NURTURE YOUR MONEY TREE
'ROOTS' TO SUCCESS
Spiralling costs, a climate crisis, and political uncertainty further impact an ageing public estate in need of renewal. Wouldn’t it be great if your assets could become money trees to help you address the challenges?
Following our 2023 session on establishing a money tree, we turn our attention to nurturing it. This year, we explore how to nurture what you have and how to generate value using data-driven decision making.
At the conference and beyond, we look at the benefits of using data to optimise your estates and assets, support your sustainability ambitions, energise your workforce and bring value to your citizens.
KNOWLEDGE
What data would help you to make more informed decisions?
We live in a world of data. Our ability to collect, verify, store, analyse and access it is key to improving society, the environments and our wellbeing.
As estate managers and public sector leaders, we know we need data, and that we need to make sure it is accurate and accessible. Yet, we struggle to keep our data and information up to date. Time and resource play a significant role, but so too does the uncertainty. Are the vast reams of data we hold relevant, or should we use something else?
To break this 'data dilemma' cycle, we need to start at the end. Knowing what you want to accomplish accomplish or solve will help you determine what data you need, which people to involve and how to proceed.
OUTCOMES
What benefits could optimising your estate/asset bring?
Efficient public estates, which serve the community, provide not only monetary gains, but also social value, environmental benefits, and future flexibility.
The journey towards estate and asset optimisation is complex. For many, the process can be daunting. By way of example, excessive maintenance and repair costs might lead to the closure and disposal of a community asset. Would its closure have a negative impact on society and the environment?
Maximising the efficiency and sustainability of built assets across the life cycle requires a multitude of skills. The optimal use of an estate is underpinned by a robust finance strategy, as well as consideration's of the estate's condition, space utilisation, functional suitability, sustainability and energy efficiency.
But the benefits are clear. Using data to optimise your assets can help you gain a deeper understanding of your estate and build a compelling business case for investment.
RESOURCES
What skills and people are needed to achieve estate ambitions?
According to recent research by APM, almost half (47%) of project professionals working across the built environment believe skills shortages could impact the delivery of projects intended to deliver a social benefit.
Adapting to changes in the way we work, and implementing digital practices, will require upskilling our existing workforces, as well as the addition of new skillsets. The challenge for the public sector is to attract talent with digital qualifications, skills and knowledge that can complement and understand traditional core disciplines.
It will take greater collaboration between digital innovators and technical experts across disciplines to bring innovative ideas and 'reverse mentor' colleagues, ensuring that we remain aware of the 'art of the possible' and provide the best service.
REFLECTIONS FROM 2023
Last year, we planted the seed of turning assets into money trees, and encouraged the audience to think about doing this in a smarter, greener and better way.
But how do we work smarter - and what does smarter mean? How do we go about embedding sustainability and make our public sector estate greener - in operation, or during design, build and refurbishment? And how can we work better in the face of relentless financial pressure?
These questions were posed to a cross-section of public sector contacts and clients prior to Conference 2023. Here are some of the insights we discussed in our session.
Smarter
We started our survey by exploring what 'smart' means in a public sector world. Is it intrinsically linked to digitally-enabled estates and the data insights that technology can bring to estate management and optimisation?
According to 63% of survey respondents, smarter meant digital records of all documents that enabled meaningful data and the ability to create digital twins of their estates.
67% agreed that keeping digital data 'live' is a problem; many know what data they have, but don't have time to update it.
So, if many understand that being optimised is a way to be smart, how many have applied it? 84% of respondents revealed that their estates were not optimised, although 42% felt that they were flexible to adapt to future trends.
Greener
With net zero at the top of many agendas, so what is important in terms of sustainability? What drives organisations to hit green targets in the current economic climate?
The answer is multiple. When asked to nominate important factors, results were equally spread across ESG, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), energy costs, greening government commitments and the climate emergency.
When asked if resources are in place to meet sustainability goals, 73% of those surveyed said they only partly had the resources, or did not have the time to meet environmental targets set.
When factoring in the cost of living crisis, and whether this has impacted on drive to decarbonise, 67% said that they were already feeling financial pressure to spend money elsewhere.
Better
So, what equated to working better in the public sector? How can we close the estate management skills gap? Are we influenced by government policy? And do we understand if our assets and estate can support our future needs?
Asset awareness emerged as a potential obstacle to being better. Only one in five (21%) of survey respondents admitted they knew what assets they owned and had a strategy in place to record this now, and in the future.
When asked if policy, legislation and guidance impacted on decisions made, 57% revealed that they found it difficult to keep up, with 36% aware of governmental drivers, but not sure if they made a difference.
When asked how the skills gap was closing, there was a clear direction of travel; many are partnering with similar organisations to share resources.
