A good match: Climate protection and facilities management

Dr. Laura Sasse tells how and where we anchor climate awareness in our business.

Without doubt, climate protection is one of the most important tasks of our time for states, individuals and companies. Acting sustainably and in a climate-friendly manner is no longer a free exercise, but a compulsory task for everyone. Facilities management has great potenzial to diminish impact on the planet. As Sasse Group, we naturally make our contribution.  For example, all our companies are certified according to ISO 14001. Please read here our new CSR-report 2020.

Laura, how do climate protection and facilities management go together?

With our work, we ensure that buildings and facilities last for a long time – perhaps the most effective way to conserve resources. But facilities management can do much more: we provide property owners with data for their carbon footprint, advise on energy efficiency or enable the intelligent use of spaces through digital applications. And of course there is huge potential for climate-friendly action in our own use of resources.

Can you give an example?

Let’s look at water consumption: Where possible, we use modern cleaning equipment such as i-Mop and spray foggers or dosing systems. This enabled us to reduce annual water consumption by 900,000 litres in the area of maintenance cleaning since 2019. In addition, since 2020 mopping robots have been used in several properties, which consume particularly little water.

What about cleaning agents?

We pay attention to standards such as ISO 14001 or EMAS when selecting our suppliers. For example, we use a lot of cleaning products from Ecolab, which has received several awards for its sustainability strategy. In 2020, we purchased about 22% sustainable products. We want to further increase this share over the coming years. Just recently we agreed with a large client that we will be cleaning numerous of theirs shops with sustainable products in the future. We especially value joint efforts such as this.

How do you implement sustainability in technical facilities management?

There are numerous possibilities, too. For example, we have been advising our clients on the topic of energy efficiency for years, supporting the conversion from district heating to solar thermal or helping them switch to LED lighting.

Facilities services also include smart waste management.

Correct. This starts with our own purchasing. Larger packaging units can save a lot of waste, but high concentrates in smaller units are sometimes more efficient. We are in constant dialogue with our suppliers about this. At the same time, we advise our customers on how they can smartly control and reduce their waste volume. For example, we have installed new waste bins with clear symbols at a large customer. The waste is sorted correctly, the recycling rate rises and the customer saves money because less ends up in the residual waste.

Is the end of the road near?

Not even close! More climate protection is always possible. Every day we discuss new ways to make our actions more sustainable – internally and in dialogue with our clients and partners.

Find out more in our new CSR-report 2020.