Important Facts About Sustainable Facility Management

Sustainable Facility Management or SFM encompasses efficiency, functionality, safety services that are custom-designed to help Facility Managers make better decisions. Facility management services for work are highly beneficial and prove to increase productivity levels. In short, sustainable facility management ensures that there is a reduced carbon footprint in the overall operations of a building.

What is Sustainable Facilities Management (SFM)?

Adapting buildings to a specific climate becomes feasible through sustainable facilities management (SFM). SFM specifically addresses water and carbon footprint control and reduction, generates collective knowledge based on data, and ultimately provides a mechanism for reaching the highest standard of performance.

It is imperative that SFM is understood and implemented by all organizations, and that they adopt more sustainable practices, as the planet is on the brink of an environmental crisis. Sustainability efforts are crucial for the survival of the human race.

Why Facilities Managers Should Take on Sustainability

Sustainability has a wide variety of specialized functions in facility management. One technique used by industrial organizations to simplify operations can be applicable in many other places for similar use. Minimizing waste creates better outcomes on both the financial side and the human side. Corporate sustainability naturally adheres to facilities management practices according to corporate law; these facility and maintenance management laws tend to focus on sustainability. Facility managers can amp up operations and reduce waste to improve the sustainability of their organization’s waste management. Other sustainable facility benefits include reduced energy bills, lesser life cycle costs, and improved efficiency.

Conduct  a Sustainability Analysis

When researching an area of your property, knowing how your facility performs will help you understand sustainability standards. Do the audits reveal which on-site equipment is less productive? What factors influence the occupancy? Keep reading further to discover how to beware of common mistakes in facility management.

When you work with an SFM expert, you will have access to a huge list of reliable repair services, life cycle cost predictive tools, maintenance partners, and re-fitting tools that may include software to manage maintenance and repairs efficiently. If you operate a regulated facility that includes refrigeration or hazardous chemicals, you should regularly review their status and maintain regular statistics on usage around these conditions.

Update Assets to Boost Energy-Efficiency

Older assets can get quite eco-unfriendly due to many factors, notably older equipment’s tendency to consume excess energy. Upgraded equipment and assets in corporate buildings improve a facility’s overall sustainability and efficiency, as well as reduce the overall cost. Besides adding new devices and equipment such as freezer systems in restaurant-style kitchens and medical equipment in medical facilities, it’s important to upgrade less obvious assets.

Updating your facility’s electricity and water supply technology, for example, can increase efficiency and reduce the overall cost associated with its operation. Updating assets has a strong sustainability impact which improves performance considerably.

Sustainability is important for Millennials

Over 750 CEOs in 45 countries say sustainable growth is critical to every business. Data indicates that customers are concerned about a company’s environmental sustainability, notably among Millennial consumers. Sustainable processes and technologies can help increase productivity and reduce costs, but they can also improve your corporate reputation among consumers and potential employees alike. Gen Z has also proven its willingness to prioritize businesses that employ sustainable business practices. Consumers of the future are concerned about whether a business is carrying out sustainable practices or not, and the answer will impact their willingness to engage with a business.

Start from where you are today

SFM is different between firms, but the core corporate operations remain the same. Set up a map of where you are today and where you want to be in the next 6 to 12 months. Then you can begin to discuss various resources. Are repeated repairs reducing your efficiency? Are you wasting energy running systems when they’re not needed? You will shortly have a long list of sourcing points where you want to make changes and improvements.

Think of this plan as a key part of your sustainable development process. Soon you can become a high-performance facility and reap sustainable facility benefits, but it all starts with a clear vision of what needs improvement.

Prioritize sustainability efforts

A good sustainability development process allows new ideas to operate within an organization while evaluating and prioritizing the projects that they have previously developed. SFM organizations must argue the benefits of a proposed enactment or “responsible action” if they don’t implement it. Test alternative FM systems and their possible outcomes on a smaller scale before scaling your plan to encompass your entire facility. For example, test a project for saving energy in just one department before getting the whole office on board.

Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies

It’s an essential job of every employee to keep the facilities neat. Unfortunately, dozens of cleaning products use toxic components, causing injury or odor damage to the environment, the property owner, and your staff. When using eco-friendly solutions, you reduce the number of environmental emissions on your property. To improve sustainability, always buy a cleaning product that is primarily unreactive and contains no alkylphenols or other volatile organic substances.

Preventive Maintenance is Key

Preventive maintenance keeps your gears in peak condition. The ability of a product to operate in an optimal capacity directly impacts your facility’s environmental sustainability, especially when dealing with older equipment. Preventive repair also increases the lifespan of the machine and lowers the cost of replacement. Choosing facility management services from System4 will prove to be great for your business.

System4 DFW provides quality cleaning services in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Tarrant County Area. We offer commercial cleaning, janitorial services, deep cleaning, facility management services, and much more. Want to stop worrying about dust build-up in HVAC units, bacteria in communal kitchens, and germs spreading through public spaces? Get in touch with us today to get a free quote for managing your facility.