Resources for Healthy and Efficient Spaces
Healthy indoor spaces are good for people, and the planet. That’s why we are compelled to help others see the potential for healthy spaces like we do. We believe that sharing our knowledge will raise expectations for what well-designed spaces can do for the people inside, and the world outside. And that’s how we will move toward a more sustainable future – one space at a time.
Understanding Indoor Environmental Quality
To create healthy indoor spaces, it’s important to understand the factors that influence the experiences of the people inside. In this primer, we explore the essential elements of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) - along with a collection of strategies and approaches to improve spaces based on their unique profiles and ever-evolving uses.
Healthy Spaces – A Podcast Series
Thinking about healthy spaces is what we do every day. We eat, sleep and breathe in the indoors – and so do you. To share our knowledge and passion, we’ve joined forces with experts from our Center for Healthy & Efficient Spaces so you can explore indoor spaces from the inside out.
Resources for Healthy and Efficient Spaces
IEQ Collective Intelligence
-
McKinsey & Company: Can HVAC Systems Help
Prevent Transmission of Covid 19
Written collaboratively by the Advanced Industry Practice, this article explores how modifications to heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems might help reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus by purifying air, improving ventilation and managing airflows.
-
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: The 9
Foundations of a Healthy Building
The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building was created by a multidisciplinary team of experts from the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The 9 Foundations curated summaries are designed to be a clear and actionable distillation of the core elements of healthy indoor environments.
-
Building performance evaluation: Balancing
energy and indoor environmental quality in a UK school building
This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of energy, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between energy and indoor environmental quality in a recently built school campus in London.
-
American Psychological Association: Healthy
buildings, productive people
Can indoor building features such as ventilation, pollutants and lighting influence our thinking, behavior and health? Research suggests that it can.
-
ScienceDirect: Impact of Indoor Environmental
Quality on Occupant Well-Being and Comfort; a review of
literature
A state of the art study through extensive review of the literature, establishing links between IEQs and occupant well-being and comfort, and covering a range of issues such as sick building syndrome, indoor air quality thermal comfort, visual comfort and acoustic comfort are considered innovation and Product Stewardship
Additional Information:
There is evidence from The American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and other sources that HVAC technologies
can mitigate the risk of exposure to infectious aerosols in built
environments; however, the transmission and mitigation of COVID-19 in
buildings is yet to be tested and confirmed.