A FACILITY MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO REDUCING ENERGY AND CARBON FOOTPRINT OF BUILT FACILITIES

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of a life cycle approach and the role of facilities management practices in reducing the environmental footprint of built facilities. An approach to holistic life cycle energy and carbon reduction is also proposed. State of the Art: Built facilities consume over 40% of global energy annually resulting in over 33% of world’s total carbon emission. According to literature, for a significant reduction in energy use and resulting carbon emissions, it is critical that both the embodied and operating energy use of a facility is optimized. Approach: A literature-based discovery approach was applied to collect, analyze, and synthesize the results of published case studies from around the globe. The energy use results of 158 published case studies were analyzed to derive conclusions. Results: A comparison of energy efficient and conventional facilities revealed that decreasing operating energy may increase the embodied energy components. Additionally, the analysis of 95 commercial facilities indicated that nearly 10% of the total U.S. carbon emissions was influenced by facilities management practices. Practical Implications: The proposed approach to holistic environmental footprint reduction can guide facility management research and practice to make meaningful contributions to our efforts for creating a sustainable built environment.