FOCUS SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABLE CORE
Sunil Shah, Director at Acclaro Advisory & SFMI says the latest FM progress
report on sustainability illustrates why the sector must adopt a progressive
business model with sustainability at its centre
The sudden, catastrophic emergence
of COVID-19 generated the most
significant disruption to life in the
post-war era. The pandemic dealt a harsh
blow, forcing organisations across the
public and private sector to make drastic
changes to their operations, commercial
models, workplace strategies, employee
engagement e… orts, health and safety
procedures, and more. The SFMI(1), running
since 2013, is a sustainability roadmap for
the FM sector, helping to benchmark an
organisation’s performance against peers
and providing a tailored programme of
measures that need improvement.
The latest findings provide some guidance
28 JULY 2021
on how FM has progressed in meeting
sustainability targets during the disruption,
but what is clear is that organisations have
relied on the facilities management sector
to guide them through the pandemic.
As existing contracts were torn up, FM
demonstrated its responsiveness, flexibility
and ability to gain trust, and it has o“ en
been the people in low-paid facilities roles
that have borne the brunt, risking their
health during the crisis.
Investors are also looking at how
organisations have responded to the
pandemic; in particular their engagement
with sta— , the resilience of service o— erings
and the adaptability of the management
team. The rise of Environment, Social and
Governance (ESG) measures now require
a greater level of public disclosure, based
upon the collection and analysis of data
and a clear forward strategy. With many
of these impacts, including supply chain
diversity, carbon emissions, and waste
e— iciency a— ecting the facilities operations,
a robustness over data, risks and decision
making is a necessary part of the role.
VIEW FROM THE SUSTAINABLE FM INDEX
Looking ahead to the long-term view, the
pandemic has accelerated a shi“ in working
habits, forced organisations to undertake