Category Archives: facilities management

using twitter in the built environment?

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Next week, the 12 – 15th May, sees a series of built environment ‘events’ in the UK:

All of these will use twitter as a ‘backchannel’ to enable off line chat, discussion or commentary on the events.  Each of the events has a twitter hashtag   ( #be2campnorth   #sustnow and  #FACshow09 )

The use of twitter will also allow those not able to attend  to keep in touch with real time happenings within the events, and also enable input into sessions from more than just those attending.  All increasing the scope, reach and impact of the events

I did consider putting together a top 10 reasons and benefits of tweeting, why construction and facilities management should twitter, why managers should let their staff twitter and indeed why managers themselves should!.  

However, far better to get a collaborative list from built environment people who use twitter and realise its value (you know who you are!) 

So in preparation for the potentially unprecedented flurry of twitter use next week what are your reasons to use twitter? (add to comments below and I will compile)

Facilities Information Modeling

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The recent white paper BIM and Facilities Management from Autodesk, makes the case to extend Building IM to Facilities IM(or at least to include) 

Building information modeling (BIM) is changing the way buildings are designed and constructed-but is it changing how they’re operated and maintained? Do the benefits of BIM extend to facilities management? This whitepaper focuses on ways that facility managers and FM applications can take advantage of the consistent,coordinated building information that comes from a BIM design process.

And yet this paper misses the point and reinforces the need for the  FM sector to wake up and take hold of the information modelling movement (band wagon or steam roller)  The need for  facilities come first (ie those facilities needed by an organisation to function) around which can be ( but not always necessarily) will be wrapped within a building, hence Information Models should be driven by FM , with BIM a subset.

What should be a wake up call for facilities management sector is the NISP findings, reported in the white paper.

In a 2004 NIST studyi undertaken to estimate the efficiency losses in the U.S. capital facilities industry, it was reported that the annual cost (in 2002) associated with inadequate interoperability among computer-aided design, engineering, and software systems was $15.8B. 

The study went on to report that owners and operators shouldered almost two thirds of that cost as a result of their ongoing facility operation and maintenance.

Or as commented recently at a BIM seminar – buildings are becoming too complex and should be taken out of the remit of facilities management.

(Discuss!)

Related

BIM Boom

Facilities Information Modeling at Be2campnorth 15th May 

IT and FM Disconnect a barrier to green buildings?

 

 

 

twittering facilities management

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Post UPDATE:

A twitterleague group has been created at  http://www1.twitterleague.com/view_league/181  – this may not be the ideal method in the long run but a good starting point to identify those in FM who use twitter.  I can see the definition of facilities management may well be discussed again as we have fm’s, architects, construction people and property managers in the group.  As it should be !  

To be involved follow @fmleague 

 

Twitter has certainly become the buzz of the new web applications and for good reasons.  Earlier, last year, I could see that twitter would be big, but didn’t really understand why or how.  Now, after a years use I start to see the benefit, broadly around open communications, learning, sharing and inspiring concepts.  

I am also convinced that twitter can and will have a major part to play within facilities management, in engaging with building users, and even in twittering data from building systems to facilities managers.

Inspired by the work of Su Butcher to create a league of twittering architects I would like to create a directory of those in fm using twitter, and collectively start to explore and pilot using twitter.

If you are in anyway connected with facilities managemement and use twitter, and would be interested in discussing twittering fm, please leave your details as comments to this post or send me a twitter @martinbrown

A quick search on tweepsearch suggests there are only 23 users with facilities management in their profile – but there must be more ( I know there are!)

musing on a carbon 1:5:200

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Reading many items and articles on the carbon issues that the built environment faces in the coming years, I have jotted a number of random thoughts in google notebook, which may one day be useful ‘spin’ for example:

…almost every building uses more energy than design calculations …… technology alone is not enough …… design 20%, people 80% … attitudes and behaviour towards energy use need to change …….. it is our responsibility to make sure that the building users understand what they need to do to meet the carbon objectives set at the design stage…… people just change the lightbulbs and appliances as soon as they move in ……. eco bling in buildings is too complex for fm’s so they switch it off and open the window..

