There’s no Planet B: Embracing sustainability

Sustainability is now starting to shape the culture of most organisations as they are realising the impact of its triple bottom lines: social, environmental, and economic (dynamic fundamentals encompassing the sustainability concept in the world of facility management) on the industry. The increasing pressure from regulators, consumers, and governments has forced companies to reconsider their business priorities and long-term development goals.
Additionally, it is being seen by way of a vital element to the operations not only because it provides lots of opportunities for growth to the businesses, but it also helps build resilience in such an uncertain world.
Therefore, in the face of the effects of global warming, climate changes, and carbon footprint, organisations must shift away from transactional recovery mode to more of a strategic, tactical, and partnership approach with their stakeholders; be it suppliers, employees, clients, as well as the wider society.
For instance, a substantial increase in hazardous wastes generated from contaminated cases, and likewise, has posed a global health calamity on the world’s population urging the organisations to reshape their protocols as well as their supply chain business model (purchase of recyclable materials, consideration of ergonomics for machineries, reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in cleaning chemicals, transfer to green sealed products and many more) in order to maintain individual’s health and
well-being.
We often see that women are predominantly in charge of conserving environmental resources when it comes to taking charge in managing the households with laundry, cleaning and recycling falling under that banner. They consume tremendous efforts and endless time to secure the future of their families.
Repeated studies have shown that women have a stake in the environment reflected in the degree to which they care about natural resources. During the Paleolithic age, women used to take care of their lands and agricultural terrains giving greater priority to the protection of and improving the capacity of nature.
To date, this practice is still followed in the villages where elderly females are still responsible to oversee the agricultural lands to preserve food due to the persistent portrayal of women as caregivers – even of the planet.
A Mckinsey study, Diversity wins, revealed that inclusivity and diversity in a company are good ignitors of the “economic” bottom line as they found that the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform less diverse peers on profitability and financial growth. Companies that have more gender-diverse management teams, i.e. more females in the leadership role, have 19% higher revenue due to innovation and variety of expertise embedded within their culture. Diversity becomes then an integral part of a successful revenue-generating business due to its direct effect on the sustainability bottom line.
The study also provides new insights into how inclusion matters; it shows that companies should pay much greater attention to inclusion, even when they are relatively diverse.
A survey held in 2018 by the market research firm, Mintel, said that 71% of women try to live more ethically, compared to 59% of men. For good measure, 65% also encourage friends and family to adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, while only 59% of men do.
2020 and 2021 have been turbulent years and struggles for the FM industry due the adverse impact, amid the current outbreak, that has exacerbated environmental fragility and brought with it a significant number of unprecedented side effects.
Organisations must brand their logo with sustainability for “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs” as there will be no Planet B.
Facilities managers play a vital role in mitigating unforeseen environmental issues once they choose to embrace sustainability as their decisions will have a long-term impact on the planet’s health. They should be actively engaged in helping to reduce energy, water use, waste, improving biodiversity in the built environment.
What could change the FM industry at large is the adoption of technology, a business driving force, as well as maintenance and operation practices that consider the social, environmental and economic benefits for leading
smart decisions.