In the realm of education, schools serve as the foundation for young minds to learn, grow and succeed. But behind the scenes, there is a crucial aspect that plays the most important role – Facility Management. Ensuring the smooth running of the school’s operations, safety and cleanliness is a task that falls on the shoulders of administrators. Efficient facilities management takes the guesswork and chaos out of running a school and creates a conducive learning environment. This blog offers a comprehensive set of tips for administrators to optimize their facility management practices to benefit both students and staff.

1. Comprehensive Maintenance Schedule

A well-planned maintenance schedule is essential to ensure that a school’s infrastructure remains in top condition. HVAC, water coolers, classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, restrooms etc. should undergo regular inspection to identify issues that require attention. Scheduled maintenance can help prevent minor problems from snowballing, ensuring the learning environment remains uninterrupted.

2. Prioritize Safety

Safety should be the foremost concern for school administrators. Conducting fire drills, establishing clear evacuation routes and ensuring emergency equipment is readily available are essential safety measures. Adequate training should be provided to staff on safety protocols including First Aid and CPR. Its crucial to keep emergency response plans up-to-date and to ensure the well-being of both students and staff.

3. Energy-efficient Initiatives

Embracing energy-efficient practices not only reduces operating costs but also contributes to a more sustainable and eco-friendly school environment. School administrators should invest in energy-efficient Lighting (LED and Solar Panels), Heating and Cooling solutions to minimize their energy consumption. Regular inspection and maintenance of these systems are vital to ensure optimal performance.

4. Leveraging Technology

Integrated Software for maintenance, IoT sensors for real-time monitoring, digital request systems and energy management tools streamline operations and improve resource allocation. Implementing these solutions enhance efficiency, promotes sustainability and ensures a conducive learning environment.

5. Creating a Conducive Learning Environment

In recent years, an array of environmental quality concerns have emerged, encompassing classroom acoustics, indoor air quality, water quality, energy efficiency etc. Addressing these issues demands a multifaceted approach by facility managers. Their efforts center on optimizing classroom environments for better acoustics, ensuring clean indoor air through regular maintenance, vigilantly monitoring and upholding stringent water quality standards, and implementing energy-saving strategies. By conducting regular checks and fostering a culture of sustainability, facility managers work towards creating a healthier and more conducive learning environment for students and staff alike.

6. Promoting Sustainability Initiatives

In today’s era, instilling eco-conscious practices within school premises is paramount. Facility managers can spearhead sustainable initiatives among students and staff. Implementing recycling programs, organizing environmental awareness campaigns and incorporating lessons on sustainability into the curriculum foster a culture of environmental stewardship. Moreover, undertaking green building initiatives, such as installing rainwater harvesting systems not only reduces the environmental impact but also provides practical lessons in sustainability.

Conclusion

Facility Management in Schools is a linchpin for success. These tips serve as a guide, empowering the custodians in the mission to uphold safety, sustainability and efficiency. From meticulous maintenance schedules that prevent disruptions to embracing technology and sustainability initiatives for streamlined operations, these strategies fortify the pillars of a conducive learning environment. By integrating these practices, facility managers only manage spaces but nurture values that transcend the physical realm of schools, shaping the future of education and the minds of tomorrow.

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A whopping 850 acres of green cover across different spaces is managed by Enviro India. This area happens to be double the size of the Aravalli Biodiversity Park. It’s incredibly important to preserve such green areas since most areas with buildings tend to be very unsustainable. You’d be surprised to know that buildings actually contribute to almost 30% of greenhouse emissions globally.

Most industries today are looking for ways to make their operations more sustainable. This change is no longer driven by sustainability being a “trending topic” but by an urgent need to slow down the pace of the global climate crisis, which is at its peak currently. It is a real threat for all countries alike, irrespective of where in the world they may be located.

How can facility managers step in and make their operations greener? It is essential that their decisions are mindful of the organization’s capabilities while also creating a positive impact on the environment. Here are some of the ways they can drive this change:

1. Adopt a Holistic Approach

There are numerous facets to an integrated facility management company– their administration, investments, operations and services are all interconnected. Each of these facets commits to sustainability in their own way, but often are unable to carry out their operations in a unified manner, as a company. What’s important here is building a holistic sustainability plan which follows a common direction.

At an operational level, this should mean smooth coordination across the different teams mentioned before. These functions shouldn’t override the efforts of the other team, and should ideally pace themselves out to work in a coherent way. This can take place at a micro-level, such as installing waste sorting bins around buildings, adjusting cleaning services and planning changes by communicating with anyone responsible for them. It can also be implemented at a macro-level, by drafting detailed plans with each of the departments.

2. Testing Things Out Before Implementation

Going green is a massive change and requires a great deal of preparation to actually commit to. An organized way to see if certain measures will work for a building or in favour of a business is to test them out beforehand. This can start with conducting sustainability analytics, which can provide a good overview of the facility’s current sustainability status. Once facility managers have this information, it’s a lot easier to work alongside the administration to craft strategies for future rollouts.

