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How do you make your building more efficient, while improving the comfort of your tenants? How can you increase productivity and occupant satisfaction, both at the same time? How can you make your tenants happy and minimise vacancies?
The answer? By managing your indoor environment quality (IEQ).
Indoor environment quality management has matured over the past 20 years to a point where practitioners are able to pinpoint problems using systematic and quantitative investigation methods.
Over that time, the focus has shifted from research to practical solutions, from pure design solutions to responsive operational management.
No longer just an issue of clean air, indoor environment quality now covers a range of activities, including:
- Ensuring thermal comfort
- Maximising daylight, while minimising heat and glare
- Reducing noise pollution
- Maintaining and cleaning air systems.
Vyt Garnys, managing director of CETEC, says that, while the main reason for managing IEQ is occupant health, potential improvements to productivity shouldn’t be overlooked.
Studies have shown that, for offices, 1 percent improved productivity would be equivalent to the whole energy cost of a building or, nationally, $2 billion annually.
“More and more research suggests a strong link between the quality of the indoor environment and the performance of a building’s occupants,” he said.
“And this is backed up by Australian and international case studies – for example a refurbishment for Umow Lai saw estimated increases in staff productivity as high as 13 percent.”
Findings such as these are encouraging more tenants to ask their landlords to improve the IEQ of their workspaces.
The focus of rating tools such as Green Star and NABERS on IEQ performance will only increase the demand for this type of building management.
According to Bryon Price of AG Coombs, there is a tangible need for a real world approach.
“Design is important, but once a building has been completed, the way it’s operated is also very significant,” he says.
“For tenants, it’s not only the fact that an office is too hot or cold or a light is flickering that’s most important – the speed and method with which a facilities manager responds to their complaint also contributes to their perception of the quality of the indoor environment.”
The Property Council of Australia has responded to the increasing demand for good IEQ with the revision and republication of a 1994 BOMA report.
A guideline that provides advice to the novice and experienced operator alike, Managing Indoor Environment Quality explores the problems a building owner or manager is likely to confront.
It provides practical solutions for people to improve the indoor environments of Australia and to influence, positively, the performance of office buildings. Most importantly, it defines good indoor environment management.
Why is this important? Well, in a time of increasing vacancy rates, maintaining a fully-leased building is valuable. Happy, healthy, comfortable and productive tenants will stay where they are, and this means better returns for building owners.
Unfortunately, for most of Australia’s existing offices the current standards and efficiency are failing to meet their intended design.
It’s not enough just to put in the latest technology if the building is not being managed and maintained properly, without keeping the systems tuned and running optimally there will be limited overall improvement.
Facilities managers have the most control over how a building performs and their approach will make the biggest difference to the level of outside air within a building, whether it feels fresh, or whether occupants are falling asleep at 3.00pm.
While cleaning out air handling units and replacing filters will help to keep down mould and reduce illness, the occupants will not thank you if they don’t feel comfortable or if they feel their complaints are being ignored.
Managing Indoor Environment Quality recognises this and provides leading practice advice on how to address occupant concerns, by:
- Identifying the causes and indicators of indoor environment problems
- Outlining the six steps to conducting an indoor environment quality audit, namely:
– retrieve building occupant complaint documentation;
– conduct satisfaction questionnaires;
– conduct a building inspection;
– review the results of the inspection;
– undertake laboratory testing;
– conduct follow-up site visits.
- Recommending ways to improve performance.
Managing Indoor Environment Quality provides a framework to improve facilities management and deliver better performance.
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To purchase a copy of Managing Indoor Environment Quality, please click here
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Paul Waterhouse is executive director, national policy at the Property Council of Australia.
