The 5 ESG Compliance Pillars via Digitalised Property & Facility Management: Your Benefits

Published by    Dr Daniele Gambero on   July 11, 2023

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have become essential for organizations across various industries.

Property and Facility Management (PFM) companies, responsible for the operation and maintenance of buildings and facilities, play a vital role in addressing ESG concerns. By adopting an all-in-one digital solution that encompasses work order management, preventive maintenance, vendor and contract management, asset and inventory management, tenants and clients' requests management, and visitors & tenants access management, these companies can significantly enhance and consequently measure their ESG scoring.

Unfortunately, most online material gives vague and general statements or ideas on this topic without a deep dive into the Practical Compliance and Scoring-Measurement, or the lack of, for the property and facility management industry!

With this article, first we will walk the readers through the practical ESG impact and related benefits of such a digital solution for Property and Facility Management companies and secondly will explore the achievable measurement of ESG compliance.

Work Order Management

Efficient work order management is crucial for minimizing resource consumption and waste generation, contributing to improved ESG performance.

An all-in-one digital solution for FM allows Property and Facility Management companies to streamline work order processes, ensuring optimal resource allocation, reduced downtime, and enhanced productivity.

By automating work order assignment, tracking, and completion, companies can minimize unnecessary travel and optimize technician routes, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Preventive Maintenance

Implementing preventive maintenance practices is key to reducing energy consumption, preventing equipment failures, and minimizing environmental impact. With the right digital solution, Property and Facility Management companies will be provided with a centralized platform to schedule and track preventive maintenance tasks efficiently.

By conducting regular equipment inspections, calibrations, and cleanings, companies can optimize energy efficiency, reduce water consumption, and extend the lifespan of assets, leading to significant cost savings and improved ESG performance.

Vendor and Contract Management

Effective vendor and contract management contribute to sustainable sourcing practices and socially responsible partnerships, besides ensuring high governance through transparency of the entire process.

A well-developed digital solution facilitates streamlined vendor onboarding, performance monitoring, and contract management. Property and Facility Management companies can prioritize vendors with strong ESG credentials, ensuring compliance with sustainability standards throughout the whole supply chain.

By fostering transparent and ethical relationships with vendors, companies can minimize environmental risks, uphold social responsibility, and promote fair labour practices.

Asset and Inventory Management

Efficient asset and inventory management are vital components of sustainable property and facility operations. Digitalisation here, enables Property and Facility Management companies to track and manage assets, equipment, and inventory seamlessly.

By maintaining accurate records, optimizing asset utilization, and implementing effective procurement strategies, companies can minimize waste, reduce unnecessary purchases, and optimize resource allocation.

This automatically leads to lower energy consumption, reduced waste generation, and improved overall ESG performance.

 

Tenants and Clients' Requests Management

Responsive and effective management of tenants' and clients' requests is essential for ensuring tenant satisfaction and achieving good ESG compliance.

An integrated digital solution, in this case, shall provide a user-friendly interface for tenants and clients to submit and track requests, fostering transparency, responsibility and accountability.

Facility Managers can promptly address maintenance issues, optimize energy consumption based on tenant preferences, and implement sustainable solutions. By engaging with tenants and clients on ESG matters, companies can build trust, enhance customer satisfaction, and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.

Efficient access management systems raise to a new level security, safety, and sustainability of properties. Digitalising building’s access enables Property and Facility Management companies to implement smart access control measures, reducing the need for physical keys and cards.

By leveraging digital technologies such as mobile applications and smart locks, companies can enhance security, optimize energy usage by automating lighting and HVAC systems, and minimize waste from lost or discarded access cards. These measures improve the overall building’s ESG performance while enhancing the convenience and user experience for tenants and visitors.

ESG Impact and Benefits

Implementing an all-in-one fully integrated digital solution for Property and Facility Management offers a wide range of ESG-related opportunities while enabling measurability of ESG benefits and ensuring compliance with sustainability standards.

ESG Measurable Benefits

• Environmental Impact

Property and Facility Management digitalisation allows the achievement of significant environmental benefits. By optimizing resource consumption and reducing waste, these solutions contribute to lower energy and water usage, reduced carbon emissions, and improved waste management practices.

Through modules such as preventive maintenance and asset management, companies can minimize energy waste, optimize equipment utilization, and extend asset lifespans. These actions result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, lowered energy bills, and improved overall environmental performance.

