What FMI’s latest outlook report says about the industry

By Emma Peterson. 

Paul Trombitas breaks down three major trends that construction professionals should pay attention to.  

With changing regulations and constantly evolving economic situations, it can feel impossible to make predictions or plans about the future of the industry. But just because it feels impossible doesn’t mean it really is! In this Contractor Outlook™, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Paul Trombitas, partner at FMI Consulting, to talk about their 2026 Q2 North America Construction and Engineering Outlook Report and what it tells us about the future of the industry. 

1 – Wholistic operations are growing more popular 

The first takeaway from this report was about the shift from specialized operations to wholistic ones. Paul used the manufacturing market as an example, sharing, “What's been fascinating to me is seeing large roofing manufacturers transition into building envelope manufacturers. So, instead of just making roofing materials, they’re producing products for all six sides of a building, like waterproofing and such.”  

When it comes to what’s driving this, Paul points to our modern understanding of building envelopes as one single system, rather than a variety of unique systems working together.  

2 – Sustainability remains top of mind 

In this report, the FMI team has consistently seen responders emphasize the rising demand for sustainable practices. They have also noticed an interesting dynamic surrounding the conversation of sustainability – miscommunication. Paul explained, “On the sustainability side, the challenge is that everybody defines it differently. We always ask about sustainability and the main takeaway we’ve found is that if you ask 50 people what sustainability means, you'll get 50 different answers.” He went on, “I think, unless the entire building envelope ecosystem can come to an agreement on what sustainability is and how they define it, it’s going to stay a challenge.”  

3 – Supply chains are still a concern 

The last takeaway that Paul highlighted from the 2026 Q2 report was the persisting instability of supply chains. He shared some insights:  

Logistics, like the cost of transportation, have changed and that has impacts on things like delivered costs. And I don’t think that’s going away...In fact, I think this is just the start of the impacts and that there are a lot of evolving and increasing factors that will continue to challenge our supply chains and operations.  

Conclusion 

These takeaways not only confirm the experiences of contractors around the industry, they also quantify those experiences in a way that helps contractors position themselves from success. For example, understanding the simultaneous demand for and confusion surrounding sustainability allows contractors to not only present sustainable options, but the importance of explaining and educating their customers on why the options they are presenting are sustainable. And these are just three of the takeaways that Paul shared with us based on FMI’s 2026 Q2 North America Construction and Engineering Outlook Report.  

If you want to learn more, Read the report, Listen to the whole podcast or Watch the recording.