The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference,

11-015 Tokyo, 27-29 September 2005 (SB05Tokyo)

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Susanne Balslev Nielsen, Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
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Birgitte Hoffmann, Associate Professor, Ph.D. 4
Jesper Ole Jensen, Assistant Professor, Ph.D.

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Building 118, Brovej, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby Denmark, me@byg.dtu.dk
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Building 118, Brovej, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby Denmark, bh@byg.dtu.dk
BYG DTU, Department of Civil Engineering, Section for Planning and Management of Building Processes,
Building 118, Brovej, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby Denmark, joj@byg.dtu.dk

Keywords: existing building, facilities management, energy, sustainable, space management, public private
partnerships,

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This paper explores the role of Facilities Management in the relation to sustainable development in the
existing building stock. Facilities management is a concept still developing as the management of buildings
are becoming more and more professional. Many recognize today that facilities management is a concept
relevant to others than large companies. Managing the flows of energy and other resources is a part of
facilities management, and an increased professionalism could lead to the reduction of the use of energy
and water and the generation of waste and wastewater. This is, however, QRWfacilities management’s most
important contribution to sustainable development in the built environment. Space management is an
essential tool in facilities management – and it could be considered a powerful tool in sustainable
development; remembering that the building not being built is perhaps the most sustainable building. In other
words: the question is if it sensible to talk about a ‘sustainable building’ without taking the activities in the
building into account? In many contexts, maintenance of the existing building stock is not a hot political topic.
Facilities management can, however, be a vehicle for more political attention to the large problem of
maintenance, especially when facilities management is in focus of new public private partnerships or other
new ways of collaboration.

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Facilities Management (FM) is a term related to how the existing building stock is managed. The definition of
FM varies from in both theory and practice. One of the pioneers of FM, Franklin Becker from Cornell
University, describes FM as: µ)0UHIHUVWREXLOGLQJVLQXVHWRWKHSODQQLQJGHVLJQDQGPDQDJHPHQWRI
RFFXSLHGEXLOGLQJVDQGWKHLUDVVRFLDWHGEXLOGLQJV\VWHPVHTXLSPHQWDQGIXUQLWXUHWRHQDEOHDQGRQH

KRSHVWRHQKDQFHWKHRUJDQL]DWLRQ¶VDELOLW\WRPHHWLWVEXVLQHVVRUSURJUDPPDWLFREMHFWLYHV)0WKXVUHIHUV

WRRUJDQL]DWLRQDOHIIHFWLYHQHVV¶
(Becker 1991). Chalmers FM Initiative defines FM as µ7KHGHVLJQDQG
FKDQJHRIIDFLOLWLHVDQGWKHRUJDQL]DWLRQRIVHUYLFHVUHODWHGWRIDFLOLWLHVEDVHGRQUHTXLUHPHQWVGHULYHGIURP

XVHUFRUHDFWLYLWLHV¶ (Chalmers FM initiative (www)). Both the distinction and the link between the building

and the core activities are important. The facilities managers move µIURPWKHERLOHUURRPWRWKHERDUGURRP¶
as the management of buildings comes more and more in focus. Five factors have been essential for this
increased professionalism: Information Technology; Global Competition; High Costs of Space; Employee
Expectations and the Cost of Mistakes (Becker 1991). In some of the debate on FM it is argued that FM can
support sustainable development (e.g. Park 1998).
Facilities management started as a management strategy for large companies, but the perspectives of FM
are much wider as many recognize today (e.g. Alexander 1996, Barrett and Baldry 2003, Alexander et al
2004). Housing can, for instance, be dealt with, within the same concepts – and e.g. in 2004 it was a public
housing association, DAB, that won the Danish Facilities Management Association’s (DFM’s) award for good
facilities management practice.
In the developed part of the world, a large part of the near futures building stock has already been built.
Hence, one must not look only at new buildings, when discussing sustainable building. The existing building
stock is changing slowly – perhaps 1% is being replaced per year. How many emissions can be allowed
from new buildings, if the total emissions from the building sector are to be halved in 30 years? It should be

