International AdvancementsThe IFMA Foundation's commitment to research, education and scholarships is global, just as the function of facility management is global. Many of the issues and challenges faced by facility managers in South America or Asia are the same as those faced by facility managers in Europe, Africa or the United States. For that reason it is vital that the Foundation maintains an open perspective and invites input from around the world while simultaneously offering it's research and opportunities to the facility managers around the globe. | Quick Links |
International Student of the Year Competition
The IFMA Foundation will recognize a single student at World Workplace 2011 in Phoenix as the International Student of the Year. This prestigious award will be based on a variety of measures including GPA, civic and industry involvement, leadership, accomplishments and professional intent. Learn more »
Australia
FM Action Agenda: a five year mission
By Stephen Ballesty, Trustee, IFMA Foundation; Immediate Past Chairman, FMA Australia; Deputy Chairman, FM Action Agenda; FM Exemplar Project Leader; and Managing Director | Advisory, Rider Levett Bucknall
The Facilities Management (FM) Action Agenda resulted from FMA Australia’s advocacy efforts in late 2003. We demonstrated to the Australian Government that FM was a key integrator across a range of professions and services throughout the lifecycle of crucial infrastructure. During 2004 our strategic plan entitled ‘Managing the Built Environment’ (2005) was developed. This set out a 20 point action plan to improve the recognition of FM as the foremost contributor to a productive and sustainable Built Environment through improved innovation, education and regulatory reform.
In 2008, our third and concluding year of the FM Action Agenda’s implementation phase, significant progress was made on initiatives across the Innovation, Education, Regulatory Reform and Sustainability platforms. The FM Action Agenda has not only enhanced FM’s recognition locally in Australia with some 40 presentations to date, but has reached out globally via downloads, articles and conferences in Asia, Europe and North America including status reports at IFMA’s World Workplace 2006 and 2007.
FM Exemplar Project: Sydney Opera House
The FM Exemplar Project: Sydney Opera House was initiated by the FM Action Agenda and undertaken by the CRC for Construction Innovation with industry partners to demonstrate the strategic importance of FM and gain a better understanding of best practice.
Sydney Opera House, as Australia’s most famous landmark and one of the world’s most recognisable icons and busiest performing arts centers, provided us with an excellent opportunity to explore some unique FM challenges some unique challenges. Some 23 participants from 10 organisations worked for 18 months, focusing on three FM research streams of Digital Modelling, Services Procurement and Performance Benchmarking, and making progress towards an integrated FM framework. This was demonstrated in the final research summary report entitled ‘FM as a business enabler’ published in February 2007. This was followed by a second publication in April focused on the Digital Modelling outputs entitled ‘Adopting BIM for facilities management’.
The FM Exemplar Project supported the FM Action Agenda in promoting the benefits of improved and integrated information systems, service delivery and performance benchmarking for the benefit of FM industry stakeholders and ultimately the community.
FMA Australia Honors IFMA Foundation with Industry Achievement Award for FMPedia.org
The IFMA Foundation has received the 2008 Facility Management Association of Australia and Rider Levett Bucknall FM Industry Achievement Award in recognition of FMpedia, the free online facility management glossary launched by the foundation last year.
As Australia’s premier award for facility management innovation, strategy and practice, the annual FM Industry Achievement Award recognizes programs or ideas that positively contribute to organizational success. The award was presented to IFMA President and CEO David J. Brady, who serves on the IFMA Foundation board of trustees, at the FMA Australia Ideaction ’08 conference held last month in Queensland, Australia.
“In only eight short months, the IFMA Foundation’s FMpedia application has helped to establish a dialogue between facility management practitioners separated by entire oceans and continents, making it an ideal choice for this award,” said FMA Australia CEO David Duncan. “As this online resource grows in size and scope, I believe it will continue to make a positive, measurable impact on our profession.”
Developed by Eric Teicholz, IFMA Fellow and IFMA Foundation trustee, FMpedia has been an online resource of the international FM community since its debut in October 2007. Now with almost 1,000 defined terms and contributors in nearly 25 countries, FMpedia unites facility professionals around the world and empowers them to define and discuss the terminology of their industry.
Links
- Guide to FM Educational Institutions in Australia (2007) (.pdf)
- Article on Pandemic Preparedness (2007) (.pdf)
- FM Action Agenda: Managing the Built Environment (2006-08)
- FM Exemplar Project: Sydney Opera House – ‘FM as a business enabler’ (2007)
- FM Exemplar Project: Sydney Opera House – ‘Adopting BIM for facilities management’ (2007)
- Australian Government’s ‘ESD Operations Guide for owners, managers and tenants’ (2009)