Your Building is Your Most Overlooked Competitive Advantage

Right now, executives in all corners of the country are quite literally losing sleep. As growth targets, cost management and workforce performance create pressure, the recent CEO Insomnia Index from Boston Consulting Group shows most American CEOs are reporting clinically high stress levels.⁹

But in an increasingly complex and volatile environment, one obvious opportunity isn't making it onto the agenda enough: the building. And the person best positioned to unlock it is the facility leader – the one who already holds the data and can bridge the gap between building operations, the boardroom and business results. From retaining talent to supporting a stronger bottom line, here’s how facility leaders can help make the case for the building as a true competitive advantage. 

Improving indoor air quality improves workforce retention

How an organization can improve the indoor environment is one of the highest-return questions a facility leader can answer right now.

We spend nearly 90% of our lives indoors.¹⁰ And while hybrid and remote work hasn’t disappeared entirely, most knowledge workers are spending a big portion of their time inside a building their employer chose, maintains and pays to power every day (68% of U.S. companies now require defined in-office days).⁹

Together, indoor air quality, thermal comfort and lighting form the foundation for effective work, influencing the connection between worker comfort and workplace productivity. An efficient building has benefits:

• Research has suggested that improving air quality alone can produce an 8 to 11% improvement in worker productivity.¹²
• Energy-efficient lighting can also make a big difference to avoiding eye strain and improving alertness.¹³
• Office air quality also correlates to measurable reductions in sick days and meaningful improvement in overall output.

Consider what those benefits could look like across even a mid-sized workforce – and how quickly they could potentially outweigh the costs of upgrading to more efficient building systems.

“The same building modernizations that improve the day-to-day experience for people working inside those buildings also move the needle on decarbonization,” says Andy Merrill, Vice President of Energy Services and Controls at Trane Technologies. “They’re not at odds. Improving how a building operates has direct impact on sustainability and also how people work and feel about their employer.”

Solving for sustainability shortfalls does more than one job

Facility leaders are uniquely positioned to tell a compelling story about the value of meeting sustainability goals, which is especially important given where most organizations currently stand on their commitments. According to an Accenture analysis of large public companies, 37% of those organizations had Net Zero commitments in place as of 2023, but only 18% were on track to meet them by 2050.¹⁴ Facility leaders who can help close that gap are directly helping their business make progress toward sustainability targets, while improving the company’s reputation and competitive position:

• Among U.S. consumers, 78% say a sustainable lifestyle matters to them, with about a third more likely to purchase from organizations that can demonstrate sustainable credentials.¹⁵
• The stakes are equally high among current and potential employees. Among Millennials – who make up the largest share of the U.S. labor force¹⁶ – 30% say they would consider leaving a job if their employer was not doing enough on sustainability.¹⁷

Workforce satisfaction is already the fourth-highest stressor for CEOs in BCG’s Insomnia Index. An unfulfilled sustainability commitment makes that challenge even harder to manage, as it can surface in recruiting conversations, retention numbers and in the room when a key customer asks about your organization’s sustainability progress.

The energy cost conversation gives facility leaders a seat at the table

The productivity and sustainability case for building improvement is strong on its own but if you add in the current energy environment, the urgency becomes harder to ignore.

• Energy-related challenges are intensifying. Electricity prices rose 4 to 7% across commercial, industrial, and residential buildings in 2025 alone, reversing a long period of relative stability.¹⁸
• Demand is also climbing, while the grid is under strain. Power disruptions have risen 25% over the last decade, costing building owners an estimated $200 billion annually in downtime and productivity losses.¹⁹

These are active financial risks, but also an opportunity that lands squarely on the facility leader’s desk. Energy spend reflects how well a building is managed and where capital is being left on the table.

