The Ghana Chapter of the International Facility Management Association has indicated that the lack of a facility management policy has made it difficult for the management of high-rise buildings, which tends to have effects on the environment.
They have raised concerns about how waste, water and energy are managed and disposed of to prevent the destruction of properties and the release of toxic materials into the environment.
On the sidelines of a conference held in Accra IMFA Ghana Chapter on the topic “Best facility management practices key to sustainable development,” the President of the Ghana Chapter of IMFA, Sampson Opare Agyemang, called on the government to institute a facility management policy which will give guidelines on how to manage various wastes from buildings.
“Managing high-rise buildings has a great effect on the environment. From the beginning of giving permits to build high-rise buildings, the requirement does not include how we are going to manage our waste effectively. We as professionals want to bring to the attention of the authorities that these are the things we need to look at.”
On her part, the Head of Facility Management Service at the World Food Programme, Ms Christa Dodoo, who was worried that the country’s maintenance culture produces a lot of waste, advised facility managers to move towards recycling waste.
“When you look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), about 80% of them have to do with the built environment, and that tells you facilities management plays a high role in what we do. With plastic waste, we could engage small businesses and NGOs to be able to ensure that our social responsibility to the environment is taken care of. We have an abundance of solar energy in this country; why are we not using it? As facilities managers we need to ensure that we come up with practices that will help us use green energy, and which would help us recycle some of the energy and renewable energy to help us manage our facilities,” she said.
The Head of Physical and Facilities Management at the Consolidated Bank Ghana, Mrs. Aba Asante-Koranchie, also revealed that “whatever a facilities manager brings or takes out of a system has an impact on the environment. So whatever energy usage they ensure the building uses will impact the Akosombo Dam and its water levels. How waste is disposed of either treated or not can impact our water bodies.”