Towards Sustainable Facilities Management
RIS ID
39183
Additional Publication Information
Buildings and infrastructure represent principal assets of any national economy as well as prime sources of environmental degradation. Making them more sustainable represents a key challenge for the construction, planning and design industries and governments at all levels; and the rapid urbanisation of the 21st century has turned this into a global challenge. This book embodies the results of a major research programme by members of the Australia Co-operative Research Centre for Construction Innovation and its global partners, presented for an international audience of construction researchers, senior professionals and advanced students. It covers four themes, applied to regeneration as well as to new build, and within the overall theme of Innovation: Sustainable Materials and Manufactures, focusing on building material products, their manufacture and assembly – and the reduction of their ecological ‘fingerprints’, the extension of their service lives, and their re-use and recyclability. It also explores the prospects for applying the principles of the assembly line. Virtual Design, Construction and Management, viewed as increasing sustainable development through automation, enhanced collaboration (such as virtual design teams), real time BL performance assessment during design, simulation of the construction process, life-cycle management of project information (zero information loss) risk minimisation, and increased potential for innovation and value adding. Integrating Design, Construction and Facility Management over the Project Life Cycle, by converging ICT, design science engineering and sustainability science. Integration across spatial scales, enabling building–infrastructure synergies (such as water and energy efficiency). Convergences between IT and design and operational processes are also viewed as a key platform increased sustainability.
Abstract
About 1 per cent of all Australian commercial building stock is new each year. This means that if new building works are relied on to provide significant change in the sustainability of the stock, then it will take many years before a significant impact is achieved. Fortunately, commercial buildings are refurbished at relatively frequent intervals, so their rate of improvement is much faster than the rate of new construction. However, there are other drivers which could lead to significant improvements in our building stock. These fall under the aegis of facilities management (FM).
Publication Details
Ding, L., Drogemuller, R., Akhurst, P., Hough, R., Bull, S. & Linning, C. (2009). Towards Sustainable Facilities Management. In P. Newton, K. Hampson & R. Drogemuller (Eds.), Technology, Design and Process Innovation in the Built Environment (pp. 373-392). London and New York: Taylor & Francis.