Rigorous certification and visible seal give occupants confidence in health of indoor environments
Carrier continues to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) with a new site certification that provides building owners, facility managers and occupants confidence in the health of their buildings. Carrier Certified Healthy Air Systems employs proprietary software to complete an independent assessment of ventilation, filtration, thermal comfort and airborne pathogen transmission risk in a building to determine if IAQ meets or exceeds recommended standards. Buildings that meet IAQ and operational standards receive a certification, seal and other display materials to improve occupant confidence in indoor environments. Carrier is a part of Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), the leading global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable and intelligent building and cold chain solutions.
“Given that we spend 90% of our time indoors, building occupants deserve to be confident that the places where they work, live, learn and visit are healthy and safe,” said Greg Alcorn, Vice President, Healthy Buildings, Carrier. “IAQ is a major contributor to building – and occupant – health. As a key part of our Healthy Buildings offerings, we are proud to introduce a robust certification that provides independent verification of a building’s ability to achieve and maintain healthy IAQ.”
Despite measurable occupant benefits of improved IAQ, ranging from improved cognitive function to a reduction in the spread of illness, many buildings have room for improvement. The University of Colorado Boulder recently found that 60% of K-12 classrooms studied were operating below recommended ventilation levels, and Johns Hopkins recently issued a letter to school administrators about the importance of filtration and ventilation to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools. In addition to helping to prevent the spread of illness, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as part of the renowned COGfx Study series, have found cognitive performance in buildings with higher IAQ levels and enhanced ventilation averaged 101 percent higher than those in conventional buildings.
To achieve optimal IAQ and associated benefits, Carrier Healthy Air Systems experts will evaluate site systems, operations, conditions and collect IAQ measurements, then analyze the data and, if needed, provide customized recommendations to meet certification standards. Customers can leverage solutions from Carrier’s vast Healthy Buildings program portfolio to implement solutions. Once desired results are achieved, Carrier provides a certified report along with materials for building owners to visually demonstrate the facility has been verified as meeting Carrier Certified Healthy Air Systems standards. Carrier will work with customers to periodically validate the certification.
Customers seeking to enhance their certification with a real-time view of their building’s health score can leverage Carrier’s groundbreaking digital platform, Abound, which provides a live, transparent rating of a building’s health score or status on real-time digital dashboards through the continuous monitoring of IAQ sensor data.
