When attending a two-day conference that’s loaded with information and talking points, it often takes a while to unpack everything that was discussed. Schneider Electric’s Innovation Summit 2025 North America in Las Vegas was no exception.
But as I start to review notes and quotes and dissect the important information that our readers need to know about and how it will affect facility managers and their institutional and commercial facilities, an overriding theme of the summit was that the United States is on the verge of a power crisis – one that it needs answers soon.
“We are sleeping on a volcano, and we need to mobilize and take action,” says Adil Attlassy, the chief technology officer for Compass Datacenters.
The proliferation of data centers across the country, coupled with the continued impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on most facets of our lives, is among the major factors contributing to our power challenges. During his opening statements at the summit, Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum highlighted a few statistics that should sound some alarms:
Since commercial buildings are generally considered responsible for about 40 percent of energy use in the world, facility managers can play a significant role in helping with this energy crunch by thinking more sustainably – evaluating their legacy systems and retrofitting or replacing, when necessary, in favor of more energy efficient options.
They can opt to electrify their fleets or at least begin the process responsibly. And they can embrace technologies like AI, that can easier help diagnose problems and find solutions for them.
We are in the middle of exciting and interesting times in the facilities world, as technology continues to evolve. Those managers who embrace the change will find the challenges much easier to overcome.
Dave Lubach is the chief editor for the facilities market. He has 10 years of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues.
