Creating a Culture of Sustainability

by Stephen Ashkin — Facility managers are often tasked with managing their building’s sustainability efforts. And today, the complexity of the challenges is increasingly being discovered, as are the available tools and other resources that offer significant environmental and cost savings potentials.

But beyond the tools and opportunities for facility managers, especially those who have access to a dedicated facility engineer, there is a growing awareness that many improvements go beyond those that can be single-handedly achieved by a small group of individuals or through engineering solutions.

For many facility managers, it is clear that they will achieve their sustainability goals more effectively and efficiently with strong leadership from the top, but lasting success can only be achieved when a “culture of sustainability” is created throughout the entire organization whereby every person, including occupants and visitors, participates in the effort and appreciates that individual actions, however small, truly matter.

Sustainability must move beyond the journey into a lasting culture.

For those responsible for facilities, the goal must be to care and maintain those facilities in a manner that not only helps protect the buildings themselves, but the components, furniture, finishes and the like well into the future. And along with this, facility personnel can employ engineering strategies to help reduce unnecessary consumption such as energy and water, of which both have huge environmental and cost implications. But it cannot stop there.

To best create a culture of sustainability, policies should be put in place that specifically address the organization’s overall goals, but they should go beyond reducing energy and water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. And perhaps more importantly, the goals should address other policy issues such as those related to purchasing, as this will guide decision-making (and the culture) throughout the organization.

Purchasing policies should be put in place to direct buyers of products including cleaning supplies, grounds/landscaping materials, powered equipment, vehicles, furniture, classroom supplies, food, clothing and more as applicable to the organization. These policies help create the “culture of sustainability” so that everyone in the organization understands what is important and what is expected.

The purchasing of “greener” supplies, products and materials not only makes a statement about the organization’s commitment, but it also has significant impact throughout the marketplace as it influences the entire supply chain. And as large purchasers, facility managers can collectively have huge environmental impact and often can save their organization money over both the short- and long-term.

But creating a culture of sustainability cannot stop there. Success requires that individual tenants or department managers understand what they can do within their area of control—for example:

  • Turning off computers when not in use;
  • Turning off lights when a room is unoccupied or when daylight is sufficient for quality learning;
  • Appropriately opening and closing windows and/or blinds to best manage temperature, ventilation and lighting;
  • Instead of disposing or even recycling materials such as file folders and other materials, to reuse them.

A culture of sustainability creates the “shared values” so these actions are seen as valuable and can encourage additional creative efforts in other areas ways.

A culture of sustainability would also educate occupants and visitors on ways that their activities can affect the impacts of cleaning. From eliminating graffiti to reducing the waste of paper hand towels to using care when moving furniture to extend the life of floor finishes to reporting spills on carpets so they can be quickly addressed to reporting dripping or malfunctioning washroom fixtures—all can make an important difference.

With clear goals and policies that engage and empower individuals at all levels, a culture of sustainability can truly make a difference both on the environment and the bottom-line.

Stephen P. Ashkin is Executive Director of the Green Cleaning Network a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating building owners and suppliers about Green Cleaning, and president of The Ashkin Group a consulting firm specializing in Greening the cleaning industry. He is considered the “father of Green Cleaning” and is coauthor of both The Business of Green Cleaning and Green Cleaning for Dummies.

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