Additionally, it is always a good idea to conduct an audit and gain insight into where certain facilities may be wasting energy. An audit gives you access to all sorts of useful data- usage based on occupancy, seasonal rises in energy use or inefficient equipment. This data can help you make more accurate decisions, which may ultimately end up being greener for your company too.

Finally, it helps to run smaller pilot projects and conduct study visits to test out alternative facility management solutions. Since resources and budgets in any company are limited, not all plans can be implemented each year. Pilots can help give facility managers a realistic picture of what sustainable measures can be implemented within a particular year and which ones can be set aside for the future.

3. Keeping All Stakeholders in the Loop

A company-wide commitment to sustainability comes with keeping everyone who could be potentially impacted in the loop. Different employees are involved with these changes in different capacities. For instance, managers usually draw out a general direction of the efforts. Sustainability coordinators set out an overall plan of changes and are also responsible for checking in on the progress from time to time.

While not directly involved in implementing these changes, employees and residents are also kept in the loop. This is done to provide them with a sense of reassurance about the fact that sustainability measures are forthcoming. More externally, companies also communicate their newly implemented set of efforts to the press, their clients and their collaborators. Sustainability in this sense does not come under the purview of any one department but is a collective effort across the organization.

4. Upgrade to Greener Options

It’s very easy to equate a sustainable lifestyle with curbing new purchases entirely, but this can actually be more harmful in the long run. In terms of facility management, it is actually the case that many assets in old buildings are not the most carbon-friendly due to the period of time in which they were constructed. Therefore, these assets tend to consume more energy and are largely inefficient.

In such cases, purchasing new machinery and equipment is, ironically, the more sustainable way forward. There are many ways this can be done – using modern insulation to preserve energy, switching to renewable energy sources like geothermal or solar for your facility, installing new roofing which works for heat-trapping, and replacing boilers, windows and HVAC units. This will ensure that the integrated facility management services offered by companies are safe and efficient. 

5. Supplementing Facility Management with Eco-friendly Practices

A number of companies in the facility management space are adopting innovative ways to integrate eco-friendly practices into their daily work. This can range from vermicomposting and installing solar panels, to rainwater harvesting and operating sewage treatment plants.

Enviro India is furthering this by carrying out vermicomposting drives across housing societies and commercial complexes. This process is completely natural and leaves the soil nutrient-rich and organically healthier to grow newer plants, while also helping residents bond with one another. Further, by planting oxygen-rich trees like Banyan, Ashoka and Neem, they are also ensuring better quality air for the people inhabiting these spaces. Moreover, solar energy is the power source of the future, and it can be leveraged to our advantage in a country like India, which receives plenty of sunlight.

In the largely disruptive film of global warming, sustainability is perhaps the most crucial final act one could hope to execute. At a time when businesses are pitching to millennial customers, it is important to remember that globally, almost 73% of the millennial consumer group is willing to spend more on a product if the brand associated with it is sustainably oriented. We must also not forget that onboarding greener company policies can help your business save money in the long run. A sustainable future therefore, is our only future.

The post 5 Effective Practices for Sustainable Facility Management first appeared on Facility Management Company.

Facility management is a fairly multi-dimensional process and companies often do not realize the amount of cost-cutting that is feasible within it. The possibility of task automation and the entry of newer technologies in this field have made room for efficient workplaces and smarter budget allocation. Here are a few small, but impactful changes your building can make in this regard-

1. Planned Preventive Maintenance vis-a-vis Reactive Maintenance

Countless teams tend to settle for reactive maintenance, which is basically responding to equipment or any component only after it has failed. In the long run, this can actually end up costing companies more, since components that have broken down will need to be fully replaced. Continuing to use such machinery can be a safety hazard for employees, drain resources unnecessarily, or even make your business susceptible to fines. In sharp contrast to this, planned preventive maintenance is a lot safer, efficient, and cost-beneficial.

Another reason why it is a favourable choice for facility managers is because it can help add longevity to the life cycles of machinery. For instance, an HVAC system that is regularly maintained and monitored will do well for many years before needing a replacement. In this manner, opting for preventive maintenance saves businesses from incurring large, untimely costs and helps machines run judiciously.

Enviro India goes a step ahead in this regard, by providing the option of maintenance services for individual equipment. This can come in handy when for example, two elevators have been installed at different points of time in a building and hence, require their own respective maintenance schedules.

2. Automating Time-Consuming Tasks

Facility management comes with a host of automation options in the present day. This is a boon since manual support for completing certain menial tasks is most often, not cost-effective. Moreover, facility managers are required to oversee many facets of their organization, and keeping a manual record of these functions is hardly feasible. Thankfully, a number of tedious tasks can very easily be automated using trusted facility management software.

An emerging trend at Enviro is the adoption of VMS or Visitor Management Systems at different residential or commercial locations. These systems create an electronic database for the purpose of visitor tracking and can help facilities do away with the manual use of pen-and-paper registers and efficiently use their manpower at entry gates. Putting this system in place can, in fact, allow managers to direct their workforce to other urgent tasks, which can ensure the judicious use of their services and help with cost-cutting as well. In other words, such systems are of immense help when there is a large volume of tasks to complete on a given day. Organizations are now looking for ways to automate related tasks like order purchases, sales invoicing, facility booking, and stock management in the near future.

