Occuspace

Day three at the Higher Ed Facilities Forum in San Antonio, and our Matt Boyd is still smiling. #HEFF

It's been a good few days. Time with clients and @SCUP study partners we usually only see on video calls, plenty of new faces, and a main stage panel worth passing along.

Carrie West of @UTAustin, Kristine Kenney of @UW, Ken of @michiganstateu and John D'Angelo of @IUBloomington talked about lining up campus facilities work with the university's bigger strategic goals. Occupancy came up as one of the things they're working toward, and it was good to hear it named from the stage.

One thing Matt heard in his one-on-ones: data that shows up a day late can't help you run a building today. Real-time occupancy is what lets HVAC and custodial follow the people instead of the schedule.

Thanks to everyone who made time to talk, and to the HEFF team for pulling it all together. If we didn't get to meet, Matt's calendar is in the replies.

#HigherEd #FacilitiesManagement #CampusPlanning #SpaceUtilization #OccupancyAnalytics

Students vote with their feet.

Across 100+ campuses, recreation is the most heavily used space type we measure. 63 to 65% Monday through Wednesday, and still 42% on a Sunday.

Study space trails it every day. 14 to 17 points behind midweek, and more than 20 points behind on Friday and Saturday.

But occupancy isn’t the whole story. Students stay longer in study space than they do in recreation. They drop into rec more often and settle in to study. These are two spaces doing different jobs, which is why it’s worth measuring both.

Know which of your spaces is working before you make your next building move. 

We’re at Higher Ed Facilities Forum (HEFF) this week. If you’re attending, reach out to Matt Boyd to discuss your space needs. 

Data from the Spring 2026 Higher Ed Space Utilization Index. Full report: hubs.la/Q04DP2NM0

Badge data tells you who walked in. It doesn’t tell you how many people were actually there.

At our H1 2026 Space Utilization Index webinar, Melissa Michalik LEED AP,CFM, JLL’s Global Occupancy Planning & Management Leader, explained how planning around badge swipes can turn into a seven-figure mistake.

The gap is bigger than most teams expect. In one building we measured, 701 people badged in on the busiest day of the week. The most ever inside at once was 439. Size the space to badge counts and you’d plan for 60% more people than were ever there.

92% of organizations still use badge data to understand occupancy. Only 7% rate their occupancy data as excellent.
Hear Melissa’s take 👇

Full H1 2026 Space Utilization Index and webinar replay in the comments.

Prime teaching hours. Empty classrooms.

On a typical Wednesday at 11 a.m., 26% of classroom hours show less than 3% occupancy. Effectively empty, at the busiest point of the week.

Zoom out and the pattern holds. Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, classrooms sit effectively empty more than a third of the time. The fullest hour of the week is still 28% empty.

Those rooms are still being heated, cooled and ventilated like they’re full.

That’s where measurement pays off fastest. When occupancy data feeds HVAC and demand-control ventilation, systems scale back in empty rooms and ramp up when people arrive. In our analysis, most universities would see a 3–5x return on measurement from that integration alone.

Do you know which of your classrooms are empty right now?

Data from the Spring 2026 Higher Ed Space Utilization Index. Link in comments.

We’ll be at Higher Ed Facilities Forum (HEFF) next week. If you’d like to discuss what this looks like on your campus, reach out to our own Matt Boyd.

We measured 50 million square feet of office space. Here’s what we found.

The H1 2026 Space Utilization Index is out: sensor-measured occupancy across corporate office portfolios, February through June.

📉 RTO policies aren’t having the desired effect.
People are coming in, but not at the rates many plans assume. Weekly peak utilization has plateaued at 52.3% — at the busiest moment of the week, the average office is just over half full.

📅 The office week has a three-day core.
Mondays now look more like Fridays, with average daily peaks of 23% and 19% respectively. Tuesday is the busiest day at 42%, making it the critical day for space planning and operations.

🪑 Space isn’t always used as intended. Conference rooms sit empty 3.75 hours a day on average. When they are in use, 78% of that time holds two people or fewer, including rooms built for 7 or more. They’re doubling as private offices, while open collaboration areas remain underused.

👥 People come in for people.
Nobody drives 30 minutes to take a Zoom call they could take more comfortably at home. Dining and gathering spaces reach 56% average daily peak utilization, compared with 35% for open workspaces and 21% for the open collaboration areas companies keep adding.

Today's offices are operating differently than what they were designed for. Yet many are still being planned, staffed and operated as though the old patterns apply.

Missed it live? Watch the full conversation with Melissa Michalik of JLL here: hubs.la/Q04CHVZh0

Get the H1 2026 Space Utilization Index behind the discussion, with measured occupancy from 50M+ sq ft: hubs.la/Q04CHVYJ0

#SpaceUtilization #OccupancyIntelligence #CorporateRealEstate #WorkplaceStrategy #Occuspace