Skip to main content
Facilitate Magazine: Informing Workplace and Facilities Management Professionals - return to the homepage Facilitate magazine logo
  • Search
  • Visit Facilitate Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit Facilitate Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @Facilitate_Mag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management Logo of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
    • Comment
    • People
    • Reports
    • Research
  • Features
    • Analysis
    • Features
    • Round Tables
    • Webinars
  • Outsourcing
    • Contract Finder
    • Contracts
    • FM Business Models
    • Interviews
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Opinion
    • Procurement
    • Trends
  • Know-How
    • Explainers
    • Legal Updates
    • White Papers
  • Jobs
  • Topics
    • Workplace Services
      • Hospitality
      • Catering
      • Cleaning
      • Front of House
      • Grounds Maintenance
      • Helpdesk
      • Mailroom
      • Manned Guarding / Security
      • Pest Control
      • Washroom Services
      • Disaster Recovery
      • Specialist Services
    • Professional Performance
      • Behavioural Change
      • Continual Professional Development
      • Education
      • Management
      • Recruitment
      • Training
    • Workplace Performance
      • Benchmarking
      • Health & Wellbeing
      • Operational Readiness
      • Procurement
      • Security
      • Workplace User Experience
      • Workplace Culture
    • Compliance
      • Health & Safety
      • Risk & Business Continuity
      • Standards
      • Statutory Compliance
    • Building Services
      • Architecture & Construction
      • Asset Management
      • Building Controls
      • Building Fabric
      • Drinking Water
      • Fire Protection
      • HVAC
      • Landscaping
      • Mechanical & Electrical
      • Building Security
      • Water, Drainage & Plumbing
    • Technology
      • Building Information Modelling
      • CAFM
      • Data & Networks
      • Document Management
      • Information Management
      • Internet of Things (IoT)
      • Software & Systems
    • Energy management
      • Energy Management Systems
      • Electricity
      • Gas
      • Solar
      • Wind
    • Sustainability
      • Environmental Quality
      • Social Value
      • Waste Management
      • Recycling
    • Workspace Design
      • Agile Working
      • Fit-Out & Refurbishment
      • Inclusive Access
      • Lighting
      • Office Interiors
      • Signage
      • Space Planning
      • Storage
      • Vehicle Management / Parking
      • Washroom
    • Sectors
      • Corporate Office
      • Education
      • Healthcare
      • Manufacturing
      • International
      • Retail
      • Sports & Leisure
      • Regions
  • Buyers' Guide
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Facilitate Magazine Issues
  • September 2020
News
Comment
Sustainability
Environmental Quality

The future of sustainability

Open-access content Tuesday 1st September 2020
Authors
Martin Read
web_p5_martin.png

Economic sustainability is butting up against its environmental and social cousins in the post-pandemic landscape.

Six months ago, few bar a select group of evangelists would have predicted that so much typical office work could be achieved remotely. Yet here we all are. For sure, the jury remains out on the long-term consequences – but the sky hasn’t fallen in and the productivity boost has been a welcome surprise. But now come the tests. As furlough money ends, economic reality is about to hit viciously. We are already in a potentially catastrophic recession, but the broader Covid-19 impact on business cannot be delayed further.

Business leaders and politicians now warn that if we don’t return to our city centre offices, firms on those offices’ peripheries will go the wall. Clubs, cafés, coffee shops, key cutters, all gone. Business leaders may be just self-interested, but in different times these same politicians would be lionising the kind of innovative thinking that is seeing many firms considering a future in local hubs and remote teams, big city leases be damned.

What’s going to be really fascinating is seeing economic sustainability butting up against its environmental and social cousins. Because what now counts as ‘economically sustainable’? Mass commuting? Low pay? Older, less green ways of heating buildings? Therein lies the intrigue. The pandemic has seen economic convention dismissed in favour of some pretty effective state intervention, and sustainability in its other forms has benefited from government intervention in recent years. The UK’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 has started to change radically the corporate real estate market. Legislation has also been changing the social value landscape. Public and private sectors, investors, developers, operators, tenants – a pretty remarkable amount of collaboration has been going on, all with government legislation forcing fundamental shifts in what we can all expect of buildings in terms of their energy and wellbeing performance – with FMs a key part in delivering it.

Can environmental and social sustainability survive the economic buffeting? Throughout this pandemic, many have suggested that if we can change so much, so significantly in such short order, we can surely do similarly with other critical goals. That’s about to be tested, and tested hard.

FAC Sept20 FULLcroppedLR.jpg
This article appeared in our September 2020 issue of Facilitate Magazine.
Click here to view this issue
Also filed in
News
Comment
Sustainability
Environmental Quality

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Today's top reads

 

Latest Jobs

Interim Sustainability Manager (12 month fix-term contract)

London (Central)
c.£60,000 per annum plus excellent benefits
Reference
59413

Regional Facilities Manager

Borehamwood
Circa £47,000 + Decent Package & opportunities
Reference
59410

Facilities Manager

Hertfordshire
Up to £75,000 + Decent Package
Reference
59408
See all jobs »

 

 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to print

Sign up to receive our bi-monthly magazine

Subscribe
Facilitate magazine cover, June 2020
​
FOLLOW US
@Facilitate_Mag
Facilitate Magazine
Facilitate Magazine
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel: 020 7880 6200
​

IWFM

About IWFM
Become a member
Qualifications
Events

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to Facilitate Magazine
Write for Facilitate Magazine

General

IWFM Jobs
Help

© 2023 • www.facilitatemagazine.com and Facilitate Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