Contribute to sustainable practice in workplace and facilities services
Overview
This standard covers contributing to sustainable practice in workplace and facilities services. It is about demonstrating corporate social responsibility in workplace and facilities services practice. It involves establishing and confirming that your actions and workplace and facilities services practice take account of social, environmental, sustainability and economic issues.
Contributing to sustainable practice requires understanding of and compliance with legal requirements and the organisation's business plan, strategies, systems, procedures and policies including business efficiencies and sustainable practices.
It is important that you know and understand your responsibilities under the current environmental and health and safety legislation, codes of practice and the policies of the organisation.
This standard is applicable to those who deliver workplace and facilities services, this can be to an internal client (within your organisation) or to an external client, both are referred to as the "organisation" within this standard.
Managers at this level will be required to drive workplace and facilities services within the organisation.
This standard has links to the standards suite Facilities Management and the standards suite Management and Leadership managed by Instructus.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- carry out your work in accordance with the current environmental and health and safety legislation, risk assessment requirements, codes of practice and policies of the organisation including business efficiencies and sustainable practices
- identify, assess and adopt sustainable practice in line with the current legal requirements, and the organisation's business efficiencies and sustainable practices policies as part of the delivery of all services
- contribute to sustainable practice by employing workplace and facilities services practices that minimise demands on natural resources
- employ workplace and facilities services practices that maximise the impact of business efficiencies and sustainable practices, including energy and water management measures
- employ practices that minimise the environmental impact of workplace and facilities services, including pollution and carbon footprint
- contribute to improving the organisation's business efficiencies and sustainable practices by establishing the efficient use of materials, equipment and consumables in workplace and facilities services practices
- use technologies and materials consistent with sustainability principles
- establish and confirm practices that contribute to business efficiency and sustainability on the basis of whole life value
- establish and confirm working practices that maximise environmental benefit to the controlled environment
- reduce, re-use, recycle and recover waste efficiently and make use of the systems available
- communicate and promote sustainable best practice to those involved and affected, including contractors and suppliers
- evaluate and confirm that stakeholders, including suppliers and contractors, adopt available sustainable practices
- assess the costs, risks and opportunities of planned actions
- monitor and evaluate workplace and facilities services to establish and maintain conformity to the organisiations sustainable practices policy
- contribute to the development, implementation and revision of business efficiencies and sustainable practices policies
- adopt an approach to workplace and facilities services that has a positive impact on the local and wider community
- confirm that the organisation operates within the current legal requirements and social responsibilities with regard to sustainable best practice
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- your responsibilities under the current environmental and health and safety legislation, codes of practice and policies of the organisation, including business efficiencies and sustainable practices
- the current legal requirements including regulations regarding sustainability, energy management and environmental protection and how to comply with these
- the energy management requirements within the overall workplace and facilities services strategy in line with and supportive of the organisation's business efficiencies and sustainable practice policies
- the balance between social, environmental and economic factors in confirming the sustainability of workplace and facilities services
- the responsibility of managing workplace and facilities services in accordance with the current legal requirements and social responsibilities
- the contribution of sustainable practices to climate change
- the principle of carbon neutrality and ways of achieving it
- workplace and facilities services practices that maximise the impact of energy management measures
- how workplace and facilities services can provide education, training and employment opportunities within the organisation and local communities
- how workplace and facilities services can provide and improve opportunities and social benefits for the local and wider community
- how to engage with the stakeholders and the local community to establish and confirm workplace and facilities services meet their needs
- the ways of assessing and mitigating the environmental impact of
- workplace and facilities services activities
- how to minimise energy and water demand by conserving andrenewing energy resources
- the sources of renewable and sustainable energy and the importance of making use of these
- how to select and make best use of sustainable and environmentally friendly materials, consumables, services and products
- the ways of minimising, re-using, recovering and disposing of waste and using systems available
- the role of sustainable practice in meeting corporate social responsibility obligations in line with business policy
- the business and community benefits of sustainable and environmental management
- the relationship between sustainable design, construction and the operation of buildings and infrastructures
- the current methods of communicating sustainability issues to decision-makers and those involved and affected, including the benefits of making improvements to and supporting business efficiencies and sustainable practices
- the costs, risks and opportunities of the planned action and on the basis of whole life value
- the ways of maximising the economic benefits of adopting sustainable practices
the responsibility of managing workplace and facilities services in accordance with the current legal requirements and social responsibilities
Scope/range
Scope Performance
Scope Knowledge
Values
Behaviours
Skills
Glossary
Best practices
Best practices are a set of guidelines or ethics that represent the most efficient and effective course of action in each business situation.
Best practices may be decided internally by an organisations management team or by authorities, such as regulators or governing bodies.
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Business efficiencies
This relates to the sustainable management of resources such as water, energy efficiency and waste management, in line with the organisation's business efficiency policies which aim at improving operational efficiency. In business, efficiency refers to the production of goods or the offering of services by using the smallest amount or resources, such as capital, energy etc. Efficient businesses can create products, offer services and accomplish their overall goals with the minimum effort, expense or waste.
Operational performance
This refers to an organisation's performance measured against a standard or prescribed indicator of effectiveness, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. These indicators could include time, productivity, waste reduction, and regulatory compliance.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a service provider and a client. Aspects of the service – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed between the service provider and the service user. The most common component of an SLA is that the services should be provided to the customer as agreed upon in the contract.
Social responsibilities
Social responsibilities refer to a type of self-regulatory business plan
and the efforts made by a company to improve society and contribute towards sustainable development. It describes initiatives run by a business to evaluate and take responsibility for their impact on issues ranging from human rights to the environment.
The business plan will focus on achieving economic, social and environmental benefits for all the stakeholders involved (employees, consumers, investors and other groups).
The purpose of it is to encourage businesses to conduct their companies in an ethical manner and work towards having a more positive impact on society through ensuring sustainable growth.
Sustainable practices
Sustainable business practices are characterised by environmentally friendly practices initiated by an organisation for the purposes of becoming more sustainable. Organisations aim to reduce their environmental footprint through initiatives that cut down on waste, poor environmental stewardship and unethical environmental practices so that they offer a reduced level of sustainability within the organisation's policies and practices.
Sustainable business practices differ between industries and are often specific to the type of organisation and the product or service it produces or provides.
Whole life costing
Whole life costing produces a whole life value, which considers the total cost of a product or service over its lifetime, from concept through to disposal including purchase, hire or lease, maintenance, operation, utilities, training and disposal. It is important for procurement to take all these elements into consideration particularly when making decisions and comparing the costs of buying, renting or leasing equipment. In most cases the purchase costs are only a small proportion of the cost of operating the equipment.
Workplace and facilities services
Workplace and facilities services is "the organisational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with
the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business." Workplace and facilities services professionals are responsible for services that enable and support business performance.
All organisations have responsibilities under the current health, safety and welfare regulations to ensure the daily health, safety and welfare of their employees. This includes ensuring provisions are made for:
Workplace and facilities services (soft services)
• Soft services are ones that make the workplace more pleasant
or secure to work in.
Examples of soft services are cleaning, catering, security.
Facilities Management (hard services)
• Hard services are ones that relate to the physical fabric of the
building and cannot be removed. They ensure the safety and
welfare of employees and generally are required by law.
Examples of hard services are plumbing, heating and lighting.
Hard services are covered in the Facilities Management suite