Implement Sustainable Practices For A Healthy Work Environment

sustainability resized 600 Going Green is not just a trend any longer, rather has changed to a movement for individuals and entities alike. In this era when every individual or entity has to fulfill their environmental responsibility, business implementation of the same is known as sustainability. These sustainable practices not only benefit the environment, but also the community they are implemented in. A well-defined and focused sustainability strategy is beneficial for any organization, be it private-sector, federal, nonprofit entity or military.

IFMA (International Facility Management Association) Foundation with its recent free publication release U.S. Government Policy Impacts and Opportunities for Facility Management, offers a very practical and comprehensive approach to make sustainability improvements for all private and public sector properties completely based on the guidelines issued by the federal government.

The guide is mainly for the facility managers whose intentions are to pursue a comprehensive and practical approach to make sustainability improvements to the properties they are responsible for. To be exact the guide is mainly for those facility professionals who wish to develop and then have implemented a sustainability performance plan for facilities under their responsibility while enjoying the benefits of best-in-class resources, benchmark information, tools and supports that have been developed by the US state governments and the federal government. The main goals of the guide are:-

To describe how recent executive and legislative initiatives have directed their main focus on maximizing the efficiency of energy and water in the federal buildings and reducing the costs and providing leadership.
To learn the ways of achieving greener buildings and areas through site planning, water efficiency, HVAC systems, building material selection and ongoing building operations.
To work towards improving energy management tactics and techniques through lighting considerations, consideration of energy demands, windows, refrigeration and other such efficient and ENERGY STAR appliances.
To provide support for building a business case to the senior administration for sustainability initiatives.
To help the facility manager be opportunistic by taking the benefit of available rebates, grants and incentives available and give way to increased operational and capital investments.
To help understand the recent reporting requirements that have been affecting the federal agencies along with the commercial entities.
To help you learn from real-world insights that the case studies contain for some effective sustainability approaches.

Pertaining to the built environment, the guide is mainly built around the following U.S. Acts and executive orders:-

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)
Energy Policy Act 2005
The Energy Independence and Security Act 2007
Executive Order 13423
Executive Order 13514

John McGee, a co-author of the guide and past chair of the IFMA board of directors said: “There’s a broad range of support tools available for federal and private-sector facility professionals tasked with responding to energy improvement and carbon emission reduction goals, and this guide will help them better understand and utilize these resources.”

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