Role of Green Building in Facility Management
Over the years there has been a considerable transformation in the construction, design and service offerings of building. This transformation has led to a change in the way these buildings are managed and maintained. In the recent times, green buildings have brought in significant changes in the facilities management sector. The main objective behind a green building is to use minimum resources throughout the entire lifecycles of the project in order to achieve zero waste.
While managing green buildings, facility managers need to manage the air quality, energy and water consumption and waste effectively. Each of these components are measured and monitored so that an efficiency level can be achieved that can benefit both the owners and the occupants in the times to come. For example, using a HVAC system, water saving fixtures, solar power and highly efficient lighting systems and high-end energy management controls. The primary characteristics of a green building are low costs – both operating and maintenance, healthier air and environment quality and increased durability. Let us take a look at the SOPs for maintaining green buildings:
Energy audit: this is a detailed study of tie current energy usage of a building with the help of Thermography and Lux Level analysis. With the help of a conclusive report from the audit will enable facility managers to recognize the best energy consumption strategies. This would result in saving costs over a period of time depending on the strategy that has been implemented.
Environmental, Health, Safety (EHS) audit: this is a systematic approach to determine the regulatory compliance of a budding. This constitutes a survey that checks whether the residents are adhering to all the environment and safety requirements as per the established norms. With the help of an EHS audit, facility managers can identify the potential risks that can threaten the environment, health and safety of the residents. It will also identify the most viable way to point out and control the risks.
Compliance audits: a compliance audit of the facility helps to create a framework for preventive and an integrated performance maintenance. This includes waste control, risk management, fire, security, building and its assets and the like. On the basis of this survey, the facility manager decides on the maintenance system that is required and the frequency of the tasks that are needed to manage and maintain the green building.
While maintaining a green building, facility managers face a lot of challenges. Green buildings are required to have a LEED certification and it has to be 30 percent efficient than other buildings. The HVAC and other systems also need to comply with the minimum energy efficiency standards. However, with time, facility managers have developed the knowledge and skills to efficiently maintain green buildings. Let us take a look at a few tips for the residents of green buildings:
Use more natural cleaning products like baking soda, vinegar, lemon and hot water and the like. They actually have the same effects and they do not add on to the toxin levels of your home. Also make use of more paper products as they are recycled from various tree fibres.
Tile and wood flooring are a great substitute as they can be easily cleaned and if possible, you also need to go for eco-friendly painting in your walls.
With the help of double-glazed windows, you will be able to control your indoor temperature that would reduce the need to use air conditioners and ceiling fans. In order to optimize energy use, adjust the temperature of your air conditioner to 24 to 25-degree Celsius. This will also help to optimize the energy use.
The latest models of your electrical appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines are now developed with energy conservation features. Therefore, upgrade the older models with the new energy efficient ones.
Change your CFL lights to LEDS as these are more energy efficient and does not emit light in a wider band of wavelength.
Whether it is just for your water heater or for the overall energy grid install solar panels to conserve more energy.
Use rain water instead of tap water for cleaning purposes and gardening.
By incorporating smart solutions with the maintenance process, facility managers have transformed old structures into smart and flexible buildings. These buildings adopt to the current environment conditions. And when we talk about intelligent solutions and smart use of technology then we also need to mention about facility management app and facility management software. These give access to critical building and equipment information to facilities teams on their mobile devices. Therefore, facility managers can get all information about their smart buildings in just the click of a button from wherever they want.
The latest innovations in technology and smart buildings have revolutionized the facility management sector. The coming days are expect to being bigger transformations to this sector.
