CIB Facilities Management Conference 2014 Technical University of Denmark 217 6.2 A FACILITY MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO REDUCING ENERGY AND CARBON FOOTPRINT OF BUILT FACILITIES Manish Kumar Dixit Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University mandix72@hotmail.com Phone: 979-676-2446 Charles H. Culp Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University cculp@tamu.edu Jose L. Fernandez-Solis Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University jsolis@arch.tamu.edu Sarel Lavy Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University slavy@arch.tamu.edu ABSTRACT Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of a life cycle ap- proach and the role of facilities management practices in reducing the environmental foot- print of built facilities. An approach to holistic life cycle energy and carbon reduction is also proposed. State of the Art: Built facilities consume over 40% of global energy annually resulting in over 33% of world’s total carbon emission. According to literature, for a significant reduction in energy use and resulting carbon emissions, it is critical that both the embodied and operat- ing energy use of a facility is optimized. Approach: A literature-based discovery approach was applied to collect, analyze, and syn- thesize the results of published case studies from around the globe. The energy use results of 158 published case studies were analyzed to derive conclusions. Results: A comparison of energy efficient and conventional facilities revealed that decreas- ing operating energy may increase the embodied energy components. Additionally, the analy- sis of 95 commercial facilities indicated that nearly 10% of the total U.S. carbon emissions was influenced by facilities management practices. Practical Implications: The proposed approach to holistic environmental footprint reduction can guide facility management research and practice to make meaningful contributions to our efforts for creating a sustainable built environment.