Episode 24: Spotlight on Brian Rush and facilities stewardship

Chapters 1 & 2

Managing the variety and number of facilities in Sno-Isle Libraries is a big and multi-faceted job.

To Facilities Manager Brian Rush, facilities management is also an opportunity to show good stewardship of the environment and taxpayer dollars.

"I'm really into this stuff," Rush says in this two-part discussion. "The goal is to reduce cost and provide the best service and support whatever we need to do."

Rush's says the approach is working. In the custodial area, service has been added to buildings while the cost is going down by about $100,000 a year and the environmental impact lessened.

Sno-Isle Libraries has implemented green cleaning practices and is the first library system in the state to be LEED and GS-42 certified, Rush says. All libraries are now recycling and composting, he adds.

And then there's energy use.

Using what he calls a "synergistic approach," Sno-Isle Libraries is consuming less energy in its buildings and paying less for it. "We reduced natural gas consumption at (the Snohomish Library) by 90 percent," Rush says. And at the Service Center in Marysville, electricity use has dropped over th past seven years from about 900,000 kwH to a little over 400,000 KwH a year, he says.

The efforts, he says, can "save the public a tremendous amount of money."

Chapter length: 08:59

Chapter links

• GS-42 standards
• LEED standards
• Cedar Grove
• Sno-Isle Libraries locations

Chapter 3 – Book Notes

Like Jane Austen films like "Pride and Prejudice?" Looking for bit more grit?

Librarian Michelle Callihan suggests watching "North & South," a miniseries available on DVD.

"North & South also has a healthy dose of 'smoldering,'" Callihan says.

An audiobook suggestion from Callihan is "The Wall of Winnipeg and me" by Mariana Zapata, the New York Times bestselling author of "Kulti" and "Under Locke."

Callihan says this contemporary romance novel combines football and secret inappropriate hand salutes into a slow-burn romance where hatred gradually changes to understanding and liking.

Chapter length: 04:21