5 Effective Practices for Sustainable Facility Management
Today, most sectors are looking for ways to improve the sustainability of their operations. This shift is driven by the urgent need to slow down the speed of the current global climate crisis rather than by sustainability being a “hot topic.” Yet, no matter where a country may be, it poses a severe threat to all of them.
What can facility managers do to improve the sustainability of their operations? Their choices must consider the organization’s resources and have a good environmental effect.
Some of the Ways They Can Promote This Shift in Facility Management are as follows:
1. Keep a Holistic Approach
An integrated facility management firm has several facets; its operations, investments, management, and services intertwine. Each of these elements makes a personal commitment to sustainability, but they frequently struggle to operate as a cohesive unit. Building a comprehensive sustainability plan with a unified goal is crucial in this situation.
A well-strategized sustainability plan may result in seamless cooperation between the various teams stated earlier on an operational level. These duties shouldn’t take precedence over those of the opposing side and should ideally be spread out to work in a cogent manner. This can be done on a smaller scale by placing trash cans for different types of waste around buildings, modifying cleaning schedules, and communicating with those in charge of changes. Creating comprehensive plans with all the departments may also be implemented on a larger scale to implement sustainable facility management.
2. Research and Execute Well Before Going All in
Going green is a necessary yet, a step to be considered judiciously, hence, needing a lot of planning to commit. A planned approach to determining whether particular actions will benefit a structure or a company is to test them beforehand. Conducting sustainability analytics might be the first step in this process as they can give a clear picture of the facility’s present sustainable situation in facility management. It is much simpler for facilities managers to collaborate with the administration to develop strategies for upcoming rollouts once they have this knowledge.
Furthermore, it is usually a brilliant idea to carry out an audit and learn where certain facilities can be wasting energy. An audit gives you access to valuable information, such as occupancy-based energy use, seasonal increases in energy use, or ineffective equipment. You can use this information to guide better-informed decisions that could eventually benefit the environment and your business.
Try out different facility management solutions, run smaller pilot projects, and go on research visits. Not all plans can be carried out each year due to restricted resources and budgets in any organization. However, pilot programs can provide facility managers with a realistic idea of which sustainable practices can be implemented this year and which ones should be saved for the future.
3. Keep Clear & Updated Communication
Having a company-wide commitment to sustainability means communicating with anybody who might impact. These adjustments involve various personnel in a variety of ways. Managers, for instance, typically sketch out the broad direction of the initiatives. Then, the entire plan of improvements is laid up by sustainability coordinators, who are also in charge of periodically reviewing the results.
Employees and residents are also kept up to date, despite not being actively involved in implementing these improvements. They are given a sense of security that sustainability measures are on the way by doing this. Companies also inform the press, clients, and collaborators about the new initiatives they have implemented. Sustainability, in this sense, is a company-wide effort and does not fall within the purview of any one department.
4. Choose Eco-friendly Alternatives
It’s pretty simple to assume that leading a sustainable lifestyle means avoiding new purchases, but this can be more damaging over time. In fact, because of how long ago, they were built, many assets in historic buildings are not the most environmentally friendly in terms of facility management. As a result, these assets frequently use more energy and are generally ineffective.
Ironically, investing in new gear and equipment is the more environmentally friendly course of action in many situations. Several ways to accomplish this include constructing a new roof that retains heat, converting to renewable energy sources like geothermal or solar for your facility, and changing boilers, windows, and HVAC systems. This will guarantee the effectiveness and safety of the integrated facilities management services businesses provide.
5. Use Environmentally Friendly Procedures
Numerous businesses in the facilities management industry are implementing creative strategies to incorporate eco-friendly practices into their everyday operations that supplement facility management. This can include everything from installing solar panels and vermicomposting to gathering rainwater and running sewage treatment facilities.
find out more: Strategies for Environmental Responsibility
Sustainability is possibly the most crucial concluding act one could aspire to carry out in the essentially disruptive film of global warming. At a time when companies are making sales pitches to millennial consumers, it’s critical to keep in mind that over 73 percent of this consumer generation globally is willing to spend more on a product if the brand connected with it is environmentally conscious.
In addition, we must not overlook that implementing greener corporate policies might result in long-term cost savings for your firm. Therefore, the only future we have is sustainable.