Shaping sustainable development, not managing it

As the Swiss competence center for real estate and facility management, the Institute of Facility Management (IFM) at the ZHAW organizes an annual meeting day for experts from research and practice. In her welcome address at the event on March 8, 2024, Irene Arnold, Institute Director a.i., spoke about the major changes that the industry as a whole, but also the institute in particular, were experiencing. She took an optimistic view of the future because, according to Aristotle, "we cannot change the wind, but we can change the sails."

"We must learn to use the earth's raw materials intelligently."

Keynote speaker Michael Braungart is the creator of the "cradle to cradle" design concept. According to him, facility management does not need more efficiency, as is common today, but more effectiveness. Because if the existing situation is wrong, increasing efficiency will not make it better. Instead, we should ask ourselves what is right - and then do the right thing. He cited an example from Egypt, where there are huge mountains of plastic bottle waste, not because people have no environmental awareness, but because the plastic is too cheap to collect, but also too toxic to burn, i.e. to use as a source of energy.

With "cradle to cradle", there would be no waste at all. Everything remains in the cycle and is reused - in the biosphere or the technosphere. Michael Braungart showed many other examples and wanted above all to inspire the audience. He appealed to them to create and not just manage. Wouldn't it be a good goal to create a building that also cleans the air?

Circular economy at the Institute for Facility Management

Matthias Haase from the Real Estate Management competence group reported on the international "Circular B" project, in which the IFM is involved. The aim is to develop a joint international framework with KPIs for a rating tool for the circular economy in the built environment.
Carsten Druhmann, Head of the Real Estate Management Competence Group, presented the Master's in Circular Economy Management, which started for the first time in fall 2023. In this joint degree program offered by three ZHAW departments, students from different disciplines will learn about all facets of sustainability, i.e. technical, economic, ecological and social aspects.

Finally, the discussion between Isabelle Wrase, head of the Master in Real Estate & Facility Management program, and lecturers Matthias Haase, Martina Hefele and Heinz Bernegger focused on the major topic of "transformation" and how the real estate management program trains the right people to implement it.

Learning with and about generative AI during your studies

Generative AI has been on everyone's lips for a good year now (keyword: ChatGPT). It is leading to many fundamental changes, including in teaching. Christian Coenen, lecturer at the IFM, presented what he sees as the two key questions about generative AI, namely "What can GenKI and I achieve together?" and "How can we achieve this?", as well as various examples of how students are already working with AI in their Bachelor's and Master's degree programs.
Irene Arnold used her closing remarks to look ahead to next year's anniversary activities. It will then be 25 years since the Federal Council approved the first UAS degree course in facility management.

Source: www.zhaw.ch