Indoor air quality and its close link to employee well-being continues to be overlooked by many organisations, even though there is plentiful research confirming that better indoor air quality improves productivity. E.g., one recent Harvard & Syracuse Universities’ study found that by doubling ventilation in a green condition environment, cognitive performance increased by more than 100%.
We have been helping one of our clients, who recognises the importance of measuring and improving indoor air quality, to gain recognition for their efforts. As part of its office refurbishment, we have installed indoor air quality monitoring sensors that measure indoor CO2 and VOC levels in individual meeting rooms and office spaces. These measurements are automatically sent to our unique data management system, Con-Serve™, allowing the occupants to track the indoor air quality in real time. The sensors detect when someone is eating oranges or if a meeting room is being overused.
The indoor air quality monitoring, has not only achieved this office space a SKA Gold rating, it also led to a decrease in pollutants in all tracked office areas. CO2 levels indicate whether there is enough fresh air supply in a building space and the office does not exceed the SKA good practice CO2 limit.
Apart from reducing indoor CO2 levels, the office also reduced its VOCs – Volatile Organic Compounds (chemical compounds that are characterised by their ability to evaporate under normal room temperature and pressure emitted from furniture, furnishings, paints, air fresheners, human odours). Our client has achieved an impressive 37% reduction in the VOC’s levels in a year by switching to more environmentally friendly products for the office cleaning.
To make the monitoring of indoor air pollution easy, Con-Serve™ sends weekly automated reports, which display the indoor air pollutants’ levels over time in individual office areas. The reports also include granular energy and water consumption, allowing the occupants to make changes to the ventilation or light settings. Implementing simple changes, such as ensuring air conditioning is set to a minimum during weekends, has reduced the office’s CO2 emissions resulting from its operation by 21% – equivalent to emission savings from growing 229 tree seedlings for 10 years.
Click here if you would like to address the indoor air quality in your building space.
