11th May World FM day
In 2022, the World FM Day theme is “Leading a sustainable future,” and the event will take place on May 11. With World FM Day, the importance of facilities and workplace managers in today’s global economy is meant to be better understood and appreciated by the public.
Workplace and facility managers and their sector are recognized and celebrated on World FM Day for their valuable contributions to the global economy. Facilities management is a profession that attempts to improve the health, safety, productivity, and well-being of those who interact with the built environment.
The first World FM Day was observed on August 28th, 2009. From 2010 to 2013, it was observed on the fourth Thursday of June. During the years 2014 and 2015, it was celebrated on the first Wednesday in June. It was observed on July 13, 2016. Since 2017, it has been celebrated on the third Wednesday of May’s second full week.
Increasing the visibility of facilities professionals wherever they may have an influence on people’s health, safety, and productivity is our goal.
Vetasi’ IWMS facility management experts have been given the opportunity to share their ideas for making the facilities management sector a more environmentally responsible one for World FM Day.
Pieter Joubert
Global Executive: Facilities and Real Estate
Where to start your sustainability journey
We already know that the built environment contributes significantly to total global energy-related CO2 emissions, and as the effects on our societies, economies, and finances worsen, there is increasing pressure on businesses – and their real estate, facilities, and operations teams – to adopt more sustainable practices.
This implies that businesses must obtain a better grasp of their energy and sustainability performance and be open about the efforts they are doing to enhance it.
How, though?
As a perfect start, organisations entering the race to implement sustainable practices should gain a foundation of knowledge about their current sustainability profile and the performance of all of their buildings and processes. The problem, however, is that most organisations’ first question is, “What platform do I use to capture my data around sustainability?” {MEASURE}
A fantastic start is just that: a start!
Only those organisations that can demonstrate their performance and are transparent about the steps they are taking to improve their sustainability practices will be able to stay in the race; the rest will be forced to drop out.
Investors, leadership teams, workers, consumers, and the public want organisations to not only create goals, but also to measure and report on progress toward those goals. {REPORT}
Organisations who have reached this point in the race have laid the groundwork for progress, but only those that fully comprehend their present performance by clearly outlining the goals they want to attain and identifying the greatest prospects for growth will cross the finish line. {IMPROVE}
To win the sustainability race and attract investors, consumers, and talent, businesses must be able to demonstrate that they care about the environment and humanity, and that they are taking steps to enhance both. Auditing an organisation’s energy and sustainability performance can help with this. {AUDIT}
Akshay Maharajh
Global Solution Manager
Technology supporting sustainability developments
In 2007, after jointly receiving the Nobel Peace Prize – Al Gore delivered a powerful speech on climate change & sustainability urging the world to recognize the significance thereof. Many believe that speech served as a catalyst in creating awareness about climate change & sustainability. 15 years later and we have passed the point of awareness and are well into the era of acting and delivering results with technology being at the forefront of assisting these objectives.
In current times, numerous Building Management Systems (BMS) have been created to ensure meters, sensors and gauges can be monitored on a real-time, centralized platform – most of which do an excellent job in this field. The challenge experienced currently is that the information centralised, is packaged well but not presented in a manner which adds value nor assists decision making.
This is where an industry-leading Integrated Workspace Management System comes into play – more specifically – Planon’s Sustainability and Energy Management functionality which integrates with your BMS to gather the necessary information and presents it in a manner that can be interpreted to promote effective decision making.
From its comprehensive Environmental, Social, and Government (ESG) capabilities to its open API framework, communicating information and managing key objectives provides an organization a medium to achieve their sustainability goals irrespective of their maturity level. Coupling this data with a standard connector to Microsoft’s PowerBI for real-time dashboarding and you have an end-to-end roadmap for success.
“Old habits plus old technology have predictable consequences. Old habits, that are hard to change, plus new technology can have dramatically altered consequences” – Al Gore (2006)
Glenn Chivers
Planon Sales Director, Vetasi Australia
The role of Facilities Managers to lead sustainability
“Following a recent conference in Melbourne, one critical message I learnt for the FM industry moving ahead was that our global building maintenance procedures must become more efficient to ensure a safe, sustainable future.
It was stated that current real estate industries, such as Australia’s, are already using an energy rate several planets more than what can be sustained. It should come as no surprise that the broader business community are starting to reward facilities that engage in sustainability and regular maintenance upgrades with quantitative returns.
With buildings currently ranking among the top three polluters in the world, accounting for nearly 38% of total global pollution, FM industry leaders are emphasizing the importance of shifting practices to sophisticated property technology systems as the key to reducing the pollution footprint our industry currently has.
With 80% of buildings in 2050 already in place, Facilities Managers will need to develop data insights using digital platforms to help observe, evaluate, and better the pollution levels and energy consumption of older (and new) building structures.
It will be demonstrated that sustainable companies are evidently more successful in the future and have greater staff retention levels. While environmentally friendly buildings are more appealing to individuals, the market, and the environment.
Sustainable data-driven techniques will also help facilities management achieve more guaranteed maximum business performance, greater asset life continuum, and reduction in future upkeep costs.
The utilisation of accurate information sources, concise reporting, and organised data gathering systems will be crucial in decreasing our industry’s current and future environmental impact.”
To find out more about World FM day visit the website https://www.iwfm.org.uk/community/events/world-fm-day-2021.html
Contact Vetasi today to learn how we can help your company establish a foundation platform to:
- measure and collect energy consumption and emissions data,
- report and disclose in accordance with regulatory requirements,
- improve and monitor energy and sustainability performance, and
- audit and prove the real estate sustainability profile.
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