Sustainable Practice in Facilities Management

Question: Discuss about theSustainable Practice in Facilities Management. Answer: Green Purchasing and Energy Management System Green purchasing is the process of procurement of services and products that have reducing effects on the environment and human health cared with the competing services and products serving a similar purpose. The comparison considers production, acquisition, distribution, packaging, distribution and disposal of the service and product (Green et al., 2012). Since I am the facility manager of my company Greenology Architectural Practice Sdn Bhd, I will propose Green Purchasing and Energy Management System (EnMS) to the management for improvement of the energy efficient consumption and current purchasing system. This assignment is aimed at discussing the various aspects of green purchasing based on previous journals and research work and will propose green purchasing for the selected organization based on its business nature. Literature Review Liu et al. (2012) conducted a research study to demonstrate the sustainable consumption of the urban residents by the green purchasing behaviors in China. This study aimed at addressing the importance of education on environment for increasing the responsibility towards the environment in China. The actual green practice behaviors of the people have been reflected through the study wherein the purchase level of green products is low. Therefore, the authors have suggested that for reducing the adverse effects on the environment and human health in comparison with the competing services and products, green purchasing should be promoted. The argument was further carried forward with the research study by Buniamin et al. (2016) which discussed the green procurement practices by the government in the public enterprises of Malaysia. The study identified several barriers that exist in the adoption of the green purchasing practices in Malaysian public enterprises and some of them include the cost factor, no enforcement and lack of guidance. Therefore, the authors have critically revealed the fact that there is an acute need for training and development for the implementation of the practices. To evaluate the principles of buying into the environment, Ji, Ma Li (2015) conducted a research study to state that green purchasing is an evolutionary game theory for the manufacturing industry as it plays a crucial role in the management of supply chain. The seven principles of buying into the environment have to be followed while adopting green purchasing for examining the legislative implications, pressures and opportunities in market and risks in the supply chain. The seven principles of buying into the environment include an understanding of the business reasons, knowing the environment, understanding the supply chain, adoption of a partnership style, collection of the necessary information, validation of the supplier's performance and setting an improvement timetable. Considering these factors, the authors have suggested that the stakeholders are the crucial decision makers of adopting green purchasing in the industries including the architectural sector based on its princip les. A similar argument was put forward by Bohari et al. (2016) where insights were discussed on the adoption of green purchasing in Malaysia construction business focusing on its challenges and drivers. The authors provided a basic recommendation for enhancing the stakeholder awareness by the promotion of green construction in the country based on the seven principles of buying into the environment, considering its challenges and drivers with respect to architecture. Advantages of Green Purchasing The advantages of implementing green purchasing have been discussed by Dubey et al. (2013) where the advantages of the environmentally sensitive practices and sustainable developed have been well established. There are a series of advantages of implementing green purchase that includes reduction in waste and improvement in resource efficiency, securing the supply of services and goods, minimizing business risks, provision of cost savings, provision of added values, enhancement of the corporate image and creating markets. The model of green chain management in the architectural industry helps to create a straight line course of resources products discarded objects that leads to the creation of more wealth along with the consumption of lesser resources, lesser discarded objects and positive influences on the environmental resources. Tseng, Tan Siriban-Manalang (2013) carried out a research work analyzing the green supply practices and its advantages in the architectural services due to the green innovation, implications of lean production and methods of assessment and evaluation of the implementation processes. Certified and preferable environmentally low toxicity coatings and paints contain recycled contents that help to reduce the toxicity due to the volatile organic compounds that are present in synthetic paints and this is implemented in the architectural services for resolving the toxicity and health hazard issues. Six Stages of Green Supply Chain Zhu, Sarkis Lai (2013) carried out a research work to discuss the green supply chain management and its stages for the management of the complexities. There are six recognized stages of green supply chain management that include specification and design, tendering and qualification, purchasing, distribution and receipt, disposal and use and accounting. The model of green supply chain in architectural services essentially includes the system for limiting the waste by remanufacturing recycling reuse trilogy. The Malaysian architectural services implement innovations that are environmentally friendly in its supply chain that helps to internally focus on the green purchasing decisions along with long term relationships with the suppliers. Zailani et al. (2012) studied on the implementation of green supply chain management in Malaysia and found that it is beneficial in reducing the environmental issues with the provision of social and economic benefits. The benefits of implementing gre en supply