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The purpose of this paper is identification of a methodology to determine CO₂ emissions through facility services on an approximate and sufficiently accurate basis. This methodology is to be used by German practitioners for request for proposals (RFPs) and offers of facility services.

In accordance with ISO 14067, a matrix of CO₂-relevant modules for the representation of CO₂ emissions from facility services is developed. Key figures for energy consumption, transport and equipment manufacture and use are used in a case study.

For a transparent CO₂ assessment of facility services, the following modules are required: work clothing, devices, vehicles (service personnel), supplies, transportation of personnel and overhead (vehicles and office space). In the case study, facility services account for about 30 per cent of the CO₂ emissions originating from the use of the building.

The methodology developed is also applicable to other services. Prior to that, however, the investigation of additional facility services (catering or security) and an extension to other types of facilities is required (office building, hospital, etc.).

The developed methodology allows transparent competition for low-carbon services concepts, for example, in RFP procedures for facility services.

CO₂-optimised facility services increase the demand for low-emission operating equipment and resources. They therefore have an indirect influence on the development of a low-carbon economy.

To date, there has not been a methodology that supports a transparent and practical summary of the service-related CO₂ emissions associated with the resources used in facility services.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐17; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐17; Property Management Volumes 8‐17; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐17.

Notes how service encounters have tended to be viewed as an interaction between service providers and service customers. Examines situations where the main encounter is the interaction between the facility and the customer. Considers different perspectives for planning service facilities – operational, locational, atmospheric/image, consumer use, contact personnel. Argues that congruent facilities are those that can succeed in integrating these competing perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to focus its attention on the analysis of buyer-seller interactions in facility services. In particular it proposes to investigate the interactions Italian municipalities develop with sellers involved in facility services outsourcing and to evaluate how scientific contributions on business service (filtered through Service Dominant Logic) are constitutive paradigms of the interactions investigated.

The investigation is based on 15 case studies of small and medium-sized municipalities that are built on in-depth interviews with technical staff who, together with the mayors, perform the role of facility managers. Results from case studies are triangulated with secondary data and observations emerging from focus groups.

The research reveals paradoxes in the outsourcing processes of business services implemented by the public organizations analyzed. From these paradoxes it derives that the outsourcing of facility services in Italian municipalities is associated more with transactions than with interactions (municipalities do not act as operant resources) and that the transactions activated do not necessary generate efficiency.

Normative rules together with contextual factors jeopardize the adaptation in public organizations of interaction approaches to business service resulting from service and industrial marketing. The value of the paper lies in the identification of paradoxes as synthetic expressions of the divergences between empirical results and specialized interaction approaches on business services. In the light of these divergences, the paper proposes a contextualized re-interpretation of Service Dominant Logic.

Feedback from condominium occupants on multi-generational condominium facility services makes it possible to identify areas in need of improvement and development concerning facilities management in this residential project type. This paper aims to examine behaviours, needs, preferences and patterns of space use in condominium occupants from three different age groups (under 30, 30 to 50 and over 50 years old) relative to their satisfaction with facility services. The paper examines the impact of the physical environment and facility service arrangement (i.e. cleaning and security) on occupant satisfaction in the common areas of six multi-generational condominiums and investigates whether occupant satisfaction varies between the three age groups.

Six case studies classified as multi-generational condominiums were conducted. Research methods included document analysis, field surveys, interviews with juristic person managers and surveys from condominium occupants regarding their satisfaction with cleaning and security services in the common areas. The findings were then applied one-way ANOVA to test occupant satisfaction mean differences between age groups.

The findings indicate that physical environment characteristics including the location, size, number and design attributes of common areas have an impact on the provision of facility services and may influence occupant satisfaction. In terms of the facility service arrangement, both the service method and the ratio of staff to areas of responsibility can be explained in connection to functional and technical quality, respectively. Occupants’ demands and behaviours, such as the strong requirement for privacy, the preference towards service staff accessibility and the frequency of space usage, contribute to different levels of occupant satisfaction.

More case studies in Thailand and also in other countries, based on surveys with large samples of respondents, are required to increase the validity and to establish whether it is possible to generalise the study’s findings.

The findings and reflections upon them help understand the impact of physical environment characteristics and the provision of facility services on occupant satisfaction in various age groups. Recommendations are provided concerning building design and the provision of facility services in connection to perceived service quality and occupant satisfaction in multi-generational condominiums in Thailand that can apply to other types of real estate projects where similar facility services are offered.

This paper contributes to research on occupant satisfaction with facility services and provides evidence on occupants’ feedback in different types of perceived service quality (i.e. technical and functional quality). Identifying the impact of physical environment characteristics, facility service arrangements and occupant behaviours on occupant satisfaction with the technical and functional aspects of facility services contributes to the body of research on facilities management.

To examine to what degree good buildings enable the delivery of high quality services.

This paper uses empirical data from a case study of two metropolitan councils in Melbourne, Australia. Both are committed to the strategic management of their community facilities to maximise service outcomes for their constituents. To this end they implemented a strategic tool to measure the facilities' performance, using key performance indicators.

The data indicates a statistically significant correlation of the performance of the physical building and the quality of the service delivered from it, supporting the hypothesis that better physical facilities engender better service outcomes.

The implications are that the strategic planning for buildings and services should be undertaken in concert to maximise the enabling effect the physical building has on service performance. While this study concentrates on council buildings, the findings may be equally applicable to other service businesses.