• Social Impact

ESG considerations extend beyond environmental factors, encompassing social dimensions as well. An all-in-one PFM digital solution enhances social impact in Property and Facility Management by improving tenant and client satisfaction.

Modules such as work order, tenants and clients' requests, and visitors and tenants access management streamline processes, leading to faster response times, improved service quality, and enhanced overall user experience. By addressing tenant concerns promptly and effectively, Property & Facility Mangers can foster positive relationships, boost tenant satisfaction, and create a sense of community within their properties.

• Governance

Governance is a crucial aspect of ESG, ensuring that organizations operate ethically, transparently, and in compliance with applicable regulations and standards.

In this area an integrated digital solution facilitates governance and compliance in Property and Facility Management through features such as vendor and contract management.

By implementing standardized processes for vendor onboarding, teams’ performance monitoring, and contract management, companies can ensure high transparency, accountability, and adherence to sustainability criteria throughout the supply chain. This not only mitigates risks but also helps organizations build trust with stakeholders and enhance their reputation.

ESG Compliance

• Reporting and Transparency

Digital Property and Facility Management solutions provide easy and almost real-time reporting capabilities, enabling an easy measuring, monitoring, and reporting on the organisations ESG performance. A centralised dashboard allows availability of real-time key metrics and indicators, allowing organizations to track their progress towards ESG goals at almost any time.

Property and Facility Management companies can prove their real commitment to sustainability and ESG compliance with comprehensive reports on energy consumption, water usage, waste generation, and other relevant ESG parameters.

• Compliance with Regulations and Standards

Property and Facility Management companies need to meet regulatory frameworks and industry-specific sustainability standard obligations and consequent reporting.

A digital PFM solution with integrated ESG standards’ compliance reading points and streamlining processes, enforcing compliance requirements, and facilitating the collection of necessary data for regulatory reporting ensures ESG alignment and easily produce reports related to energy efficiency, waste management, carbon emissions, sustainable sourcing, and good governance.

• Stakeholder Engagement

ESG compliance goes beyond meeting regulatory requirements; engagement with stakeholders and addressing their concerns is a strategic component of Property and Facility Management best practices.

The right digital solution for PFM will engage and stimulate tenants, visitors, and vendors in sustainable practices. Through transparent communication channels, companies can gather feedback, respond to queries, and incorporate stakeholder input into decision-making processes.

By actively involving stakeholders in sustainability initiatives and aligning their operation’s output to expectations, Property and Facility Management companies can foster stronger relationships and bring stakeholders’ satisfaction to a new level.

ESG Measurable Impact

Property and Facility Management companies need to measure the impact of their sustainability initiatives through a “Set-ESG-Targets-Indicators / Track-Key-Indicators-Performance / Identify-Areas-For-Improvement” model.

ServeDeck’s All-In-One and integrated digital solution for PFM provides the needed data-driven approach to the above; by collecting and analysing data through integrated modules and tracking all key performance indicators, Property and Facility Management companies will be able to measure and communicate their ESG progress to stakeholders, investors, and rating agencies.

Measuring the actual ESG performance also facilitates benchmarking against industry peers and best practices, driving a continuous PFM Industry improvement in ESG performance.

Conclusion

A full digital transformation adoption will empower Property and Facility Management companies to measure and enhance their ESG scoring, comply with regulations, engage stakeholders, and drive sustainable practices.

Through the fully integrated modules of ServeDeck’s digital solution, PFM companies can optimize resources utilization, minimize waste, reduce environmental impact, and improve overall operational efficiency while positioning themselves as leaders in sustainability, attracting stakeholders and investors who value ESG commitments and contributing to a more socially responsible future.

Reach out to our customers’ support team and book a free demo session to better understand how ServeDeck’s fully integrated and all-in-one digital solution can help your organisation towards effective & measurable ESG compliance, efficient facility management and building performance excellence!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The opinions expressed in this article are solely of the author, Dr Daniele Gambero.

Dr Gambero has been an expatriate to Malaysia from Italy, since 1998 and has more than 35 years of real estate experience. He is the co-founder and group CEO of REI Group of Companies, the Co-founder of Propenomy.com and the president of the Malaysia Proptech Association.

In the past 10 years Daniele, as international and TEDX speaker, has engaged several hundreds thousand people talking about Property, Economy, Propenomy, Digital Marketing and Motivation. He is also a bestselling author and columnist on several magazines and main stream media. You can reach him directly through his LinkedIn page here.

 

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