Integrated Facility Solutions for Eco-Friendly Buildings
A major trend in the facility management industry is using eco-friendly, “green” practices when maintaining buildings. This move follows on the heels of the national and worldwide motivation to reduce the carbon footprint.
In today’s blog, Omnia360 explains how integrated facility solutions can work to promote eco-friendly buildings.
What does Sustainable Facility Management (SFM) Mean?
It’s a process that involves implementing operational or structural changes that incorporate efficiency, comfort, safety, and productivity to ensure more environmentally friendly practices at a facility.
Implementing sustainable facility management involves taking action on multiple fronts:
- Regular maintenance to your building’s infrastructure (HVAC or Plumbing)
- Utilizing eco-friendly products, tools, and materials at work
- Promoting energy-efficient practices and behaviors, like recycling
Using energy-efficient equipment, alongside environmentally-friendly maintenance practices, is part of what makes a facility eco-friendly and promotes a lower carbon footprint.
Regular maintenance, especially from cross-trained industry professionals like those at Omnia360, helps to mitigate against wasteful energy usage, whether it’s an ineffective plumbing or HVAC system that’s causing it.
Monitor Eco-Friendly Improvements and Goals
What gets measured and tracked, gets improved. Setting up a plan to monitor performance is done in order to ensure your facility is minimizing its carbon footprint, while still operating productively.
Here’s an example. You might account for all the paper printing at your office, then decide on which documents can be shifted into strictly digital assets, avoiding unnecessary paper printing.
Utilize Eco-Friendly Cleaning Solutions
If your office needs cleaning, you can choose to have “green” cleaning products be used to get the job done. Many industrial cleaning products contain hazardous chemicals that, if not disposed of properly, end up causing environmental harm.
Sustainability Analytics
A facility management team can identify and track progress on key metrics that pertain to the eco-friendly performance of your facility. What gets measured and tracked, gets improved upon. This includes your building’s carbon footprint.
Leverage the Help of a Management System
A CMMS (Computer Maintenance Management System) can improve internal operations and lend to developing a more sustainable method of updating and maintaining your building. You can read our related article about the top facility management software products.
Preventative Maintenance
Omnia360 offers a trained staff of handymen and trade professionals who provide 24/7 maintenance to ensure your facility is running optimally and is the most eco-friendly possible.
Update Infrastructure
Let’s say your HVAC system is outdated and is underperforming, this costs your company more money on monthly energy bills. As a green solution, you might decide to install cool or green roofing, or even solar energy panels, if your budget allows for it.
Hiring a professional all-in-one third-party contractor like Omnia360 allows you to get up-to-date infrastructure installed quickly and easily.
Lighting systems
Use natural light as often as possible. Opening the windows more creates more natural light around the office, as well as sparingly using lights in adjacent, low-occupation rooms in your building. Installing LED lights can help save both on your monthly bill and lower your energy consumption.
Heating and Cooling Systems
Your building’s HVAC is an important part of what makes it an eco-friendly facility. Having the right equipment and the right repairs being completed by a skilled facility management company will not only save you money but offer you a more eco-friendly building.
Efficient Use of Office Space
Restructuring how your office workspaces are laid out to reduce space leads to less energy consumption. This is even more so the case today, with the advent of people working remotely from coffee shops or homes rather than office cubicles.
Efficient Water Irrigation Systems
Making good use of your building’s water management is also important when attempting to be eco-friendly. Water-efficient lawn care for your business can often mean growing vegetation that is native to your local climate. Even creating indoor spaces for moisture-absorbing plants can aid in promoting fresh, breathable air and lower humidity levels for employees and customers to enjoy.
Contact Omnia360 for Eco-Friendly FM Solutions
Our company can work with you to make your facility more environmentally friendly and efficient all the way around. Think of us as an extension of your workforce that is there as a resource to support you expand your business operations. Contact us today for more information about our bundled services and management solutions.