Practical Facilities Tips, News & Advice.
Hyperscale data center growth is running headlong into real-world constraints—interconnection queues, transformer lead times, water stress, community scrutiny, and tightening climate policy. At the same time, the thermal profile of the data center sector is shifting decisively from air to liquid cooling, concentrating heat into a form far more useful than a plume of hot […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) renewed the agency’s Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards National Emphasis Program (NEP) on April 10. OSHA updated its 2022 NEP to protect workers from outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards, directing agency resources to where they can have the greatest impact by focusing inspections and outreach on industries and workplaces where […]
Modern facilities generate vast amounts of data through physical security systems. This includes video feeds, access control records, visitor logs, and license plate information, among others. For facilities managers, it’s an operational concern that affects risk management, compliance, and day-to-day decision-making. Responsibly protecting this data has become a core part of running safe, compliant, and […]
Nearly every modern facility relies on electrical systems, whether it’s a data center, manufacturing plant, school, hospital, or public infrastructure. In all cases, reliability, safety, and uptime are critical. That’s why NFPA 70B, which moved from a recommended practice to a mandatory standard in 2023, has become a focal point for facilities managers across industries. […]
A new report aims to help retail security and loss prevention leaders understand when risk peaks, which threats escalate fastest, and which intervention strategies may prove most effective. Released by Interface Systems, the 2026 Retail Loss Prevention Benchmark Report is based on 1.6 million remote monitoring events across 18,258 U.S. retail locations and 51 brands […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most talked-about technologies in facilities management, but for many FM teams, the conversation hasn’t translated into day-to-day value. Rising operating costs, lean budgets, and expanding responsibilities mean facilities leaders can’t afford experimentation that doesn’t deliver results. As momentum builds around agentic AI that operates within smart workflows, […]
Skilled trades are considered a strong foundation for a facilities management career. As the U.S. confronts a critical shortage of skilled trade workers, the Lowe’s Foundation announced an expanded $250 million commitment to help train and develop 250,000 tradespeople by 2035 through its Gable Grants program. This announcement follows a $100 million initiative from financial giant BlackRock to support the next […]
April showers bring May flowers—and a whole lot of pests. Warm, wet weather in the spring creates perfect conditions for the season’s most common and problematic pests, and the board-certified entomologists at the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) are urging homeowners and businesses to take action before these pests take over. “Spring marks a major shift in pest behavior,” said Dr. Jim Fredericks, SVP […]
For decades, video surveillance in facilities management has been a passive, “looking back” technology. We used it to investigate what had already happened—a slip-and-fall, a security breach, or a workflow bottleneck. But just as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT redefined our interaction with text, a new generation of video language models (VLMs) is fundamentally […]
Editor’s note: FM Perspectives are industry op-eds. The views expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of Facilities Management Advisor. Facilities management is often defined by its technical responsibilities—HVAC systems, electrical distribution, preventive maintenance, capital planning, compliance. But anyone who works in FM knows the job extends far beyond equipment and infrastructure. It’s people […]