Federal agencies need to cut their real estate footprint, but doing it wrong creates big problems. If you make the wrong call, missions get disrupted, buildings get overloaded, and leaders struggle to defend decisions. Here’s the real issue: Standard data like headcount, lease records, and badge logs don’t actually show how space gets used. You see who’s assigned, not who actually comes in, which floors get used, or whether meeting rooms sit empty for days.
Here’s the safe play:
Use privacy-first occupancy intelligence. You get anonymous, aggregated data that helps you make decisions you can stand by. No cameras. No personal data. Just proof of how spaces really get used.
Empty federal buildings eat up budgets. When a floor sits at 15 percent occupancy, you’re still paying full rent, energy, security, cleaning, and maintenance. In 2024, the Congressional Research Service estimated agencies owned and leased nearly 266,000 buildings and more than 2.7 billion square feet of space. That’s $25.7 billion a year on operations and maintenance. It’s a huge cost, especially when big parts of these buildings sit idle.
But shutting down the wrong building brings headaches. Overcrowding, mission difficulties, and even political blowback. If you exit a lease without understanding mission needs, you might force teams into expensive workarounds. Get this wrong, and the stakes are high.
You need measured utilization. It shows where buildings actually fill, which floors sit empty, and when spaces go unused for weeks. Measured data lets you make decisions confidently.
Agencies must now measure and report how they use space. Headcounts and schedules don’t cut it anymore. The USE IT Act signed in late 2024 makes it mandatory for the biggest 24 agencies to measure and publish how they actually use space. The law sets a minimum threshold: at least 60 percent occupancy. Since April 2025, all agencies face these requirements.
On March 31, 2026, GSA released their first full reporting snapshot. None of 9,700 buildings examined met 60 percent occupancy, so GSA is reviewing their methods and refining how they measure and report utilization with OMB.
The USE IT Act lists occupancy sensors and badge swipe data as approved measurement tech. Sensors in federal offices must protect privacy and pass IT and security review, including FedRAMP if needed.
Check the latest GSA Occupancy Data page for up-to-date rules before making compliance decisions.
Headcount tells you who holds an assignment in a corporate or government office space. You'll still need to know who arrives, which areas see the most action, and whether meeting rooms sit empty all week while your team works remotely.
Badge data offers a better perspective, but it's still incomplete. Badge logs only capture entrances. These logs regularly miss contractors, visitors, and anyone who walks in with a colleague. Tailgating inflates your total count. Tying building access data to specific people also creates valid privacy concerns. Occuspace’s Nic Halverson notes that badge metrics miss the exact headcount by 40 to 60 percent when compared to sensor data.
Make confident decisions using verified facts. Monitor measured occupancy to uncover the real numbers at every operational level: building, floor, zone, and room.
Federal real estate is a patchwork. GSA manages 360 million square feet, but agencies control more on their own. Each building might serve a different mission, sit under unique security rules, or belong to a legacy system. You can’t just set a blanket rule and hope it works everywhere.
Agency headquarters, field offices, secure facilities, service centers and general government office space all run differently. An average utilization number doesn’t tell the whole story. Some "underused" spaces fill up on peak days. Others support functions that can’t move. You need detailed, building-level data.
Cameras? Not allowed. No facial recognition or seat-level tracking. These options don’t fit in sensitive federal environments.
Go with privacy-first, camera-free sensors. Measure spaces, not people. Collect anonymous, aggregate counts. No personal data. This approach meets federal needs and aligns with the USE IT Act’s privacy rules.
Many agencies have data locked in separate systems - IWMS, building controls, badging, leases, calendar tools. None were designed to give you a big picture of how space actually gets used. Occupancy data has to plug into dashboards, exports, APIs, and reporting to work in real life.
Don’t start with closures. Start by building a baseline, then check that other sites can handle the extra people at peak, then act in steps. That’s how you reduce your space without disrupting your mission.
Start by naming the decision. Is it about consolidating floors? Ending a lease? Shutting down a building? Reducing operating hours? Avoiding construction? Spell it out for each property. That shapes which data you need and how long your baseline should be.