chain management in architectural services are that it helps to expand new markets and improves the brand image due to sustainable practices and reduces the risks of global warming. The Proposed Company The company Greenology Architectural Practice Sdn Bhd is an architectural company in Malaysia that is committed to an approach of integrated design to architectural and interior design and planning. The current purchasing practices of the company include the conventional purchasing practices that have the challenges of expensive raw materials, increased waste and significant risks to the environment. Therefore, it is suggested that green purchasing should be introduced to the organization as it will benefit the organization in terms of revenue, quality of products and services and cost and other business processes. Green purchasing provides the benefits of life cycle costs with positive effects on the performance and human health with 39% lesser water use, 53% lesser costs of maintenance and 45% lesser energy consumption by the organization (Yen Yen, 2012). Energy Management System (EnMS) The company Greenology Architectural Practice Sdn Bhd will undergo a transformation from the conventional purchasing practices to the green purchasing practices and for that, a detailed description of the energy management is essential. Energy management involves the operation and planning of the energy consumption and energy production units with the objectives of cost savings, climate protection and resource conservation. It is closely connected to the established business functions of logistics, production management and environmental management. It systematically and proactively coordinates the usage, distribution, conversion and procurement of the energy for meeting the requirements considering the economic and environmental objectives of the environment (Palma-Behnke et al., 2013). The adoption of energy management solutions by the architectural services company will help to provide the load control backbone along with the monitoring and measurement for the sources of on-site p ower supplies. The Energy Commission Malaysia has laid down its objective of minimizing the negative impacts on the environment and therefore, adoption of energy management systems in the organization will certainly add up to the business values and ethics apart from its other business processes (Meih.st.gov.my, 2016). Energy management is the crucial step for energy saving of an organization that satisfies a number of crucial issues like legislations, emission targets and energy prices, which compels the organization to adopt green energy practices. It is important to reduce the damage that is happening to the planet earth due to the pollution and emission, therefore, reducing and controlling the energy consumption at the organizational level can be beneficial to the organization as well as the environment (Chaouachi et al., 2013). In an architectural organization, shortage of supplies and increase in the energy prices can decrease the profitability of the business and it becomes crucial to implement the energy management system for controlling the energy consumption to make it more predictable. Carbon emission is another environmental hazard that can be reduced effectively with the application of the energy management activities to reduce the carbon footprint and promote a sustainable and green i mage. In addition, it helps to reduce the implications that are cost related as the energy costs rises. Scope The purchasing decisions in an architectural organization impact the environment and therefore, energy management systems are preferred in the architectural organizations as they help to reduce the energy use. This contributes extensively towards the rise in the company revenue, quality of the services and the products and decrease in the organizational costs due to the practices of green purchasing and energy management systems. The energy management scope in architectural services should not be restricted to the HVAC (Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems but should also include other aspects like waste management optimization, infrastructure building, product design, supply chain networks and plant controls. Managing regulatory compliance and reduction of energy consumption are the goals of energy management that have its scope in the areas of enterprise, logistics, manufacturing and facilities (Pipattanasomporn, Kuzlu Rahman, 2012). Optimized designing of green buil dings along monitoring of the energy consumption and usage of equipment that are energy star certified can help in the development of effective energy management opportunities. The architectural designs should attain energy efficiency by the application of advanced process controls by the optimization of product designing. The logistics of the company needs to maintain a green supply chain along with the reverse logistics for management of wastes. The scope of energy management in the enterprise part of the organization lays with the theory of consolidation and virtualization for the assessment of the green readiness of the organization (Zhao, Suryanarayanan Simoes, 2013). The company can change its investor perception, brand value and customer expectations with the implementation of effective energy management procedures. Green purchasing can be an effective media to promote the energy management practices that can bring substantial benefits to the business process in terms of rev enue, costs and quality of services and products. Key Components The key components of the effective energy management consist of seven stages that make the framework for the energy management system. The first step includes making a commitment to continual improvement for filing the gap in implementation by an energy and environmental policy with the establishment of a cross-functional team. Assessment of the opportunities and performances includes the identification of the opportunities of environmental performance that begins with the understanding of the past and present energy use and waste generation. Setting of the performance goals that are realistic and