Feature


In the mid-to-long term, unobtrusive security and safety controls increase the vendors’ marketability of the product, driving consumer desirability, promoting the vendors’ reputation and increasing


their market share. Blending in innovative green


technologies and sustainability strategies at the earliest stages of a project, you have a blueprint for a new environmentally safe, secure, and sustainable living model.


But what about the existing built environment? Higher utility costs, energy price volatility, market controls on our carbon use as well as current and future legal compliance all place additional pressures on property owners, managers and occupiers. Furthermore, energy use has become an essential element of the corporate profile. As a measure of corporate responsibility, energy contributes directly to brand image and is increasingly used by investors to indicate business efficiency.


Frequently referred to as a critical enabler of optimum performance, automation resources keep assets across a building portfolio running optimally for longer. Building management systems (BMS) and building automation systems (BAS) are the backbone of a real-estate portfolio’s lifecycle and are the way forward for ensuring significant cost savings and energy/emission reduction. The alignment of corporate and environmental risk can be cited within the business case for investing in BMS/BAS and used as a tool for business development.


Facilities managers must commit to evaluating, checking, and


executing building performance plans set against


energy-use reduction targets over time. These plans should include preventative maintenance schedules to ensure asset optimisation and clear objectives for ongoing engagement with end users/occupiers.


Where there are many different interests in how a portfolio is managed, the challenges of change initiatives are magnified, from the practical and financial challenges property managers face in delivering energy-related savings, such as embedding good energy management practice into the day-to-day work of teams, to the difficulties in creating the right performance environment, incentives and training for all building users. The methods necessary to achieve the solutions, assurances of cost and management of other risks that ensure swift project implementation must be understood, and identification should be the first step in developing a strategy.


Effective and experienced leadership for carbon management must be translated into practical, embedded approaches that satisfy all parties: developers, property owners, landlords and tenants alike. Facilities managers need to be looking into sustainable incremental changes at the tactical level that filter up to positively impact and address strategic corporate and environmental objectives. Moreover, while COP26 brings environmental issues to the forefront, these issues should not be viewed in isolation and are closely intertwined with other social and governance risks within the broader arc of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). A true sustainability strategy needs to be balanced between the E, S, and G, and trade- offs and interdependencies should be understood and addressed. Companies can be more successful at managing their overall exposure and making a case for change internally by identifying risks in their outward impact on the environment.


Concurrent to exploring and enhancing automated solutions, facilities management must


invest in their human capital by


implementing skills and training plans for employees to understand energy targets and plant maintenance requirements for net- zero archetypes. Ongoing collaboration between procurement and operations teams is required for identifying eco-friendly alternatives to commonly used chemical-based products and reducing risks associated with health, safety and environmental issues. As with the aforementioned elephant, the key to success is bite-size chunks that embed themselves in the corporate and operational culture and become second nature in day-to-day work.


Every little helps, and by 2025, a designated milestone, facilities managers should be in a position to


report on performance


against these plans and be able to demonstrate significant progress within the ongoing management of existing/future assets that will drive low- carbon, sustainable and environment-centric decisions.


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