Solutions for Occupant + Building Health
The Great Recession of 2008 resulted in new ideas about workplace design and workforce makeup. Companies learned how to incorporate video conferencing, offload tasks to temporary and remote workers, and became more skilled at retaining high-value talent. More specifically, design experts had to re-evaluate what the workplace looked like and focus more on the effective use of space types. Due to the pandemic, we have quickly realized that many of these ideas parallel our current situation. And with the implementation of today’s technology, and by making health a top priority, we know that similar practices and ideas can be adapted and incorporated to obtain optimal built environments.
At Energy Systems Design, our focus has always been on designing healthy and efficient buildings. We know that building systems play an integral part in maximizing worker efficiency and minimizing sick days and time away from work. Devotees of JLL’s 3-30-300 rule know employee salaries are the highest building cost thus keeping workers healthy and productive maximizes return on investment. Prioritizing retention and wellness is important now, more than ever.
Existing buildings are unique and individual, designed long before defending against a world-wide pandemic was even considered. What is important however, is considering the age of your building. Any space designed in the last seven years typically has systems infrastructure in place to implement many clean building strategies immediately.
Now, this is where our work designing smart, efficient buildings with incorporation of innovative technologies comes into play. Our experience has proven that while smart buildings offer speedier construction and lower overall costs, wellness design often goes the other way. Therefore, we have started combining the savings of a smart building and the safety of a clean building for the optimal approach.
However, it is important to mention that there is not a “one size fits all” approach to the implementation and/ or alteration of Electrical and HVAC designs in efforts to generate optimal working environments. Our recommendations are focused on open office; call-centers, and traditional retail office space types.
Careful considerations must be taken for each project:
All suggestions have hidden complexities
New technologies hit the market every day
Adjustments/implementations must apply the guidelines of ANSI/ ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2017 and NFPA 99 and NEC Article 517
Medical advancements take place frequently. For example, as we learn more about this unique virus and the spread, specialized buildings will need unique approaches.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to consider implementing different standards than what has been outlined below for:
Workplaces with at-risk employees or businesses that are not public facing or
Medical spaces as healthcare-level standards for Electrical and HVAC design those of which are well documented
Our work has already begun, and careful planning is taking place, to consider how modern needs will affect all market sectors and project type such as multi-family, central plants, manufacturing, special event spaces, and educational facilities. But for now, our intent is to provide ESD’s recommendations on best practices for designing optimal built environments. We are creative and adaptable experts with extensive experience in these areas and can help your team adapt Healthcare guidelines to commercial use.
Healthy Building Designs with Immediate Implementation:
Clean with Light
UV lighting in a particular nanometer range is a known killer of bacteria and viruses. This technology has been used in healthcare and field hospitals for years. Designed to sanitize surfaces, this UVC lighting can be deployed in a ceiling grid or targeted at specific areas. This light is known to cause skin cancer in humans, so it must be deployed only when no people are present. Portable UV fixtures can be used to sanitize targeted areas like shipping and receiving, break rooms, or reception desks without making changes to the electrical system.
Improve Air Quality
In some systems this can be as simple as upgrading filters to MERV 13 or higher. Small package equipment and older systems, however, may not be able to handle this increased pressure at the filter. In systems incapable of filter upgrade, installing a UV light to sanitize the coil surface is a better choice. New technology in the field of needle point ionization is an effective way to remove mold, bacteria, and viruses from the airstream prior to recirculation of air within the occupied space. Ionization filter systems can also be easily retrofitted into existing HVAC systems. Taking a targeted, pinpoint approach to HVAC sanitation has been proven to be very effective and is an easy upgrade in many systems.
Energy Systems Design | AZ Headquarters
Incorporate Analytics
Security systems have become incredibly advanced, incorporating next-generation analytics into their design. These cameras look for increased temperature compared to the same employees yesterday, use facial recognition to identify potential risks, and are customizable to learn specific events and security triggers. Many existing systems can be upgraded at key points to allow for this new functionality without replacing the entire system.
Touchless Drinking
Smart drinking fountains with a water bottle filler have been part of design for several years. Fountains can be upgraded or replaced to include full hands-free bottle-fill operation, with or without a bubbler.
Reprogram your Controls
Many current theories on energy efficiency can be abandoned in favor of stopping the spread of contagions. In addition, most buildings built in the last 20 years have programmable HVAC controls or can be easily upgraded. These controls can be used to program the system to purge all inside air at night, completely replacing it with outside air. A greater percentage of outside air can also be added to the system during the day, decreasing the use of recirculated air.
Remove Forced Touch
Adding foot controllers to doors throughout a building removes the handles as sources of contamination. ADA requirements and user-lockable areas like restroom stalls keep foot controls from being a universal answer but adding hand sanitizer stations by all doors also removes doors as vectors for spreading contagion.
Increase Distance
Modern office furniture is often designed to maximize the use of space in a room. Desks have been shrinking and growing closer together as telephone rooms and collaboration areas have replaced larger cubicles in open plan designs. Allowing Telecommuting for some employees and redesigning the furniture for those in the office will allow for flexibility in current conditions without building offices for every worker.
Zovio Chandler Headquarters
Higher Barriers
If radically re-designing your seating is not possible, adding larger barriers between the cubicles may be the right fix. Privacy panels are a part of any office furniture system and retrofit options are readily available. Building managers can also add privacy partitions between cubicles and existing collaboration areas to create new workspaces for employees to spread into.
Cease “Desk Hoteling”
Having a seating plan where workers use any desk or telephone room was once efficient and is now recognized as a difficult sanitation problem. Like the above, incorporating remote working and assigned seating will allow cleaning crews to sanitize spaces after hours and with smaller size crews.
Semi-Permanent Telecommuting
Technology has improved so dramatically in this area that even the most conservative employers are embracing it. Remote employee monitoring, team collaborative applications, easy video conferencing, and integrated cellphone and office phones have made collaboration across all geographies very easy. Employees who thrive in a distributed environment should be allowed to continue whenever possible to ease strain on newly spaced-out office floor plans.
Our next article will be Part II: New Construction and Renovation Action Items.