myfacilitiesnet

Is now the time? The time to move to a cloud-based, Building Internet of Things platform to link the facilities in your portfolio? Or to install low-flow toilets? Or tubular LEDs? Or an advanced rooftop unit? Or smart windows? The range of new technology options for facility managers can be dizzying. Facility managers who are considering whether to take the plunge might want to keep in mind two pieces of advice. These...

For all the number crunching that goes on in a data center, one number is often conspicuous by its absence: PUE (power usage effectiveness). PUE is a metric that shows how much of the power supplied to the data center is being used by IT equipment. While PUE has its critics, it remains a good benchmark that can help improve the energy efficiency of the data center facility infrastructure. PUE was introduced in 2007...

Amid the disparate day-to-day challenges facing facility managers, the long term agenda increasingly revolves around the pressing need to transform buildings. Many forces are driving that transformation — developments in technology and behavior that are altering the way people use the built environment; efforts to improve human health, learning, and collaboration; the need for resilience, the subject of the cover...

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...