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Throughout November 2003, the Facilities Management Association of Australia (FMA) has conducted its 2003 Professional Development Workshops. This is the second set of workshops for which Dr Vyt Garnys, Managing Director of CETEC, has been invited to contribute. In 2001, Dr Vyt Garnys presented a course on risk management to facility management groups throughout Australia.

This year, The FMA has chosen a topic of High-Performance Facilities through Sustainability and used a range of speakers to develop various aspects of this complex and emerging area.

• The Links between Organizational and Environmental Performance was presented by Kevin Worrell
• Peter Mathieson presented on Energy and Water
• Chris Robinson on Materials and Waste and 
• Dr Vyt Garnys ended the course core by presenting on Facility Ecology -- a New Term for a Holistic Concept of Controlling Indoor Environments

The last session in each state was provided by local invited speakers, illustrating the application of sustainability techniques to local facility projects.

Key issues raised that demonstrate the breadth of knowledge presented in the course and enjoyed by Facility Managers from Australia and New Zealand included the following:

• Sustainability and environmental performance should increase profits for business. The triple bottom line is an increasing tool for corporations.
• Recognition and achieving savings with energy and water conservation, requires integrated approaches to bring the maximum benefit from the opportunity to shift from using energy and providing what is actually required. A wide range of techniques were provided.
• Tips for reducing waste through design and management, techniques for reducing waste in buildings, available tools for selecting materials and examples were given in a facility lifecycle context.
• The concept of facility ecology was used to illustrate that savings from building occupant productivity gains are several times larger than savings gained from reducing facility management budgets. The key components of productivity, occupant health and behaviour were contrasted with facility design variation in order to illustrate the need for examining facility ecology, rather than occupants and facilities in isolation. Examples of operational issues, and a case study were used to consolidate these integrated concepts related to occupant productivity.

Regarding the value of the course, the high ratings received from participants indicated the worth of the small group executive development programs run by The Facility Management Association throughout Australia.

Summaries of CETEC presentations are available on request, contact us here.