated purchasing decisions that will allow companies to best maintain their building's environmentally friendly infrastructure and materials over the long-term," said Magda. "Bringing these professionals into the process from the beginning greatly enhances your ability to achieve the environmental and economic goals these high performance green buildings were designed for."