This document discusses facility and building management. It defines facility management as coordinating physical workspaces and organizational needs. Building management involves maintaining infrastructure through preventative and remedial works. The document outlines competencies for facility managers and their strategic and operational roles in ensuring health, safety and cost-effective environments. It also discusses implementing eco-innovation in construction materials, methods and efficient technologies to achieve sustainable resource, waste, energy and mobility management through facility services.

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Module 5
Starting Point towards eco-innovation

2. M 5.2.4 Building and facility
management

3. Learning Outcomes
The learner will be able to find eco-friendly solutions for the (re-)construction of
buildings and infrastructure in terms of innovative materials and technologies.

4. Facility Management
Definition:
Professional FM as an interdisciplinary business function has the objective of coordinate
demand and supply of facilities and services within public and private organizations. The
term “Facility” means something that is built, installed or established to serve a purpose,
which, in general, is every “tangible asset that supports an organization”.
Examples are:
- real estate property,
- buildings,
- technical infrastructure, lighting, transportation, IT-services, furniture, custodial, grounds
maintenance and other user-specific equipment and appliances

5. Facility Management
Definition according to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA):
“FM is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the
organization. It integrates the principles of business administration, architecture and the
behavioral and engineering sciences.”

6. Facility Management
Competencies of a facility manager:
 communication
 emergency preparedness and business continuity
 environmental stewardship and sustainability
 hospitality management
 human factors
 leadership and strategy
 real estate and property management
 technology
 operations and maintenance
 project management
 quality

7. Facility Management
Role of a FM
Facilities managers (FMs) operate across business functions. The main priority of an FM
is keeping people alive and safe. Facility managers need to operate at two levels:
 Strategically-tactically: helping clients, customers and end-users understand the
potential impact of their decisions on the provision of space, services, cost and business
risk.
 Operationally: ensuring corporate and cost-effective environment for the occupants
to function

8. Facility Management
These objectives are accomplished by managing:
 EHS (environment, health and safety)
 Fire safety
 Security
 Maintenance, testing and inspections (building management)
 Cleaning
 Operational

9. Building Management
Definition:
Building management is a discipline that comes under the umbrella of facility
management. Hard services usually relate to physical, (infra-) structural services such as
fire alarm systems, lifts and so on whereas soft services allude to cleaning, landscaping,
security and suchlike human-sourced services.

10. Building Management
Construction
As part of the hard services the maintenance, testing and inspections of buildings is very
important.
Building maintenance includes all preventative, remedial and upgrade works required for
the upkeep and improvement of buildings and their components. These works may include
disciplines such as
- painting and decorating, - glazing,
- carpentry, - plastering
- electrical installations, - tiling
- plumbing,
Buildings may be designed with a view to minimising their maintenance requirement.

11. Building Management
Ecological aspects
In every of the above mentioned areas eco-innovation can be implemented, such as:
- use of eco-friendly materials (wood instead of plastics, natural materials, etc.)
- use of eco-friendly methods/techniques (low emission, no noise, handcrafts instead of
prefabricated components, etc.)
- use of resource- and energy-efficient technologies (lighting, heating, indoor climate,
etc.)

12. Facility Management
Good facility management results in:
 Sustainable resource management
 Sustainable waste management
 Sustainable energy management
 Sustainable mobility management
 Sustainable and/or Eco-services

13. Project web-page: http://eco-mode-project.eu/
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