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clear that it is decisive to include the existing building stock in the quest for a more sustainable built
environment. Hence, it is important, how the existing building stock is managed.
This paper explores the role of FM in relation to sustainable development in the existing building stock. First,
the role of FM in managing the flow of energy and matter is investigated. Secondly it is show that there is
more to FM than managing the flows. The concept of space management is central and can be used to
question the concept of ‘sustainable building’. FM has a potential for being a part of a more professional
planning of the maintenance of the existing building stock. Benchmarks and collection of data about the
buildings performance are an important part of FM, they could be further developed to support sustainable
development.

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The president of the International Facilities Management Association, Sheila Sheridan, closed the EuroFM
2004 conference by stressing the importance of sustainability in future FM. Attention was paid to the energy
efficiency of existing buildings. The Danish Facilities Management Association is planning a special meeting
on sustainable facilities management in September 2005. This can be seen as indications of an increased
attention on sustainable facilities management among professional facilities managers.
A number of Danish facilities managers take part in a benchmarking network, reporting their key-figures to a
central database. The participants are primarily people managing business facilities. Using their figures, one
can estimate the average costs of the resource flows – water, sewage, waste and energy – to be 26- 27 % of
the total budget for the daily operation of the business buildings (Malmstrøm 2001, Jensen 2001).
Interviews with facilities managers carried out in an ongoing project reveal a range of views on the
importance of the resource flows. Facility managers pay attention to the resource flows and the cost of
resource flows. It is a part of their professional behavior to avoid unnecessary costs. They emphasize the
professional facilities manager’s role in reducing the flows of energy and other resources. Much attention is,
however, paid to the companies’ core activities. The companies’ core activities must not be at risk in trying to
reduce the flows of energy and matter. If the choice is between an energy efficient solution and a solution
that secures a 100 % stable indoor climate, many facility managers will tend to choose the last one,
2
especially if they are responsible for buildings with a large turnover per m like shopping centers. Even in
office buildings, the cost energy and other resources are infinitesimal compared with the value of the
2 2
production – the value of the production is perhaps 4000 ¼SHUP and the cost of resources 10 ¼SHUP
(Jensen 2001). Even ‘green’ companies like Novo Nordisk have to focus on the stability of the working
environment rather than the cost of energy and other resources.
The most advanced Danish municipalities have sustainable facilities management of the municipal buildings
as an integral part of their work for a sustainable development, striving for showing other building owners
how to handle their buildings in a sustainable way.
The Danish public housing is about 20% of all dwellings in Denmark. In numbers, it is 487300 dwellings
organized in about 700 housing associations and about 8000 housing departments (Danmarks Statistik 2001,
Boligselskabernes Landsforening 2004). The core function is to provide good and affordable housing for
everybody on a non-profit basis. Two important developments did take place during the 70s and the
beginning of the 80s. One was the growing concern for the environment – the pioneers of sustainable
housing moved to the countryside and developed their own ‘sustainable’ settlements. Later, the attempts to
build ‘sustainable’ houses moved to the towns, being described as ‘byøkologi’ (directly translated to ‘urban
ecology’ – with a much stronger emphasis on the technical aspects than in the English interpretation of
urban ecology) (Jensen et al 1998). The other development was the response to the accelerating social
decay in some of the social housing areas, recognizing the lack of strong social networks in these areas.
This led to numerous experiments and reports, describing methods used to develop social networks
(Adamsen & Fisker 1986; Ebbe & Friese 1985; Kierkegaard et al 1988; Elle 1991). This development can be
found in our neighboring countries, too (Svane 2002).
Facilities management is not only about saving costs through better management, it is about generating
more value. In some projects the question of environmental sustainability is used to catalyze processes that
create more social sustainability. A project concerning water savings was for instance used to organize the
residents in local actions, creating a strong local social network. In this project it was evident that the
physical change of the water installations – applying water saving devises – was far from enough. People
had to become involved in the process if the water saving was to be permanent (Elle 1991). The public
housing sector has a long tradition of involving residents in different actions, experimenting with different
methods, increasing the social capital. (Gibson 1984). How to combine resource savings with increased
social capital is one of the important lessons that can be learned about sustainable facilities management
from the Danish public housing sector (Nielsen et al. 2004).
Studying facilities management in different sectors makes it clear that ‘sustainable facilities management’
should not be reduced to only a matter of reducing the flows of energy and matter in operation of the building.
One has to take the business core activities into consideration, too, remembering that the core activities

