myfacilitiesnet

Facility managers have argued for years that the physical environment can help employees be more productive. The rub is quantifying the financial impact of factors like indoor air quality, comfort, daylight, and so on. There are plenty of studies showing that various facility-related measures have produced benefits in other organizations, but those studies don’t make it possible to project gains from specific measures...

It was a small, hand-lettered sign on the grassy strip between the eastbound and westbound lanes of a boulevard: “Real estate investment trainee wanted. Earn $10,000/month.” I have no idea whether anyone called the phone number on the sign, but if anyone did, it was surely in the belief that big money can be made by selling buildings. That opinion has a solid basis in fact. Plenty of people do very well...

At a time when the federal government is debating a drastic shift in budget priorities — changes that would affect billions of dollars in appropriations and have a direct impact on the lives of millions of Americans — the fate of the Energy Star program might seem like a small issue. But Energy Star, one program that may be cut in the new budget, is a vital tool for making organizations more efficient by reducing...

It’s often said that the devil is in the details. I’d like to propose a revision: The answer is in the details. The question, in this case, concerns the proliferation of smart technology for facilities. These days, smart technology isn’t just coming from building automation companies that have been talking about smart buildings for years, even though BAS vendors have improved their own usability and...

Some ideas are just born to be buzz words, and big data — or Big Data — is certainly one of them. While no one would deny that vastly more data is now available than ever before, the phrase “big data” is sometimes used in a way that suggests vast amounts of data exist in readily usable form. As facility managers are only too well aware, the quantity of data is no guarantee of its being helpful...