Supply and demand have long encroached upon the facility management industry’s talent field. Today, organizations demand skills covering all 11 FM core competencies – with sustainability as a rapidly growing area of expertise required by employers – as well as engineering, technical and operations knowledge, all of which are in short supply. 

As a U.N. NGO with special consultative status, the IFMA Foundation works directly with companies, universities, and government and community entities worldwide to develop a diverse, ready-to-work talent pool, eager to make a difference as qualified, aware and responsible professionals. Building and preparing the workforce for tomorrow’s business challenges not only assists the growing needs of the FM industry, but also helps individuals in under-served communities improve their lives through better paying jobs and bring a higher level of expertise to their organizations through professional development scholarships. These opportunities positively impact the U.N.’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Established in 2019, the Eric Teicholz Sustainability Scholarship provides financial aid to FM professionals or those in a related field who are interested in earning IFMA’s Sustainability Facility Professional® (SFP®) credential. Criteria for receiving the award includes diversity and the impact that the scholarship is expected to have on the applicant and their environment.

Outstanding FM practices come from outstanding FM training. The skills scholarship awardees learn are essential to their careers now and in the future. The SFP increases their knowledge of sustainable FM practices to ultimately impact their organizations’ economic, environmental and social sustainability goals.

These skills are not only helping recipients excel in their fields, but also help them realize the role FM plays in making the world a better place.

Gloria Williams

“Humans and organizations play a fundamental role in ensuring that both the natural and business environments, as well as social well-being, are sustainably supported for present and future generations. Sustainability must therefore be made an integral part of our everyday lives,” said Gloria Quarnsemah Williams, a Teicholz Scholarship winner and FM operations manager in Accra, Ghana.

Facility management is a great career for women. As illustrated in IFMA’s March 2023 Women in FM Report, women often receive higher wages than men in the FM field and are often promoted to higher positions from the entry level.

Connie ChanConnie Chan, an engineering graduate, is an associate product manager for Smart Energy Connect in Hong Kong. Receiving a Teicholz Scholarship last year, she recently began her journey toward the SFP credential.

“I hope to gain and apply knowledge in sustainability to my work, helping my customers achieve their sustainability goals by choosing the best solution,” said Chan. “I wish to acquire insights to educate the younger generation as well as corporate leaders in sustainability, helping them build good frameworks and practices along the way.”

Scholarship recipients have come from six continents; however, special emphasis is placed on residents of Africa and Asia, home to the largest populations on Earth yet often suffering difficult environmental and social conditions.

Lekia Nwiido, a 2021 scholarship awardee, is in operations management for the Novare Group in Abuja, Nigeria. He is working on a biofuels project that involves a facility, schools, health care centers, banks and supermarkets, and providing jobs for 5,000 employees. The project offers an advantage in environmental and social development such as the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which will also result in income generation for Nigeria.

He is taking lessons learned from IFMA’s SFP and applying them directly to improving his organization and community.

Lekia Nwiido“Overall the SFP credential provides a detailed road map of how I could improve the sustainability of my facilities and projects using all eight major areas of sustainability as defined by IFMA: energy, water, materials and resources, quality of services, waste, site impact, how to integrate sustainability efforts with an organization’s values and strategies, how to present a business case for a sustainability initiative, how to evaluate initiatives from a financial viewpoint, and how to track and report accomplishments,” Nwiido said.

Not only are awardees making a difference in their communities, they are also sharing their experiences and findings, encouraging other groups to take up the mantle for sustainable FM practices.

“I am a passionate advocate for sustainability and sustainable facility management. Speaking at different conferences has kept me busy as I’m now regarded as an experienced FM and a grounded SFP. In September I spoke at the FM International Conference hosted by FMCE, and in November I spoke at the International Architects Conference hosted by AAB, both held here in Gaborone, Botswana, and both centered on themes of sustainability,” said Michael Mafa, a 2020 scholarship winner. As an FM consultant for Dikago Facilities Management in Botswana, he a sought-after speaker and instructor on the African continent.

Michael Mafa“Becoming an IFMA-qualified trainer has also opened doors for me to equip FMs in sustainability, particularly those taking introductory courses. My current participation in the Botswana Facilities Management Association and on the Botswana Bureau of FM Standards Reviewing Committee have given me great opportunities to encourage the application of green FM policies on the part of my fellow FMs,” he said.

As the world changes how it works, scholarship sponsors realize the value the SFP can bring to organizations.

“As workplace technology is rapidly evolving, we acknowledge the ongoing efforts to create a more sustainable environment, which includes a clear understanding of current operating and carbon costs to support better planning and execution. By having this understanding, we can work to reduce our carbon footprint in the construction and facility management industry,” said Paul Head, director public of sector at Nuvolo.

Employees are questioning everything about work, including how, what, why and where it is done. While jobs in sectors like oil and gas are still growing, environment-related jobs are exploding at a growth rate of 237 percent. Facility management, once a profession looked upon as unexciting to youth (as it deals with operations and maintenance), has become a popular choice in the fast-growing green jobs category, increasing at 11 percent per year, according to the LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report 2022.

“Facility managers, building owners, suppliers, technicians all work in silos in the FM ecosystem, resulting in suboptimized processes and inadvertently creating millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases. We’re excited to empower the FM leaders of the future to engage in climate action by aligning and improving supply chain processes and reimagining how supply chains can work for everyone,” said Jim Owens, chief growth officer at SDI and advisory board member for Penn State’s Center for Supply Chain Research.

The actionable takeaways from the SFP are not lost upon residents from wealthier, more developed countries. While those areas have more resources and higher standards for quality of life, they are also some of the greatest polluters.

Some scholarship recipients, such as 2022’s Martin Vaclavik, are quickly making a difference in the ways environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and viewed, communicated and executed in Prague. He is a founding member of an ESG association that contributes to the local jurisdiction while adopting new regulations for non-financial reporting, and future members to streamline their action plans toward sustainability.

Martin Vaclavik“Since being awarded the SFP scholarship, I have worked on projects dealing with implementing ESG policies within larger organizations, which has been a real challenge,” Vaclavik said. “My clients have always understood that having functional ESG policies depends on FM. I therefore understand the true added value of having SFP credentials. The SFP will help me with recognition and broadening my knowledge.”

The Eric Teicholz SFP program was expanded in 2021 to include additional scholarships supported by a corporate sponsor program, including JLL, SDI, Planon, Jumbo Chains, Nuvolo and three IFMA chapters (San Fernando Valley, Kansas City and South Florida). Since its inception, the program has grown by more than 450 percent. With these corporate sponsors, the program was able to establish two new scholarships, one focused on technology and the other related to supply chains.

“In this new era, there are just so many novel technologies and opportunities for facilities teams to explore and implement to keep raising the bar and deliver more sustainable, productive and attractive workplace environments that put safety and well-being at the heart of their business. To enable young professionals in FM to take up this essential and pivotal role, we need to broaden their knowledge in environmental and social practices so that they’re able to support their organizations in the move toward a sustainable future,” said Erik Jaspers, IFMA Fellow, global strategy and innovation director of Planon and IFMA EMEA board member.

With a mission to make FM a career of choice, the Eric Teicholz Scholarship program and its sponsors are helping professionals improve their industry, their communities, organizations and their own lives.

“We are contributing to the future of the FM profession by providing a pathway for those interested in earning their Sustainability Facility Professional. In this quest we understand the importance of sustainability in the built environment and the criticality of ensuring that current and future facility managers are guiding their organizations toward sustainable practices,” said IFMA Foundation Chair and JLL Global Account Executive Irene Thomas Johnson, CFM.