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could be to provide good and affordable housing. Alternative, more ‘sustainable’ solutions must not
endanger the smooth operation of the core activities. Furthermore, it is very important to bring attention to
the possible extra values gained by using facilities management, for instance an increased social capital or a
better working environment.
An increase in the professionalism of facilities managements will no doubt hold the potential for a further
focus on reduction of the use of energy and water and the generation of waste and wastewater. This is not,
however, facilities management’s most important contribution to sustainable development in the built
environment.

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Space management is an indispensable sub-discipline in facilities management. The apparent need for
space is enormous, with Danes leading in the use of space. The total use of floor space is approximately
2 2
120 m per person, and of that, the use of floor space for housing is approximately 60 m per person
(www.statistikbanken.dk). The apparent ‘need of buildings’ has increased with a factor between 4 and 5 in
just one century (Elle et al 2004(b)). This is a trend in still more EU-countries, according to the European
Environmental Agency (EEA), who notes: ³(XURSHDQVPD\XVHPRUHHQHUJ\HIILFLHQWDSSOLDQFHVLQWKHLU
KRPHVIRUH[DPSOHDVDZKROHWKHLUKRPHVFRQVXPHPRUHHQHUJ\WKDQWKH\GLGEHIRUH´ (EEA, 2001).

Indeed, space management should be a key issue in a sustainable development of the building stock –
bearing in mind that the most sustainable building is the building that is not being built (Lading 2000).
Space management is concerned with the use of floor space. It is usually applied to the use of office space.
More and more space is being used per person working in offices. In some cases in older buildings 40 – 50
2 2
m per person is used, in well planned, modern office buildings the figure is 15 – 30 m per person. This
figure can even be lower by introducing new forms of working (Jensen 2001). The focus in space
management is not only to make efficient use of the space – the primary goal is to create good working
conditions for the modern employees in the knowledge society, supporting the informal communication
between the employees and stimulating their creative capacities (Mosbech 2004). In The Palaces and
Properties Agency under the Danish Ministry of Finance the total use of floor space per person was reduced
2 2
from 39 m to 27 m .
The notion of space management leads to one of the most central questions concerning sustainable
buildings. ,VLWSRVVLEOHWRFRQVLGHUDEXLOGLQJDVVXVWDLQDEOHZLWKRXWFRQVLGHULQJWKHDFWLYLWLHVLQWKH
2
EXLOGLQJ" Does it make any sense to refer to x/m as an indicator of the ‘sustainability’ of a building – with x