Go wide. Use camera-free, privacy-first sensors across as much of your portfolio as possible. You’ll get anonymous counts and see traffic flows without personal data. Occupancy monitoring grabs these counts every minute, with fast installs. This helps you flag candidates for deeper analysis and weed out low-priority sites.
Measuring for just one week won’t cut it. Federal buildings see all kinds of ups and downs: seasonality, training, public service peaks, hybrid work, and holidays. A solid baseline captures typical and busy times. If you decide based on just a short window, you’re only seeing part of the picture.
Averages show waste. Peaks show risk. You need both. A building may average 20 percent, but hit 65 percent on busy days. If you combine teams in one spot, you could clog the place at the worst time. Compare:
Put it all together for the full picture.
With your baseline, rank each building by how much it’s used compared to its capacity. Look at:
This lets you identify which buildings are best for consolidation.
Model the receiving buildings at their busiest. If you shift 200 people from A to B, does B handle that crowd? Factor in meeting room needs, security, public access, and mission needs. Modeling with real, peak data protects you from wishful thinking.
Start with floor-level consolidation. That’s low risk and saves on services quickly. Once you know it works, look at full building decisions - exiting leases, planning disposals, or closing buildings. Use fresh data for each step.
After a move, watch the numbers. See if everything fits at peak, check for bottlenecks, adjust service where needed, and show leaders visible proof that the plan works. Occupancy data aggregates up from rooms to full buildings, so you can keep fine-tuning as patterns shift.
Every team - real estate, energy, workplace - needs different looks at the same core data. Here’s what matters most.
Occupancy counts show how many people are in a space right now. You get daily building, floor, and zone visibility. This number is the bedrock for all other metrics.
Utilization is occupancy compared with capacity. You need both average and peak values. Average tells you what’s normal. Peak tells you where space gets tight.
Traffic measures how many visits happen over time. Useful for lobbies, cafeterias, training areas, and other spots where flow matters. If big spaces get little traffic, consider consolidating or repurposing.
Dwell Time shows how long people spend in a space per visit. Short, infrequent visits mean a space is ripe for change. If a meeting room sees quick pop-ins but no long sessions, maybe it needs a different setup.
Availability is the share of time a space sits empty. Occupied hours tell you when and for how long spaces actually get used. Together, they reveal which areas are only briefly busy, open but barely used, or critical after hours. Match operating hours to real demand.
Occuspace is an Occupancy Intelligence Platform that measures spaces, not people. No cameras. No personal data. No seat-level reporting. You get anonymous, aggregated counts at every level - floor, zone, room, even the whole portfolio. That’s just what federal utilization data rules want, and it keeps privacy protected.
Macro Sensors pick up Bluetooth and WiFi signals from devices like laptops and phones. They estimate occupancy without connecting or storing personal info. One sensor covers around 400 square feet or more. Install them quickly, plug them in, and early data comes in minutes.
Micro Sensors use mmWave technology to measure occupancy in small rooms - no batteries, no extra WiFi needed. Installation takes seconds. They detect if a space’s used, not who’s inside. Get room-level data with total privacy.
If you’ve got strong wireless in place, WAP integration can turn access points into portfolio-wide coverage without new hardware. Occuspace is certified for HPE Aruba. Setup’s simple, and you get reliable numbers. You’ll still need IT and security review, and WAP works best for fast screening before adding sensors where it matters most.
The best play for big federal portfolios is to:
This way, you see the whole landscape but don’t need full coverage everywhere to start.
Occuspace and The Building People have a five-year, $41.9 million Blanket Purchase Agreement from GSA. Together, they’re rolling out sensors for real-time occupancy, air quality, and energy tracking across 180 million square feet of government workspace.
The Building People holds the award, Occuspace provides the platform and sensors. This partnership delivers smart, secure occupancy intelligence as GSA revamps space planning across the federal estate.
Leaders want clear decisions, not just methodology. Give them repeatable metrics, show the evidence, frame the risk, and document what you did. Don’t bury recommendations. Lead with the bottom line; back it with facts.
Start your report with the decision: combine floors in Building X, end the 400 Main Street lease, trim hours in the east wing, or pause a buildout. Next, show your numbers: peak occupancy, average use, occupied hours, traffic, dwell, and the models proving your space can handle it. Don’t just dump data - make a call, and give proof to support it.
