The Professional Guidance and Standards for The FM Sector event was held earlier this week at Marriott Marquis, City Centre, Doha. The event was organized by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and attended by a very targeted list of high level asset owners, developers, government officials and other FM sector professionals.

The key event aims to bringing the FM community together to discuss the newly published FM Professional Guidance and Standards which had a great interest to the community and a good turnout.

Among the speakers were leading FM experts, key decision-makers from the government and other bodies as well as some leading brands, manufacturers and technology providers. 

GORD has participated in the event and presented the recently launched GSAS Operations certification system for the sustainability performance of buildings-in-use. GSAS Operations certification aims to reduce the environmental impacts of existing buildings, to improve health and well-being and occupant satisfaction by adopting the best practice available. The presentation covered GORD proactive role towards the sustainable built environment in the MENA region, and emphasized on the importance of operational and maintenance practices which impact building performance. 

GSAS Operation certificate serves as a great tool in the hands of practitioners and building operators to adopt best practice and objectively demonstrate the minimized impact of building operations on five key aspects: energy consumption, water consumption, waste management, indoor environment and facility management. In addition; GORD has presented the innovative Energy Performance Label (EPL) tool, which was developed in collaboration with Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and provides a visual representation of As-Built and As-Operated energy performance and consumption of the building. Using this tool, projects will be able to identify the operational gaps in buildings performance, hence be able to improve in future. Similar tool has been developed for water assessment, called The Water Performance Label (WPL).

The Professional Guidance and Standards for The FM event was much appreciated by all attendees as it provided the advancements and best practice in the sector brought about by the newly published Professional Guidance documents: ISO, GSAS and the IFMA-RICS Define FM collaborative approach.