The latest issue of Insight is now available to view online

by • Architecture, Facilities management, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

firstclassIn the latest Insight newsletter, available to view online; read (and watch) a list of some of the greatest songs to deal with the arcane subject of office furniture and discover the six dimensions of wellbeing that can be impacted by the design of the physical environment. Details of the first free and publicly available resource for building professionals to access detailed comparative data on carbon in buildings; and research that shows moderate stress levels can actually help a manager’s performance.  Mark Eltringham suggests the real reasons why so many employers champion the open plan office layout and argues the design of trains [pictured] is almost as great an indicator of workplace thinking as the office itself. Finally, our regular contributor Simon Heath defends the much maligned HR function.  To automatically receive our weekly newsletter, simply add your email address to the box on the home page.

The six most important dimensions of wellbeing in the workplace

by • Facilities management, News, Workplace design

B-Free working choiceDesigning an office environment using six key elements of wellbeing will benefit both employers and their staff, leading to a healthier, more productive workplace finds a new report. Steelcase’s WorkSpace Futures global research team, which included a psychologist, a designer and an ergonomist conducted an in depth study on existing wellbeing research, surveys, indicators and theories and found that the key to physical and mental wellbeing is the emotional experience, which can be influenced by a person’s surroundings, actions, and way of perceiving the world. The six dimensions of wellbeing that can be impacted by the design of the physical environment are; optimism, mindfulness, authenticity, belonging, meaning and vitality. Together these create what Steelcase refers to as an “interconnected workplace,” that offers employees choice and control over where and how they work.  (more…)

New BIM guidance published for operational phase of a building

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Fresh BIM guidance publishedGuidance on the use of BIM (Building Information Modelling) in the operational phase of a building has been issued by the business standards Institution (BSI). PAS 1192-3, Specification for information management for the operational phase of assets using building information modelling (BIM) is a companion document to PAS 1192-2, which specified an information management process to support building information modelling (BIM) Level 2 in the capital/delivery phase of projects. In contrast, PAS 1192-3 focuses on the operational phase of assets irrespective of whether these were commissioned, acquired through transfer of ownership or are part of an existing asset portfolio. The new specification recognizes that the cost of operating and maintaining buildings and facilities can represent up to 85 per cent of the whole-life cost and savings can pay back any upfront premium in construction expenses in a few years. (more…)

UK to miss out on overseas public sector procurement growth, warns CBI

by • Facilities management, News, Property, Public Sector

Wrong-WayPublic procurement of goods and services in twelve key emerging markets will almost triple to £452 billion by 2030, according to new research from the Confederation of British Industry. But the report warns that UK will only capture £11 billion of this growth, if its current market share stays the same so the UK needs to do far more to capture a higher share of the extensive growth in global public procurement in emerging markets. The procurement of goods and services in key emerging markets will soar to £452bn by 2030 as public sector organisations in rapidly developing countries increase their procurement of goods and services, driven by the needs of aging populations and a growing middle class. China will lead the growth in public sector procurement with its market increasing by 7.4 percent each year. Indonesia and Turkey will also rapidly increase their spending by 6.2 percent and 6 percent respectively.

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Database of green buildings to help designers reduce carbon emissions

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Carbon-database

The first free and publicly available resource for building professionals to access detailed comparative data on carbon in buildings has been launched today. Commissioned by resource efficiency experts WRAP in collaboration with the UK Green Building Council; the Embodied Carbon Database will allow building professionals to benchmark their designs to a far greater extent and help assist them in identifying where carbon reductions can be made. The database has been created in the context of the joint government and industry ambition to reduce emissions associated with the construction industry by 50 per cent by 2025. It’s intended to help organisations meet this ambition by providing a source of data which people from across the whole supply chain, including engineers, architects and quantity surveyors, can use it to benchmark green building designs and as a result, assist in identifying where carbon reductions can be made.

