CASE STUDIES
ENVIRONMENTALISM: FROM FAD TO FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE
Y
ou might think starting an elements go hand in hand. and monitor this over time as part of
article with the words of a If we manage our facilities awareness and targeted reduction
wildlife vet for a story aimed efficiently, we are managing our resources campaigns. You need facts. Without hard
at facilities managers is efficiently and by developing sustainable data, you can’t make changes and people
somewhat unusual but John strategies, we are highlighting areas of need to see the numbers in front of them.
Lewis from Chessington Zoo, opportunity for further and ongoing In terms of water, in the Netherlands
quoted in a book by the poet and great- performance improvements. there is a natural, cooling solution in
great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, We have taken our overall strategy on place. Instead of using mechanical chillers
Ruth Padel’s “Tigers in Red Weather” is an sustainability and environment and split it and cooling towers, water at around 6
eternal truism: ‘You have a choice: do into the categories of: Energy, water, waste degrees centigrade is taken from a depth
nothing or do something. I know what I and paper, and related CO
2
emissions. of around 30 metres below the surface of
decided.’ At the time, John was talking It is incredibly important for us to a lake nearby the head office. The lake
Ruth through tiger diseases standing highlight the work we are doing for both water is passed through a sealed heat
beside a young tigress. our staff and also our clients or customers. exchanger, transferring its cooling load
The world of environmentalism has If people know what we are doing to through to the sealed chilled water circuit,
changed in recent years. It used to be reduce our direct environmental impacts, the water then being returned to the lake.
that people who worked in ‘environmental then that spurs them on to further action. The use of this natural cooling solution for
issues’ were seen as at the margins of the We are talking about 110,000 employees building air-conditioning and cooling has
world of commerce. CSR departments in the bank globally and we need to be meant a 64 per cent reduction in CO
2
were an addendum, something that able to engage with each and every one emissions, compared to typical air-
directors and executives knew had to of them. conditioning methods..
exist for reporting but, in many cases, One key area we have been working We have also established our long-
these departments always felt like they on is the deployment of Remote Energy term sustainability strategy, and developed
were banging their heads against closed Monitoring, Targeting and Reduction environmental awareness toolkits and
doors. These doors are very much now Solution, focusing on our larger and action plans for use across the bank.
wide open. higher energy consuming buildings Transparency is key to our success and we
How a business runs its affairs is tied initially, as part of a phased roll-out.. always look to work with good, robust
up in the buildings in which it operates Energy consumption is monitored in half- data. My question to you would be: “With
and the behaviour of the staff which it hour packets, providing detailed energy such significant opportunities to reduce
employs. Facilities managers’ roles are to profiles per building, and this increased direct environmental impacts and CO
2
help the business run successfully, transparency of the energy performance emissions, why would anyone not want to
efficiently and cost-effectively. of buildings enables our facilities do this?”
Has environmentalism turned from a fad managers to further optimise building
to a fundamental principle? The operation and energy efficiency. This BOB OLDFIELD, CONTRACTS
following facilities, contracts and solution has been piloted across 35 offices MANAGER, THE NATURAL HISTORY
properties’ managers and directors talk in the UK, continental Europe and Asia. MUSEUM: The Natural History Museum
through the position they find themselves We are also trialling automatic has recently been awarded Office Depot
in now, in 2007: shutdown software with our IT colleagues. Environmental Reseller of the Year, from a
In introducing such automated energy list of 472 other organisations. In 2003,
STEPHEN SMITH, GLOBAL HEAD OF saving solutions, we are seeking to make we were the first museum in the UK to be
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT & life as simple as possible for our registered with ISO 14001 status, we have
SUSTAINABILITY, ABN AMRO: ABN employees to participate and to support 850+ staff and we are visited by millions
AMRO is headquartered in the our initiatives, and therefore our energy- on an annual basis.
Netherlands and operates in five regions saving solutions don’t impact negatively Environmental procurement has
globally - the on them. become more of an issue over the 27
Netherlands, Another focus area is the sub- years I have worked here, with nine years
Europe, North metering IT from other energy uses, such in procurement. We are a government-
America, Asia and as air conditioning, lighting and general funded body that is closely linked to the
Brazil. It operates in power. If we know how much energy our natural world by means of our collections.
over 50 countries IT equipment is consuming, we can work Our mission as a museum is about the
and from over with our IT colleagues to seek further responsible use of the natural world,
6,300 buildings. improvements. If we can bring down IT therefore it is relevant we should be at the
The challenge for us related energy consumption, this will also forefront of environmental initiatives.
is dimensioning the reduce air-conditioning loads and related Part of the sea change in thinking is
financial, the energy consumption. not only from our own wishes and our
sustainable and the With regard to paper, we are looking visitors’ expectation of us but also
resource efficiency at print-tracking solutions with IT. This because of government encouraging us
of our operations means we can identify exactly how much down the green route: it’s the classic
together. All these paper individual departments are using push/pull situation.
36| SUSTAINABLE FM | OCTOBER 2007
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