Resources
IFMA Energy Star Challenge
- August 2010
Sustainability “How-To Guide” Series: Getting Started
First in the IFMA Foundation Sustainability How-To Guides Series.
Facility managers have been inundated over the past several years with information about green and high performance buildings. Most of the attention of the green movement in buildings has been on the design and construction of new facilities. However, the facility manager is faced with the challenge of ageing facilities that are much more costly and time consuming to make more energy efficient and sustainable. The purpose of this guide is to provide the facility manager with a roadmap for developing a sustainability program in existing buildings.
The Introduction in this guide lays out the tools available to the facility manager for making the built en vironment more sustainable. Building certification programs have prescribed a detailed and well documented approach to sustainability in the built environment. Although many facility managers engage in these programs, there are a multitude of facility managers with ageing facilities that do not have the time or resources to make the significant changes required by certification programs. However, there are thousands of every day actions and initiatives that can be implemented to reduce consumption, increase efficiency, and contribute to the bottom line. Using tools like the Triple Bottom Line, Sustainable Facility Management (SFM), Total Cost of Ownership, and the approaches outlined in this guide, facility managers can establish a sustainability program that is aligned with the goals and strategy of the organizations they serve.
The detailed findings in this Getting Started Guide include a step-by-step process for assessing your organization, finding your starting point, identifying initiatives, evaluating their value, and implementing, measuring and monitoring their effectiveness. Those steps include the "how-to" suggestions for:
• Taking your organization’s temperature
• Creating alignment
• Establishing your starting point
• Creating and prioritizing sustainable initiatives
• Implementing, measuring and monitoring your plan
Getting Started also includes information on making the business case for a SFM program. This includes outlining a process for the program and finding the right approach for your organization that is aligned with available time and resources.
Finally, one of the most valuable sections of this guide includes case studies of three organizations that are on the path of Sustainable Facility Management. In looking at how it’s done, we were able to solicit input from three organizations that are taking different paths, with different levels of available resources. They have shared their goals, approaches, results, and their lessons learned.
By developing an SFM program, any facility manager can positively contribute to their organization’s bottom line, commitment to the environment, and to the health, safety and productivity of their constituents. Sustainability is a tremendous opportunity for the facility manager and can be implemented at any level of available resource. The path to SFM is never complete, but at least through the sharing of these experiences, those that have been doing the right things but have not yet developed their program can use this guide to organize and quantify their efforts and create value for their organizations. |
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