I always love the beginning of the year. On a personal level, it’s a chance to work towards a new you by getting in shape, ditching a bad habit, or whatever your goal may be. It’s a fresh start, a clean slate.
But I’m going to recommend that you, as a facility manager, also take this opportunity to get your site’s environmental, health and safety situation in shape, too.
As a property or facility manager, you have to take care of your own operations from an environmental, health and safety standpoint but you also have to keep an eye on what your tenants are doing.
As the property manager of a strip mall or shopping plaza, you might not think you have much to worry about when it comes to environmental, health and safety issues. After all, you’re not in charge of a manufacturing facility, storing and using large amounts of hazardous materials.
If you’re the property or facility manager at a hotel, you have a lot to worry about. Guest safety is huge. There are a lot of maintenance requirements inside and outside. And the larger the hotel - and maybe even add in a conference center or events space - the more there is to keep track of.
Many property and facility managers at office buildings and office complexes think that only manufacturing facilities really need to be concerned with environmental exposures and liabilities. Looking at their own buildings and property, they just don’t see all the environmental risks and potential problems, at best focusing mostly on issues related to mold and asbestos. Often certain environmental conditions exist that require permits, plans, programs and training of facility personnel.
I have a lot of respect for regulators at all levels, local, state, and federal. It sometimes surprises people that they are very often willing to work with facilities to improve their environmental, health and safety practices and address exposures.
Of all the ways a facility can get in trouble, including not having required permits or failing to follow certain regulations in your manufacturing process, one of the most common we see as environmental consultants might be a surprise.
You might think you have all your environmental permits in good order at your facility. Fair enough. But I want you to think again.
The role of the facility manager has broadened over the years to encompass many responsibilities, including the facility’s physical structures and equipment, budgets and finances, training, compliance with laws and regulations (not to mention company policies, and employees).
Nobody likes to show weakness, especially in a corporation or business, least of all facility managers. As the guy or gal in charge, you’re “supposed” to know everything whenever executives or the staff on the production line come asking questions.
