The Role of Facility Management in Maintaining Nearly Zero-Energy Non-Residential Buildings Energy Efficient Over Time

Improved energy efficiency is a cornerstone in climate change mitigation and buildings remain a key area where facility management is an essential part in achieving more efficient energy use while keeping tenants satisfied. This interview study explores the role of facility management for maintaining energy efficiency over time in four approximately ten-year-old non-residential premises built as so-called nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) in Sweden. The study demonstrates the strength of the combination of functional digital tools with benchmarks and concerned building professionals who regularly visit or work in non-residential buildings. Within the study there is a wide range in capacity according to how many buildings each professional must handle, which affects the possibilities to follow up and identify deviations in energy usage. It is important to use involvement communication and strategies to activate more parts of facility management for energy efficiency. High ambitions and concerns to reach goals for energy efficiency seemed to fade out over time or land at a lower level. Here in-house policy is a factor that can act as a driving force both from outside and inside the organization. Access to professional support that is self-evident to use was found to be an important success factor to be able to handle identified defects in buildings when needed. On the other hand, framework agreements with companies that do not solve problems are identified as a barrier for energy efficiency that requires serious concerns from the facility management