Nearly a decade ago, campus leaders at UC Davis decided to invest in a small team of employees to reduce energy by optimizing building controls and systems. The concept was that UC Davis could fund such a team, if it could curb high utility bills — essentially having the team pay for itself with energy savings.

Understanding how people use dashboards and tools has provided Facilities Management (FM), Energy & Engineering’s Kiernan Salmon with a new perspective on the design and usability of products. As Kiernan understands more, she is able to build tools that give FM staff valuable insight that allows us to provide better customer service to the UC Davis campus.