• Buildings that integrate efficient systems with smart controls can reduce energy costs by up to 35%.²⁰
• Every dollar invested in modernization returns an average of three dollars in operational savings over five years.²¹
• High-efficiency buildings also command measurably stronger asset value, with research indicating up to 31% higher sales prices and up to 16% premium lease pricing in competitive markets.²²

"The organizations getting ahead of this aren't waiting for regulation to force the conversation," Merrill says. "They're treating building performance as a way to retain capital, strengthen the day-to-day experience for their people and build a credible story that reaches customers and prospective employees alike."

Facility leaders hold the roadmap to building brilliance

A high-performance building helps alleviate many of the pressures keeping the C-suite up at night, and facility leaders have the opportunity to apply data and knowledge to drive more efficient, sustainable and comfortable spaces. Leveraging smart building technology like advanced building controls, AI-enabled optimization and data-driven analytics can all support informed decision-making and better building performance – and ultimately, better organizational performance.

Especially in today’s volatile and unpredictable landscape, building performance is boardroom-level conversation. And facility experts are the ones who can – and should – lead it.

[1] “New Report Links Office Design with Staff Health and Productivity," World Green Building Council, March 10, 2022

[2] “New Report Links Office Design with Staff Health and Productivity," World Green Building Council, March 10, 2022

[3] “Beyond Altruism: How Sustainability Efforts Can Drive Organizational Value,” Trane Technologies referencing Sicheng Zhana and Adrian Chonga, “Building occupancy and energy consumption: Case studies across building types,” Energy and Built Environment, April 2021.

[4] The Future Ready Building, Trane referencing McKinsey & Company, "The Net-Zero Transition: What It Would Cost, What It Could Bring," 2022.

[5] The ROI of Electrification: Why Building Owners Are Making the Switch, Trane Commercial, April 2026.

[6] The ROI of Electrification: Why Building Owners Are Making the Switch, Trane Commercial, April 2026.

[7] “JLL Report: Workplace Strategies Shift as Hybrid Work Slows," Facilities Management Advisor, July 8, 2025

[8] Rate increases between Oct 2024-2025 by sector: Commercial: 4%, Industrial: 6.7%, Residential: 5.2%. Electricity Data - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

[9] The BCG CEO Insomnia Index, Boston Consulting Group, April 2026

[10] The Future Ready Building, Trane referencing U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)," 2018

[11] “JLL Report: Workplace Strategies Shift as Hybrid Work Slows," Facilities Management Advisor, July 8, 2025

[12] “New Report Links Office Design with Staff Health and Productivity," World Green Building Council, March 10, 2022

[13] “The impact of working in a green certified building on cognitive function and health,” March 2017.

[14] “Beyond Altruism: How Sustainability Efforts Can Drive Organizational Value,” Trane Technologies referencing Accenture, “Destination Net Zero,” 2023.

[15] “Beyond Altruism: How Sustainability Efforts Can Drive Organizational Value,” Trane Technologies referencing NielsenIQ, “Sustainability: the new consumer spending outlook,” 2022.

[16] United States Department of Labor, August 2024

[17] “Beyond Altruism: How Sustainability Efforts Can Drive Organizational Value,” Trane Technologies referencing Pawprint, “What employees think about your sustainability strategy,” 2021.

[18] Rate increases between Oct 2024-2025 by sector: Commercial: 4%, Industrial: 6.7%, Residential: 5.2%. Electricity Data - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

[19] The ROI of Grid-Ready, Resilient Buildings, Trane Commercial, May 2026.

[20] “Beyond Altruism: How Sustainability Efforts Can Drive Organizational Value,” Trane Technologies referencing Sicheng Zhana and Adrian Chonga, “Building occupancy and energy consumption: Case studies across building types,” Energy and Built Environment, April 2021.

[21] The Future Ready Building, Trane referencing McKinsey & Company, "The Net-Zero Transition: What It Would Cost, What It Could Bring," 2022.

[22] The ROI of Electrification: Why Building Owners Are Making the Switch, Trane Commercial, April 2026.