Title: Factors influencing the adoption of sustainability into university facilities management practices: a case study of universities in South Australia

Authors: Mohamad Sufian Hasim; Mohd Khairul Anuar Jalil; Lilis Shereena Safiee; Ellemy Iskandar Khalid; Kwong Qi Jie

Addresses: Centre of Studies for Building Surveying, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia ' Centre of Studies for Building Surveying, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia ' Centre of Studies for Building Surveying, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia ' Centre of Studies for Building Surveying, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia ' Centre of Studies for Building Surveying, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Abstract: Facilities management (FM) has been recognised as one of the most important entities in supporting the goal of sustainability within organisations. Sustainability in FM practices is benefiting an organisation in achieving sustainable environmental, economic, and social improvement. Organisational performance towards sustainability has a significant relationship with the drivers, whether from internal or external sources. This study aimed to determine the factors within FM practices that could enhance sustainability practices in university organisations. To achieve the above aim, ten face-to-face semi-structured interviews at all three South Australian universities were administered to gather in-depth information involving heads of department and those at senior managerial level in the university's FM department. The analysis has established ten themes, and the most frequent factors in South Australian universities were pressures from stakeholders (28%) (i.e., from students and staff, or governments), economic benefit (26.5%) (i.e., business opportunity and cost reduction), commitment by top management (18%) (i.e., executive level, embedded in university strategic goal), and collaborations with other parties (7.5%) (i.e., local government, state government or private companies). The information gathered will help other organisations as prospects of lessons learned especially for universities in other countries.

Keywords: facilities management; sustainability practices; South Australia; sustainable universities; sustainability adoption; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2020.108162

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2020 Vol.19 No.3, pp.308 - 319

Accepted: 26 Aug 2019
Published online: 03 Jul 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article