= heat consumption, electricity use, water consumption etc? The civil engineers and architects cannot decide
the actual use of a building. They can, however, in their planning of the building make an intense use of the
building possible (or not).
The concept of space management might be used at societal level and in other sectors. In Denmark, a part
of the explanation of the extremely high use of floor space for housing per person is the number of elderly
people living alone in a large detached house. It could benefit the Danish society if these persons had better
opportunities to move to a denser, elderly-friendly environment. This would decrease the need for new
houses for young families. The public housing sector could make an effort to teach the residents how to
replace the need for more space with a more efficient use of the existing floor space – teach the residents
ways of compact living (Graining 1999).
Among urban planners in Europe, the compact city has been the solution to the question of sustainable
development. The city should be compact, the functions in the city should be integrated, and existing urban
space should be used before taking new land into use (CEC 1990). The compact city is necessary to
develop efficient public transport. Most cities, however, suffer from becoming less and less densely
populated, as their citizens demand more and more floor space. This is a threat to the existing public
transport in cities. The compact city can only be really compact (in number of persons per hectare), if its
citizens learn to live in a compact way.
Interaction between people, networking, is decisive in the modern knowledge based society. The increased
isolation of people is a trend that threatens the development of the social capital – and society’s economic
basis. You have to break the trend of ‘bowling alone’ (Putnam 1995). This interaction is closely related with
the density of the city. It is very hard to develop the life between the houses in a scattered city, with only 20 –
25 people per hectare as in many suburban areas with single detached housing. It is essential to have many
people to make the meeting places function. The knowledge society is dependent on people’s possibilities
for informal networking; the pattern from advanced design of working space is repeating itself in a
neighborhood scale. The boundaries between urban planning and facilities management are blurred.
In ‘Ørestad Nord’ – the new urban development in Copenhagen - the businesses have formulated a strategy
for making the urban environment function in terms of informal meetings. Instead of having lunch facilities in
every company, the companies have made an agreement with a number of small local restaurants and café s,
making it possible for the employees to have a cheap meal. This arrangement is rather unique in a Danish
context; most employees are restricted to their workplace during the working day. The eating out

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arrangement will probably catalyze a number of informal meetings between the employees of different small
businesses.
Facilities management and space management teach us to IRFXVRQWKHDFWLYLWLHV in the buildings instead
of the size of the floor space. It is not interesting to speak about very large buildings with few activities as
2-
‘sustainable buildings’. Can a 230 m large detached house for a single family be called sustainable, even if
2
it uses 30 % less energy for heating per m than an average house? You have to go into details with the
(possible) activities, if you have to assess whether a building is sustainable or not.
Space management can be a tool for more efficient use of floor space. The compact city is central to
sustainable urban planning, but the compact city will only make sense, if it is compact in respect to the
density of people. Space management is a tool that can catalyze informal networking in different scales of
the built environment; hence it can be a decisive tool for the economy.

 )DFLOLWLHVPDQDJHPHQWDQGVXVWDLQDEOHPDLQWHQDQFHRIEXLOGLQJV

A number of existing buildings are in urgent need for maintenance and repair, at least in Europe. The lack of
professionalism in the maintenance strategy and the lack of professional competences among the decision
makers are major reasons for this.
A study of the strategies for maintenance of almost 100 single-owner occupied houses in Denmark turned up
with rather depressing results. None of the house-owners showed any interest in what could be called
‘environmental sound maintenance’. Their main focus was on the appearance of their house, not on its
environmental performance. Much ‘cosmetic’ repair was carried out, sometimes with devastating results.
Money is spent on renovating the kitchens and bathrooms to make them look fashionable, whereas very little
attention is paid to spending money on improving the insulation or checking the water installations (Almlund
et al 2002). One of the reasons, among a number of other reasons, might be that in modern life many of the
negative impacts of human activity are invisible and intangible. Most people have seen neither carbon
dioxide nor the greenhouse effect.
Similar conditions can be found in other areas of the built environment. Presently, there is much debate of
the maintenance – or rather the lack of maintenance – of school buildings in Denmark. One of the reasons
for the poor state of the buildings is very obvious: in general, far too little money has been allocated to
maintenance. Much better planning is needed (Petersen 2001). But even schools with a budget for
maintenance of a reasonable size have a deficit in the building maintenance, because the decision makers
lack a proper decision support. In one case, it has been decided to use most of the money for maintenance
to paint the interior wall of the school quite often – more often than needed from a more professional view
(painting quite often could, however, be a part of a plan for crime reduction). No money was left when the
roof needed serious repair and the windows had to be changed.
A proper plan for maintenance is a decisive part of FM. It is essential to identify the different kinds of needed
maintenance in order to prevent unnecessary large repairs. The professional maintenance planning does not
only focus on clearly visible needs but also the more basic, often less visible needs of the building structure.
One of the important in future facilities management is to develop ways of explaining decision makers the
consequences of inadequate maintenance: the costs of future repair is much higher than the money ‘saved’
in maintenance.
In the municipalities it is often very hard for the civil servants to attract attention and money to daily
operations and refurbishment of the municipal buildings – it is clearly not an area for political focus. People,
responsible for the technical performance of the building, see new ways of collaboration as a way of bringing
more political attention to building maintenance. They see new ways of collaboration as a possibility of
‘saving’ the buildings that have been neglected (Kruse Hansen and Bruun Moesby 2004).
FM makes a distinction between and a link between the operation of the buildings and the core activities. It
opens up opportunities for a more professional management of the buildings. A number of cases illustrate
that it is very hard for lay-people to plan a proper maintenance of buildings. Furthermore, maintenance of
buildings is not typically a focus area for politicians. New ways of collaboration – which we will discuss in
paragraph 6 – is seen as a way of bringing back political attention to the area.

