Over the last decade, property management has widened its scope and coverage and is moving towards an integrated approach taking into account the energy, environmental, financial, health and comfort related aspects of the buildings. This is the purpose of the smartBPM methodology that helps property managers to measure the financial, energy, environmental and health and comfort gaps against actual levels of performance of their buildings in operation. It also identifies actionable opportunities for savings or capital improvements, forecast operating budgets and capital requirements.

In order to ensure a comprehensive management of the building performance and the related costs of ownership/occupancy, the smartBPM methodology integrates a number of innovative performance-based tools, including among others:

• Guaranteed and/or shared energy saving partnerships using competitive and performance-based contracts management;
• Condition-based maintenance, using the Dutch standard NEN2767, with condition assessment of the entire building and all the technical installations, being the basis for the optimization of the cost and performance of the maintenance;
• Comfort and satisfaction assessment (ComfortMeter), bringing comfort and productivity of the occupants at the heart of the operations management;
• Building value assessment using the NEN2767 condition scores monetization to quantify and monitor the « building value » of the technical installations all along the building lifecycle and/or rent term and to fix the « returned » value requirements for maintenance contracts as well as to calculate the « added » value at the end of the contracts;
• A third party building certification (Breeam In Use), with its own performance scores, enlarging the possibilities of performance requirements to be included in the scope of the contracts management.

Fig.: smartBPM, a comprehensive management system to measure buildings performance, identify opportunities for savings, forecast budgets and capital requirements

smartBPM is fully based on a cost-optimal approach taking into account the global lifetime costs of buildings to shape their future performance level requirements. The evaluation of buildings’ improvements is not solely related to the investment costs, but additionally takes into account the operational, maintenance, comfort and energy saving costs of buildings. As a result, smartBPM establishes a comparative assessment of the actual and future level of performance to determine the cost-optimal set of measures to be implemented in order to deliver future-proofed buildings, lower costs, drive higher income and enhance asset value. This assessment can be performed at various levels, from a technical part of a single building to a whole buildings portfolio.

The first phase of the smartBPM puts all buildings enrolled in the program onto a level playing field where performance can be measured, managed and compared. This is typically accomplished through multi-disciplinarily and integrated benchmarking methodologies, which yield energy, comfort, building value and certification performance ratios as well as a cost building model allowing gap analysis.

This in depth analysis allows exploring and identifying actionable opportunities for performance improvements and cost savings to be translated in a multi-year Performance Action Plan. This first phase provides many benefits to the owner, as it:

• Informs the owner of value opportunities for savings or capital improvements across the portfolio;
• Ensures that operating budgets and capital investments are cost optimal and are allocated wisely throughout the portfolio;
• Establishes and tracks metrics and initiatives that contribute to an overall company sustainability plan.

The second phase of the smartBPM improves building performance through implementation the operations, capital and third-party certifications improvements identified in the Performance Action Plan. Depending on the specific objectives of the portfolio and each property, one or all of the strategies can be pursued in a holistic manner. This can be done using the smartEPC approach that leads to cost-savings partnerships with ESCOs or by means of another performance-based way to execute the Performance Action Plan.

Long-term business relationships yield the most valuable results for the client. The third step of the smartBPM relates to the continuous benchmarking via custom-made dashboards, building cost modelling and Measure and Verification monitoring. It’s simply not enough to make performance improvement investments and implement sustainable operations into the portfolio; results must be verified through accurate and on-going benchmarking. As each property improves over time, additional value opportunities become available. Energinvest takes a proactive role with property managers to ensure that informed decisions regarding building performance are being made year-round.

• Benchmarking
• Operations budgeting
• Capital Planning
• Scenarios analysis

1. Provides customer-specific benchmark and cost models to measure gaps against actual buildings performance and identifies actionable opportunities for savings or capital improvements.
2. Guides senior management decision making for operating budgets and capital planning estimates.
3. Increases buildings performance and reduces costs and risks exposure.