At the forefront of modern and responsible real estate properties

Maintenance Manager Ville Kautto has worked at SYK for a couple of years. He brought to SYK his experience of over 17 years in maintenance management for a service provider. Ville considers his long career as a service provider to benefit him in his present job, because he can now, as a buyer, also see the viewpoint at the other side of the table.

At SYK, Ville ensures the functioning of service production, defines the aims of maintenance together with campus managers and implements the operational policies for them. Ville appreciates the diversity of his duties and the fact that together with his colleagues, they are always at the forefront and develop modern operations. Different roles provide a fresh perspective to work and, thus, enrich the operations and increase the competence of everyone involved. The close-knit team and informal atmosphere of the community are also absolutely important features of Ville’s days at work.

Environmental responsibility at the core of maintenance

Due to the large number of SYK’s real estate properties, property maintenance has a pivotal role in the company’s responsibility. Therefore, ecological responsibility actually concerns all aspects of Ville’s work.

“Of course, responsibility starts from the design phase of the building, and we at maintenance continue to implement it. For example, we seek to ensure optimal conditions at an optimum level of energy consumption and then also pay attention to the management of indoor conditions. Furthermore, we selected new partners for waste management last year, and the key attribute used in the competitive tendering process was the partner’s responsible operations.

The constant potential for development is what fascinates Ville about the real estate sector. Real estate properties are a major part of national assets, and Ville says that there is always plenty of scope for development in them, as well as new things to be learned from other sectors.

“It is nice to work for a company that has a strong will to develop. We consider both environmentally friendly and flexible methods of operation to be important, and thanks to them, the customer does not have to bother too much with basic matters.”

Needs-based maintenance and renewable forms of electricity production are the future

Last year, Ville’s everyday work was very greatly related to the development projects of needs-based maintenance and demand response for electricity, which also reflect SYK’s responsible principles.

“Our aim is to develop a knowledge-based management model, where competent people and modern building automation and analytics guide the correct allocation of maintenance resources. In turn, with a subtle optimisation of controls we will also allow the use of renewable energy sources in future power generation and reduce, for our part, the carbon footprint in the national grid.

Last year, our operating environment was partly changed by new manager recruitments and the change in the manager model carried out in the previous year, as well as the divestment of the Vaasa university campus.” Ville saw the induction processes associated with the changes, going through the models of operation, the transfers of responsibility and the reorganisations as an interesting opportunity for development.

“It is important to think outside the box and openly improve our methods from time to time. Last year, we contributed to many cooperation projects where we and our partners are now more familiar with each other’s aims and, thus, achieve the best possible outcome.”

 

© Suomen Yliopistokiinteistöt Oy 2020