CHRIS HAVERS. Facilities Show Spotlight. October Facilities Show Spotlight, October

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1 CHRIS HAVERS Facilities Show Spotlight October 2018 Facilities Show Spotlight, October

2 Chris Havers: Biography BORN: I was born in London in STUDIED: Studied Biological Sciences (BSc honours) at Exeter University GRADUATED: I graduated in CURRENT: As the Project director of the Sustainable FM index, Chris leads the strategic direction of the initiative. Seeing the value that a sustainable FM provider can bring to businesses, his aim is to increase the number FM s taking part in the SFMI, whilst increasing the reach of the SFMI to other stakeholders who seek a sustainable FM approach. He is also working on some exciting projects that will increase the value of to FM s when joining the partnership. OVERVIEW: Chris has worked in sustainability since His background was built upon working for CDP, the global environmental reporting charity. From here he built his knowledge of environmental corporate reporting and sustainability measurement through working on various voluntary and regulatory reporting mechanisms as a sustainability consultant. He has broadened his understanding of corporate sustainability management through working with businesses on waste and energy audits (he has completed an ISO50001 lead auditor training assessment), developing sustainability strategies for clients and developing his understanding of social sustainability issues. He is now the Project director of the Sustainable FM Index (SFMI) and is leading the SFMI strategy, direction, and expanding the membership of the project. Facilities Show Spotlight, October

3 What does a sustainable business look like in 2025? If AI is going the way it s reported, then a sustainable business will be run by robots, and people will be completely removed from the process. It would probably make things easier. However, back to reality, a sustainable business in general should be operating by a set of corporate values which have responsible business practices embedded and cover an array of sustainability topics appropriate to the businesses impacts. The key to a sustainable business is embedding those responsible values throughout the employees and the decision making processes, with special focus being placed on giving long term value. So often are businesses squeezed by the pressure of short term gains. Our current fixation on short term gains is driven by multiple stakeholders in the system, and means that the losers are society and the environment. I realise however that this requires a fundamental shift in the current financial system, so maybe 2025 is a little optimistic. Ultimately, if decisions are based around a set of responsible values that give emphasis on long term value, then sustainability becomes embedded into the heart of the business. This will then align with the management of our facilities, because sustainability needs to be woven throughout the services offered and the FM team needs to align with the values and targets of the business. The key to a sustainable business is embedding those responsible values throughout the employees and the decision making processes, with special focus being placed on giving long term value. Within the FM sector, we are certainly lagging behind other sectors in this space, and there is a chasm growing within the sector. So by 2025, if there is more pressure on business (especially large businesses) other sectors will be procuring FM with sustainability in mind. There will likely be two types of FM business; the low cost one that use the bare minimum offering model (you get what you pay for), and the company that offers sustainability as part of their embedded approach, giving the client quality, added value, and being able to support the client towards their sustainability targets, compliance needs and management of key sustainability remits. We are seeing this gap start to form, so the question is, how many will form in each group by 2025? Facilities Show Spotlight, October

4 What are leading companies doing today to make a sustainable future a reality? Leading companies outside of the FM sector are pushing the boundaries beyond the slow moving political debates and actions happening. Political progress is short term and based around the classic four-year term. There are other factors at play which are hindering the sustainability agenda - nationalism and protectionism are such examples. But leading companies that are co-operating across a range of initiatives on a global level, and sharing ideas and practices, and signing up to targets that go beyond the Governments of their country, they are the leaders. There are many examples of these intiatives, the RE100 club, the UN-SDGs, science based targets, Ellen Macarthur CE100. What are the most common challenges organisations face when it comes to sustainability? There is a real mixed bag of challenges because the industry is very spread out in its understanding. For many, the basics of accurately measuring consumption is a key challenge, or being able to measure the success of a sustainability project can be difficult. A hot challenge in FM is being able to measure the social value that it can offer during a contract. There are many attempts to try and measure social value with a single value which spans a range of complex factors, whereas it just isn t that easy. This challenge is driven by the need to justify investment in environmental and social projects to stakeholders, and be able to communicate things in simple language. So we need to step back from this fascination of putting a value to social value, and engage the stakeholders, gain context and where value can be gained. So often you hear bold claims on recycling figures, or the term - We have 100% zero waste to landfill. But actually, these claims are being thrown around and not verified. Verification of success is also a challenge. Like understanding where your business waste is actually going. So often you hear bold claims on recycling figures, or the term We have 100% zero waste to landfill. But actually, these claims are being thrown around and not verified. Let s face it on the whole, society is pretty bad at separating recycling from waste, so claiming the levels of recycling that some companies do is pretty optimistic. The likelihood is we send it overseas, there is too much contamination of waste and recycled materials and it hits the landfill in another country. All the while, we are blissfully walking around thinking we re doing good but making false claims - That sounds like a PR risk in the making. Facilities Show Spotlight, October

5 What are some of your biggest challenges? Leading from a previous question, it is the one of the chasms forming between those who can, and those who can t do sustainability. At the SFMI, we work with FM providers and offer them an assessment and a benchmark of how they are managing the full spectrum of sustainability issues both in their corporate management, and in how they integrate sustainability into their FM contracts. The challenge that we face is how to expand the interest of sustainability into the mainstream of FM against the pressures of FM profitability being squeezed to the bottom line. Sustainability in FM is seen as a differentiator for the few top leading companies, whereas we want it to appeal to the to a bulk of mainstream businesses who will integrate sustainability into their service and corporate management Currently the FM sector is lagging behind many other sectors. There are providers who give a surface scan of their own sustainability performance and think that they are doing well because of a few siloed initiatives, but do not want to hear from an external perspective who is comparing multiple businesses across the sector. Unfortunately, they don t want to know the real answer. What are your 5 top tips for an organisation wanting to improve their sustainability? Make sustainability a journey, understand your impacts, join the dots, and map your pathway through a process of learning from data and evidence, and implementing a strategy and initiatives, and of course learning from previous mistakes. The journey should be to slowly embed it throughout the business, because otherwise there is only so much. I m not sure if that is multiple tips, or one general tip. What s the best piece of advice you have ever been given? Any problem can be solved as long as you re not thinking of being a theoretical mathematician then you re on your own. What are your predictions for the FM industry for 2018/19? Hoping for some good news from the sector that doesn t include financial collapse. Hopefully you ve enjoyed reading an article that doesn t involve the word BREXIT Oops sorry, I ruined it. Facilities Show Spotlight, October

6 Facilities Show Spotlight, October