2023
Sponsored by Blended Environmental Initiative
BUILDINGS AS SAFE HAVENS (BASH) GUIDE MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC IN COLLABORATION WITH BESA
W
ith the launch of the third in a trilogy of free guides, the Building Engineering Services Association
(BESA) is looking to help building owners and managers turn their buildings into ‘safe havens’ that protect occupants from health risks linked to airborne contaminants and viruses. Jointly produced in a collaboration between BESA and Mitsubishi Electric, the ‘Buildings as Safe Havens – a practical guide’ offers step- by-step guidance to facilities managers and building owners so that they can understand how to improve the quality of the air inside their buldings.
The ‘BASH’ Guide offers practical steps that facility managers and building owners can take to measure indoor air quality (IAQ) and offers advice on the questions to ask ventilation experts. This is the third in
the BESA suite of guidance for measuring, monitoring, and improving indoor air quality (IAQ) and the second produced with the support of Mitsubishi Electric. The foreword is provided by one of the
UK’s most respected experts on infection resilience in buildings Professor Cath Noakes OBE. She states that poor ventilation is the most overlooked building safety issue and can be directly linked to high levels of Covid- 19 transmission: “Covid-19 has been shown to be transmitted through the air. Even if only 10% of all Covid-19 related deaths in the UK could be directly attributed to the failure to adequately ventilate indoor spaces, that would be more than 15,000 since the start of the pandemic – a shocking statistic that should make everyone sit up and take notice. “The pandemic has demonstrated that
far too many of our buildings are under- ventilated, despite regulatory requirements that have been in place for a number of years. This guide will be an invaluable tool in raising awareness of the importance of good IAQ and making our buildings more infection resilient,” says Noakes, who is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the University of Leeds and a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
The guide includes a risk assessment, building review spreadsheet to help building managers identify areas that require improvement. This is designed on a traffic light system, with actions categorised as red, amber, and green, and works in tandem with an IAQ monitoring spreadsheet. This new guide provides a step-by-step
strategy for monitoring and maintaining good IAQ in offices, schools, and public buildings and provides advice and strategies for dealing with ventilation problems. It outlines the questions building managers should ask their ventilation and air quality specialists so they can properly address their IAQ problems, and provides recommendations for conducting a building review, planning for improvements, and selecting the right technology. The contents of the guide were steered by a technical committee led by Nathan Wood, chair of BESA’s Health and Wellbeing in Buildings group, and the Association’s head of technical Graeme Fox. The ACR News Awards judges felt that
IAQ is such an important topic, that such a productive guide which focuses awareness is crucial.
of the year
34 May 2023
www.acrnewsawards.com
Rhys James (left) with Mitsubishi and BESA and Dirk van Lennep (far right) from sponsor Blended.
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