Market

FM industry news, market trends, and business developments.

US
Pittsburgh's USD 100m bet: closing 12 ageing schools to fund modern estates Market

Pittsburgh's USD 100m bet: closing 12 ageing schools to fund modern estates

Pittsburgh Public Schools has approved a Future Ready Plan to close 12 underused schools and open new ones, targeting more than USD 100m in facility savings over seven years. With buildings averaging roughly 90 years old and enrolment down about 25% over a decade, the move is a textbook estate-rationalisation play. The freed capital is earmarked for USD 103m of investment in mo...

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US
Data centre fires demand new defences as AI predicts battery failure 15 days out Market

Data centre fires demand new defences as AI predicts battery failure 15 days out

As data centres grow more complex and energy-dense, US researchers warn that conventional fire safety is no longer enough. A study from three universities points to power and battery systems as the main fire risk and showcases an AI model that flags impending lithium-ion failures up to 15 days ahead with 98% accuracy, reframing fire prevention as a predictive maintenance discip...

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US
Johnson Controls Q2 sales +8% on data-centre cooling — new chillers, entry into CDUs, and remote-monitoring services expand the FM-adjacent stack Market

Johnson Controls Q2 sales +8% on data-centre cooling — new chillers, entry into CDUs, and remote-monitoring services expand the FM-adjacent stack

Johnson Controls' Q2 sales rose 8%, with CEO Joakim Weidemanis attributing the growth to data-centre thermal demand. The company is launching new chiller models for the segment and entering the CDU (coolant distribution unit) market — direct-to-chip and rear-door heat-exchanger plumbing that sits between rack and chiller. JCI is also leveraging remote monitoring to grow it...

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200 kW per rack, 1 MW coming — Trane's Atalla on cooling as data-centre system management Market

200 kW per rack, 1 MW coming — Trane's Atalla on cooling as data-centre system management

Trane Technologies' SVP and CTO Mauro Atalla told Facilities Dive that single server racks now generate up to 200 kW of thermal load, with some at 600 kW and 1 MW racks coming — to the point where thermal management is inseparable from data-centre system management. Trane is working with NVIDIA on gigawatt-scale reference designs (Omniverse DSX Blueprint) that integrate ch...

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US
Kroger to pay $2.5M fine, spend $100M retrofitting 600 fridges over Clean Air Act refrigerant leaks Market

Kroger to pay $2.5M fine, spend $100M retrofitting 600 fridges over Clean Air Act refrigerant leaks

Grocery giant Kroger has agreed to pay a $2.5M civil penalty and spend $100M over two years to retrofit or replace 600 refrigeration units to settle a US Department of Justice action over ozone-depleting refrigerant leaks. EPA found Kroger failed to meet retrofit/replacement requirements on 14 commercial and 2 industrial refrigeration units under the pre-2019 35% leakage thresh...

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