Vic Clean

What’s Proactive maintenance
The benefits of proactive maintenance, whether preventative or predictive are clear. There’s no other way to solve issues before your clients become aware of them! But it’s easier said than done, right? As incredible as it sounds, proactive maintenance may finally come as a byproduct of all the trends predicted by experts in FM. If facility managers give in to the latest technology and start collecting data, they can achieve some kind of predictability.

Preventive maintenance: The ultimate guide [2022] • | Facility management What is preventive maintenance? What are its types and why is it important? How to create a maintenance plan? Read this to learn all about this and more.

Fire Rule Changes
“The need to get up to date with the passive fire rule changes has an added urgency, due the NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 and the Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021.”
Meeting Current Australian Standards
According to the article “Unless you’ve got detailed design now, which shows the products you use and how you put them in meets current Australian standards for waterproofing and fire protection, they will not issue you a construction certificate. You can’t start the civil works and start digging out the basement”.

A big change to the NCC’s passive fire safety rules is coming in September  | Facility management A major change to the National Construction Code could lead to some builders and developers finding they no longer comply with fire safety rules, unless they begin using passive fire protection systems that are tested to the latest standards.

Adapt or Perish
Covid has shown us that businesses must be adaptable and nimble to survive in today’s global economy. It’s essential for the facilities management industry to maintain up-to-date working practices and processes to accommodate these ever-changing requirements.
Is Your Facilitiea Management Company Up to Date
The latest facilities management software drives the adoption of new maintenance strategies, hygiene standards, air quality management and social distancing, to name a few.

The crucial role of digital tech in FM | Facilities Show | Facility management The evolution of facilities management Now more than ever, businesses must be adaptable and nimble to survive in today’s global economy. It’s essential for the facilities management industry to maintain up-to-date working practices and processes to accommodate these ever-changing requirements.

Primary Goal of Building Commissioning
“The primary goal of commissioning any project or system is to ensure that success for the project is clearly defined in the Owner's Project Requirements (OPR) and that the building and systems perform as intended to fulfill that mission.”
The Expected Outcomes of Building Commissioning
” In addition to energy efficiency and overall performance drivers, another factor increasing demand for commissioning is the Owner's desire to obtain certification through building performance rating systems. These rating systems have been developed to improve the project planning, design, construction, and performance of energy and water efficiency, environmental conditions in buildings, verification, documentation, and operations practices.”

Building Commissioning: The Process | WBDG - Whole Building Design Guide | Facility management by the WBDG Commissioning Committee Building commissioning (Cx) is a professional practice that facilitates the planning, design, construction, installation and testing verification,.”

What is the Purpose of a Smart Building?
Very often, we get so caught up in the technology involved in buildings, focusing on everything from building management system apps and information screens to automated elevators and rooms that are air conditioned and lit a few seconds before occupants enter them, that we forget who a building is ultimately designed for: people.
Building design is not only about data and sensors, but real people – we need to remember that humans are at the centre of everything in building management. Buildings of the future are about unlocking human potential. High tech is only high value if that same technology enhances the human experience.

How smart is that building, really? | Facility management Is it time for a re-think on 'smart' buildings? Ian Richardson explores the term and what it really means.

Paint - A Surefire Way to Improve a Facility’s Appearance
Facilities Managers know that paint protects a range of surfaces from wear and tear both inside and outside the building. Facility managers need to stay on top of building maintenance so that the property remains solid and sound.
But Has Your Paintwork Suffered from Covid?
Paint has been developed for protection of substrates and to protect surfaces from wear and tear. However paint was never developed to provide protection from continual exposure to disinfectants and chemicals designed to prevent the spread of infection. Signs of wear may be obvious peeling and blistering or may be more subtle such as a chalky residue when you wipe your hand over the surface. When choosing a coating system that will last for years to come there are new considerations to be included post Covid.