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Measuring and defining key figures is an essential tool in facilities management, often related to the
economical management. The Danish Facility Management Association has a special section for key figures.
The companies related to this function report a number of important figures to a central database. The
2
figures are primarily related to cost per m . They can be used for setting internal goals and comparing
different companies (Jensen 2001). It is possible to save approximately 10 % of the costs of operating a
building by using the key figures in the right way – using them as an inspiration for where to look for possible
savings (Carlsen 2004). However, one should handle the figures with care. To use figures related to cost per

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2 2
m will not reflect the activities – a building with a high activity level will probably have a higher cost per m ,
but be far more sustainable. Many companies use very detailed data in their management of the operation of
the buildings. These data often reflect the actual use of the floor space and can be useful in the effort of
managing the facilities in a sustainable way.
A number of private companies have developed green accounts. Many housing associations and
departments have worked with green accounts for electricity, heat, water, waste etc. The idea is that the
visualization of the consumption (and comparison with reference data or benchmarks) will make residents
more aware of their own consumption, and lead to a decrease in consumption. There are many examples
showing that the green accounts lead to awareness and reductions in consumption levels, but no general
evaluations on the effect of green accounts in housing areas have been made yet. A concept of Green
Accounting has been developed by the Danish Building and Urban Research, and used by many
departments, but several associations have also developed their own concepts (Jensen 1999).
Municipalities develop green accounts too. In Denmark, the municipality of Albertslund, a Copenhagen
suburb, started developing green accounts in 1992 and have developed them ever since. Today the green
account is an important part of the municipality’s Dogma 2000 project – the strategy developed to enhance
local sustainable development.
As key figures and benchmarks are an important part of FM, one can expect that an increased use of
professional FM will provide decision makers with more data. A further refinement of the data will be
valuable in sustainable facilities management, it is especially important to operate with the actual flow of
energy and other resources, not only their economic impact. Furthermore, the data need to be related to the
actual activities in the building, not only the used floor space.

