In the Facility Management industry, we are continually looking to stay up to date on the ever-changing needs of businesses. There will always be new innovations in buildings and the surrounding grounds for us to keep up with. One of the most significant reasons the FM industry is changing is due to the massive global shift toward urbanization, and the surge of new construction to keep up with it. That new construction comes with new greener building practices and, includes renovations to sites that need to be brought up to par with the surrounding city-scape.
Today we’re sharing an excerpt from a post by FMWORLD that examines what the some of the transformations this urban shift may bring about.
LIVING FOR THE CITY
Our planet is urbanizing at a breathtaking rate, with 70 per cent of the world’s population set to be living in a city by the year 2050. How sustainability is approached from a city-wide perspective is thus of ever increasing importance. Martin Read looks at developments likely to impact FM in due course.
Making the case for sustainable construction is nothing new. The quest for a more joined-up approach to construction has been the intent behind various government reports in the past and we seem never to be too far from another such initiative.
This month, delegates from across the world will attend the United Nations Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador to grapple with what ‘the city’ means, and what cities should become in a rapidly urbanizing world. Delegates will attempt to devise a ‘New Urban Agenda’, a program of principles for future sustainable urban development.
This may not sound like much of an issue for facilities managers dealing principally in the existing built environment rather than the built environment yet to come. But factor in the steady shift in government policy towards a better awareness of life cycle cost, as well as a greater understanding of the wider reach of sustainability through its ever deepening economic and social dimensions, and Habitat III becomes important as an event likely to influence how cities and the organisations situated within them are managed in years to come.
It’s no surprise that Habitat conferences do not feature on most FMs’ radars, taking place as they do just once every twenty years. And in the past they have typically emphasized the problems associated with human settlements in developing countries. Habitat III, however, is markedly different because it is intended to generate ideas applicable as much to developed countries as those still developing.
Facading the future
As pressure on cities to expand increases, so does the need to make existing building stock more sustainable. In its report, ‘Cities Alive – Green Building Envelope,’ building engineering consultancy Arup looks at the potential impact that the greening of existing building envelopes could have on the 85 per cent of the buildings that will still be in operation come 2050.
Can green facades reduce energy consumption, improve air quality and help people’s well-being in ever more densely populated cities?
“By making use of about 20 – 25 per cent of each building envelope, i.e. facade and roof areas, we could achieve significant benefits to improve the micro-climate in cities,” suggests Rudi Scheuermann, a fellow at Arup.
Extended periods of natural ventilation brought about by greened exteriors can reduce the amount of energy required for cooling all year-round, giving building occupants “more freedom to control their individual environment by means of healthier and more beneficial natural ventilation”.
Better storm-water management, improved biodiversity and the increased absorption of CO2 etc. will follow, argues Scheuermann.
Making the benefits of green envelopes measurable, quantifying rather than merely qualifying benefits as a whole, is key. A clearer cost-benefit analysis needs to be put to cities and the building authorities that serve them, as well as developers and investors, so that they understand how investment in green infrastructure is no longer just “architectural decoration” but an essential, urgently needed element to improve the sustainable operation of buildings with lower energy consumption, and improved and significantly healthier living conditions for cities’ inhabitants.
Green facades can affect the wider cityscape in three principal ways – through the dampening of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, by which cities become heat traps; through a reduction in air pollution; and perhaps the most undersold benefit, a reduction in sound levels from emergent and traffic noise sources.
Arup cites research from Gill et al. (2007) suggesting that if Greater Manchester increased its green infrastructure by 10 per cent (in areas with limited or no green cover) it could reduce average temperatures by up to 2.5 degrees centigrade. As an illustration of what can be possible with concerted effort spread across existing buildings, it’s a compelling case.
Cool running
“The ability of green facades to reduce the cooling loads on buildings is well known,” Arup’s report notes. “But what is possibly less well understood is that green facades can improve the air quality in city streets. Plants can remove not only carbon dioxide but also particulate air pollutants such as smoke and dust.”
Examples are given of buildings where green envelopes have been designed in from the ground up, with dynamic facades such as the south-facing positioning of panel photobioreactors, generating biomass and heat, on the BIQ house in Hamburg, Germany.
All of which is without even touching upon the aesthetic qualities of green facades and their psychological connotations, particularly where color of the plants changes as each seasons pass.
Building envelope surfaces can make a far greater contribution to their external environment, the report suggests. They can become a ‘default design approach’, but for this to happen will require a significant rethink of current design considerations.
Facilities managers feeding in to these discussions could make a powerful difference to those they serve in a world in which the quest for greater sustainability can help put FM in the spotlight.