September 7, 2021
Workloads, profit margins and employment opportunities are set to continue to grow for the year ahead due to increasing demand for facilities management services, according to the latest 
August 13, 2021
Digital twin and other tech to benefit from landmark $3.5trillion infrastructure package
Growth in key tech sectors is set to rocket after a landmark $1 trillion infrastructure package bill passed in the US Senate, part of a comprehensive $3.5 trillion plan within President Biden’s post-COVID Build Back Better initiative and paralleling the UN’s Race To Zero campaign. There had been an upward trend in share prices for companies in several tech sectors already, but Pitchbook research identified nanotechnology and digital twin technology as most likely to gain from the new bill – the largest public investment in America’s infrastructure for decades. (more…)
August 2, 2021
Majority of people would cycle to work if their employer offered better facilities
Employers should be doing more to encourage staff to start commuting into the office by bicycle, suggests research from Graham Coffey & Co.Solicitors. Ahead of Cycle to Work Day (August 5th), the law firm surveyed more than 1,500 people to better understand attitudes towards cycling safety and what can be done to make cycling a more attractive prospect for employees. (more…)
July 30, 2021
Indoor air quality guide published by BESA
The removal of most Covid restrictions in the UK has increased calls for clearer practical guidance and the setting of specific indoor air quality (IAQ) contaminant targets to support the health and wellbeing of building occupants. The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has, therefore, produced a concise guide to good practice: ‘Indoor Air Quality for Health & Well-Being’, which is designed to help building owners, managers and engineers interpret IAQ data and turn it into useful strategies for improving the indoor environment. (more…)
June 18, 2021
Demand for Facilities Management professionals continues to rise
The latest RICS UK Facilities Management Survey results suggest a greater demand for services across all sectors, apart from retail, with FM employment opportunities therefore increasing. Furthermore, for the first time since the COVID-19 crisis swept the world last year, profit margins in the sector are expected to rise. (more…)
March 31, 2021
From the archive: A new approach to office design is redefining property 0
At the end of the 18th Century it was becoming apparent that overpopulation was something the human race would need to address for perhaps the first time. Advances in technology and the urbanisation that followed the Industrial Revolution had created a new set of challenges. These were most famously laid out in a 1798 book called An Essay on the Principle of Population, written by an English cleric called Thomas Malthus.
March 30, 2021
New normal looking more and more like old normal, say facilities managers
Workers across the UK could return to offices faster than anticipated, according to a new RICS survey of facilities managers. According to the poll, a growing number of respondents say that up to 80 percent of employees will head back once the pandemic is resolved. This is up from less than 60 percent expected in the same poll from the previous quarter ending November 2020. As evidence suggests the UK vaccination programme is taking hold across the country, results to the RICS UK Facilities Management Survey show more respondents starting to believe employees could return to the office in greater numbers than many initially expected in the previous quarter. (more…)
March 11, 2021
BCO offers new guidance on indoor air quality
A new BCO research paper, Thoughts on ventilation design and operation post COVID-19, has called for UK offices to ensure they have adequate ventilation ahead of the return to work. The paper highlights that while most offices that follow good practice guidelines do benefit from indoor air quality, there are also many examples of poorly ventilated offices that fall short of the best practice guidelines set out in the BCO’s 2019 Guide to Specification. Poorly ventilated indoor spaces have been linked to COVID-19 super spreader events and the paper states that ventilation in these offices must be “addressed urgently.” (more…)
February 18, 2021
The return to buildings will now focus attention on ventilation
The UK COVID-19 vaccination programme is well underway. Once the over 50s, younger people with health conditions, NHS and care workers have received the vaccine, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been clear that current lockdown restrictions could be lifted in stages with schools and business a top priority. The situation is under review, but there is an expectation that business premises could reopen as early as Easter, when a large proportion of the working age population may not have been vaccinated. That means the focus in workplaces and other multi-occupant spaces, especially those open to the public, must remain on limiting transmission to prevent the spread of coronavirus to un-vaccinated people, and especially on factors such as ventilation. (more…)
December 15, 2020
The FM industry is held back by short-term thinking, research claims
Research published by VINCI Facilities claims that there is a lack of long-term strategic thinking amongst FM service providers and their customers that is limiting an opportunity to yield substantial business and social benefits. (more…)
December 8, 2020
IWFM announces new framework for delivering social value
The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) has partnered with the Social Value Portal and National Social Value Taskforce to develop a new measurement framework for social value, designed specifically for the workplace and facilities management profession. (more…)
June 25, 2021
Trees can’t solve the climate change problem. That’s our job
by Scott Petersen • Comment, Environment, Facilities management