Industry Insights

What IWFM published

IWFM's flagship 2025 Sustainability Report shifts the conversation from carbon reduction alone to climate adaptation — how facilities teams prepare buildings, services and people for the impacts of a changing climate that are already locked in. Based on its annual Sustainability Survey, the report is one of the most widely cited pieces of UK FM thought-leadership of the year.

QES response

This is a brilliant and overdue reframing. For years the FM conversation has centred almost entirely on net-zero pathways, and IWFM is right to push the profession to take adaptation just as seriously. Heatwaves, surface-water flooding and supply-chain disruption are operational realities now, not future scenarios — and the FM team is invariably the first responder. We strongly support IWFM's call for adaptation to sit alongside mitigation in every estate's sustainability strategy.

Why it matters for FM teams

• Reframes sustainability as mitigation AND adaptation, not just carbon
• Grounded in real survey data from across the UK FM profession
• Gives FMs a credible, board-ready language to discuss climate risk
• Connects sustainability directly to operational resilience and CAFM data

What IWFM published

IWFM's 2025 Outlook Survey reports rising investment in carbon-reduction solutions and technology across the workplace and facilities management sector, even as cost pressures and skills shortages continue to bite. The headline finding — that strategic investment is holding up despite a tough macro backdrop — has been one of the most discussed FM stories of the year.

QES response

We see this trend play out every week with our own clients. Budgets are tighter, but the appetite to invest in the right technology — particularly modern CAFM platforms like MRI Evolution — has rarely been stronger. IWFM is doing the profession a real service by quantifying that and giving FM leaders the evidence they need when making the business case internally. The skills-shortage warning is especially important: technology only delivers when the people configuring and using it are properly supported.

Why it matters for FM teams

• Confirms continued investment in carbon-reduction tech and digital tooling
• Validates the business case for CAFM and workplace technology spend
• Flags the widening skills gap as the sector's biggest medium-term risk
• Gives FM leaders independent data to take into budget conversations

What IWFM published

IWFM launched a new strategic leadership programme aimed at elevating how workplace and facilities management is perceived inside organisations — moving FM from a reactive cost centre to a strategic enabler of productivity, sustainability and employee experience. The launch generated significant industry coverage and discussion across the profession.

QES response

This is exactly the kind of initiative the profession has needed for years. The best FM teams we work with already operate strategically — they shape workplace policy, drive ESG outcomes and own huge swathes of operational data — but they're often still introduced as 'the people who fix the lights'. IWFM giving senior FMs a structured leadership pathway, and the language to sell their value upwards, will lift the whole sector. We're fully behind it.

Why it matters for FM teams

• Positions FM leaders as strategic, board-level contributors
• Addresses the perception gap that holds many FM careers back
• Complements technical CAFM expertise with leadership and influence skills
• Strengthens the long-term talent pipeline IWFM's Outlook Survey flagged as at risk