Sustainable O&M

 FMs who are already running sustainable buildings have one thing in common: they harness data-driven insights. They understand that today’s facilities are a patchwork with a variety of aging assets and infrastructure that requires a cohesive data set to inform future-proofing projects.

True future-proofing projects are inherently sustainable, and the key is leveraging insights from often siloed data sets to create a holistic story. FMs must marry energy management, maintenance management and capital planning. These three categories inform each other and are a pillar to sustainable operations.

So, where should they start?  

Ensuring data is centralized, organized & actionable 

Before FMs can even begin to examine and evaluate how their maintenance and operations plans impact sustainability efforts, they will need to start by tracking data along three KPI pillars for energy and asset management: planned maintenance completion, energy use intensity (EUI) and criticality and risk.

1. Planned maintenance completion: High planned maintenance completion is one of the best energy-saving initiatives in an FM’s toolbelt. When there is a high amount of routine maintenance conducted on assets, more assets are healthy; therefore, more assets will live longer. By default, this lowers energy consumption. Unplanned and premature asset failures can be a significant driver for high, unanticipated costs and energy waste. They are a burden on the bottom line and negatively impact the environment by consuming more energy and raw materials. FMs must establish an asset registry to understand the current state of their assets. This includes tracking the age, condition, life cycle and replacement costs of assets. Having access to this data will inform stronger preventive maintenance plans – an important weapon in the arsenal to combat high energy utilization.

2. Energy use intensity: Adopting an enterprise asset management (EAM) system with energy tracking capabilities is a great place to start when it comes to sustainability efforts. EAM systems give FMs the capability to gather a baseline understanding of their building’s energy usage trends and identify high or inefficient areas of energy utilization. The key focus areas for energy data tracking include the consumption of electricity, natural gas and water. Additionally, an EAM system should monitor trends in a facility’s weather exposure and occupancy rates. This data demonstrates where energy waste and asset degradation are happening within a facility and how severe the impact is, enabling FMs to better understand where their attention is needed the most. Additionally, FMs can more accurately benchmark their energy consumption goals.

3. Criticality & risk: FMs should track the criticality and risk of all their assets. Criticality of an asset is the measurement of how vital it is to the facility’s operations, while the risk of an asset looks at the severity of impact if the asset fails. Some assets are much more critical than others, so FMs must plan around which assets need replacement and when. A roof would be a critical asset to a facility’s operations. If it fails, there is a significant business risk for facilities. During capital planning, FMs must ensure the roof is replaced or maintained before it fails and creates significant risk for a facility’s business. Criticality and risk measurement impacts sustainability because energy usage and carbon emissions are deemed critical variables in capital planning. FMs must keep a close eye on how the criticality and risk of their energy-intensive assets will impact business performance. For example, with more carbon tax legislation, FM leaders will need to understand how much greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by maintaining the boilers ahead of failure.

Taking action

Focusing data tracking where assets are consuming the most time, energy and money encourages FMs to place data-driven insights at the helm in planning. This makes sustainably focused operations and management plans more successful. After a facility has put the proper technology and processes in place to monitor the above KPIs, it is essential to identify usage patterns and develop action plans. These insights should serve as a guide for developing strategies that combat the “bad actors” of energy consumption and setting achievable and impactful sustainably goals.

For example, a goal can be as simple as reducing energy usage year-over-year after noticing lights are being left on in unoccupied areas or reducing waste from unanticipated and premature asset failure after realizing which assets tend to fail the most.

A school district in Oregon, USA, experienced first-hand how impactful data is when it comes to energy savings by turning to technology to bring its energy cost avoidance from 28 to 50 percent. Tracking utility data as energy usage became important as it accounted for a third of the district’s budget. After analyzing the district’s energy usage from its building management system (BMS), HVAC and BMS schedules and comparing it to the local energy provider’s data, opportunities for energy savings emerged. The district now experiences more than 50 percent cost avoidance in energy savings and over the span of 14 years has avoided US$18 million in costs.

Technology’s growing role in more sustainable operations

The FM industry is heading into a technology renaissance period with stronger connectivity driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) boom – IoT devices are predicted to reach 50 billion by 2030 and investment in the devices is expected to reach US$15 trillion by 2025. IoT describes a streamlined, connected exchange of data between internet systems and/or devices. In FM, IoT technology can connect assets and information in one centralized location to help create predictable and sustainable O&M plants that support the environment and the bottom line.

In practice, an IoT-powered system can drive quicker and more intelligent notifications of when an asset needs attention directly to staff’s mobile devices. For example, if an HVAC system is not cooling properly, EAM software connected to an IoT asset sensor can alert the maintenance staff working at the facility that the HVAC requires attention. This alarm-to-ticket capability helps a facility lower the energy waste stemming from a malfunctioning asset that goes undetected and ultimately fails prematurely.

EAM systems will help foster a stronger preventive maintenance culture within facilities. Another way they can improve preventive maintenance is by increasing ease of communication for maintenance staff. For example, maintenance personnel can share images of asset conditions, communicate with their teams and manage inventory in real-time from a mobile device wherever they are located. As a side benefit, this virtual communication can help buildings cut down on paper waste.

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (Massachusetts, USA) began leveraging technology for maintenance requests and experienced a notable improvement in completion times – maintenance requests went from taking months to complete to an average of three to five days. As a result, this improved their inventory management. With greater efficiency and visibility into what maintenance efforts are needed, the hospital was able to save money with the bulk purchasing of asset equipment.

Along with implementing technology for sustainability efforts, there are ways FM leaders can go beyond technology to create a smart, sustainable facility. Each person is a part of the sustainability journey, and sustainable practices require buy-in from everyone. FM leaders should engage their staff members and ensure everyone is on board with overarching environmental goals. An EAM system can play a role here, too. With its tracking and translation capabilities, FMs can communicate the impact of energy consumption more easily with their staff to demonstrate the why behind the efforts. Some facility leaders have created sustainability teams within their organizations to help lead these efforts. Even a few extra people keeping their eyes out for lights that were left on or AC temperatures running high can yield energy savings and impact the bottom line for facilities.

Communicating results & building upon successes

Once a facility has evaluated its energy metrics, established goals, put plans in place and started seeing results, it is important to maintain sustainability improvements.

A significant component to maintaining these results is communicating progress and achievements with stakeholders. Des Moines Public Schools, the largest public school district in Iowa, USA, demonstrated the power of communication with data-tracking. The school district developed energy report cards, sharing updates with stakeholders on the district’s energy consumption and savings throughout the year. This enabled them to regularly monitor and maintain energy levels across the school district’s many buildings. Additionally, the district harnesses these insights to develop energy-saving tips for the classrooms. Monitoring sustainability improvements and continually evaluating data to inform decisions is what will drive a truly sustainably future.

Creating more sustainable buildings is imperative for reaching meaningful reduction goals, and FMs have the power to make an impactful difference in our carbon footprint. It starts with taking a more strategic approach to operational processes, harnessing data to drive decisions and help assets live longer, and fostering stronger stakeholder satisfaction.