Rethinking Sustainability in Facilities and Workplace Management

This book discusses sustainability within the facility management industry. However, it is not another anthology of so-called best practices and the seemingly endless range of certification schemes. It is also not a (marketing) guide on how to communicate high-pitched sustainability ambitions to potential customers to increase (short-term) market share.

Instead, this book is based on the realisation that most facility management businesses and departments actually find it hard to truly integrate sustainability into their strategies, tactics and day-to-day operations in a coherent way. It is also based on the reference point that sustainable development cannot be realised only through technological advancements and new procedures; it requires new behavioural patterns of people. Not only of your own employees, as a supplier or department, but also of those for whom you design, stage and manage optimal workplace experiences.

Those patterns will not emerge from nowhere but need to be purposely created and cultivated, based on a thorough understanding of what people and organisations need, want and desire. Through reviewing specific barriers and opportunities related to practical situations and examples at all three levels of facility management – the operational, tactical and strategic level – and supported by the latest theoretical insights, this book provides students and practitioners with inspiration and suggestions for using sustainability as a guideline for improving workplace experience concepts and FM strategies, services and processes. Each chapter uses specific cases and examples as the starting point for reflecting on avenues to move from treating sustainability as an add-on to using it as a powerful concept to create optimal workplace experiences.

In doing so, these reflections provide lecturers, students and current and future professionals with practical guidelines and pointers to take sustainability within the facility management industry to a much-needed next level.