JLL’s State of Tennessee engineers won big at its Annual Engineering Conference
Working behind the scenes, JLL engineers help ensure that the State of Tennessee delivers on its mission of serving constituents. While their work may not be visible to most State of Tennessee employees, four engineering team members earned the spotlight at JLL’s internal 2019 Engineering Services Conference by winning five awards for outstanding performance.
The engineering professionals are a critical part of the JLL Integrated Facility Management team that has served the State of Tennessee since 2013. Encompassing 11 million square feet of space, or approximately 10% of the State’s real estate footprint, the initial IFM partnership contract led to more than $53 million in savings and significant improvements in the condition of the State’s facilities. To build on those accomplishments, the State of Tennessee renewed the initial IFM contract in March 2019.
Meanwhile, in 2017, the State of Tennessee awarded JLL the opportunity to market IFM services to all State agencies and higher education institutions. To date, JLL has been selected by multiple State entities to provide IFM services to an additional total of 4.3 million square feet of space—a 38% increase. As the relationship continues to expand, an additional 80 million square feet could potentially be awarded to JLL.
Chad Lovell, John Webb and Dale Abbott with their Sigma Awards. Not Pictured: Matt Ivey.
Four State of Tennessee engineering team members were recognized with a Sigma Award for best-in-class engineering operations. One team member won both a Sigma Award and a Safety Excellence Award, given to professionals who advance the culture of health and safety, and reduce team injuries on the job.
Chad Lovell with his Sigma Award, with Marie Drader (left) and Jason Ballard (right).
Chad Lovell received both a Sigma Award and a Safety Excellence Award for numerous accomplishments relating to operational performance, safety excellence, energy savings initiatives and innovation. Under Lovell’s leadership as Operations and Safety Specialist, the State of Tennessee team has not had a recordable injury, and the account team won four National Safety Council awards for Occupational Excellence and Perfect Record. Additionally, Lovell was recognized for his role in developing engineering talent and establishing best practices for the State of Tennessee account. For example, he developed a chief engineer training program that created a bench of nine JLL employees prepared for the role, with future training classes scheduled for additional employees. He has also initiated innovative new approaches, including resource-conservation technologies, and contributed 15 innovations to JLL’s Idea Stream innovation incubator.
As Operational Compliance Program (OCP) lead, Lovell has volunteered his time to help chief engineers at 20 sites improve their buildings’ performance by record percentages. In addition, he initiated a weekly OCP call to share key learnings with other JLL account teams. Lovell has submitted 168 energy conservation initiatives to JLL’s proprietary Portfolio Energy and Environmental Reporting System (PEERS), representing 22% of the estimated State of Tennessee savings of $2.3 million dollars. During his time as Chief Engineer at Andrew Jackson Complex, he helped reduce energy consumption by 15% to 25% annually and reduce utility costs by 20% on average.
Dale Abbott with his Sigma Award, with Greg Alewine (left) and Jim Whittaker (right).
Dale Abbott earned a Sigma Award for his work as chief engineer at the James Robertson Complex in Nashville. He was recognized for leading his team to achieve OCP compliance for two buildings in the past year, and for achieving significant energy savings through engineering innovation and best practices. He also was the first chief engineer to acquire an incubator for testing a new HVAC water system that other engineers could adopt. Under his leadership, his team and its contractor employees have had zero injuries, and he has instituted systems to ensure safety compliance. He also has contributed to the success of other State of Tennessee teams by helping develop and provide chief engineer training instruction to build and retain high-value engineering staff for the State of Tennessee, and also lent his expertise to help a different client avoid $30,000 in chiller repair costs.
Matt Ivey won a Sigma Award for his work as chief building engineer supervising operations and maintenance staff serving 1.2 million square feet of space in State facilities. He was recognized for leading his team to achieve superior operational performance for their buildings with no reportable accidents and reducing energy waste through new approaches. For example, he initiated augmenting a low-efficiency boiler at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation lab facility with a “piggyback” high-efficiency boiler that could help maintain appropriate humidity levels at a lower cost, with a projected 1.1-year payback period.
Over the course of a year, Ivey significantly improved OCP compliance scores at his complex, allowing one of their five buildings to earn the highest possible score of 5, indicating full compliance with OCP requirements. In addition, he was lauded for his support of other JLL engineering teams on the State of Tennessee account. And, he joined the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) EnergyRight® Preferred Partners Network for the State of Tennessee account, enabling JLL to manage projects for (TVA) utility rebates without contractor assistance.
John Webb with his Sigma Award, with Josh Toothman (left) and Jim Whittaker (right).
John Webb won a Sigma Award for his work as an engineer at the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCRH) in Cookeville and as chief engineer at Tennessee Tower in Nashville. Webb was recognized for working evenings and weekends to make his building the first on the State of Tennessee account to achieve OCP compliance. As Chief Engineer of one of the State’s most demanding sites, he quickly resolved longstanding building issues and greatly boosted tenant satisfaction, earning one of many awards he has won since joining the State of Tennessee account team in 2015. Through his own efforts, he performed 10 energy projects that achieved aggregate energy savings of $70,000 and, at the Tennessee Tower complex, led his team to achieve energy savings of nearly $10,000 in a few months.
In addition, Webb has gone above and beyond to improve the tenant experience. For instance, he helped a diabetic employee recover from a sudden drop in blood sugar. At a warehouse facility, an employee said, “Whatever we need, all we have to do is ask and he is right there, ready and willing to help in whatever capacity it may be. Words can’t express how much we appreciate him.”
Since 1981, JLL has recognized outstanding professional achievement by its building engineers through awards presented at the annual internal Engineering Services Conference. Candidates are nominated by senior leaders in the field, and winners are selected by an awards committee. The awards recognize candidates in the categories of Rising Star, ENERGY STAR Property of the Year, Most Improved ENERGY STAR Property, Safety Excellence, Pegasus (mobile engineering), Sigma (best-in-class engineering) and R.A. Williams (innovation and collaboration).
