Chairman’s Blog, July/August 2020

Looking Beyond…

Is it possible to look beyond pandemic isolation and social distancing, beyond the unemployment and economic upheaval, beyond the racism, nationalism, and all the other “ism’s”?

I do not know when it will occur, but I am confident we will return to the workplace, to restaurants, to sporting events, and to vacation destinations. Unfortunately, when life resumes some sense of normalcy the other elephant will still be in the room.  That elephant, of course, is the Climate Crisis – and it has not subsided as we’ve been distracted on the COVID-19 detour.

All are keenly aware we are not out of the woods yet regarding the threat posed by COVID-19.  As a reminder from past newsletters, IFMA has amassed a collection of COVID-related materials in their Coronavirus Preparedness Resource Center.  The IFMA Foundation released an authoritative Pandemic Manual.  And Lear Corporation produced a Safe Work Playbook: 2nd Edition.  All are freely available for download.

IFMA has a history of looking towards the future of both the business of FM and the FM profession.  Our present day is no exception.  Stay tuned for the Expert Assessment: the Future Workplace Post-COVID-19 survey, to be published in late September.  Sponsored by JLL, EPOS and the IFMA Communities of Practice, this survey tasked 250 global workplace experts to think about the future of work post-COVID-19 pandemic. The survey looks beyond the immediate “return to the workplace” concerns to consider health & safety in the workplace, organizational agility & flexibility, and work performance & productivity.  Watch IFMA’s website for more information on the survey in the coming weeks.

In this issue we look at whether skyscrapers have a future in an environmentally-conscious world, whether Climate Activists are focusing on the wrong targets, whether the drop in travel is an opportunity to rethink tourism, and insights from the Bloomberg Green Newsletter.

As always, we hope you find the newsletter enlightening…
Dean Stanberry