And then, describing the 1:5:200 concept to someone today, it clicked, maybe it is the  1:5:200 thinking that joins these snippets together and is a new paradigm required in relation to sustainability and carbon management.

Maybe, if  the impact of construction is set to 1, then could the impact or influence of fm be 5 and the impact of building users 200? (in this thinking the influence of design is 0.1)

(and of course, as with the cost 1:5:200, these are indicative magnitudes to illustrate relationships between construction fm and buildings in use, not absolute figures)

Comments welcome ….

facilities carbon management

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Indication that carbon management is becoming a key element of the facilities management role is evident through the Guardian article Cut and Run which focuses on UCLAN’s excellence performance in obtaining the Carbon Trust Standard.

The Carbon Trust says that universities and higher education institutes spend more than £200m each year on energy, and emit 3.2m tonnes of carbon dioxide over the same period – the equivalent of heating more than a million average households.

This puts the facilities management of carbon into perspective – not only as an environmental obligation but also as a social and moral one.  And yet “there is currently a capacity gap in the skills required to manage carbon reductions across large institutions”  FM organisations and institutes take note!

Interestingly UCLAN see the big challenge in carbon reduction as being travel:

Though the university lobbies the council for improvements, problems with the interchange between rail and bus timetables, for example, discourage students and staff from using them. This means transport is a factor in the university’s carbon performance that is proving particularly difficult to improve upon.

Now wash your hands and reduce your carbons … 

I have a slight concern over the quote from Richard Rugg, head of the public sector department at the Carbon Trust. “carbon management is essential. It needs to be viewed in the same way as health and safety”  

In terms of resources, focus and appropriate funds a big yes, but carbon management (as indeed is H and S) is a people, hearts and mind topic, not one of policing, instruction and order as Health and Safety is in danger of becoming / has become.  Facilities Management tend to be fast and easy with littering (even spamming?) walls with notices and instructions to visitors building users… no more please !!

keeping communities of practice alive

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This week I find myself involved with and or facilitating four communities of practice (CoP) , two new and getting started like the Leeds Sustainability Forum and Green Drinks Lancashire ( which after the second ‘gathering’ is becoming a useful green business network) one well established like the BAE FM CoP, and the Constructing Excellence Collaborative Champions Group which is looking to move into a web 2.0 environment for communication and collaboration. And of course regular participation in the be2camp and twittering communities.

In preparation for the four CoP’s I dug out a paper from Harvard Business School that I had referred to back in 2005 when starting the FM CoP , Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice that describes and discusses approaches to evoke a community’s ‘aliveness’, to bring out its own internal direction, character, and energy:

  1. Design for evolution – Remember communities are dynamic; changes can create new demands or reshape the community; “‘Alive’ communities reflect on and redesign elements of themselves throughout their existence.”
  3. Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives – effective community design is “built on the collective experience of community members” and “brings information from outside the community into the dialogue about what the community could achieve.”
  5. Invite different levels of participation – Three main levels of community participation: a core group engaged in regular, intensive activities (usually 10-15% of the group); the active group (another 15-20%); and peripheral members, who rarely participate.
  7. Develop both public and private community spaces – “orchestrate activities in both public and private spaces that use the strength of individual relationships to enrich events and use events to strengthen individual relationships.”
  9. Focus on value – “Rather than attempting to determine their expected value in advance, communities need to create events, activities, and relationships that help their potential value emerge and enable them to discover new ways to harvest it.”
  11. Combine familiarity and excitement – “combine both familiar and exciting events so community members can develop the relationships they need to be well connected as well as generate the excitement they need to be fully engaged.”
  13. Create a rhythm for the community – Vibrant communities have a rhythm, a tempo, ideally somewhere between breathless and sluggish. “There is no right beat for all communities, and the beat is likely to change as the community evolves.”

(I should note a word of thanks to Paul at ExtranetEvolution who also blogged on this earlier)

defining zero carbon

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As a post on this blog noted at the end of last year, the definition of zero carbon buildings is currently under consultation by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

I am in full agreement with Casey over at Carbon Limited who blogs for a call to arms on this one, this consultation is so important that all in the built environment should engage with.