aggressive for the improvement of the environmental performance will lead to the driving of activities for deriving successful outcomes (Beloglazov, Abawajy Buyya, 2012). Creating an action plan that serves as a blueprint for monitoring and guiding the systematic approach improving the environmental performance. Successfully implementing the action plan includes monitoring and tracking pr ogress, motivating staff, building capacity, raising awareness and creation of a communication plan. Evaluation of progress can be done by the regularly evaluating the action plan as it helps to keep the team informed regarding the progress on the established goals of environmental performance improvement. Recognition of achievements is the final component of effective energy management that includes ongoing activities of energy efficiency and pollution prevention outcomes as it will help in the maintenance of the momentum of the initiatives of environmental improvement. The Steps The steps of energy efficiency essentially include a stepwise approach for the development of a green organization. The energy management systems lead to the increased reputation of the organization as the efficient leader in sustainability practices. The first step includes virtualization, consolidation and rationalization of the architectural activities to reduce the wastage of energy. Appropriate evaluation of the building by setting benchmark with Energy Star can help to identify the scope of improvement and help to set targets. Engagement of the workforce by presenting clear plans for the team to get them engaged in a time frame for achievement of the goals (Olivares, Caizares Kazerani, 2014). This is followed by the collection of the real time data of energy consumption to know the behavior of the energy efficiency implementation. Usage of the collected energy data for making operational changes like optimization of the building scheduling and lowering of the base loads. Utili zation of advanced practices for building energy efficient green organization by applying sub-metering for breaking down the energy consumption. These steps can be effective weapons for the improvement of profits from energy efficiency implementation. Table 1: Comparison of the challenges of the current energy management with benefits of green energy management system Challenges of Current Energy Management System Benefits of Green Energy Management System High risk of global warming emissions Low or no risks of global warming emissions Expensive due to the consumption of fossil fuels Cheap due to the usage of natural sources Exhaustible and limited supply of energy Inexhaustible and vast supply of energy Energy prices are fluctuating increasing operation costs Stable energy prices decreasing operation costs Rigid and undependable energy system Resilient and reliable energy system Transformers and generators require high maintenance Renewable energy facilities require lesser maintenance Attracts pollution taxes due to excess emission Minimum emissions provide tax exemptions No effect on the company brand image Green initiatives have a positive effect on company image Flowchart 1: Energy Management System of Greenology Architectural Practice Sdn Bhd Proposal of EnMS Proposal of the energy management system is obvious due to the challenges faced by the current energy management system in accordance with its various aspects. The EnMS can aid to provide greater savings in the company costs with the application of cost efficient products especially with the lighting arrangements in the architectural services. EnMS can also result in a decrease in the maintenance cost due to the installation of the cost efficient products that promotes green purchasing and saves energy with tax exemption. The Malaysian Investment Development Authority states the provision of investment tax allowance for the application of green technology systems and services. The product life cycle of the EnMS is relatively high compared to the traditional products (Mida.gov.my, 2016). This can be understood from the fact that LED, compact fluorescent and incandescent lamps have a better service in lighting and also reduce the company costs with superior life cycle (Fernndez et al., 2016). Feasibility to bring in resources is another important aspect of EnMS due to the cost advantage provided by energy efficiency. The resources help to provide considerable savings from the application programs which is achieved at 1/3rd of the costs of the existing resources. EnMS requires installation expertise and skills among the employees as its maintenance and installation is different from the conventional equipment. Trained professionals and contractors can help to achieve high results in energy efficiency. Compliance of products to the local authority is another striking aspect of EnMS as the local governments in Malaysia has taken initiatives for promoting the concept in their respective jurisdiction by implementation and development of the strategies. Therefore, green purchasing in architectural services provides with the products that can comply with the local authority and their energy efficiency operations. Benefits to business process in terms of costs is an advantage of EnMS as it is a cost-efficient and effective approach in the context of increasing demand for resources and a growing global population. It also provides co-benefits on competitiveness and employment. Quality of products or services and revenue are the outputs of EnMS as appropriate implementation of the energy efficiency policies causes lesser energy consumption with energy star compliance and generate higher revenues from the higher quality products (Antunes, Carreira da Silva, 2014). Energy and comfort monito ring surveys in architectural surveys have revealed that EnMS can help to maintain a soothing indoor climate that can increase the occupant comfort level. Advanced ventilation and cooling concepts with energy efficient procedures are the excellent examples of this concept. With EnMS, water and energy efficient products can help the staff members to manage the products aptly. 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