Losing a commercial tenant is expensive—really expensive. The total cost of replacing one tenant can easily reach twice their annual rent when you factor in vacancy periods, marketing costs, and fit-out expenses. With office...
Industry Trends
Vendor-neutral commentary on standards, policy and market shifts that affect operations, budgets and sustainability goals.
Open Source BMS: Opportunity or Operational Risk?
The building management systems (BMS) landscape is experiencing a fundamental shift. As facility managers and property owners grapple with aging infrastructure, escalating licensing costs, and the demand for greater...
Breaking the KPI Barrier: The Changing Metrics of Smart Buildings
The smart building industry has reached a critical inflection point. While traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) like energy efficiency and system uptime remain important, they no longer distinguish truly intelligent...
Hands-Free Building Tech You Probably Didn’t Know Existed
In a post-COVID workplace, “hands-free” is the new buzz world. It’s also the new hygiene standard. At times, it may seem the pandemic has turned everyone into Adrian Monk. But you needn’t be an OCD-suffering detective to solve the mystery of the old hygiene standard;...
5 Tips for Surviving Supply Chain Issues
Are you finding it hard to procure office equipment? Is your supply closet running short on toilet paper? Supply chain issues are a global problem, and shortages are hitting every sector. Office managers in the U.S. are finding it hard to locate basic office supplies...
HVAC Systems and Hydrogen Peroxide Decontamination (Deprox)
The COVID pandemic increased awareness and use of relatively new decontamination methods for medical facilities. In addition to standard surface cleaning and disinfection, hospital managers employ vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) systems within negative pressure...
Prepping Your HVAC System to Lower COVID Transmission this Winter
Colder weather often brings spikes in COVID-19 and influenza cases. With this in mind, we should continue promoting vaccinations, mask wearing, social distancing, surface cleaning and handwashing inside your buildings. However, we shouldn’t forget about our HVAC...
Best FM Online Learning Resources for 2022
In our quest to compile a list of the best FM online learning resources for 2022, we looked at several important factors. For one, we wanted a good mix of quality and convenience. Some FMs will be looking for professional certification courses, while others may only...
Positive vs Negative Pressure Rooms
Many industries use pressurised rooms to stop cross-contamination between one area of a building and another. For example, semiconductor makers use positive pressure rooms (PPR) to ensure their integrated chips are free of contaminants in the air. Hospitals and...
Communication and the Art of Influence
In every act of communication, we strive to influence others. Even when our communication is simply to inform, we seek to align someone else’s view of reality to ours. While we can influence others’ behaviors, the higher aim is often to change their minds as well....
What Is After-Hours HVAC? A Complete Guide for Landlords and Tenants
After-hours HVAC is heating, ventilation and air-conditioning service delivered to a commercial tenant outside a building’s normal operating hours — typically evenings, weekends and holidays — billed to that tenant at an agreed hourly rate. It goes by several names,...
After-Hours HVAC: 5 Reasons to Start Charging Tenants
Charging tenants for after-hours air conditioning (AHAC) presents many difficult questions for FMs. How do I calculate an hourly rate? How do I separate after-hours billing from normal utility OPEX? Do I have enough resources and staff? Calculating and managing...