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RICS issues case studies to celebrate strategic role of facilities management

by • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Property

RICS has published six case studies examining the impact strategic facilities management (FM) can have on business performance. The case studies were devised following the publication of a 2012 research report, Raising the Bar: Enhancing the Strategic Role of FM, which found that over 75 per cent of survey respondents believe that facilities management is a strategic role. This was followed earlier this year by Raising the Bar: City Roundtables Report which made specific recommendations for action, including better promotion of the strategic role played by facilities management within organisations. The case studies were launched at the BBC’s Salford Quays building, featured in one of the studies, which describes the role the BBC’s FM team took in relocating critical services from London to Salford Quays and how the FM strategy was responsible for fostering creativity in the organisation. (more…)

New consortium aims to standardise technology to drive Internet of Things

by • Facilities management, News, Technology

Internet of THingsThe development of the much talked-about Internet of Things has been boosted with the announcement that AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel have come together to form a group called the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) which will  aim to standardise the way certain technologies function and so drive the uptake of the Internet of Things. The group has the apparent backing of the White House which has also announced that it will invest $100 million in research into the way physical objects can be linked to the internet, which is the fundamental principle of the Internet of Things.   The IIC will be outlining its own plans in the  near future to establish a common, global framework for the development of inter-connected digital and physical worlds and so sped up the adoption of an idea that promises to transform many aspects of our lives but which has not moved quickly enough, according to many commentators.

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Average office temperatures set too high say environmental experts

by • Environment, Facilities management, News, Workplace

office temperatures set too high

The publication this week of the report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability by the UN’s science panel that argues that the world is “ill-prepared” for risks from a changing climate, but that opportunities to respond to such risks still exist, proves more than ever that the built environment can play a vital role in helping to curb global warming. The most obvious place to start is by turning down the temperature of the office, which according to researchers from Lancaster University’s DEMAND Research Centre, has become warmer in recent years. As reported by Clickgreen, the researchers from Lancaster University say the average office temperature of 22 degrees C is way too high, and by simply turning down the thermostat and asking occupants to don another layer could do much to address global warming. (more…)

Consultation opens on changes to construction project safety

by • Facilities management, News, Property

Safety on construction sitesA consultation on changes to the way safety on building projects is managed has opened today. The ten week consultation is being carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on proposals to replace the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007). These currently apply to all construction work in the UK, and cover construction, alteration, fitting-out, commissioning, renovation, repair, upkeep, redecoration or other maintenance, decommissioning, demolition or dismantling. Key changes being proposed include the replacement of the CDM co-ordinator role with a principal designer role within the project team; introducing a duty on information, instruction, training and supervision to replace the duty to assess competence; removal of the domestic client exemption and transfer of these limited duties to the contractor/designer; and the replacement of the ACoP with tailored guidance. (more…)

BCO report claims to reveal link between green offices and business performance

by • Environment, Facilities management, News

Switch

A new report from the British Council for Offices claims that building owners could enjoy significant savings in their operating costs of up to £50 per square metre as well as improved staff productivity  and wellbeing by investing in environmentally friendly offices and work practices. The research, Improving the Environmental Performance of Offices claims to illustrate the benefits of energy efficient offices and highlight the positive impact they can have on employee productivity. The report calls on building occupiers to focus on key areas such as benchmarking and monitoring their energy usage. The BCO believes there is already a shift in attitudes towards a greater understanding of how offices actually perform environmentally rather than simply how they are designed and that more and more businesses are waking up to specific issues such as how much energy their buildings use outside of office hours. (more…)

The enduring need to put a bit more of the M into facilities management

by • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

Shutterstock's new offices, Empire State Building

Shutterstock’s new offices, Empire State Building

It may well be a statement of the obvious, but it’s worth reminding ourselves sometimes that the term facilities management consists of two words. There is often a bit too much emphasis on the facilities and a bit too little on the management and sometimes we look for design and product solutions to problems that would be better managed in some way. You can put this down to a number of things but to some extent at least it’s down the idea that when you are determined to use a hammer, every job looks like a nail. Obviously the media takes some of the blame for this mindset because it often earns income from businesses who want to sell their stuff to solve particular problems rather than focus on the idea that many of them can be addressed either as a management issue or in combination with products and design.

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The workplace should be designed for (and by) people, not robots

by • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Omnicorp logoFrom existential and dystopian fears expressed through books and films, we have long had an uneasy relationship with the idea of automatons and artificial intelligence. The UKCES saw robotics and automation as significant enough to include in it’s recent report on the future of work and the risks to jobs are very real based even on the more widespread adoption of the technologies already available to us. The possibility that many people may cease to have any economic value is a challenge we seem ill-equipped to meet. As ever, the web giants are leading the charge with Amazon prototyping delivery of packages by the kind of drones more commonly used over the tribal badlands of Afghanistan, as well as Google’s recent purchase of Boston Dynamics, makers of military-spec robots. The people behind the algorithms that gave us the unintentional hilarity of Google Suggest are now branching to create the sort of killer robots produced by OmniCorp in the Robocop movies.

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