The outcome definition will shape and determine design, construction, building services  and facilities management into the future, in a similar (but more profound way) that the HASAW and CDM and other milestone legislations have done.

(from zero carbon consultation:summary)

At the core of the document is the government’s preferred framework for reaching zero carbon. In order of priority:

  1. A minimum standard of energy efficiency will be required.
  2. A minimum carbon reduction should be achieved through a combination of energy efficiency, onsite low and zero carbon (LZC) technologies, and directly connected heat. This is referred to as achieving carbon compliance.
  3. Any remaining emissions should be dealt with using allowable solutions, including offsite energy.

The zero carbon definition will have profound implications for…

… the built environment client in the choice and cost implications

… design –  a change the design parameters,

… construction, for example with airtight construction calling for a build quality and quality control we are not too good at. (Research at Leeds Met is showing that the cost of retro fixing air leaks in new buildings is  a hugely costly exercise *)

… building services – on energy sourcing and management.

And of course on the way buildings are used, run and managed.

If you haven’t read it yet, you can download it here.  or as Casey puts it – get involved or forever bitch about it in the pubs.

(* more on this later)

on public building epc’s

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The UK Communities and Local Government government website states

Our buildings are responsible for almost 50 per cent of the UK’s energy consumption and carbon emissions.

October 1st marked the date by which UK public buildings have to display their energy performance for buildings and facilities as an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate). Currently around 18,000 buildings, including town halls, museums, schools and job centres, are being tested.

The Guardian’s Hall of Shame lists a number of very prominent and public buildings that score G ( on the same A (good) to G (bad) as white goods). There is within the article a number of calls for refurbishment of these buildings – many less than 5 years old. So where was / is the sustainable design, construction and facilities management that everyone has claimed to be doing since ‘whenever‘?

a facilities management issue?

I question whether this is a design issue or the running of the building. Case studies indicate that Facilities Managers often lack the up to date eco-knowledge to manage complex building management systems, so manage all buildings ‘the same’.    In addition FM has largely been excluded from the debate, news and leading edge sustainability decision making, (at least publicly as a voice shaping our built environment sustainability future) and here we see the consequences.  (see my post on the UKGBC task group for example)

And the blame?

You can see the FM providers or managers from poor scoring buildings being called into board or chamber meetings or  to explain the low EPC score, and told to ‘do something about it’. After all no one wants to be associated with producing white goods that carry a G rating, so the same with buildings that carry a G rating.

and the costs

To be really meaningful, and easily understood the A – G ratings need to be converted into £ of wasted energy per building or per m2 for each building, to demonstrate the real cost to the tax payer of inefficient buildings or facilities.

and keep the focus on ….

It is necessary that focus remains on EPC, change will only come when the public, the building users and environmentalists (and bloggers) kept focus on EPC and displays, as with so many good initiatives this could easily fall away. Maybe the first fine for non display will sharpen minds.

UKGBC task group too important to be so narrow?

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The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has announced the panel of experts that will shape the Code for Sustainable Buildings to complement the government’s consultation on its target to make all new buildings zero-carbon from 2019.

The task group comprises:

• Bill Bolsover, chief executive, Aggregate Industries;
• John Connaughton, partner, Davis Langdon;
• Ian Coull, chief executive, Segro;
• John Frankiewicz, chief executive, Willmott Dixon;
• Alistair Guthrie, director, Ove Arup & Partners;
• Ken Hall, managing director, Prologis;
• Bill Hughes, managing director, Legal & General Property;
• Daniel Labbad, chief executive UK, Lend Lease;
• Sunand Prasad, president, RIBA; and
• Ant Wilson, business unit director, Faber Maunsell.

This group is impressive and will be influential, but I fear for the wrong reasons.

