9 September 2016 | Martin Read

The BIFM’s sustainability special interest group (SIG) is embarking on a  project to improve the value and accessibility of its sustainability research programme.

Speaking at the launch of the 2016 BIFM sustainability survey, SIG chairman Sunil Shah explained that the group’s current focus on annual research reports can have the effect of limiting the potential impact of its work. By introducing longer-term research activity with a five year span, the value of the subsequent output will be greater to end users and the FM sector’s interactions with government.

“We are looking at how we collect data, and at how we work with the plethora of data that already exists,” said Shah. 

“But we have had the problem that much of the third party data we work with is maintained in closed data sets. And a lot of that data is not cross-comparable from one third-party source to another.

The sustainability SIG is seeking to introduce a new open access information portal through which to host its longer-term researh activity. The longer-term research programme will focus on both environmental and social sustainability metrics. 

The challenge, said Shah, is to produce better and more shareable data. 

“At the moment, a lot of conversations that government has about the impact of buildings is from a design-led perspective, not FM. So when goverment wants to talk about how buildings perform, they talk to architects and engineering consultants rather than the FM profession.”

The sustainability SIG is looking for organisations to support this programme. It intends to go live with the project in the early part of next year.