Cornell's Facility Planning and Management (FPM) program, the first university FM degree program in the world has focused from its inception in 1980 on innovation. The program prepares students to enter professional practice as facility planners and workplace strategists in large organizations, as well as consulting and real estate firms. Drawing on its world class research on how the planning, design, and management of complex facilities like corporate workplaces, healthcare facilities, and research and R & D facilities affect individuals, teams, and organizations, Cornell's FPM program continually evolves in response to new challenges and opportunities.
Today, that pursuit of excellence has grown to include a focus on how we can best plan, design, and manage facilities in a sustainable way in the context of the communities and environment of which they are a part. As always, our interest is in the relationship between facilities and the people who use them. For us, "sustainable" includes but goes beyond consideration of factors such as consumption of energy, water, and resources by buildings, and the environmental impact from buildings. We're equally interested in the influence of green buildings and sustainable building approaches on human health, well-being, and performance. For us, a "sustainable" building is one that contributes positively to how we live, work, heal, and learn while also being "environmentally friendly". Our approach utilizes knowledge and methods from the fields of planning, design, real estate, business, and environmental psychology and organizational behavior.
The Cornell FPM program is designed to create learning opportunities that will enable our students to be leaders in planning and managing high performance buildings that reflect an equal concern for the environment and the people who use and are affected by these facilities. The Facility Planning and Management (FPM) option is recognized by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and accredited as a first professional degree program.
