There is more and more buzz about the environment and how facilities impact climate change. Depending upon which report you follow, facilities are responsible for between 40 and 60 percent of greenhouse gasses. Maybe after the hype settles down a bit, the numbers will get more reasonable but for FMs it really doesn’t matter. Facilities are going to be getting greener in the next few years. The difficult part will be identifying which “green” initiatives have the best payback for your company.
A fact based approach would be to analyze your facilities using Web-based tools that would provide you with a preliminary LEED rating. This would allow you to show how well your facilities are performing with regard to sustainability and help prioritize those where you want to obtain LEED certification. But if you are short on your LEED ratings or want to raise them, how do you know which items would also benefit you the most to reduce your operating expenses? An essential component of a sustainability tool would be to show how implementation of certain LEED criteria affects total operating costs.
FM BENCHMARKING – Sustainability
FM BENCHMARKING – Sustainability was designed to answer the above questions and more. This type of tool is very new in the marketplace, so we will provide examples of how sustainability metrics from others can help you make your building more green and reduce its carbon footprint.
First, participants in the survey are asked to indicate if they have an energy-savings performance target and what changes they plan to implement to achieve it. By seeing and comparing those answers to your answers in the same performance quartile you will be able to make intelligent “data driven” plans.
The next report output shows your responses and how others intend to achieve their energy savings targets:
If your responses are significantly different than others in your rating, this should cause some concern.
The FM BENCHMARKING sustainability survey provides the ability to track LEED-EB points in a manner similar to the LEED-EB survey but in an easy to follow format. It has also been updated to include the 2009 revisions from the U.S. Green Building Council. In the example below, we have shown a few questions from the Sustainability section from the LEED-EB survey. Answer options are:
- Yes – Implemented
- No – Not implemented
- UC – Under Consideration
On the live system, if one were to click on “more ” with any item, photos and additional text will appear providing a clearer description of that item. The next picture shows an example of that for SS Credit 4.1, Alternative Commuting Transportation (the real system shows several additional examples):
If you were working on the 2008 version and are wondering what changes were made in the 2009 version, they are really minor. For example the section 4.1 “Alternative Transportation” is more granulated to allow from 3 to 15 points depending upon how much you reduce the transportation needs. There are more possible points but the scale has also been adjusted.
After you have completed the various sections, an overall score is developed showing your ranking on the USGBC LEED-EB certification scale:
Notice that for this facility the current LEED-EB score is 37 which is in the green zone for minimum levels of certification. However, if all the items under consideration were implemented, then the LEED-EB score would be 44 which would put the facility in the range for a silver rating.
In addition, you would be able to see which of the other items those with certification have implemented—this may help you determine which items may be most feasible for you to consider to get your building to achieve certification.
This is a very effective tool for:
- Reporting on the current performance
- Identifying what items to work on
- Tracking your progress
- Prioritizing your work for LEED certification
More information about FM BENCHMARKING may be found at www.FMBENCHMARKING.com, including a free demonstration tool where you can input your facility data and see some benchmarking results.
