Crockett Facilities Services Inc.

Since 2000 Crockett Facilities Services Inc. (CFSI) has helped government and commercial clients run buildings more efficiently. The award-winning mechanical contractor provides a full suite of facilities services, including on-site operations and management, preventive maintenance, custodial and mobile HVAC services.

The Maryland-based mechanical contractor is a true partner, servicing each building as if it was its own. “Our tagline, ‘We’re in this building together,’ represents our philosophy about how we run our business,” explains Cynthia Crockett, president of CFSI. “Our passion is establishing a relationship that can grow into an integrated facilities maintenance contract. We want to be our customers’ partner for all of their facility needs.”

CFSI has experienced major growth since Cynthia and her husband, Mark, established the company in 2000. “We formed CFSI to take advantage of upcoming government contracts,” recalls Cynthia. “I’m an attorney by trade, so I had experience with federal contracts. My husband had 20 years of building operations and maintenance experience, starting out as a stationary engineer in a building to becoming a vice president in a publicly-traded company.”

Since that time, CFSI has taken off. “It started with just the two of us, and now we have 250 employees and we’re continuing to grow in the commercial market,” Cynthia explains. From its home base in Bowie, Md., to Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, the demand for CFSI’s services has spread rapidly. “We started with set-aside government contracts via SBA’s 8(a) vehicle to a small mobile service department,” she continues.

A powerful combination

“Mark and I saw CFSI as a business opportunity for our family and to have a better quality of life,” Cynthia says. “We’ve been fortunate enough to do both. Family is the most important thing to me and I wanted to find a way to take care of my family.”

Through its GSA schedule and various contracts, CFSI provides site-based facilities management for government customers, offering everything from custodial work to preventive maintenance, with the goal of keeping tenants comfortable. “While the majority of our work right now is through government contracts, we’ve been expanding our customer base in the commercial sector,” Cynthia says.

The company also offers mobile HVAC and 24/7 emergency service for commercial and government customers throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. CFSI delivers peace of mind to building owners and property managers by taking care of mechanical equipment, allowing clients to concentrate on managing the respective business. “We have 10 trucks that travel throughout the tri-state area making sure our customers don’t have issues with heating and cooling,” adds Cynthia.

Cynthia goes on to note that CFSI is unique. “What makes us different is that we can eliminate multiple contracts and multiple points of contacts – all functions are integrated – under CFSI’s tutelage,” she details. “Because buildings are inherently integrated, the services that are required to keep that building functioning should be integrated, as well. You can’t make changes in one thing without it affecting everything else. For example, CFSI understands the costs of changing from a daytime custodial contract to a nighttime and how that would impact energy costs.”

Recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a top 10 mechanical contractor and a top 25 woman-owned business, CFSI has continued to grow by meeting and exceeding its customers’ energy-saving goals. The company earned the Mechanical Service Contractors of America (MSCA) Green STAR qualification, recognizing it provides energy-efficient and environmentally-responsible solutions to customers.

“Using our MSCA Green STAR certification, we help our customers make informed decisions regarding their energy usage,” explains Cynthia. “By helping our clients reduce their energy consumption, we make them more competitive and add value to their most important asset − their building.”

Helping customers achieve energy goals

Now more than ever, saving energy is critical for large facilities, particularly government agencies, which are committed to promoting environmental stewardship. “Our goal is to minimize energy consumption without sacrificing building performance,” Cynthia continues.

When a 50-year-old, 500,000-square-foot federal office building in Washington, D.C., was looking to go green, CFSI stepped in to meet the demand. As is the case with many government facilities, some of the building’s mechanical equipment was outdated. Even more so, the HVAC equipment was operated manually, resulting in varying temperatures throughout the building; 500-ton chillers, cooling towers, condenser water pumps and hot water pumps could only be turned on or off, operating at 100 percent capacity, even when only 10 percent was required. The exhaust fans and lights also ran around the clock; all of these factors added up to excessive energy usage.

CFSI set out to develop a comprehensive and innovative building energy management system. The company programmed temperature set points for all thermostats after analyzing optimal temperatures based on occupancy, resulting in a 50 percent decrease in customer HVAC calls.

The most innovative aspect of the project is the real-time energy management dashboard monitoring system, networking the HVAC equipment, lighting, electric and gas meters and allowing the facility to run like a well-oiled machine. The system recalculates and displays the building’s current Energy Star score based on real-time energy usage and generates an alarm to the CFSI staff when energy consumption reaches above normal levels, so issues can be resolved to achieve energy saving goals. As a result of these efforts, overall energy savings totaled 17.7 percent and the facility received its ENERGY STAR certification one year ahead of its goal, with a rating of 82.

Aiming for Growth

CFSI continues to build its customer base. “We have done really well, even with the downturn,” reveals Cynthia. “The good thing about our industry is that no matter what, people need HVAC, it’s not an optional service. It’s also an essential service in data centers, where downtime is not an option.”

Cynthia says the company continues to thrive by staying as lean as possible. “We also utilize the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a process that allows us to clarify, simplify and achieve our mission, which goes back to providing comfortable building environments for our customers,” she adds. “We’re focused on keeping our business healthy. Within the next couple of years, we see continued success penetrating the commercial marketplace and providing integrated facility management services.”

CFSI is implementing a 10-year plan to achieve record growth. “We will pursue both federal and commercial business opportunities on a national level,” shares Cynthia. “It is imperative to diversify our customer base to build our company.”

Through fully integrated service, Crocket Facilities Services Inc. continues to proactively identify issues before the customer is adversely impacted, keeping things running smoothly while maximizing operational efficiency.