Purpose The development of sustainable facilities management (FM) practices requires active and integrated engagement of the FM organization. Building on a three-year research project (2015-2018) within Nordic Built that aims to strengthen FM competencies in the Scandinavian countries, this paper aims to list and document the challenges and barriers of implementing sustainability as identified by the Scandinavian FM practitioners who took part in this research. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on the understanding gained from using an interpretive sociological approach and uses qualitative mixed methods to collect data from four workshops, group sessions and expert group discussions with a mix of representatives including owners, property managers, facilities managers, consultants, teachers and academics. Four case studies were completed of refurbishment projects implementing sustainable solutions; these encompassed in-depth interviews with the stakeholders, site visits, observations of meetings and gathering project documentation. The data were complemented by a systematic literature review on a selection of topics focusing on articles referring directly to FM, the sustainability of FM, ends-user and stakeholder involvement, energy performance and sustainability. The challenges and barriers identified in practice were compared to those found in the literature. Findings The concept of sustainability, and its different dimensions and implications, seems to be well understood now by the practitioners who participated in this study, who claimed they were able to provide the required solutions. What seems to be lacking, though, is the possibility of convincing the end-users, who are expected to operate and maintain the facilities, to act according to the standards that these solutions require. It appears to be easier to focus on the technical aspects than on the end-users’ behaviors. The practitioners reported a shortage of social competencies and tools to deal with the situation, and despite an increasing awareness of smart technology, they lacked solutions to engage the end-users in optimizing the facilities. Besides, not all FM companies were well equipped to face the challenges imposed by the sustainable agenda; the small and medium enterprises in particular seemed to be struggling to implement the different dimensions of sustainability. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this research rests in the chosen research approach as it focuses on the FM practitioners. The contribution of the end-users’ perspective is not strongly represented or systematically explored, but is identified as a new topic that needs to be investigated further to provide further insight. This study focuses on refurbishment and/or retrofit of existing buildings and the operation of facilities. The authors do not embrace the design phase or the construction phase of new buildings. Practical implications The paper underlines the need for frameworks and concrete tools to help FM practitioners to integrate the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. It identifies end-users, both in housing and in offices, as creating a bottleneck to the implementation of sustainable FM. To gain insight into this bottleneck, the authors suggest implementing a sociologically inspired method using an integrative approach. Highlighting such issues will mean that future research will be able to define further solutions for managing and maintaining existing and future built assets and fulfilling sustainability requirements by engaging end-users. This study also emphasizes the need to introduce these topics as part of the curriculum for FM education. Originality/value This paper provides an update on the level of the development of sustainable FM in the three Scandinavian countries. This is highly relevant for Scandinavian practitioners, but the authors consider this relevant for international practitioners, researchers, academics and teachers and developers as well. Practitioners and researchers are invited to join in these efforts to explore how to find practical frameworks, tools, policies and instruments and new services that will improve sustainable FM practices.
Purpose The paper aims to examine assessment tools for strategic performance evaluation of building and Norwegian practice in light of international practise. Design/methodology/approach This paper includes a literature review of literature describing the use of assessment tools suitable for building performance evaluation. In this paper, the authors examine, first, what properties they find most essential when assessing building portfolios. This analysis is outlined in the theoretical framework section. Second, the authors examine what are the propensities of the analytic assessment tools that they perceive as to be found in the forefront of contemporary methodological development for examining building performance. These propensities are presented in the findings chapter. The authors discuss how they measure their applicability and impact of use. Findings The authors found several interesting methods for assessing building performance in general. In particular, the feed forward loop from Steinke, developed from BSC, Soft Landings Framework and the Norwegian multiMap method are recommended. Practical implications This conceptual paper addresses methodological challenges in a comparative way. This comparative approach permits for an identification of respective strengths and weaknesses. It suggests concrete points of reference enabling an increase in the performance of such methodologies. Originality/value The paper is original in its approach of several methodological tools in light of concepts such as viability and adaptability. By doing this, it underlines the necessity to include social and adaptive dimensions of strategic building portfolio assessment tools.
Purpose This paper aims to gain insight in how the involvement of facilities management (FM) and clinical employees are practiced in new Norwegian hospital projects and to study the benefits and lessons learned from the involvement. Design/methodology/approach This study is conducted by cross-sectional case studies of eight hospital projects by using a literature review, interviews and document studies of FM and clinical employees and project leaders (PLs) among Sykehusbygg. Findings The service design approach with a structured interaction between the PL’s of Sykehusbygg, and the different disciplines of clinical employees and FM specialist was rewarding and efficient. The facilitator role of Sykehusbygg is essential to manage such a broad and complex involvement process using a wide range of various techniques at the different stages of the projects (dialogue meetings, review meetings, workshops, post-it notes, 2-D drawings, mock-up and 3-D models, as well as virtual reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling technology). The clinical employees’ framework is stronger and much more structured than the involvement of FM competences through the different stages of the projects. The property management competences were involved at the early concept phase and design phase, whereas the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) competences were getting involved through the construction and commissioning phase. The value of FM involvement in all stages of the project is seen beneficial, particularly when the FM specialist become a part of the design team and located physically at the same place. The main reported benefits of early FM involvement are cost-effective technical solutions and installations, less design flaws and improved functionality, as well as a stronger ownership and mutual respect between the clinical and FM disciplines. However, not all hospital organizations see the benefits of the FM involvement of all stages, as they are driven by reducing capital cost. In one of the new projects, other ways of involving the FM competences were tested. Additionally, particularly for the O&M competences, a dialogue meeting with a clear focus of sharing experiences with different technical solution was found rewarding in terms of cost benefits. Research limitations/implications This study does not consider the social impact of the choices made in the design phase. The findings also indicated a certain development of the FM involvement. This is not studied in two of the newest projects where they are still in the design phase and the FM role was not interviewed. Practical implications The PL role is important as a facilitator role of the involvement process. Social implications A dialogue meeting with a group of O&M people was found rewarding and valuable for knowledge sharing. This methodology can be further developed and tested, as this group of stakeholders is not always available for giving input in the project. Originality/value The value of this study is the description of the interaction between the PLs and the hospital organization in the eight projects and lessons learned by the involvement of FM competences and clinical employees.
The relationship between urbanization, energy use, and CO2 emissions has been extensively studied in recent years, however little attention paid to the differences in urban forms. Previous studies implicitly assume that the urban form is homogenous across different urban areas. Such an assumption is questionable as urban form can have many different facets. This paper investigates the effects of urbanization on the road transport energy use by considering different urban forms from a dataset of (3) there is a non-linear (quadratic) relationship between road energy use per capita and urban population. This implies that an increase in total municipality population over a specific turning point can result in a decrease in road energy use per capita. However, (4) the ratio of urban residential buildings with private gardens has a negative and significant influence on road transport energy use.This implies that there may be a trade-off between compact and sprawl city development strategies, highlighting that sustainable energy use requires further investigation.
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