Click here to listen to the latest FM news on Friday, 28th October 2022
Welcome to InTheNews – covering all the FM news you may have missed over the last week:
Imtech, has signed an agreement for the acquisition of SPIE UK.
The acquisition of SPIE UK will complement and enhance Imtech’s current offering with a range of specialty services in industrial instrumentation, clean rooms, and life safety solutions. It also supports elements of Imtech’s 2026 strategy including increasing turnover with long term revenue streams and expanding the business in targeted sectors such as Education, Industry and Infrastructure.
Elsewhere, and ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions announced that French-based ALCEA (SAS), whose acquisition was made known in August this year, will be merged into Global Solutions’ Critical Infrastructure business. ALCEA has a strong focus on access control and relevant vertical markets.
Dominique Jardin, Business Director, France, Critical Infrastructure, ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions, said: “ALCEA has strong vertical-specific access control expertise, especially for the telecommunications and transportation industries, that is perfectly in line with our Critical Infrastructure strategy”
ESG now and The Climate School, the e-learning arm of sustainable insurance & consulting company AXA Climate, today announced a new training module designed to aid global marketing and communications professionals get set for the transition to a post-carbon economy.
Written with inputs from senior marketing professionals, experts and academics, the course is set to be a single on-ramp for a marketing and communications professional in any industry to understand the challenges and opportunities the climate crisis presents.
The course is a key pillar of the highly-practical “ACT” part of the AXA Climate curriculum, where practitioners access guidance on actions they can take in their day jobs to play a role in turning their businesses Green.
New movers and shakers this week as Biovate Hygienics, which launched this year with a pledge to become the country’s ‘go to’ brand for sustainable and carbon neutral cleaning products, has announced a trio of new hires to help propel it into its next stage of growth.
Welcoming the trio of new hires, Nick Winstone, said: “To ensure we continue to support this growth, we look at the people, their skill sets and how they will fit into the team’s culture, first and foremost. With Jenny’s depth of industry knowledge, as well as Kierran and Nadia’s diverse backgrounds and skillsets, we’re really excited about these fantastic additions to the team”.
And finally, new research released by IWFM and MillerKnoll has revealed that most companies remain uncertain about what their post-pandemic workplaces will look like as workers continue to crave the flexibility they experienced as a result of COVID-19 social distancing measures.
IWFM and MillerKnoll’s ‘The future of office design’ report, available now, dives into the main considerations for developing a future-facing workplace strategy, including office design, technology, workplace policies, inclusivity and wellbeing, and the legal landscape. The key takeaways offer important insights into how businesses are developing and experimenting with new ways of working, while a helpful guidance checklist outlines the points to consider when redesigning the workplace and rethinking your practices.
The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) is proud to announce the formation of its Sustainable Buildings Task Force.
Leaders from global companies in the built environment have come together to form the Task Force at the invitation of His Majesty King Charles III, in his former role as His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.
The Sustainable Buildings Task Force is made up of global CEOs from throughout the buildings industry working together to accelerate the delivery of net zero buildings to reduce carbon emissionsThe Task Force supports the overall SMI mission to speed the world’s transition to a sustainable future by engaging and challenging public, private, and philanthropic sectors to bring economic value, in harmony with social and environmental sustainability.
Elsewhere and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has today announced the creation of a new cross-industry group of experts to support the creation of new outputs related to Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain.
UKGBC’s Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain Project aims to assist organisations in taking practical action on Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain in light of changes to UK legislation in place for November of 2023, which will mandate a 10% biodiversity net gain on all new development.
As part of this project, UKGBC has onboarded several project partners, who will be forming a steering group, and a review group to help steer and shape the final output. They bring a range of expertise to ensure that the outcome is both communally created, but also represents a wide knowledge base and includes as much insights as possible.
Research now and a poll has found gender biased language and use of stereotypes is widespread within UK workplaces, with women asked to make tea or coffee almost three times more than men.
Women are also more than twice as likely than men to be asked about the wellbeing of their children, and twice as likely to be asked to do menial or admin-based tasks (37% vs 19%).
The survey also found women are made the target of sexist jokes almost three times more than men showcasing the deeply ingrained gender bias which permeates UK workplace culture.
The latest research from Samsung UK and Ireland also found UK employees are using biased language on average four times a week (80%), with almost half (46%) revealing that gender biased language is showing up at work.
Contracts now and ISS UK and Ireland (UK&I) confirmed that it has successfully retendered and retained its facilities management contract with Edinburgh College, Scotland’s Capital College that provides high-quality education and training to people and businesses across the region and beyond.
This new contract, commencing 1 August 2022, has been awarded on an initial five-year basis, with the option of a possible further two-year extension beyond that.
You can find out more on news.fmbusinessdaily.com