Paint That Lasts Through Thick and Thin - Facilities Management Insights | Facility management Learn about paints, coatings, recoating and related trends for building operations success

What the Report Reveals
The last year has been one of the most challenging for facility managers across the country, and 2023 promises more of the same. Nearly every aspect of facility management is shifting, and new trends are emerging to help keep businesses of every size on course. According to the report, the global facility management services industry generated $954.0 billion in 2019, and is expected to reach $1,422.6 billion by 2027, witnessing a compound annual growth rate of 6.6% from 2020 to 2027.

What’s in Store for 2023?
Over the next year, there’s going to be a growing demand for flexible workspaces, smaller and more distributed facilities teams, more supply chain issues, and a greater emphasis on hiring. You should also expect to see the need for better planning for the extreme weather events that are becoming increasingly commonplace.

Facility Management Market 2023 | Top Factors That Are Leading The Demand Around The Globe - EIN Presswire | Facility management Facility Management Market The report offers a comprehensive analysis of key segments, trends, competitive landscape, and factors that are playing a substantial role in the market.”

C-Suite Intensions
“C-suite executives say in-person work is critical to their company’s bottom line and revenue, according to a new survey by the Cleaning Coalition of America.” The pandemic has required businesses to fundamentally rethink their operations and the value placed on workplace health and safety. The Covid-19 pandemic created more awareness of the value of workplace cleaning.
What’s Required?
So in this post-pandemic era, increased cleaning and disinfection must be the new standard for any shared space.

Offices Are Here To Stay, Critical To Bottom Line | Facility management A majority of NYC companies are remote, but 76 percent of execs say in-person work is critical to their company's bottom line and revenue.

Disruption in Supply

Supply chains have been in the news far more often in the past two years than they ever have been. Until recently, disruptions had mostly been limited to smaller geographic or demographic spaces. Now, a kink in the supply chain can disrupt an entire industry around the globe for weeks.
Diversify to Survive

When companies plot their supply chain strategy, they aim to fulfill four primary purposes:
* Fulfil products and services efficiently.
* Enhance a company’s ability to react to change.
* Reduce network risk, and make sure a company is safe.
* Facilitate financial success.
Too many managers fixate on the first point, efficiency. This fixation can lead to advocating for the sole source approach — buying everything needed from one place. The strategy sounds right - efficient and cost effective - and when supply chains are flowing as expected, it often is. But putting all of an organisation’s eggs in one basket, especially during a crisis, limits options for available products or services. When a vendor’s supply chain is disrupted, the whole operation can follow suit.

Facility Managers Tackle Supply Chain Challenges | Facility management Due to supply chain disruptions, facility mangers are looking for new ways to ensure they get the products their buildings and tenants need.

Facility Management or IT Responsibility?
With facility managers overseeing building equipment and technologies that use vulnerable software, creating a connected, digitally secure facility must be a priority. While this might feel like the role of IT staff, the crossover into a facility manager’s responsibility becomes clear when looking at IoT and the connected facilities ecosystem.
Cyber Threats Increased by 68% in 2 years
Imagine an entire business forced to shut down because a cybercriminal restricts access to critical data or compromises entryway badge readers, putting people inside at risk. These are the potential outcomes from a cyber security breach. This article outlines 11 actions to take now.

How to Team Up with IT for Cybersecurity - Facilities Management Insights | Facility management Learn about cybersecurity, internet of things, it and related trends for building operations success

FM Transformation
Moving into transformation brings loads of benefits.

Discover weak points, duplication, overlap, and inefficiencies in your work flows
Improve communication between teams
Automate manual, repetitive, or time-consuming tasks
Better organize and more easily access your data
Optimize data for analysis and use the results to drive improvements
Integrate data silos into a single source of truth


The steps to transformation are outlined in the article.

Transformation In Facilities Management: Start Today Or Be Left Behind | Facility management Transformation in facilities management is more than digitization. It’s a way of rethinking, improving processes so everybody involved wins.

Australian Know-How
The combination of Redflow’s reliability, safety and scalability means their batteries are particularly well suited for a range of commercial uses, including childcare, residential and medical facilities.
For example, “two state-of-the-art children and family centres in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs eliminated three-quarters of their energy costs during winter” using insulation, solar panels and Redflow batteries. Their latest stats show that those renewable energy deployments eliminated about three quarters of their energy costs during winter. As a result, the “Knox City Council saves around $220,000-$240,000 per year on its energy bills across both centres.”Innovation and Ingenuity
This is Australian innovation at its best. The technology used by Redflow batteries means that, given the amount of resources required to power energy requirements, lightweight, high density lithium batteries can be used for mobile devices and cars, while using the larger and safer flow batteries for grid installations.

