Lessons worth continuing
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is now more important than ever. Occupant health and controlling the transmission of aerosolized particles are some of the new challenges building owners now face. Buildings now have to be healthier spaces, and manufacturers should be prepared to address new standards and expectations. Building enclosures, mechanical systems, and interior materials all have an impact on IAQ. Building enclosure assemblies should be designed to prevent moisture issues and air infiltration, and site inspections and testing should be performed to ensure proper installation. Building enclosure failures can result in mold issues, a serious health threat, and damage the structure and interior finishes as well. Mechanical systems should be designed for optimized ventilation and improved filtration to dilute and remove air pollutants that impact respiratory health. Selection of interior materials, such as sealants, adhesives, paints, insulation, flooring, composite wood, etc., all which have been independently tested against low-emitting material standards prevent the introduction of indoor pollutants.
Conducting post-construction IAQ testing provides assurance that potentially harmful materials were not installed. Rating systems, including Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and WELL, have established industry-leading indoor health and wellness standards for materials and completed buildings, and rely on testing to demonstrate compliance.
Building owners are relying on air quality testing to diagnose problems and to validate the efficacy of interventions to improve the IAQ. They are also using testing to confirm tried and true strategies, such as increased ventilation and high efficiency filtration are providing the desired and required results. More exotic interventions are frequently not necessary.
Sustainability is now the norm
Creating a more sustainable environment for future generations is top of mind for everyone, including manufacturers. Material transparency and the use of sustainable, healthier, eco-friendly, and low embodied carbon products is a growing trend.
Material testing companies should ask questions such as: What is the product’s life cycle? Can it be recycled? Does it improve the energy efficiency of the building? What is its embodied carbon? How can it get to the market quickly with less shipping costs or impact on the environment?
LEED, the Living Building Challenge, and other sustainable building ratings have defined sustainable performance standards for materials. Successful products will be carefully measured by their contributions to a more sustainable built environment, making testing and material transparency reporting necessary.
The future of testing
Manufacturers, architects, engineers, contractors, and other building professionals can benefit from using testing as a basis for good design. As the built environment becomes increasingly complex, using the expertise of a high-quality, third-party testing facility can help ensure materials are safe and products will perform as expected. IAQ, safety, designing beyond the code, and sustainability trends are here to stay, and professionals in the industry should keep these concepts at the top of their design checklist.
Author
Heather Stahl-Figueroa is the regional operational sales manager for Intertek. Intertek provides engineers and subject matter experts worldwide, flexible services, fast turnaround times, innovative testing solutions, and global approvals. Prior to this position, Stahl-Figueroa was the lab manager of Intertek’s Farmingdale New York Product Testing Laboratory. She has been with Intertek since 2016, and has provided support in sales, marketing, and management roles for more than five years. Her background includes fenestration product testing, as well as geotechnical services for concrete, asphalt, and soils.
