by Brianna Crandall — August 27, 2014—Nonprofit building research and consultancy organization BSRIA (owned by The Building Services Research and Information Association) recently published this year’s operation and maintenance benchmarking report as a guide for building operators to evaluate their performance against their peers.
The report includes real-life data on maintenance, energy, soft services and waste. The data was collated in consultation with members of the BSRIA’s O&M Benchmarking Network. With extensive expertise in helping facilities managers operate their buildings more efficiently, BSRIA is acting through the Network as a valid and authoritative focal point for building operators aiming to improve their performance.
Annual electricity consumption (kWh/m2GIA) benchmarks since 2006
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For a second year running, membership subscriptions remained at the highest the Network has seen in its 10-year history, which is a reflection of the need for the up-to-date resource the Network offers, points out BSRIA.
The latest report is based on 79 sets of data that BSRIA received for analyzing this year. Over 85% were from England, with a small number of returns from other places in Europe. The responses were heavily dominated by general office returns, which is usually the case, notes BSRIA. This year the financial sector gave the greatest number of returns, followed by the Central Government.
Selected highlights
Since there are influences that can affect the cost of maintenance, questions were asked to allow more accurate comparisons. BSRIA captured again this year how members procured their subcontractors, and, similar to previous findings, 97% were included in the main M&E contract.
The total maintenance benchmark for all buildings (with the exception of warehouses) increased slightly this year. The average cost of security and cleaning also increased across all building types, compared with last year. However, this increase is most likely due to the high proportion of returns this year from offices within the financial sector, which reports a higher cost for these services, notes BSRIA
Annual electricity consumption (kWh/m2Energy reducing technologies in use
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With the ongoing pressure to drive down energy consumption and costs, there was a good response to energy-related questions this year as with previous years, reports BSRIA. General offices saw a slight increase in the benchmark this year, which may be due to the increased levels of information technology (IT) in some of the buildings with submissions.
The 2003 Action Energy publication ECG019 Energy Use in Offices is still one of the most relevant energy benchmarks for offices, according to BSRIA. Comparisons between ECG019 (formerly known as ECON19) and Network data can be made using the latest report. Although improvements have been made in recent years, BSRIA says that facilities are still not reaching the good practice figures provided in this publication.
This report and the anonymized raw data are available to members of BSRIA’s Operation and Maintenance Benchmarking Network.
