As sustainable facilities management becomes popular, recent studies have called for insight into managers’ and users’ comparable perspectives on sustainable public buildings. This study aims to address the underexplored need for facility users’ perspectives on sustainable facilities management of public sector buildings. The study examines the role of key sustainability drivers in sustainable building facilities management, considering the moderating role of stakeholder collaboration. Insight was gathered from the dual perspectives of facility managers and users of public sector buildings supervised by the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism and the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport.
The stakeholder theory informs a quantitative survey research strategy, considering a sample of 242 managers of public building facilities and 367 public users with facility management backgrounds. Analysis was conducted with the help of IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 and SmartPLS version 4, following the partial least square structural equation modelling statistical technique.
Environmental management (β = 0.336; p < 0.05) and site/location analysis (β = 0.228; p < 0.05) have significant impacts on sustainable building facilities management (R2 = 0.228; p < 0.05 | Q2 = 0.188). Stakeholder collaboration has no moderating effect on these relationships. Multigroup analysis reveals no significant difference in the perceptions of facility managers and users.
The study provides valuable insights into sustainable facility management in Abu Dhabi, aligning with the United Arab Emirates’ sustainability goals. It highlights the role of facility management in enhancing housing conditions, air and water quality, energy efficiency and the overall environmental quality of public sector buildings. Furthermore, it underscores the potential of collaboration through digital technologies to drive sustainability initiatives in building facility management.
Unique insight is produced on facility managers’ and users’ comparable perspectives on sustainable building facilities. Future studies may consider the willingness of facility managers and users to adopt collaborative digital technology with implications towards public sector building sustainability.