Here’s an alternative to lithium batteries: meet the Aussie company leading the charge | Facility management Brisbane-based Redflow delivered a powerful 172 per cent growth rate with technology that’s electrifying the built environment sector.

Environmental Standard - New and Improved
Now in its fourth edition, the NABERS SPI is Australia’s only publicly available index of environmental standards. Australia’s commercial property industry is known for its outstanding ambitions on sustainability. Critical to these now globally acknowledged key achievements is transparency of action and a large dose of the competitive Aussie spirit with the adoption of NABERS.
A Wealth of Benefits
The revised portfolio-wide approach shows “industry leaders are discovering a wealth of benefits, from the data driven frameworks that help them to measure and improve performance to the ability to use the results to access green finance or sustainability linked lending.”

Compare performance with this year's NABERS Sustainable Portfolios Index | Facility management The NABERS Sustainable Portfolios Index 2022, is Australia’s only publicly available index showcasing the actual environmental performance of the top 53 building portfolios and funds across the country.

North Shore Transformation
The North Shore is experiencing a period of change as office buildings make way for residential developments with cashed up buyers snapping up apartment projects. New retail centres, major school upgrades and city-shaping transport infrastructure are among the huge developments shaping the transformation of Sydney’s north shore in 2022.
Prime Destination
Suburbs on the Lower North Shore remain prime destinations for residents and overseas migrants alike, with developments in St Leonards and Crows Nest earmarked for more than 4,600 new dwellings throughout the next five years. This debut development by Equicentia is earmarked for an amalgamated 1262sq m site at 82-90 Alexander Street that it acquired for $24.5 million.

[+] Equicentia Plots North Shore Development Debut | Facility management Plans have been filed for a five-storey shop-top housing proposal in a development hotspot, tapping into prevailing strong demand for “oversized” owner-occupier stock... 

Huge Change is Coming
A large percentage of consumers are considering an electric or hybrid car as their next car purchase. Future sales growth could be fueled further by federal action here in Australia. In the US, legislation has already been enacted and it included $7.5 billion to build out the first-ever US national network of electric vehicle chargers. The broad US national agenda to reduce carbon emissions includes a goal that half of all new vehicles sold in the United States will be zero-emissions vehicles, including electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030. Australia will no doubt follow.
How to Prepare?
How should facility managers prepare for the rapid change that is coming? The four steps outline how facility managers can ensure that each property is ahead of demand.

How Facilities Should Prepare for the Rapid Growth of Electric Vehicles - Facilities Management Insights | Facility management Learn about electric vehicles, charging, energy efficiency and related trends for building operations success

Energy Efficiency
While energy efficiency is typically a top concern for building owners, as the case study in the link shows, data analytics can also be used to streamline and reduce costs in other areas.
Eliminating Waste
Eliminating waste is a unique benefit of data analytics and can happen in many forms. For example, a bathroom supplies company was able to save a massive 40% in overall costs by using sensors to develop more efficient operations in terms of both material and labor. The approach can also be used to monitor numerous other supplies.
Maintenance and Repair
Preventive maintenance is an invaluable part of operating an efficient building. Deploying smart data analytics allows you to monitor and identify the need for maintenance and repairs before breakdowns happen, saving time, money, and manpower.

Why Data Analytics in Buildings Can't Be Ignored | Facility management Data analytics in buildings can help contractors, engineers, and owners care truly smart buildings that optimize efficiency and enhance occupant comfort.

Sammut Group
The developer, Sammut Group, has also completed a number of other apartment projects in Cronulla recently, including heritage redevelopment Banc, 67-apartment Loft, 27-apartment Breeze and 11-apartment Drift. Sammut is also moving ahead with plans for a $350-million mixed-use development at 3-23 Kingsway, after pulling off a similarly complex site aggregation that cost more than $100 million.
The negotiations, encompassing 24 stakeholders across nine properties, similarly took a year to complete.
Its development, Vue, comprising 112 apartments, commercial and retail space, will also feature Cronulla’s first full-line supermarket—Harris Farm Markets.