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In recent literature on the development of society, the term networks play an increasingly important role.
Networks of different kinds becomes decisive, the more traditional, rigid, hierarchical way of running society
is partly being replaced by softer – but sometimes also less transparent – ways. In the Danish literature this
process is described as the transition from government to governance (Sehested 2002). Parallel to this,
private public partnerships are rapidly developing. Seen in a historical perspective, private public
partnerships are hardly new, but rather the rule. The intention is that a common attitude will make it possible
for both the public partners to exploit each others skills and strengths making the solution better than it would
be if they worked separately. (Akintoye et al. 2003). Both the public and the private partners have to get
accustomed to the new situation.
FM is the subject for a number of public private partnerships. In order to establish a partnership, a number of
things have to be discussed. It is quite essential that the gap between the expected service and the
perceived service – the perceived service quality – is minimized (Barret and Baldry 2003). It is not simple,
both parts have to be very detailed in their description of the expected effect of the work. Both hard and soft
issues need to be discussed. This process can be a process of enlightenment for the building owner: it might
be the first time that the standards of operation and maintenance really are discussed (Kruse Hansen and
Bruun Moesby 2004).
The municipal civil engineers see this process from the buildings point of view – some of them see Private
Public Partnerships (PPPs) as the only way of saving the quality of the building. One of their important gains
of the partnership is that a fixed ‘untouchable’ sum is dedicated to the maintenance of the buildings – it will
not be possible to postpone maintenance year after year and use the money for more politically ‘sexy’
projects. But the process is quite difficult for the local politicians. They have to fight against a number of
myths concerning high costs and low quality of this kind of arrangements. Furthermore, they often have to
support the small and medium sized local building companies – it can be necessary to involve these
companies in the process. The process of development of a culture of partnership, a common set of values,
is a process taking some time. It is decisive to be able to document the effect of the partnership in order to
keep the political organization on the right track and communicate the results in the right way to the local
inhabitants (Kruse Hansen and Bruun Moesby 2004).
New forms of collaboration will be essential for sustainable management of cities. The city is not a company,
the organizational structure is much softer – the business way of environmental management cannot be
directly implemented. The different elements in the city will have their own path towards sustainability.
Sustainable urban management will have to recognise the many different actors and their characteristics.
The uncertainties and the complexity of the informal organization of the city must be respected. The different
actors will have their own agenda for sustainable development – factories, housings companies, utilities etc.
Soft management methods have to be introduced. Partnerships could play an important role. Different kinds
of intermediaries could be introduced as part of navigating towards a sustainable development (Elle et al
2004 (a)).
Public participation is central in the development of a sustainable built environment. There are at least three
different reasons for having people participating in different kinds of processes. It strengthens democracy, it

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strengthens networks and it increases knowledge. Participatory processes have been seen as a cornerstone
of democracy in the Scandinavian countries. Hal Koch’s writing just after WW2 interpreted participation as
the real democracy (Koch 1945). The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas shares the same ideal in his
central writing The Theory of Communicative Action (Habermas 1987). The participation can be of different
qualities, ranging from mere audits to a more active involvement. Participation is a key element in modern
urban planning processes (Malbert 1998, Healey 1997) as well as the design and operation of buildings
(Granath 2001). Participation is a major challenge for the building professionals, it is essential that decisions
are taken on the right basis – a number of problems can be traced to participatory decision processes in
which decisions are taken by lay-people with no proper decision support.
Private Public Partnerships can play an important role in future development of sustainability on several
levels. It is, however, important to realize that public private partnerships are not without problems. A central
problem for the new partnerships is their potential lack of ability to handle innovation (Kock and Buser 2003).
Another problem could be that the processes lead to less transparency (Sehested 2003). Studying
sustainable facilities management, it is quite essential to put public private partnerships and other new ways
of collaboration on the research agenda (Elle et al 2004 (b)).
Seen from ‘the buildings point of view’, new forms of collaboration like public private partnerships, could lead
to more attention to the operation and maintenance of buildings – saving the neglected public buildings.
Facilities management is in the focus of an increasing number of public private partnerships in Denmark.
This can be seen as a part of the general change of the way society is managed and could be a part of
sustainable urban management. One should, however, be aware of the risk of making processes less
transparent.

