B U ILT T O LA S T
CEO Linda Hausma nis reflects on t he IW FM’s evololution on A PL A C E T O B EL ON N G
I WFM volunteers revea l how w FM creates inclusive spaces
WA S T E NO T, WANT NO T a How to use unused land a s back back-up energy solution
Translating a global ambition to reverse nature loss into practical, scalable action for FMs
a global ambi tion to rever se e naturre loss into prac tical, scalable action foor FMs
06 Renewable answers
Solar solutions are set to surge as a world oil crisis hits
08 Environmental lead FM is being pushed into a more decisive role in climate resilience
11 IWFM Live! 2026
IWFM introduces a day of fresh ideas with its June conference
this time with Chris O’Donnell and Andy Dunn
12 Dutch dimension
Pleun van Deurssen discusses FM in the Netherlands
14 News in numbers
A numerical overview from Facilitate’s online reporting
48 The FM Fix
How FM teams are updating skills to keep operations running
49 Powered up
16 10 years of LGBT+ in FM LGBTQ+ professionals are making their voices heard across the sector
20 Biophilic design
How to solve and avoid common errors in load bank testing
50 Hot into cold
Using waste heat to handle data centre cooling
52 Relational space
How FM can help integrate nature into the workplace
26 Built to last Linda Hausmanis talks about her decade structuring IWFM
32 Building belonging
Living the World FM Day 2026 theme of ‘Cultivating belonging through built environments’
42 Perspectives
Four FM professionals seek to influence your insight agenda
46 A bit about you Our ‘Behind the job’ Q&As –
How the quality and layout of workspaces promotes bonding
57 Data trials
Challenges facing teams with CRE portfolios at multiple locations
61 Network Rail’s targets 100% renewable energy
Network Rail has a deal to access renewable energy from a wind farm in North Wales
62 Introducing AI tools demands value-based assessments
FM firms may be eager to adopt AI, but many aren’t sure how they should be using it
Security’s frontline medical response
Pocket defibrillators should become a part of every security team’s safety plan, writes Gareth Barker, head of event healthcare at St John Ambulance, given that the first person to reach the patient is rarely a paramedic and often a security officer.
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A new frontier for wellbeing
Today’s workforce seeks food offerings to fit unpredictable schedules while actively supporting nutrition, wellbeing and performance. That’s why workplace dining is being redefined by how spaces are used, argues Sally Hillman of Restaurant Associates.
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FM leaders to spend more on tech
FM principals expressed a clear intent to increase investment in technology, with 97% of them planning higher spending over the next 12-24 months, according to research by Bidvest Noonan.
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FACILITATE
Employee engagement takes a dip
Globally, employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025 – its lowest level since 2020, according to research by Gallup. This cost the world economy $1w0 trillion in lost productivity last year.
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Workers’ stress soars
A third of UK bosses (32%) report staff citing stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health issues as a cause of absence, and one in five workers has taken time off sick because of stress-related mental health issues.
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Supplier consolidation is key FM procurement strategies are changing as organisations respond to rising costs, reduced budgets, disrupted supply chains and operational risk, according to research.
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Poor diet hampers focus
Research shows a correlation between workplace catering and workers’ wellbeing and productivity, with 62% of employees reporting that unhealthy eating leaves them feeling tired and unfocused.
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Facilitate (Print) ISSN 2752-5171
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It was a pleasure to spend time with the editor of this magazine reflecting on the 10 years I’ve been CEO of IWFM.
We all know, of course, that anniversaries are just dates in a calendar, but I really valued the opportunity to talk about what makes this job, and this profession, so special and so rewarding. And I didn’t need to think too hard to arrive at the one thing that I value above all: people.
Membership of this Institute is, of course, grounded in the world of work –we are a professional body, after all. But this is a people profession, and it’s the human connections, the community, that makes what we do so important.
For a decade, I’ve seen our members connect with each other through shared experiences, through a common interest in a specialism, through a need to learn, or to mentor others, and through a simple desire to meet more determined people in the same line of work.
In those years I’ve seen newcomers to the profession gain an FM qualification, join the Institute, volunteer with one of our communities and rise through the ranks to become some of the most respected and well-known leaders in our industry. It has been a privilege to witness their growth.
Recognition and professional credibility are what our community makes possible, and if IWFM, as the heart of that community, can provide the structure within which all of that can happen, then this will have been a decade well spent.
Several times, in this extraordinary decade to date, FM has come close to taking its rightful place as the routinely visible aspect of organisational performance we all know it to be. The pandemic, the Ukraine War, Net Zero targets, inflation surges, output drops, whatever this current conflict is – each has shone its light on the value of strong, progressive FM.
As well as these headline grabbing events, we’ve also seen less immediately dramatic but nevertheless significant economic indicators – low pay, debates over minimum wage thresholds – helping to nudge FM upwards into conversations about long-term sustainability in all its myriad aspects.
You could argue that all of these factors together have led to a rather transformative decade for the sector. And that’s true in so many ways. But what’s also clear is that more needs to be done to ‘seal the deal’ when communicating this sector’s message. Social mobility, productivity, wellbeing – core elements of the national debate for which FM has as much a right as any other sector to have its voice heard.
What has remained frustratingly elusive is a certain stickiness. An event or moment binding FM permanently the issues above. We see FM rise suddenly up the agenda for perfectly good reasons, only to slip back down when some other cause mucles its way to the fore. Is this lack of stickiness unavoidable? Or is it because the sector more broadly lacks a coordinated plan of works to help maintain political and public interest as and when we need it? That, admittedly, is a difficult challenge to resolve. It needs time, money and broad sector agreement; such unified messaging in today’s multi-voice world can be difficult to sustain.
What has remained frustratingly elusive is a certain ‘stickiness’
We do not lack for erudite communicators, nor for incontrovertible evidence of the sector’s impact through data. Perhaps making FM ‘stickier’ requires aligning FM as closely as possible to those national debates as they emerge.
One example, perhaps, might be when IWFM launches its 2026 sustainability survey, with its focus on the importance of retrofit. Messaging around the powerful cumulative impact of retrofit projects could well offer that stickiness. Here’s to FM being more routinely referenced in the national press and beyond.