[+] Sammut Files $100m Cronulla Plans | Facility management Sydney-based developer Sammut Group has lodged plans for a $100-million beachfront apartment block in Cronulla, beefing up its growing portfolio in the Sutherlan

What’s Coming
”The Queen Victoria Markets masterplan involves upgrading the market’s historic sheds, creating two new streets, turning the carpark into public open space, creating a new management centre and allowing for mixed-use development projects, including hotels, apartments and offices, to be built nearby.
Mirvac’s $230-million Liv Munro site, north of Block B, will include a 110-key hotel as well as its 490 build-to-rent apartments and a 10-storey community hub.”

Golden Age’s Queen Victoria Market Plans Wins Approval | Facility management Golden Age Group’s latest plans for the Parcel B site in the Queen Victoria Markets precinct has won approval from the Victorian planning minister. Earlier this year, the minister approved development of up to 40 metres for the podium and 50 metres for a tower in the Parcel B precinct plan’s sec...

An Opportunity to Improve an Original is Uncommon Yet Beneficial for Sustainability
“A rebuild offers the chance to keep the essentials that still work well and improve on the original solution. A new build is something else. Today’s buildings are very different to last century’s stock. The use of post-tensioned concrete, with far lower embodied energy and carbon, allows for reductions in slab thicknesses and beam depths compared with reinforced concrete used in the old days.”

BG&E engineers solutions for lower embodied carbon – at Quay Quarter Tower for instance | Facility management “We were able to demonstrate, with a lot of testing and re-analysis, that we could certify that whole building, including the existing structure, for another 50 or 60 years’ of life.”

Election 2022
“There are many opportunities to improve Australians’ living standards through better policy. The 2022 federal election campaign should be the starting gun for the race to build a better Australia.” Grattan’s Orange Book
Over time, stronger growth in Australia’s living standards requires increased productivity growth. Grattan’s Orange Book identifies a suite of productivity-enhancing reforms which will boost the economy and incomes and provide scope for governments to deliver more of the services Australians value.”

What Election 2022 should be about | Facility management The federal election campaign should be the starting gun for the race to build a better Australia after the pandemic.

Sydney’s New 24-Hour Economy Commissioner
NSW 24-Hour Economy Commissioner Michael Rodrigues states that the more flexible Sydney city can become, the better the return on investment for business. Source: Time Out Australia. Global trends, which were well under way before Covid, show an attraction for at-home entertainment.
Implications for Property Development
This information of a diminishing appetite for out-of-home entertainment is vital to property developers looking to provide for the needs of buyers within their developments.

[+] Sydney CBD ‘An Asset, A Piece of Capital’ | Facility management Lockout laws, Covid and the rise of stay-at-home entertainment—NSW 24-Hour Economy Commissioner Michael Rodrigues has his work cut out for him. The Urban Developer talks to the man charged with bringing the city’s nights back to life…

The Resource
“This resource, updated periodically, will collate and examine the economic levers pushing and pulling Sydney’s housing market.
Combining market research, rolling indices, and expert market opinion, this evolving hub will act as a pulse check for those wanting to take a closer look at the movements across the market.”
Expert Predictions
in addition to market updates on trends in the Sydney property space, forecasts from property industry experts and the ‘big 4’ banks give predictions for changes in Sydney’s housing market over the 2022 - 2023 period. An invaluable collection of information for property developers.

Sydney Housing Market Insights: April 2022 | Facility management The Urban Developer’s housing market insights combines market research, rolling indices, and expert opinion to unpack Sydney's real estat

Urgent Action Required
“While protecting our planet has always been a theme of Earth Day, that call for coverage is becoming more urgent by the year. In August 2021, worldwide scientists released the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, which is a state of affairs of human-caused climate change.
This latest report was so alarming that António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, termed it "a code red for humanity." Guterres noted that the IPCC has been asking for years to limit global warming worldwide to 1.5 degrees Celsius. As of the 2021 report, the average is already 1.2 degrees.”