This paper has implications for the way facility management practice should be undertaken and fills a knowledge gap about the effect which the quality of the physical surrounds has on the processes taking place within.

Over the past two decades, Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) has been a pragmatic strategy towards universal Primary Health Care (PHC) in Ghana. However, the ability and capacity of these facilities to deliver quality primary health care remain an illusion as they are still crumbling in myriad challenges. These challenges are translated to the poor-quality services provision and low community utilization of CHPS facilities. The study presents a comparative analysis of three communities in the Kassena-Nankana East Municipality, Ghana.

Using a mixed-method research design, the study gathered and analysed data from 110 households, three community health officers (CHOs) and three community leaders using semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides.

The findings indicated that the facilities do not have the requisite inputs such as drugs and supplies, logistics, appropriate health personnel, good infrastructure, funding support necessary to deliver quality and appropriate healthcare services that meet the health needs of the communities. For the CHPS to realize their full potentials as PHC facilities, it is required that the needed inputs such as logistics, drugs and appropriate staff are in place to facilitate the activities of CHOs.

Due to the limited number of participants and selection of the study communities, the results may generalization. Also, the researchers acknowledged the inability to interview the district level health officials and the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly during the field visits. This could have provided in-depth knowledge on the findings of this research as well as the validation of the results from the communities' perspective. Several attempts were made to contact and interview district-level authorities which proven futile due to the unavailability of targeted respondents. This resulted in limiting the studies at the community level. However, this limitation does not disprove the findings of this study.

The article implications for planning primary health care strategies include a keen assessment of community health needs and institutional management of primary health care facilities, equip PHC facilities with adequate resources such as drugs and appropriate staffing to provide the health needs of the communities.

The paper fulfils the gap in the literature by providing empirical data on how the challenges of primary health care facilities affected the provision of high quality service and how this can affect community’s use of the facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to define the added value of facility management (FM) in general and to develop a typology of facility services based on their added value in the educational environment.

This paper is based on a literature review and first assesses the different aspects of FM added value. The different variables and relations between the use of facility services and their effects on the educational achievement are then conceptualised and studied.

Research shows that FM added value is the customer perceived trade‐off between the effects of the use of facility services on the outcome of their processes, its costs and risks. On this basis, a typology of facility services was constructed around their level of fixity and their influence on the learning outcome.

The typology strongly indicates for FM when to engage in the decision‐making process relating to the educational environment in order to contribute to education. Also the typology is useful for deriving priorities for adjusting the current use situation of facility services to enhance their effectiveness in both a time and financially efficient manner.

This paper operationalises the concept of FM added value and provides several hypotheses and firm recommendations for further research to maximise the contribution of FM. The paper also presents a practical framework for evidenced‐based decision making on the use of facility services in the educational environment. It thus offers opportunities for FM to support the future learning landscape.

Given the premise of de facto universal standards for FM, this paper aims to investigate development of facilities management (FM) at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital through examination of two hypotheses: the university hospital has recognised FM and established a designated FM organisation (H1) and the university hospital provides adequate food and catering services at ward kitchens and buffets (H2).

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study based on a diverse cases’ designs.

There is limited and strong support for H1 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Both the Albanian and the Norwegian university hospitals rely on in-house production of facilities services, but the Albanian university hospital has outsourced food and catering services. FM and provision of facilities services are deeply integrated within the Norwegian university hospital’s core activities. There is also limited and strong support for H2 at the Albanian and Norwegian university hospitals, respectively. Hence, the Albanian Ministry of Health and the Albanian university hospital’s top management have a comprehensive, but not impossible, task, if the aim is to catch up with the Norwegian university hospital concerning FM.

This is an exploratory and descriptive comparative case study. Large N studies should be carried out both in Albania and Norway and preferably also in other countries to corroborate and develop the findings.

This is the first comparative study of FM at an Albanian and a Norwegian university hospital.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of knowledge about facilities management (FM), in particular, the management of FM services in practice, education and research. The paper questions whether we know more about optimal models for in-house or outsourcing FM after 25 years of applied research and development of best practices.

The paper is based on literature reviews, case studies and personal experiences from practice for over 25 years, concentrating on the public sector. The paper maintains an international focus on the FM development, with particular focus on the development in Norway and the Nordic countries. The knowledge development triangle, and its integration of education, research and practice, is used as an underlying theoretical framework.

The knowledge regarding management of FM services in both the public and private sector has been developed over the past two decades. The changes in both sectors is reflected in all the three aspects of the knowledge triangle. While the use of outsourcing increased significantly in popularity during the past 25 years, the Norwegian profile continues to have limited use of outsourcing.

The paper is based on a qualified selection of doctoral theses, research reports and scientific articles published in the period 1990-2015. The explorations include limited quantitative data.

The choice for FM in practice, whether fully or partly to produce services with internal resources or to make arrangements with external suppliers, is an important strategic decision regarding the choice of a procurement strategy for the company or the organisation. This decision is not necessarily about outsourcing or in-house but rather the strategic sourcing and management of the needed services.

A total of 25 years of research have shown that a simple solution and answer to the questions about in-house or outsourcing FM services is lacking. To find a good solution, it is necessary to understand the content of FM services with respect to quality and efficiency, and to understand the interaction between FM, the core activities and the users.