International Building Operation Standard (IBOS)

What is IBOS?

Please note, this document was reissued in January 2023 as practice information. It was previously published in February 2022 as a Framework document. No other changes have been made to the document. For more information on the document category changes, see the text part way down on this page.

The International Building Operation Standard (IBOS) is a data-based approach that supports the measurement and management of buildings for strategic decision-making.

As the way we live evolves, there is a need for a people-centric approach to how spaces are managed.

Developed alongside the market, IBOS reaches beyond traditional ways of assessing building performance to add another dimension – user experience - and provides a consistent way to benchmark across a number of properties.

IBOS revolves around five key pillars:

compliance | economics | functionality | sustainability | performance

By assessing against these pillars, buildings can be measured in a consistent way. What pillar does your building perform best on? What can you do to raise the status of your weakest pillar?

IBOS reaches beyond traditional ways of assessing building performance to equip professionals with a range of data. Assessment results can be used to inform decisions around ESG and sustainability, building optimisation and user-experience.

The framework can be integrated into your own system, or you can use the RICS IBOS self-assessment tool (SAT).

The SAT allows you to:

Consistently measure your building against key indicators
Generate a percentage-based report
Download your assessment

The IBOS framework is for use by anyone who wants to check their buildings against the core pillars. A range of organisations have endorsed it, including large office occupiers, universities, service provider firms and government departments.

If you’d like more information on IBOS, please email us

January 2023 : International Building Operation Standard, 1st Edition (PDF 4.26MB)

Published date: 31 October 2022

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IBOS self assessment tool

The SAT allows you to: - Consistently measure your building against key indicators - Generate a percentage-based report - Download your assessment

IBOS training

This course will focus on strategic and operational aspects of IBOS to understand how to measure building performance from a user perspective

Aims

To deliver an international standard for the operation of buildings to meet the needs of occupiers, investors, advisors and end users by providing a global benchmark for delivering better buildings for people, society and the planet.
To achieve a consistent benchmark for cost measurement and delivery of value for all real estate assets.

RICS IBOS: Buildings are changing

The role of buildings is changing. RICS introduces the International Building Operation Standard to support buildings be more compliant, functional, economic, sustainable and performing.

“Global insight has demonstrated a key role for RICS to provide support and structure in guiding organisations forward, and optimising building performance ”

Paul Bagust

IBOS case studies

How Acutro uses IBOS to analyse and optimise BMS

Acutro specialises in property performance, and have developed an analytics platform that provides useful insights and practical information for the development of smarter buildings. Commercial real estate has transformed rapidly in recent years, particularly with digitisation, and more attention is being paid to economics and sustainability. As a result, data and efficiency have become more valuable.

The RICS IBOS framework offers organisations a new approach to measuring and managing the way buildings perform for people through data. It organises data about property operations in a consistent manner so users can evaluate multiple qualities simultaneously.

IBOS goes beyond traditional ways of assessing building performance, adding another dimension – user experience. Users can better understand a building’s regulatory compliance, functionality, and sustainability. Acting on this data helps maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of building performance.

Acutro builds platform on IBOS pillars

Based on the IBOS pillars, Acutro created an analytics and optimisation platform for a building management system (BMS) in partnership with BGIS. This was used by a client retrofitting a building in Manchester.

Using the pillars for structure, Acutro recorded building performance for three months. This became the basis for auditing BMS and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) performance.

The results were then used to devise a strategy to maximise the building's functionality, regulatory compliance, sustainability and overall performance.

IBOS framework provides data for prompt action

After implementation, the client could view live reporting on energy use and carbon emissions, as well as real-time detection of faults or anomalies. The client could then act on this data at the earliest opportunity to undertake efficient facilities management and minimise disruption.

IBOS equips users with the data to embed sustainability, building optimisation and user experience into a real-estate strategy, and offers a consistent approach to assess and

benchmark performance across a portfolio of properties.

Access to timely data also allowed the client to understand how spaces were being used, by whom and when. From this, they could then make decisions that enabled effective use of space.

Understanding of comfort levels and energy efficiency meant that the client could create a user-centred environment, having a positive impact on well-being, costs and sustainability.

Experience leads to wider IBOS use

Since this successful experience of using the IBOS pillars, Acutro is expecting to deploy similar approaches across the Northwest of England and the Midlands on behalf of its clients.

How Sodexo use IBOS for strategic decision-making

Sodexo, an organisation that provides facilities management and property management services, is using the RICS International Building Operation Standard (IBOS) framework to measure, manage and improve the way buildings perform for people.

IBOS goes beyond traditional ways of assessing building performance to add another dimension – user experience. The framework enables users to better understand a building’s regulatory compliance, functionality, sustainability and performance.

Sodexo’s client base covers a wide variety of industries across 60 countries worldwide. It has found that occupiers are facing challenges as inflationary pressures erode property maintenance and life-cycle budgets. They are seeing that the window for achieving net-zero carbon is narrowing, and their future estate demands are unclear.

Across the built environment, senior leaders understand the need for data-led decision-making, and as a result are seeing exponential growth in the amount of data generated and used by organisations. Functional teams now have access to high volumes of granular data that supports their operational and tactical decision-making. However, it is difficult to understand how this disparate information can be consolidated to provide strategic direction.

Achieving an organisation’s operational, financial and sustainability objectives require insights from all aspects of the business, to enable a considered view of interwoven risks and opportunities.