I cannot help but think we again fall into the trap of trying to solve today’s problem with the mindset that created them.(*) I have no problems with any individuals on this panel, indeed from their profiles scattered across the web, they are without doubt passionate and well informed on sustainability, but collectively do they represent too narrow a view of our industry.    It is appreciated that the task force will take evidence from sub groups and work groups, but at strategy level …

  • Where is the inclusion of small builders, the SME’s , the subcontractors from the bread/butter of the industry, where there is a mixture of struggling to understand green issues, some really great examples of grassroot initiatives but a dominant denial that we need to do anything at all. I would have thought a FMB or NFB inclusion would necessary.
  • Where is the mainstream facilities management expertise?  We are talking about sustainable buildings here – ie the use and life of the buildings, the interaction with the people who live and work in the buildings – not only the design and construction of the buildings.
  • Where are the training and educational representatives. Increasingly the educational and academic sector is the problem or barrier to us really moving forward on sustainability in the built environment, both on craft skills and professional knowledge.
  • Where are the younger generation or student representatives – from G4C (Generation for Collaboration) or Sponge for example. This is our comprised generation (from Brundtlands definition) who have brilliant ideas and very different values to mainstream, viewing the sector from the start of their careers…
  • Where are those with differing views to main stream construction and property – for example from the Transition movement, or the environmental movements
  • Where are the IT or Web experts, the research and technical innovators, as increasingly this will play an essential part in built environment sustainability.

The UKGBC have in the past stated that this Code would be an open source document which is the right way forward.  Lets hope that the panel adopts open source approach during the development as well as in the document itself.  This is an important issue for our sector and cannot be done behind closed doors. For example:

    • Open communication of meetings,  minutes and evidence considered.
    • how about a Codepedia – The Code posted to a wiki site to allow real consultation and collaboration, as the Code develops. See for example RIBApedia
    • Communication and dialogue through discussion forums, blogs or twitter on progress. (See for example the use of twitter by Downing Street, HM Government and others)

    Unfortunately unless there is a truly open and representative approach to the Code development, it will, like the Strategy for Sustainable Construction and the Code for Sustainable Homes be largley ignored, misunderstood or perceived irrelevant to those at the sharp end of the industry.

    (*) from Einsteins famous quote “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

    the built environment twitters

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    There has been a welcomed increase in Twitter from uk construction recently. New to this world is:

    the UK construction magazine Construction News has a twitter @CNplus with deputy editor Nina Lovelace having a twitter account at @nina_lovelace

    New Civil Engineer, now also has a twitter presence at @NCEmagazine and

    Constructing Excellence has now started on twitter with @constructingexc.

    I still haven’t found anyone twittering from a facilities management perspective as yet (other than myself), which is a pity as I see twitter having great potential here. (But watch this space!)

    Be2camp

    be2campAs Paul has mentioned over at EvolutionExtranet, These developments are perhaps the latest indications of a growing awareness and adoption of such tools within the UK mainstream built environment industry, but we are still only scratching the surface.

    I would like to think the promotion of be2camp has something to do with this, Be2camp, is an online grouping which is promoting an innovative event next month at the Building Centre in London (and online). an event run on unconference or BarCamp principles, that will seek to apply Web 2.0 to the built environment (from planning and design, through construction, to facilities management).

    Incidentally you can follow be2camp activity through twitter be2camp

    There has of course been a regular group of built environment twitters, twittering away for most of this year, forming a small, but global and growing nucleus of practioners from all aspects of the sector who share, learn from and inspire each other. A quick round up:

    Zerochamp / Phil Clark Online business journalist writing about sustainable construction and development

    melstarrs / mel starrs Sustainability Engineer, Chartered Building Services Engineer (CIBSE) and BREEAM Advisor and Assessor.

    EEPaul / Paul Wilkinson London-based, blogger on IT, SaaS, sustainability, construction. Also a cyclist, a Crewe Alex FC fan, a beer drinker, founder Be2camp

    pbroviak Civil Engineer and Public Works Director. Publish Grid Works at www.thegridworks.info. Working to integrate engineering & virtual worlds, founder Be2camp

    eversion / Rob Annable Architect

    the_architect / The_Architect Chartered Architect, drinker & thinker.

    jodiem / Jodie Miners founder Be2camp

    CindyFW Architect, futurist, adjunct prof U of Houston + U of KS, writer, tree hugger + perma-student exploring urban futures

    and myself

    martinbrown fairsnape: blogger, leading and supporting built environment improvements, founder Be2camp