The biggest project Jordan Haugtvedt has worked on lately ended up getting a big helping hand, thanks to Viega ProPress and MegaPress technology.

The initial COVID-19 outbreak fast-tracked the specification of touch-free restroom products in commercial facilities. The typical manual faucet and toilet handles harbor anywhere between 107 to 17,976 germs per 10 square centimeters. With the restroom full of these “high-touch” surfaces that can be a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria, going touch-free quickly became a pivotal element for the safety of building occupants.

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) hydromechanical grease interceptors have become much more popular in the commercial plumbing engineering community. Why has this segment grown so quickly in the last 10 years?

According to a recent study from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, "School Ventilation: A Vital Tool to Reduce COVID-19 Spread," ventilation improvements in K-12 schools are a cost-effective public health measure.

There’s no doubt the plumbing industry has had a hyper-focus on Legionella and prevention over the past few years. Yet a simple search on Google reveals outbreaks in an Illinois prison, a Hawaiian hotel and in Riverside County, California — all within the past two months.

Think you know pump systems? Think again. From misidentifying the major culprits of ownership costs to taking the wrong approach in implementing variable speed drives, misconceptions around pumps create missed opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings.

In business, a decision based on incorrect information can have far-reaching consequences for an organization. This is not breaking news, of course, but consider this: Autodesk recently released a study in collaboration with consulting firm FMI Corp. on the prevalence of data usage in construction and the repercussions associated with data errors. 

PM Engineer Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke sat down with Elkay’s Michelle Hickey, senior manager of brand and media strategy, and Dave Sklodowski, group product manager, to discuss the bottle filling station market, current trends and some of Elkay’s philanthropic work in donating these products to communities in need of clean water.

The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year will help inject billions of dollars into both potable water and wastewater upgrades over the next several years. Coupled with that, President Joe Biden has issued an executive order and Federal Sustainability Plan that will put the U.S. federal government on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which includes directives for federal buildings and facilities to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 through energy efficiency, electrification and use of carbon-free electricity along with sustainability principles.

One of the things I love about engineering is remembering those moments that inspire us to keep learning. For me, most of the time, it was related to somebody trying to fix something that was broken.