3. Enhancing Energy Savings

One of the best places to initiate cost-cutting in any building is by regulating its energy consumption. Implementing smart building practices is usually the first step in initiating this change. This can involve attaching sensors to equipment to accurately track its energy usage and draft a plan which includes cost-saving capabilities. Other external changes that can be adopted by buildings are switching to energy-efficient light bulbs wherever possible and regulating HVAC systems according to occupancy. Infact, Enviro India has been managing this fairly novel challenge of operating HVAC systems cost-effectively, in empty offices due to the prevalence of remote working during Covid-19.

To sum up, such changes can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of any building and can help a facility management system acquire significant energy saving at the same time. In fact, a survey by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy stated that switching to smarter technologies can help companies reduce their annual energy consumption by almost 18% for HVAC systems and 33% for lighting. Making this switch can help companies achieve the twin goals of environmentally friendly practices and cost reduction. Furthermore, Enviro has also planned plantation drives in residential areas, as they strive to build greener societies for the larger benefit of the people who reside within these spaces and redefine sustainability norms.

4. Creating an Optimal Work Environment for Employees

Another overarching goal of facility management is to create a conducive environment for the workforce in these spaces. This can range from temperature control in indoor spaces, ensuring hygiene in common areas such as lounges and bathrooms, and providing consistent electricity and wifi access so they can work undisrupted. A slightly different manner in which work environments can be supplemented is by integrating Internet of Things (IoT) into the office space. This can enhance the connectivity, by facilitating syncing and the exchange of data between employees. Overall, it is incredibly important to foster a culture of viewing all resources sustainably and utilizing them mindfully.

Enviro also has an easily accessible app that provides a streamlined offering of all their services as an integrated facility management company. The app provides plenty of options, such as a choice between bundled and unbundled services, both of which are offered by Enviro and give the client good room for choice, according to their real estate space. 

Overall, welcoming newer technologies into the facility management processes of a building is a worthwhile investment. In the long run, it can help fast-track routine procedures, ensure accountability and efficiency at workplaces and of course, significantly reduce overall costs.

The post How Does Facility Management Lead To Cost Reduction? first appeared on Facility Management Company.

It is often said that ‘one stitch in time, saves nine’!  So to say, in order to avoid something that can be disastrous at a later stage one needs to take action now. The need for power and electricity is growing by the minute. Be it a residential or a commercial space, every unit requires its own set of energy and power.

Moreover, it is true to say that commercial spaces, given their sheer size and the number of people consume energy and power much more than residential spaces, with every employee and every machinery adding to the per unit usage.  The requirement isn’t limited to the daily usage, but given the modernization of tools and implements and advancement in technology, even most of them are powered by electricity in order to save time and increase efficiency.

There is no way to do away with the requirement, but anything that is constantly depleted runs a risk of getting exhausted someday and power and electricity are no different. One must make every effort to conserve these resources. Even in commercial spaces, one must take the following energy saving measures to save power and energy;

1. More Accountability: It’s about understanding the gravity of the situation and acting accordingly. It is true to say that one doesn’t usually pay attention to the plugs and switches around ones office and commercial space since we aren’t directly incurring any costs or being held accountable. But to imagine your work running smoothly without the use of energy and power is far from what one can even imagine. Therefore, one must make an effort to be vigilant and take it upon them to make sure and turn off all sources of electricity and power that are not in use.

• Spreading the Word: It’s important to make people aware of the far-reaching consequences of the wastage of electricity and power and every organization and commercial space must make it a part of their SOPs to have posters and signboards that urge people to switch off any source of energy that is not in use. The communication should be direct and simple enough for every employee and the staff to understand, so much so that it creates a sense of urgency in their mind.

• Reduce and Re-Imagine: As a style of working, most offices are designed in such a way that even on a given day when there is less staff, the employees are scattered all over.  This also means that the sources of energy are used in an exploitative manner, whereas the aim should be to efficiently use energy. As an alternative, what can be done is the seating plan should be kept in a way that the energy resources are uniformly divided and it should be made a part of the SOPs to make sure that if in case the sources of energy can be concentrated at one place and the rest of the energy sources can be conserved by switching them off, it should be done.

• Alternative Sources of Energy

When it comes to non-renewable sources of energy, one has to be made to realize that if they aren’t used judiciously, sooner or later there will be a scarcity and one will have to hugely compromise on ones needs. Before it reaches that stage it is essential to take stock and make arrangements to use alternative sources of energy. Here is where a facility management comes into play. As far as commercial spaces go, one can look at solar energy. It should be a part of an integrated facility management services to provide the customer with this energy conserving service for now and as a futuristic viable option.

To conclude, even commercial buildings and spaces need to have a contingency plan in place to save power and non – renewable sources of energy. It first begins with every single individual working or associated with the organization and then it moves on to the management of larger overall commercial space that needs to be managed in such a way that the energy resources are efficiently used for which it can engage an integrated facility management company.

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