Management matters - Linking management of buildings to environmental impacts in a pilot study of Supermarket buildings

This report is based on a pilot study about how the environment is affected by the management ofsupermarket buildings and provides some ideas answering that complex question. It also suggestsmodels on how such results can be illustrated. The study regards two buildings used assupermarkets, the building structures are similar but the management strategies differed.Buildings used for supermarkets are complex buildings. They are technologically advanced andmany different stakeholders have interest in the buildings. The management of such a building istechnically more demanding than a regular building, like an office or a residential building. Themanagement of these buildings is also complex in the sense that different sections of buildingcould be managed by different companies and that many specialists are needed to service much ofthe equipment in the buildings.Different buildings are managed in different ways. The main differences are if the company thatowns the building also occupies the building and if the management staff is employed by thecompany that owns the building or not. This is a form of outsourcing. The outsourcing created amanagement environment with more actors in the network that is managing the building. Withmore actors, there are also more relations between the actors, more contracts and morestakeholders with different interests.This study is based on the EAO (Environmental Assessment of Organising) framework developedby Baumann. The framework suggests that there is a link between how the operation of productsis managed and the operation’s environmental performance. The operation in this pilot study isthe running of buildings used as supermarkets. The results from the study show that there aredifferences in the management strategies between different buildings, even though thesupermarkets were part of the same chain. These differences in management could in some caseslead to differing environmental performances. The instances when management affectsenvironmental performance can be discussed in terms of interactions between the managementand the environment. This report holds several examples; one is basic and deals with the issue oflighting. When a light fitting is mounted there is an option whether it should be a low energyconsuming or a conventional one. The choice might seem easy at a first glance but the choice iscomplex since there are numerous actors with different opinions involved in such a decision. Forexample, is it the actor that is paying the energy bill that is paying the additional cost for theenergy efficient lights?The purpose of the pilot study was to test the EAO ideas in a real setting, to examine therelationship between environmental performance and management of the buildings in detail andalso to develop methodology to conduct this type of research.The findings from this pilot are that there is a relationship between the environmentalperformance of a building and the way that it is managed. However, to be able to quantify andqualify that relationship, some modifications to the research design are necessary. Therelationship between the management of the building and its environmental performance isillustrated in two models in this report. The models are based on the idea that there are twoenvironments, the organizational environment and the natural environment, previously referred toas management and environment. The idea is that there are chains of actions occurring in these two environments. For example a certain pollutant is emitted in the natural environment triggers anumber of actions in this environment, for example a type of species might die, and the extinctionof this species causes another species to struggle for food and so on. Similarly in theorganizational environment, a certain event will make certain staff member to react. Using theexample of the lights again, when a light goes out a staff member in the supermarket will reportthe broken light to the person responsible for the upkeep of the building, then they will report thatto the maintenance personnel, who then will change the light. Depending on what other people inthis chain have decided they will replace the broken light with the appropriate light fitting. Themodel illustrates how these two environments interact.Several interactions between the two environments are presented in a short story format in thisreport. The stories are snapshots of management of buildings, they are chosen to illustrate howthings that might seem as straightforward maintenance, have complex organizational networksattached to them. The organizational networks are determining how tasks are carried out in thebuildings. The stories connect the environment with the organizational networks.The second model shows the complexity of the management of a single appliance in asupermarket. It shows the number of actors and their influence in an interesting way. One of therecommendations for future studies is to focus on one or two appliances in the building ratherthan on the entire building. The reason for this recommendation is that the management of abuilding used as a supermarket is very complex and to measure its environmental performance isa very large task in itself. If one or two appliances were studied the extent of data would be lessand the environmental performance would be easier to measure, as a consequence of this, therelation between the management of the product and its environmental impact will be clearer andeasier to understand.The link between the two environments are established further in this report, Brunklaus (2005)established the link in her licentiate thesis. This link is interesting and this pilot demonstrates theneed for further investigation to the issue with modified investigation methods. This report is alsosuggesting that participant observations would be useful a tool in this research field, also in futurestudies