COVID, LEED and The Workplace

Written By: Abraar Mohammed | Date: 2020

In response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on the workspace environment, the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) has released four new LEED pilot credits that are grouped into two new categories. These new pilot credits focus on assisting the building management teams with workspace re-entry while prioritizing the health and well-being of the occupants. Appropriately named ‘Safety First’, the credits are a part of the ‘economic recovery strategy’ initiative that highlight the importance of prioritizing people’s health in workspaces in order to build a stronger and healthier economy. The pilot credits summarize best practices that work in conjunction with public health and industry guidelines which focus on disinfecting, cleaning, workspace re-occupancy, HVAC systems and plumbing operations. These credits can be used by projects that have already been LEED certified or are currently undergoing the certification process. The Safety First credits are listed as follows:

Safety First: Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Space

This credit facilitates the implementation of green cleaning practices that focus on maintaining high indoor environmental quality and improving worker safety. Since disinfectants and cleaning strategies are effective in sanitizing the workspace, the credit highlights measures such as cleaning product selection, protocols to be followed during cleaning procedures, protection and training required by the cleaning personnel that are responsible for acting out the aforementioned measures. This credit also emphasizes the importance of educating the occupants to understand the steps that have been put in place to sanitize the space.

Safety First: Re-enter Your Workspace

In order to better access and measure the post-Covid functioning of a space, this credit propagates the sustainable requirements and precautions that are needed for the normal functioning of a workspace. This tool involves creating a management program that details factors such as building preparation, workforce preparation, access control, social distancing, green cleaning, touch point reduction and communication. The building management is required to keep daily journals with personalized surveys taken from occupants with complete data transparency that can be used for research submission. This continuous data collection and reporting would be beneficial for evaluations of the measures and constant adaptive improvements.

Safety First: Building Water System Re-commissioning

Buildings and workspaces that have remained closed for prolonged periods of time run the risk of incurring stagnant water systems that may expose the occupants to degraded water quality and its associated risks. In order to reduce the risk of compromised water quality usage, this credit assists building operating teams to integrate measures that have been recommended by experts in the industry that work in conjunction with ASHRAE Standard 188-2018: Risk Management for Building Water Systems. These measures address the water plumbing quality issues, stagnant water concerns, possible contamination of water systems and the best practices for maintaining the building water system.

Safety First: Managing Air Quality During Covid-19

Indoor air quality requirements have been pre installed in LEED associated credits; this addition to those requirements concentrates on measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. These additional CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) inspired considerations include adjustments made to the building’s HVAC systems that improve air filtration, increase ventilation and ideally minimize the spread of harmful airborne particles. These measures also include implementations like physical distancing of occupants and measures that relate to concerns outlines in the Re-enter your workspace credit. Regular monitoring and assessing the indoor air quality is also encouraged as it helps with improving the already implemented measures.

While these credits have been implemented based on the current knowledge and known information, USGBC encourages feedback that will help the credits evolve and improve as adaptive resilience is dependent on community outreach. These adaptive measures will prove crucial to the economic health and well-being of the occupants.