FI JFM Oct 2014.indd - Tsebo Facilities Solutions

BUILT
Building
Management
FUTURE PERFECT
EY’s new head office is not only a green
and efficient building but also a translation of
a new vision of a dynamic facility that speaks
of the company’s innovative and engaging
business philosophy. Nicola Theunissen reports.
I
n December 2013 EY, formally known
as Ernst & Young, took occupation
of its new 23 500 m2 head office in
Sandton, Johannesburg. The building
forms part of a larger precinct owned
and developed by Momentum Metropolitan
International (MMI). EY is the precinct’s biggest tenant.
The light, modern building obtained a
Four-Star Office v1 Design rating from Green
Building Council of South Africa. Although
green offices are becoming a universal
corporate consideration globally, the most
prominent element of the EY building is
that it integrates with EY’s overall business
strategy.
“With the relocation to 102 Rivonia, we
raised the bar and created higher expectations than before, not only from the FM
team and building performance, but also
from our people. We implemented the largest Workplace of the Future deployment
in EY globally at the time, spanning across
all service lines and influencing about 2 000
people,” says Gerhard Joubert, operations
director and Africa real estate leader at EY.
“The relocation to 102 Rivonia was not
the standard office relocation, but rather a
business transformation and change initiative. Adopting larger organisational change,
we had to, at the same time, deal with the
typical challenges after occupation of a
new building, such as snagging, defects,
systems integration as well as testing, and
stabilising systems such as the building
management (BMS) and HVAC systems,”
says Joubert.
A new management model
All floor levels comprise open plan work
spaces and small, informal meeting areas.
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October 2014 jFM
The spiralling staircases were
designed to direct employees
across the floor, to obtain access
to the next staircase. In this way
the design fosters mobility and
collaboration.
EY implemented an in-house facilities
management solution at its previous office
space in Illovo. The team decided on a new
management model for the sophisticated
green building, opting for an outsourced FM
approach for their internal requirements.
Eris Facilities Management, which is
part of the MMI Group, provides integrated
FM services to the precinct. The Eris team
is responsible for managing the precinct,
which includes water, electricity, HVAC, generators, UPSs, lifts, the BMS, access control
and CCTV.
Southern African facilities management
service provider, Drake & Scull has the man-
QUICK TAKES
• Raised bar for FM team.
• Outsourced approach for new model.
• Green Star deliverables make for new
efficiency.
• Green gives challenges to FM team.
• Cost-effectiveness seen as core to
new vision.
“The relocation to 102 Rivonia
was not the standard office
relocation, but rather a
business transformation and
change initiative. Adopting
larger organisational change,
we had to, at the same time,
deal with the typical challenges
after occupation of a new building,
such as snagging, defects, systems
integration as well as testing, and
stabilising systems such as the
building management (BMS) and
HVAC systems.”
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7
Hence, EY conducted a thorough
cos-benchmark analysis to determine the
most appropriate management solution for
their internal requirements.
The only way to deal effectively with typical expenditure items such as staff, consumables, cleaning, hygiene, energy and water
is to benchmark them with other buildings
and companies of similar size, shape and
complexity, Joubert continues. “The metering
systems at 102 Rivonia collect data and generate reports on areas such as energy, water,
HVAC, lights, plugs and waste management.
This will allow us to continuously optimise
the performance of the building and manage
costs.”
According to Joubert, EY is witnessing several benefits from the outsourced
approach. As specialists are running the
building, the team can tap into the outsourced partners’ industry experiences,
while focusing on its core business. The FM
solution providers expose EY to management
best practice, sourcing capacity and buying
power as part of a much bigger portfolio.
Also, EY do not have to play the role of the
landlord and the tenant at the same time.
Smarter and greener
The spiralling staircases were designed to direct employees
across the floor, to obtain access to the next staircase. In this
way the design fosters mobility and collaboration.
“New technologies and design
principles will help to deliver
better performance at lower
operating costs per capita and
per square metre.”
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October 2013 jFM
date over the office space internally for EY.
The company is responsible for the overall
management of the EY office, soft services,
business support and working with Eris FM
to ensure the handover process is smooth.
EY also outsourced its Work Café, the
building’s catering and staff restaurant, to a
new operator and brought in Vida e Café as
a coffee bar.
“With our relocation to 102 Rivonia, we
realised that we will need a comprehensive
and professional facilities management
solution to realise all the benefits of the new
building,” says Joubert.
Facilities management is increasingly
becoming more specialised and, as Joubert
explains, isn’t EY’s core competency.
“Outsourcing is not more cost effective by
default. It requires an extensive review of
the organisational requirements, operating
procedures, processes and organisational
design to deliver the best results.”
