Today’s commercial buildings are benefiting from a growing array of technological options, making them more efficient, cost effective and healthy, while meeting an increasingly stringent set of regulatory requirements. With improvements come risks, though, and with adjustments happening in real time, it’s important to ensure cyber security measures are in place.

What a pair of California properties tells us about the future.

No longer are companies simply judged on their business performance—they are also evaluated based on their role in environmental stewardship and societal involvement, as well as how they govern themselves. It’s impacting who will do business with you, and it’s taking leadership to a new level.

As we move rapidly toward the new year, it’s a good time to reflect on the one that’s coming to a close.

Like all reporters, I relish the chance to be a fly on the wall. In our shop there’s no eavesdropping more enjoyable than the judging for CPE’s annual Distinguished Achievement Awards.

As someone who obsessively recycles and was disappointed when I learned—from two separate solar energy providers—that the city-owned trees beside my house are too tall to permit installation of panels on my roof, I’ve been enthused at the way alternative energy solutions are taking off.