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Facilities management is a term that is still under development, the definition differs in both theory and
practice. Central to the perception of facilities management is, however, that it is an activity supporting core
business activities. It is a chance to focus on operating and maintaining existing buildings. In this paper, the
term sustainable facilities management has been used as an empty concept, exploring the potential of the
concept of Facilities Management in relation to sustainable development.
An immediate reaction to the term sustainable facilities management will link it to the flows of energy and
other resources in buildings. Managing the flows in the building is a part of facilities management. How
important this part is perceived by the facilities managers depends on the character of the core activity. It is
decisive that the core activity is not threatened by for instance alternative ways of handling the indoor climate,
especially if the core active is private shopping. In the public housing companies much attention is paid to
reducing the resource flows. It is used as a way of branding the company and as an ‘excuse’ for involving
the residents in activities that strengthen the local social networks.
Space management is a central feature in facilities management. The increase in floor space used per
2
inhabitant is a major threat to sustainability. The buildings might use less resource per m , but with an
increased use of floor space per person, the final result is unsatisfactory in terms of sustainable development.
Space management is probably one of facilities management’s strong potentials in the quest for sustainable
development, bearing in mind that the most sustainable building perhaps is the building that is not being built.
At the same time, space management inspires to raise a critical question to ‘sustainable building’: ,VLW
SRVVLEOHWRFRQVLGHUDEXLOGLQJDVVXVWDLQDEOHZLWKRXWFRQVLGHULQJWKHDFWLYLWLHVLQWKHEXLOGLQJ"

Furthermore, it can be argued, that space management is quite decisive if the urban planners’ idea of the
compact city has to make any sense in the perspective of sustainable development.
Facilities management holds a potential for improving the maintenance of existing buildings, bringing in more
professionalism in the planning of maintenance. A number of buildings (at least in Denmark) are in need of
maintenance. Non-professional focus on the visible needs, they are using far to many resources on cosmetic
repair. Maintenance is often not a politically hot topic.
Benchmarking and data are essential in facilities management. It is necessary to measure in order to be able
to manage. Collection of data to a central database, enabling comparisons between different buildings, is a
central function for the Danish Facilities Management Association. The data is, however, closely linked to the
2
cost per m in the perspective of sustainable development it would be useful with even more detailed data.
The way society is managed is changing rapidly. Networks and soft ways of managing come into focus.
Private Public Partnerships is one of the ‘new’ ways of collaborating. Facility management is the topic of a
number of partnerships established or under establishment in Denmark. This could bring back some political
attention to the maintenance of buildings, partly because a partnership would include a dialogue concerning
the quality of maintenance of the buildings. Furthermore, partnerships concerning facilities management
could secure that a certain amount of money actually was used for maintenance and not for politically more
‘sexy’ projects.

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In this paper, until now, sustainable facilities management has been used as an empty concept. Hopefully it
has become clear to the reader that the potential of facilities management is much more than just dealing
with the resource flows in the building. If one is to try to define sustainable facilities management, one option
is to build on the Chalmer’s Initiative definition of facilities management: 6XVWDLQDEOH)DFLOLWLHV0DQDJHPHQW
LVWKHGHVLJQDQGFKDQJHRIIDFLOLWLHVDQGWKHRUJDQL]DWLRQRIVHUYLFHVUHODWHGWRIDFLOLWLHVEDVHGRQ

UHTXLUHPHQWVGHULYHGIURPXVHUFRUHDFWLYLWLHVDQGVRFLHW\¶VGHPDQGIRUVXVWDLQDEOHGHYHORSPHQW

HPEHGGLQJERWKWKHHQYLURQPHQWDOVRFLDODQGHFRQRPLFSHUVSHFWLYHVRIVXVWDLQDEOHGHYHORSPHQW¶ .
Sustainable facilities management has the potential to play a decisive role in the necessary sustainable
development of the existing building stock.

 3HUVSHFWLYHV

Facilities management is still an emerging concept; a number of people are gradually becoming aware of the
fact that they are actually facilities managers. Opportunities for interaction between local governments and
facilities managers are opening op. Facilities managers could be important actors in the development of
more sustainable cities, being the intermediaries between local governments’ strategies for sustainable
development and the individual users of the buildings.
Facilities management could also have an impact on the way buildings are designed – in the future buildings
could be designed ‘with facilities management in mind’. It is, however, too early to really trace the possible
impact of facilities management on the building design.

5HIHUHQFHV

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