Evolution of Facility Management and its contribution to ESG goals

- Mitesh Kaul

Country Head, Integrated Services, ESPL

Facility Management (FM) accounts for a sizable chunk of GDP among India's varied economic sectors. It refers to the methods and solutions that help keep structures, grounds, infrastructure, and real estate liveable, secure, and sustainable. While conventional FM encompassed the basic management of sanitation and technical services, today it has grown to foray multiple facets of operations, including sustainability, energy and waste management, security and surveillance, biodiversity, employee wellbeing and retention, social equity, etc.

The FM sector plays a major role in the sustenance and prosperity of a business and its people. Technology undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the future a successful FM strategy revolving around people and technology working together in a sustainable ecosystem.

The significance and evolution of FM 

The FM industry is dynamic and constantly changing with the advance in technology, social necessities, and workplace settings. As more and more businesses realise how crucial the built environment is to their fundamental operations, the demand for FM experts to innovate, adapt, and maximise value has never been higher.

With Facilities Management making major contributions to corporate success and organisational performance, here are some of the underlying factors that highlight the sector's importance for a better today and tomorrow:

Health, Safety and well-being: With people being the primary asset to any organization, their physical, emotional and mental well-being is of utmost importance. Moreover, the pandemic has been a reaffirmation of our need for extreme caution in terms of hygiene and safety in public spaces. Facility management ensures these parameters are met and compliances with statutory and organizational requisites are always at par with best practices in public health and safety.

Cost optimization: By using technology to pursue maintenance tasks with a predictive and preventive methodology, owners of assets can leverage data to make more well-informed decisions on their real estate assets. While this involves costs in the short term, it adds to significant savings in the long term by increasing its lifecycle and also by preventing shutdowns and halts that may have indirect repercussions on day-to-day operations.

Human experience: Whether it is an office space, retail space or even our home, the experience we have as humans inside a facility directly impacts our need to indulge in it. The cleaner, safer, more vibrant and easily accessible facilities are, the better our experience and hence relationship with a facility. These finally transcend to the retention and hence productivity of people which further means better business and growth.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG): The facility managers of today are far more equipped and entrusted with tasks that impact aspects beyond the workspace alone. With ESG becoming a priority for business pursuit, FMs must make informed decisions with a holistic outlook towards the environment, society and governance. Tasks like cleaning alone are now looked at through multitudes such as the need to use sustainable consumables, local sourcing of labour and resources, paperless operations, digitization and CAFM. All of these are significant tasks that have transformed the FM business into one that is sustainable and ethical at its core.

Contribution of FM to ESG 

With organizations increasingly investing in ESG, the role of facilities management is extremely crucial. While new developments in Real Estate may already have sustainable materials and utilities directed towards a net-zero environment, most of our buildings are much older. This is where a significant amount of change can be envisaged through the FM. The first step is the installation and use of meters to measure the consumption of energy and resources. Further, these can be benchmarked with global certification bodies such as GRESB, LEED, and others to arrive at potential plans to decrease and optimise consumption. This methodology of Measure, Benchmark, Invest and Sustain enables organizations to move toward a net-zero transition in line with UNSDGs.

Net-zero emissions goals 

To meet net-zero objectives by 2050, each country would need to align itself with the mission through a holistic and progressive development strategy. To raise awareness and promote industry-wide involvement towards this goal, governments would need to write and ratify much-needed policies. Concurrently, companies must establish sustainable strategies that align with these policies. Since FMs are instated as the key to driving these operations and policies on a day-to-day level, their involvement in decision-making and goal setting will create new avenues for growth.

Conclusion 

The FM business is more vital than ever. With the right strategy, continuous technological innovation and compliance to assigned regulations, the industry can be a key contributor to realising ESG goals and reducing our global emissions, finally ensuring a better future for all.

Hits: 0