Recent Posts

Recent posts over at isite:
Eco City 2008 videos
Reducing the environmental impact of existing non-domestic buildings
Live blogging at Eco City
new sustainability forum
Voom or Veggie ?
News from the SD research network
Eco Town consultation
Gary Braash
Eco City 2008 - this week
profit from sustainability?

Facilities Management now in Second Life

The inaugural Centre for Facilities Management Second Life (SL) seminar took place today, Wednesday April 2^nd 2008. The seminar, facilitated by Martin Brown, (aka Brand Woodin in SL) focused on Sustainable FM, but also referred to the developing research area of Community-based FM which looks at FM outside of the traditional boundaries and organisational settings and suggests the FM has a role to play in community (in its broadest sense) settings also.

By putting FM into context the debate began to consider the effect FM has or could have on the environment. It led to debating issues such as transition towns (see Totnes as an example) - what role does FM have?; and building consumption -v- building production - to what extent is this about FM usability agenda or is it just an issue for the construction community?

The debate also led to discussion about developing a wider definition of FM which encompasses the sustainability agenda and could be accommodated by the wider construction community. Such a definition could look at how FM could be a means to facilitate understanding about the environment, about communities and about facilities. Debate then ensued as to what the tag line for this could be!

Wednesday April 9^th 2008 was the second Centre for Facilities Management SL event. The seminar was delivered by Helsinki Institute of Technology by Nils Gersberg (aka Nils Lowenstark in SL) and looked at Pro-work research.

Pro-work is a relatively new research concept and focuses on how organisations and teams in organisations work together, and how they develop knowledge. The debate considered how different types of organisations - for example those that use hot-desking, those that employers freelancers / contract staff, those requiring staff to come to the office or work from home - develop their strategies for team collaboration. Additionally the effect dispersed working -v- office based working has on FM was also considered, and this debate connected back to the previous weeks debate on sustainability considerations as well as wider definition and working practices of FM.

Thanks to Eleanor Jackson for the above text ( aka Salfordfm Destiny in SL)

Centre for Facilities Management Second Life has a meeting place presence in Second Life on the Manchester UK sim. Drop by and say hello and participate within our debates.

Email for further information on CFM in SL or future meetings.

Grid Works

The following was originally poste dup to the isite blog - but there are a couple of items in the GridWorks relevant to FM - well the maintenance and performance side of FM …

It also demonstrates whats happening in Second Life at the moment …..

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SLengineer has changed its name to Grid Works with its latest issue to reflect the magazine’s goal of documenting and reporting how companies and people are using online services and tools to support and enhance their work in engineering and science related fields. Available as pdf here

in this issue:

Walking into the Map - David Rumsey shares his extensive map collection with residents of Second Life

TEEX Bridge Tour -  the Texas Engineering Extension brings real life bridge maintenance training to Second Life

Cement Company LSmidth builds a virtual cement plant as an aid for real life recruitment

and how Implenia, Switzerland’s largest construction and building services provider, conceived and developed the virtual worlds communication interface (VWCI)— a tool for monitoring common building automation systems

This is an excellent communication example of how Second Life can be and is relevant to RL businesses, education and general learning / sharing improvements, and pleased that I (and isite) have been co-opted ‘on to the staff’ for future issues of the GridWorks, hopefully bringing an international, well UK view.  Watch this space.

Environmental Property Code

From the IPD website:

IPD last night launched a ground-breaking new environmental measurement standard … a much needed global framework for measuring the environmental performance of corporate buildings.

With governments around the world setting ambitious targets for reducing environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, it is vital that organisations take effective action to address the impacts of their occupied buildings. This is where the Code comes in! To find out more and to download your free copy of the Environment Code, click here www.ipd.com/environmentcode

What is the 4FM view of this?  Already there is disent in the industry … EPC’s are a turnoff….

More on this later ………

Neigbourhood Development assessments

LEED (the US version of BREEAM) is piloting a LEED ND - a neighbourhood development assessment system.   The LEED ND  FAQ refers to it as a rating system that integrates the principles, of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design

Details are available from the LEED website - but looking at the assessment checklist it looks very familiar to our sustainable communities and community based facilities management approaches.

I have just been reading the very informative paper The Law of Green Building from US Law Attorney Stoel Rives LLP, which has a useful chapter on LEED ND. - LAW OF BUILDING GREEN - Community and Neighborhood Development

Do we have a BREEAM equivalent? (not to my knowledge - but if any more experience BREEAM people out there know better then please post below)

POE and thermal comfort research paper

Click here to download a free PDF of ‘Post-occupancy Evaluation and Thermal Comfort: State of the Art and New Approaches’ by Elke Gossauer and Andreas Wagner, in Advances In Building Energy Research, Volume 1, pp. 151-175, 2007.

(sourced from get sus jan 2008)

QMF Creative Commons Licence updated …

The Creative Commons License arrangements for QMF have been updated as follows. Click on the logo or  links below for further information

QMF by 4FM is licensed under a
Creative Commons  License.

isite

This blog is not dead, but many 4FM and FM related items are now posted on isite.  This site blog however still welcome news and views from readers ..

Check out the posts to the isite blog … covering news, views and comments on issues affecting the built environment.

Building Houses or Creating Communities?

Despite the governments good intentions residents risk missing out on sustainable communities in the push to get houses built quickly.

In its role as sustainable development watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission has undertaken its first thematic review. The report is based on site visits and interviews with local authorities, developers and residents, the SDC
report assesses whether the Government has delivered on its promise to create sustainable communities.

Findings include:

• Housing growth is taking place in severely water-stressed areas. There are serious concerns about whether these areas will be able to cope with increased demand.

• A lack of co-ordination means that some communities have been left without vital facilities, convenient bus routes, community centres, and parks when residents move in.

• Government has made real progress on climate change with its pledge that new homes will be zero carbon in 10 years’ time. But the Government needs to offset carbon from now until 2016 by drastically cutting emissions from existing houses.

More at Sustainable Development Commission where the report can be downloaded in pdf

Martin Brown is a Sustainable Development Commission Panel member. The Panel is made up of over 500 sustainable development stakeholders from all walks of life and are consulted on a wide range of issues to inform the SDC work programme.

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Little Book of Change and Rising to the Challenge

Two publications from the NWDA that should get your attention:

A Little Book of Change

A useful guide from the Business Resource Efficiency & Waste Programme (BREW) in the Northwest.

This booklet will give you the contacts and tools to enable you to access the support that you need to rise to the challenge, help the planet and save your organisation money.

and

Rising to the Challenge

The Northwest Climate Change Action Plan sets out a Vision towards 2010 and action plans for our region

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