Consistency matters. Define metrics, baseline periods, and utilization cutoffs for every building in your study. If buildings serve different missions, normalize your data. Consistency helps defend your choices.
Don’t call avoided rent or paused construction “savings.” They matter, but they’re different. Always label realized savings, avoided costs, and gains in efficiency clearly. This avoids confusion during finance reviews.
The Occuspace Analytics module offers charts, filterable tables, and quick data exports. The Metrics API brings the data into dashboards or other reporting tools. Auditable records give you credibility, making reviews and audits simple.
Cutting your footprint is important, but the same data helps run buildings better - even if you aren’t leaving yet. Occuspace gives the data. You adjust controls with your building and facilities teams.
Occupancy trends can shape HVAC schedules and demand-based ventilation if you have the right systems. A Schneider Electric study saw average office energy and carbon cuts of 22 percent from occupancy-based control. In one project, tying DCV to space use saved $0.50 per square foot per year. Every building is different, so use these as examples.
Old cleaning schedules waste effort. When you clean just the spaces actually used, you optimize labor and save money. One agency cut custodial costs by 20 percent after switching from fixed schedules to use-based plans. Across clients, this saves 20 to 30 percent, or up to $0.75 per square foot. See these as examples, not promises for every building.
Data on occupied hours shows which spaces actually need after-hours service and which ones don’t. Use this to adjust building and floor schedules, change service desk hours, and keep core mission running without wasting resources.
Most consolidation plans stumble when the evidence isn’t reliable, or teams skip key steps. Here’s what to avoid:
Here are questions from real property and campus teams. The basic method’s the same: measure demand, build a baseline, model peak use, act in phases.
Use occupancy intelligence platforms, run passive audits, build dashboards, pull exports and APIs, add in IWMS and scheduling data, and check energy bills. Most important: privacy-first sensors tell you building, floor, and zone demand. Combine with cost, maintenance, and mission fit to build a priority list. This goes for government and campuses: rank by demand, compare with capacity, and make sure leftover space can handle busy days before acting.
Start with a clear goal - cut underused buildings, right-size an area, or plan for capital. Install privacy-first sensors. No cameras. No personal data. Measure a real baseline that covers semester swings and holidays. Look at averages, peaks, traffic, and time in each space. Talk with facilities before final calls. Federal buildings follow the same flow, plus extra IT and security review.
Lead with your recommendation. Show peak and average use, explain the baseline, highlight capacity risk, and break out cost savings from avoided costs. Provide exports or dashboard screenshots for transparency. Keep it short, show the evidence, and let leaders follow the facts. A year of occupancy data beats a hallway survey every time.
Combine occupancy sensors, wireless data, schedules, badges, IWMS data, and facility walkthroughs. GSA counts occupancy sensors and PIV badge data under the USE IT Act. Sensors give stronger real usage numbers at every level - floor, zone, or room - than headcount alone.
Rank buildings by occupancy versus capacity, layer in mission, cost, lease standing, security, maintenance backlog, location factors, and whether you can combine everyone at peak. Low peak, low average, low traffic, high cost, and heavy maintenance means a top candidate. Critical buildings need extra care before moving forward.
Go with privacy-first, camera-free, aggregate sensors - no PII, no individuals. Macro Sensors scan device signals, no pairing or data stored. Micro Sensors use mmWave to tell if a room’s in use, still protecting privacy. MAC addresses get hashed on the device and never stored. Always plan for IT and security review up front.
It’s all about evidence over estimates. Headcount and badge records can’t reveal empty buildings or crowded floors at peak. Measured occupancy does.
Follow the playbook:
Occuspace gives you the privacy-first, camera-free occupancy data you need to do this in secure, privacy-focused government environments. Anonymous data, fast dashboards, easy exports, and APIs for audit and reporting. Already proven at scale with a $41.9 million GSA BPA, this platform’s built for you.
Ready to optimize your office space? See how measured occupancy helps you make smart, confident consolidation calls: Explore our approach for federal and corporate portfolios, or get our take on GSA’s 80 percent occupancy push.
