February 27, 2006—The International Facility Management Association has released a report that shows the extent to which organizations are now facing higher utility costs.
According to the report, 75% of the companies participating had experienced an increase in utility costs, and 20 percent reported an increase of 10% or higher.
Shari Epstein, associate director of research at IFMA, said: “Most of the costs we examined stayed the same as in the previous study conducted in 2004; however we saw a large swing in utility costs.”
The Operations and Maintenance Benchmarks Report looked at office facilities, headquarters, museums, hospitals, clinics, call centres, factories, courthouses, airports and correctional facilities.
The report found the cost of natural gas had increased more than 40% and electricity costs had decreased by 3%.
A colder winter, tighter supplies and increased growth in the economy were all given as reasons for the rise in gas.
The report was compiled from information gathered from IFMA members in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit the IFMA Web site.
