Dive Brief:
- R-Zero is providing short-term leases of its workplace occupancy sensors to help organizations that are in need of immediate space utilization insights to right-size their real estate portfolios.
- The battery-powered sensors, which would be leased for three months, offer a more accurate alternative to manual observation studies, enabling organizations to continuously collect data that can reveal patterns of peak utilization, space types that support productivity and opportunities to reduce the building’s energy use, R-Zero said in a June 24 news release.
- Two hundred of these wireless “people-counting” sensors can be installed within a few hours, enabling users to quickly start collecting high-resolution space utilization data, R-Zero said.
Dive Insight:
Most organizations are increasingly prioritizing portfolio optimization, with 62% of organizations surveyed by CBRE reducing their portfolio size from 2020 through 2023 and an additional 63% expecting further portfolio reductions by 2026. Forty-three percent of companies stated plans to trim their portfolio’s size by over 30% by 2026, according to the real estate firm’s 2023-2024 Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights report. At the same time. 29% of respondents said they plan to expand their portfolios over the next three years, CBRE says, emphasizing that change is a priority, regardless of which way portfolios are expected to shift.
Meanwhile, return-to-office mandates have been gaining momentum. Sixty-eight percent of Fortune 100 companies have put in place a hybrid strategy for their employees, at least in the near term, averaging three days in office per week, according to JLL Research data shared with Facilities Dive earlier this year.
As organizations increasingly require employees to work a certain number of days on-site, space underutilization challenges are also making it difficult for companies to retain their current office space, with 75% of businesses surveyed by workspace platform provider Robin citing plans to cut their office square footage this year.
Against that backdrop, real estate professionals face the need to incorporate data analysis into their space operations strategy, R-Zero said. Easy-to-deploy solutions can help businesses invest in “the most effective mix of space types and operationalize the workplace according to behavioral patterns,” the firm said.
Data analytics is one of the top three technologies most businesses want to deploy in the next 12 months, according to Eptura’s 2024 Workplace Index report, released in May.
In its release, R-Zero pointed to the effectiveness of sensor data in impacting a wide range of decisions that can boost efficiency in office spaces, from technology and furniture to streamlining employee workflows by right-sizing space configuration.
“In benchmarking occupant behavior and space demand, organizations can immediately take action on their data to support the evolving needs of employees and the spaces they need to do their best work,” Elizabeth Redmond, director of building intelligence sales at R-Zero, said in a statement.
Occupancy detection can also generate energy savings by facilitating a more optimal use of HVAC and lighting systems in underutilized spaces, R-Zero said in the release.
“Often, we see workplace and real estate teams using sensors to test and measure the impact of changing space types across departments, reducing office space square footage, or automating lighting based on occupancy,” Redmond said. “WIth a quick-to-deploy sensor platform, [organizations] can easily repeat these cost-effective studies across their entire real estate portfolio.”
