Covid-19 emphasizes need for healthy buildings

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Did you know that we spend 90% of our lives indoors? Joseph Allen, PhD., assistant professor at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health, recently shared this fact on a webinar focused on a book he co-authored – “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.”

In other words, by the time a person reaches the age of 80, that person will have spent 72 years of their life indoors. That’s a very sobering statistic. This means that architects, engineers, contractors and other professionals who design, build and maintain our buildings will have a major impact on our health.

Our indoor life came front and center during the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The healthy building movement has changed the way buildings are evaluated, but the coronavirus pandemic is changing it even more. Sometime in the next couple months or possibly longer, people will be returning to their office buildings and other indoor places and that brings new concerns about health safety and sanitizing.

The healthy building trend will accelerate and deepen as people return to buildings that they hope are safe and healthy. Building owners and facility managers must play a vital role by updating the way they evaluate their buildings — including enacting additional health and safety measures and sharing information with tenants and employees because the most important and expensive asset of any business is the building occupants.

There must be a commitment to a very thoughtful approach to well-being of the building occupants and their concerns. Now is a great time to update and upgrade building checklists and evaluations to make sure facilities are not just operating efficiently, but also helping people feel safe, welcome and healthy, especially as they return to work. The COVID-19 virus has heightened people’s expectations of how their buildings are performing.

WELL building standards focus on the health and well-being of building occupants. They draw on medical research, detailing numerous points that fit into a facility management audit. Some main target areas that require more focused attention include the following:

Operations of HVAC systems probably will be top-of-mind as people return to their office buildings once the coronavirus crisis eases. Indoor air quality can have major effects on people’s productivity, alertness and absenteeism. A regular cleaning and replacement strategy for all systems and filters, along with evaluation of the outdoor air intake, will help to ensure optimal air quality.

Cleaning schedules and proper training will also be top-of-mind for employees returning to the office environment. A transition to products with safer ingredients may occur since most commercial cleaners contain harmful chemicals that can be hazardous to the cleaning staff as well as other building occupants.

Drinking water quality is also very important to employers because it is important to their employees. Companies have been encouraging the use of reusable water bottles, bottle filling stations and ice/water dispensers. Regular cleaning and filter maintenance of this equipment are needed to ensure that drinking water is of the highest quality.

Smoking bans are another essential feature. The Center for Disease Control states that smoking restrictions in buildings have helped to improve the health of people in America. More and more companies have enacted full smoking bans for all their buildings and campuses.

An integrated pest management approach will help balance monitoring, prevention and control efforts to limit harmful effects on people. And more attention to the use of less hazardous chemicals will also be important.

The WELL Building Core & Shell certification is an approach that also might be particularly useful. The program emphasizes building design and operation. Building commissioning for existing buildings and newly constructed buildings will help ensure better outcomes for a healthy building since it includes measuring and monitoring building performance.

Ensuring that tenants and employees are coming back to a building that is “healthy” is very much related to mental health and building trust. Best practices such as hand washing, cleaning protocols, and air quality commitments will be extremely important. Assuring these best practices are being done to promote health is a way to increase trust with the building occupants.

Post pandemic communications will become even more important than it was before the virus arrived. People will need to be educated about the health and well-being strategies being enacted and how these measures contribute to a more efficient and healthier workplace for them.

Communications that explain the efforts to safeguard people’s security and safety hopefully will inspire confidence and peace of mind.

Communications can include emails, text messages and signage, including digital signs. FAQs can also be an effective way for tenants and employees to have their questions and concerns addressed. Communications efforts should be transparent, fact-based, honest and used to explain what is being done and why. The communications must help reassure people by keeping them informed and engaged.

Communication related to healthy building strategies for mechanical systems, as well as operational practices such as “de-densifying” to increase distance between people, limiting in-person meeting attendees, extending building hours, and staggering arrival times will also build trust.

This is a defining moment in a time of uncertainty due to COVID-19. NOW is the time for innovation and taking action to achieve healthy buildings!

Glenn Ebersole is a professional engineer and is the Business Development Manager for CVM and CVMNEXT Construction in King of Prussia. He can be reached at [email protected] or 610-964-2800, ext. 155.