These Themes Are Shaping Decision-Making Across the Industry
As innovators in facility services, we pride ourselves on bringing you the latest industry insights and lessons learned.
That’s why we’ve rounded up our best insights on topics our customers couldn’t stop buzzing about in 2025.
These themes will continue to guide facility services decision-making in 2026. Explore these blog posts for deeper insight, or contact us to start a conversation about how UG2 can support you across each of these focus areas.
Budgeting Constraints and Doing More with Less
One trend of 2025 that isn’t going away for 2026 is the need to maintain the same level of operations with tighter financial constraints. If you’re feeling that same pressure, here are three blogs to add to your list.
1. 4 Key Areas To Optimize Your Facility Services Budget
Key Takeaway: While it can feel like you need to make reactive cuts to make your budget work, that often results in spending more in the long run. A focus on preventative maintenance and strategic investments in technology can help you avoid surprises and maximize savings in the short and long term.
2. Better ROI And Smarter Facilities Outsourcing
Key Takeaway: Outsourcing is about more than handing off tasks. When you choose a partner who acts as an extension of your team and prioritizes the right things—accountability, transparency, and talent development—outsourcing can help you increase efficiency and reduce costs.
3. Top 5 Benefits of Outsourcing Janitorial Services for Your Business
Key Takeaway: Outsourcing janitorial services allows you to focus on your core business and mission without the burden of staffing and management. You benefit from specialized expertise that helps improve cleanliness with an overall lower cost than managing in-house.
Adopting AI-Driven Operations
The use of artificial intelligence continues to evolve in every industry, and the facility services industry is no exception. As we’ve seen throughout 2025, and anticipate will continue throughout 2026 and beyond, a successful AI adoption strategy can propel organizations to new heights.
4. Maximizing AI Potential: A Framework For Success
Key Takeaway: Adopting AI doesn’t start with adopting technologies. It starts with planning, alignment, governance, and continual assessment to ensure it’s delivering real value. Organizations that are successfully using AI to enhance operations have a cross-functional strategy that prioritizes security, strong data practices, and clear objectives.
Addressing the Labor Shortages and Skills Gap
As the trades workforce continues to age and organizations have difficulty recruiting tech-savvy talent, it’s more important than ever to develop the next generation of talent.
5. Building the Future, One Apprentice at a Time
Key Takeaway: At UG2, developing the next generation of talent isn’t just part of our mission—it’s a core promise to our people and our customers. That’s why our Apprenticeship Program, registered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Apprenticeship Standards, provides apprentices with world-class technical training, as well as mentorship, safety education, and real-world leadership experience that prepares them for lifelong careers.
Investing in the Workplace Environment
As more and more workplaces have returned to the office, whether full-time or hybrid models, there has been a shift in how they are going back to the office. Rather than take a business-as-usual approach, workplaces have invested in their office environments to better attract and retain the best talent.
6. Elevating Tenant Services to Meet Changing Workplace Expectations
Key Takeaway: Tenant services are a strategic differentiator in today’s workplace. Organizations must move beyond basic support to deliver a more hospitality-driven, flexible, and experience-focused approach. This is what allows organizations to attract, engage, and retain the best tenants and employees.
7. Sustaining Healthy Buildings By Professionals
Key Takeaway: When a facility is in poor health, it affects both people and businesses. Comfortable and safe workspaces are the result of daily wellness checks, proactive practices, and fast responses to problems. But the work pays off: one study shows tenants will pay 4-7% more for healthy certified spaces.
8. Facility Strategies That Transform the Campus Experience
Key Takeaway: A campus facility strategy has the power to enhance the campus experience for students, faculty, staff and visitors everyday. Cleanliness and safety need to be the top priorities. But there are also ways to incorporate technology to make it easy for everyone on campus to report issues so you can fix it before it becomes a bigger issue.
Implementing Stricter Sustainability & Energy Efficiency Goals
More organizations have net-zero goals and are adopting circular economy practices. We anticipate that 2026 will bring even more demand for green certifications, like LEED, as well as smart HVAC, lighting, and water systems that reduce environmental impact.
9. Partnering For LEED Gold Certification Success
Key Takeaway: Achieving sustainability milestones like LEED Gold are the result of consistent action, not a one-time effort. That consistency is possible when your facility service providers act as true partners, aligning daily operations and meticulous record keeping with long-term environmental goals.
Prioritizing People
The one thing we’ve known and stood by since day one—and will continue to as long as we’re in business—is that our people are our greatest strength, our key differentiator, and our primary asset.
10. Project Spotlight: Mixed-Use Life Science Facility
Key Takeaway: Highly specialized facilities succeed when service strategies are customized to the space. That requires communication at all levels, between leadership and those on the ground. This is just one example of how we worked with a client who shared that UG2’s approach to relationships and shared decision making has significantly improved employee satisfaction.
11. UG2 at BOMA International: Recipe for a Great Partnership
Key Takeaway: We were thrilled to welcome the commercial real estate industry to our hometown for the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo. The theme for this year was The Recipe for a Great Partnership. UG2 has spent years perfecting the recipe for exceptional facility services and that’s created lasting relationships that feel like family.
12. Mental Health Awareness Month: A Workplace For The Whole Person
Key Takeaway: Prioritizing mental health is not only good for employees, but also helps strengthen the workplace culture, increase engagement, and makes the organization more resilient. One of the ways you can support your employees is ensuring they have access to resources that support wellbeing beyond just physical safety.
We remain more committed than ever to open, collaborative learning. So, as the year goes on, we’ll continue to share the best insights from our facility services experts.