Sodexo’s Building Performance Index (BPI) has been developed to address these challenges, allowing occupiers to focus on the key issues for strategic decision-making. The BPI draws on multiple data points from several systems and sources to convert high volumes of complex data into digestible and meaningful insights for senior stakeholders.

Sodexo aligns with the IBOS framework

Following the publication of IBOS in February, Sodexo has aligned its systems to the framework, which provides a consistent method of measurement and data organisation. Sodexo is currently deploying the BPI solution for the London Metropolitan Police to support the service’s policy development and strategic objectives in the following key areas.

Portfolio planning decisions: providing insights into the performance of each property and how fit for purpose it is, using empirical evidence to understand how extensive the estate needs to be.
Life-cycle investment decisions: analysing the impacts of asset performance on operations and using this to allocate limited budget towards the highest priorities.
Net-zero carbon planning: understanding the most suitable approach to carbon reduction for the estate, allowing users more easily to optimise carbon emissions and ensure a coherent, estate-wide strategy.
Financial business case and funding proposals: providing senior stakeholders with a logical and industry-recognised standard that supports investment proposals in a form that can be understood by non-technical budget-holders.

IBOS offers consistent approach across client portfolio

IBOS will offer the Metropolitan Police a standardised approach to measuring the performance of each building in its portfolio, and demonstrates tangible improvements over time as buildings are upgraded.

By implementing IBOS as part of the BPI, Sodexo is helping its client collect and organise data with consistency. This will allow the London Metropolitan Police to make better-informed decisions about buildings in its portfolio and about the way it operates, leading to improved building performance.

Success leads to wider use of framework

Since successfully integrating IBOS into its own systems to support the Metropolitan Police, Sodexo is deploying similar approaches with other clients, and will continue to use the IBOS framework as a consistent measurement system.

Testimonials

Janelle Chandler MRICS

Facilities and Commercial Property Management Professional, Sagicor

"IBOS uses a multi-faceted approach to evaluating building operations which incorporates global benchmarks and has a unique focus on user experience. I am thrilled that the RICS has developed it. A standard that can be adopted anywhere in the world to inform a wide cross section of stakeholders, especially property owners and potential investors."

Danny Lemon

Head, 22 Bishopsgate

"We are delighted to have had the opportunity to support RICS in their ambition to develop international building operation guidelines for real estate. This is applied similarly at 22 Bishopsgate, a human-centered workplace in the heart of the City of London. 22 Bishopsgate champions better business through creating an inclusive community. Its purpose to bring together a diverse range of occupiers across numerous sectors, to create a workspace where people and ideas can thrive."

Olga Turner Baker

MD, Ekkist

“In a clear, industry-wide document, IBOS helps to consolidate a range of strategies to support asset managers and developers in optimising user experience, health and well-being. Through internal monitoring and reporting, companies can track their progress, benchmark their performance and build upon targets in each given area. It is now widely recognised that proactively operating a building in a responsible, sustainable and healthy way is just as important as its construction. IBOS helps to ensure that post construction performance remains a key consideration and metric for all existing and future buildings”

Ritesh Sachdev

SVP & Head of Commercial Leasing and Asset Management, Tata Realty

"The world as we know has changed and so has our workplace. The pandemic has hyper-increased the focus on safety and wellness as organisations strive to bring employees back to the workplace. Whether an owned campus or a multi-tenanted asset, occupiers and developers will have to partner and bring about this much needed confidence as return back to office gains momentum and ‘Wellness’ at the workplace becomes a necessity. I would like to congratulate, compliment and encourage the RICS, the World’s leading professional body for qualifications and standards as they introduce International Building Operations Standard (IBOS) for property developers and owners to appreciate, implement and benefit"

Damien Toner

Director of Estates, Queens University Belfast

"As we evolve the Queen's estate to support the university's new 10 year strategy, we can clearly see the benefits that IBOS can bring in helping us ensure that student and staff experience remains firmly at the heart of our approach to asset management alongside our goal of achieving net zero in the fastest possible time.'

Patrick Turner

CTO of Engineering, Acutro

"Acutro is a PropTech provider possessing expertise in data centric environments: aggregation, analytics, reporting, standardisation are all services it delivers across the built environment. IBOS paves the way for organisations to begin transforming their data culture by simplifying analysis with the guidance of the IBOS Five Pillar’s. In a world where there is access to huge quantities of data, IBOS empowers our clients to decide what data is useful information and then Acutro learns what intelligence is impactful for our client."

Cristian Vasiliu

MD, Romania FM Association

"Some of us may see the 21st Century truly starting with the Covid Pandemic but we all agree that creating social value and optimizing the use of resources are the cornerstones of the present and near future. From this perspective I am welcoming IBOS as a vivid tool bringing together the operational performance of the buildings and the users experience. I am also pleased and ready to use IBOS as an educational resource for those real estate and FM professionals who, day by day, are serving the buildings and the people living and working inside them."

Dan Hughes

Director, Alpha Property

"The effective use of data can provide huge benefits in buildings. However, as the definition of building performance evolves and expands it is vital that there is a robust framework detailing the elements that need to be considered and the corresponding data to be used. IBOS does just this and is a foundational step for the sector to fully leverage data in the years to come - ultimately to drive better performance in buildings whether for people, the planet or finances."

Rob Jackson

Chief Growth Officer, Asite

“As we prioritise effective management of buildings, improved reporting against evolving legislation, coupled with a proliferation of available data, IBOS will create clarity and ensure this information facilitates consistent reporting and ‘like for like’ benchmarking.”