Decarbonisation of facility services supported by IT

Building owners as well as building users expect climate-neutral building operation within the next one or two decades. The first step in this direction is the analysis on where and how much CO2 is emitted. Building operation requires a variety of facility services (FS), for instance, cleaning, security, catering, inspection and maintenance. For those services a method is needed that allows CO2 emissions to be determined transparently and evaluated with regard to their drivers. An additional challenge lies in the lack of key figures on CO2 emissions per product. Within the framework of the research project ‘CarMa – Carbon Management for Facility Services’ a modular method for the determination of CO2 in FS was developed in close collaboration with FM practitioners, service providers and academics. The CarMa method considers four modules: equipment, operating consumables, transport and overheads. The web-based IT tool carbonFM supports the definition and assignment of products, transport routes, etc. to the respective services. Once this information is entered into the database, the evaluation can start with regard to the significant CO2 drivers. The second step builds on these results and helps identify the benefits of potential alternatives in how to optimise the services with respect to CO2 emissions. Findings of the project are that mobility and machine use are key drivers of CO2 emissions in FS. Process design in FM should react, for example, by preferring a full-day assignment for its staff to employing various persons simultaneously only a few hours a day. On the other hand, route optimisation and time control of equipment use can reduce the consumption of fuel and electric power.