Leveraging strategic facilities management to achieve corporate ESG and sustainability: a literature review

Abstract

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has become central to corporate strategy, yet the social dimension remains underdeveloped in both scholarship and practice, especially within the built environment. This review examines how Strategic Facilities Management (SFM) can help to address this gap by translating high-level ESG commitments into operational, facility-level actions. Grounded in Stakeholder Theory, the paper argues that facilities are not only physical assets but social environments that influence employee wellbeing, inclusion, productivity, and community outcomes. The review synthesizes the literature on the evolution of Facilities Management (FM) from a cost-focused operational function to a strategic discipline focused on value creation, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. It highlights SFM's relevance to ESG through workplace usability, ethical procurement, community engagement, digital governance, and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. The paper also examines major debates in the field, including the challenge of measuring social value and the gap between strategic ambition and operational capability. This study adopts a structured conceptual literature review methodology to synthesize and critically evaluate existing literature and develop a conceptual framework grounded in Stakeholder Theory. In response, it proposes a conceptual framework that integrates Stakeholder Theory with SFM practice to guide the identification, implementation, and evaluation of social ESG outcomes. The paper concludes that SFM is well positioned to bridge the strategy execution gap in corporate ESG and strengthen socially responsive sustainability practices in the built environment.