Measures to promote sustainable facility management practices in Ghana: insights from public hospitals

Purpose Public hospitals in developing economies lack proper measures to implement sustainable facility management (SFM) practices, despite their essence to economic growth. This study aims to explore the applicable measures to implement SFM practices among public hospitals in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a mixed method to collect data from facility management (FM) professionals using purposive and census sampling strategies. Thematic and narrative techniques were used to analyze the qualitative data while mean score, one-sample t-test and factor analysis were used to analyze the quantitative data. Findings The study found that, the use of eco-friendly materials in construction and building maintenance, developing key performance indicators to promote sustainable management practices, providing sustainable materials to FM teams, purchasing sustainable products, encouraging stakeholder participation in environmental stewardship and training FM staff on SFM, are the top measures to implement SFM practices. Practical implications Health-care managers, sustainability scholars and policymakers will benefit from this study because of its comprehensiveness and recommendations. It will serve as a basis for more education and research purposes, pointing out the potential directions for future investigation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine measures to implement SFM practices among public hospitals in Ghana using a mixed method approach. The study promotes SFM practices which aligns with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.