He’s plotting a green footprint for buildings of the future

Paddy Menon, chairman and managing director of International Facility Management Institute (IFMI), has set out to bring the words green and eco-friendly closer to the field of corporate real estate.
Menon founded IFMI five years ago to provide a legitimate and professional education in built environment. “If you look at the Indian landscape from a corporate real estate or faculty management perspective, it will be a $12 billion industry in the next few years. However, there’s no structure or education in this field. Senior management is not aware of not making the right decision, and so you end up carrying a lot of extra baggage,” explains Menon.

Because of this, after 25 years of being in corporate real estate, Menon retired from corporate life to teach. He started new MBA and Diploma programs, revolutionising the Facility Management and Corporate Real Estate discipline. The institute also offers diplomas that are focused on sustainability. Some other courses include disaster recovery and security.

“We basically educate people on how to reduce the environmental impact in commercial buildings, how to plan buildings with best energy efficiencies, water efficiency, material efficiency and how to improve indoor quality and optimise operations with technology,” says Menon on his long list of objectives. “We try to be in par with various standards with the rest of the world,” he says.

Menon, who spent the last decade in Australia, also dabbles in providing sustainable solutions for the home. “We look at water design, orientation, material efficiency, how to harness energy from the sun, what kinds of pumps to use in homes etc,” says Menon.

Menon explains that most people do not realise the long-term effects of cutting costs when initially building. If quality is reduced at first, the lifecycle of the building will not be as good, ultimately increasing costs.

“Although we don’t see it in India yet, the real world is very energy expensive,” says Menon. Hence, he aims to teach those who will control the future of Indian infrastructure to make the right decisions in an eco-friendly manner.

Being green does not only cut operational costs but has many other benefits. “It reduces environmental impact, has better energy and water efficiency, huge level of waste reduction and a much higher level of well-being in the office because of better air quality,” says Menon.

Apart from the big picture, when asked how one can be more eco-friendly on an individual level at the workplace, Menon turns to the basics. “Turn off the lights!” he jokes.