Earth Day: What is it and why does it matter? | Space | Facility management Earth Day occurs annually on April, 22. It began in 1970 and celebrates the environmental diversity of Earth and highlights ways of protecting it.

Friday, 22 April
Earth Day 2022
The global Earth Day occurs annually to celebrate the environmental diversity of Earth. It highlights ways of protecting our planet and demonstrates the importance of increasing protection for our planet, according to the official Earth Day website EARTHDAY.ORG.
The Global Movement
The organisation works with more than 150,000 partners in over 192 countries with 1 billion individuals involved, according to the official Earth Day website.
The Earth Day 2022 theme
This year Earth Day highlights the need to hold sectors accountable for their role in the environmental crisis. "Everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable" EARTHDAY.ORG states. Environmental problems have become so urgent and widespread, that scientists and environmental organizations alike are saying addressing climate change is more urgent than ever. Scientists are calling for a whole-systems approach to examining how to protect our climate. The Earth Day 2022 theme is "Invest In Our Planet.", according to the official website. This theme is not only meant to talk about individual actions we can take to make Earth cleaner, but also about how we spend our dollars on companies that take conservation seriously. EarthDay.org is asking companies to take environmental social governance (ESG) standards seriously and pledge to commit to four pillars of ESG — governance, planet, people and prosperity — with dozens of metrics to follow across the pillars.

The Official Site | EARTHDAY.ORG | Facility management Visit the official Earth Day site to learn about the world's largest environmental movement and what you can do to make every day Earth Day.

Housing Price increase Three Times Faster than Wages
The price of an average house in Sydney has increased by a multiple of 17 in the past few decades. Additionally housing costs have risen three times faster than wages and houses now cost around 14 times the average annual wage (compared with 5 times the average wage in the 80s).
Election Policies Needed Now
With an election looming, unfortunately none of the parties seem to have policies addressing the issues surrounding housing affordability.
While this crisis won’t be resolved overnight, I hope government will see fit to improve the state of the rental accommodation emergency in Sydney and other areas.

Sydney Housing Market Insights: April 2022 | Facility management The Urban Developer’s housing market insights combines market research, rolling indices, and expert opinion to unpack Sydney's real estat

Market Conditions Right for Build-to-rent to Thrive Build-to-Rent developments are experiencing an unprecedented rise and Melbourne is the epicenter. The newest site snapped up by a savvy developer is the 20,660sq m (16ha)parcel of land which was formerly the Alphington Paper Mill. This is one of the major mixed-use redevelopment sites in Melbourne.
Advantages of build-to-rent
Advantages of build-to-rent offerings are many but the inclusion of some sort of community or village area to foster a greater sense of community through shared spaces is a winner. Build-to-rent can also offer a diverse mix of housing options, which is important in terms of affordable housing options. With the emergence of purpose designed build-to-rent developments in 2022 it will be interesting to watch the rate of uptake on leases in build-to-rent developments as they come to market.

[+] Build-to-Rent Developers Swarm Melbourne | Facility management “Ravenous build-to-rent developers are swarming Melbourne in a bid to secure sites as the asset class heats up, despite prevailing headwinds in costs and construction.”

Aerotropolis to Become Australia’s Third Largest Economy
The final precinct plan includes schemes for the Aerotropolis Core, Badgerys Creek, Northern Gateway, Agribusiness and Wianamata-South Creek precincts. The Aerotropolis is predicted to become Australia’s third largest economy by 2036 with its initial stages creating 11,400 new homes.
Best Connected Area
Infrastructure investment in the airport, roads and the new metro will make the Aerotropolis one of the best-connected areas in the country, making the Western Parkland City the best place to live, work and invest in for generations to come. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for developers are extraordinary.

Aerotropolis Final Precinct Plan Unveiled | Facility management Final plans for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis have been unveiled, giving wings to one of the biggest projects in the history of New South Wales.“We took time to get the planning right, setting us up for success over the decades to come.”.