The new building is far more efficient because
of its Green Star rating deliverables, says
Joubert. “New technologies and design principles will help to deliver better performance
at lower operating costs per capita and per
square metre”.
To obtain green star accreditation, the
Green Building Council of South Africa
evaluates eight credits. These include water,
energy, transport and materials, among a few.
Full height exterior windows allow natural
light to light up and flow within the interior
spaces. By allowing natural light, the building
has less need for electric lights; this lowers
electricity demand, reduces environmental
impact, and reduces operating costs. From an
FM point of view, natural light also provides a
better experience for the occupants, a change
leading to improved health and productivity.
The building will achieve at least a 50%
improvement on energy-related emissions
compared to the same building with minimum compliance to South African National
Standards. It is directly opposite the Sandton
Gautrain Station, providing alternatives to
the number of journeys staff and visitors take
in a private car. This scores the maximum
points available for the “Commuting Mass
Transport” credit.
The reduced water consumption initiatives
include water efficient fittings in bathrooms
and other water consuming areas, rainwater
harvesting for irrigation, an air cooled
(as opposed to water cooled) air-conditioning
plant, and water recycling at fire systems
testing.
As far waste management goes, 70% of
all waste generated during demolition and
construction is being reused or recycled,
and each floor houses a waste recycling
station.
One of the eight credits are management, which promotes the adoption of
environmental principles from the project’s
inception, design and construction phase, to
commissioning, tuning and operation of the
building and its systems.
Grahame Cruickshanks, manager of
climate change and sustainable services at
EY, says the assessment of green buildings’
impact goes beyond considering energy
and water efficiency. “The design, construction and operation of a green building
takes into account a wide range of issues
which must be carefully evaluated for their
environmental, social and financial impact,”
he says.
Maintaining and running the building have been key
considerations throughout the design and development.
Green complexity?
Green interventions in buildings do pose
some challenges to FM managers as they
are not “traditionally” part of most buildings,
says Andre Klopper, national facilities manager at Eris.
Facilities managers in a green building
environment need to have strong analytical
abilities to evaluate complex building information, and use it to make adjustments to
the systems and management process to
improve the building’s performance.
“In most instances they are basic in their
make-up. The complexity comes in with
their monitoring and management.
“Green systems, in general, require more
monitoring of equipment and performance
management. Information are continuously
measured against set parameters and
historic performance, and then analysed
to better understand the performance of
the various systems and identify areas of
improvement,” says Klopper.
If one looks at new office buildings in
Sandton, it becomes evident that a shift
has taken place towards more complicated
building designs, he says. At the same time,
however, the technology used at these
buildings has evolved to manage the complexity of the design.
It is, therefore, not the intricacy of the
design itself that poses the challenge, but
rather determining the right management
and maintenance processes.
“The mixed use of low-maintenance
intensive construction material versus high
maintenance construction material such
as the facility’s glass facade provides an
example of the balance between green
design and the technology to support
them,” said Klopper.
Technology has advanced where glass
facades can be cleaned with significant less
water and also less often. Also, there are
instances where the water used in cleaning
the facades come from the rain water
harvesting system of the building.”
Green design, high-tech systems, building information and the underlying technology to support them is one element of the
EY building. In line with EY’s overall change
management initiative, the new building
also needed to facilitate behaviour change,
and other “softer” considerations such as
increased collaboration and productivity.
“We initiated a survey of the previous
building and compared it to the new building. We aimed to extract more value instead
of just labelling the building green. We
wanted to understand the human performance benefits and social gains, and possible
discomfort and negative implications.”
Reduced water consumption initiatives in
the building include water efficient fittings
in bathrooms and other water consuming
areas, rainwater harvesting for irrigation,
an air cooled (as opposed to water cooled)
air-conditioning plant.
Workers get to move more
Two examples where green interventions
meet behaviour change is not having dust
bins at employees’ desks. This forces them
to stand up from their workstations to use
the central recycling facilities, encouraging
collaboration and movement between levels, while resulting in a greener building. All
the floors also house electronic screens to
communicate key messages around energy
consumption and other green principles.
“One needs to apply a balance between
green design, employee comfort and cost
management.
“Seemingly minor design improvements
like natural lighting have considerable
management implications: glare and interior
heat gains can cause discomfort for the
building users.
“This has been dealt with in three ways:
shading devices are attached to the exterior of the building, automated, retractable
blinds are mounted to the interior face of
the windows and high performance double
glazing panels are used in the full height
exterior windows. These measures allow
light penetration but limit heat gains and
glare, further reducing the demand for
artificial lighting and cooling requirements,”
says Cruickshanks. “Natural light in return
increase employee wellbeing”.
Overall, the EY building is an excellent example of the integration between
modern, green systems and the company’s overall business strategy, leading
to enhanced sustainability and social and
behaviour change in line with EY’s vision. ■
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