A healthy workplace consultant’s review

What is the RESET Air quality standard & certification?

RESET stands for “Regenerative, ecological, social and economic targets”.

The company was started by architects in Shanghai in 2001 adopting an eastern perspective based on a 5000 year history of health and regeneration, rather than the explicitly green / sustainable approach promoted in the west.

Unlike other green building or healthy building standards, such as LEED, WELL or FITWEL, RESET AIR does not insist on any set, prescribed paths towards achieving high quality indoor air results.

Their approach is simply to leave the door open to innovation, how each project gets there is up to the project team. It is the destination that matters most in this instance, RESET do not concern themselves with prescribing the journey.

In their terms, this is a biomimetic approach, that takes its inspiration from nature and the biosphere’s 3.8 billion year history. They talk our language in other words!

What standards make up RESET Air?

Deployment and installation of monitors (APs are trained to create a professional monitor deployment plan
Standards for qualified monitors (only Grade A and B, not retail grade C)
Standards for collecting and reporting data via accredited cloud data providers (priority is data completeness and data on a project meeting targets for key pollutants of TVOC, CO2 and PM2.5 specifically)

The goal here is effectively to make occupant health measurable leveraging technology, shifting the focus from prescriptive design to measured results, using cloud software and making building data ‘social’ (easily available to occupants).

Why should a real estate development engage with RESET Air?

Green buildings have been shown to have a positive impact on cognitive scores, even a 10% increase in productivity in an office or workplace can pay potentially for or greatly offset a business’s rental costs.

What’s more, health & safety are often the main criteria in building satisfaction for occupants. Deliver a healthy building with high quality indoor air and you add value to the property in other words.

It is worth stating too that RESET have launched with RESET AIR but recently announced a series of other declinations that shows the true ambitions of this young contender in the green & healthy building sector.

Next up is a MATERIALS standard, currently in pilot phase at the time of writing, that will be followed by standards for WATER, ENERGY, and waste or CIRCULARITY (all three still under development).

What makes the RESET Air quality standard different?

It’s all about integration of available technology that has been rigorously tried, tested and maintained to ultimately create buildings with feedback loops, buildings and real estate that ‘talk to us’.

So whether it be a Core & Shell or a Commercial Interiors fit-out, the data is king.

Pollution thresholds have been adopted from best practices from existing authorities such as ASHRAE, leaning on other specialist institutions in other words.

Why is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) so important?

Indoor pollutants such as CO2 have a negative impact on cognitive function and performance. the best solution is source control - nipping the problem in the bud, by not bringing harmful materials into the space that carry chemicals, VOCs or off-gases. For that, we need building materials and fit-out materials that disclose their chemical ingredients, ideally with a healthy product accreditation to back up their claims.

One of the main culprits in this sense are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) or chemicals that off-gas at ambient temperature from building materials such as particle board, glues, paints and carpet backing

Particulate Matter PM2.5 and PM10 are made up of dust and synthetic materials decomposing around us from furniture, fabrics and so on. For RESET, Carbon Monoxide is only relevant for projects where combustion is present. As reference, CO reduces the amount of oxygen transported in the bloodstream, making it potentially lethal.

Sensor technology cannot cover every pollutant, other air quality sensors do exist but they are prohibitively expensive, so as the market for high-grade sensors steadily democratizes over coming years, new pollutants will be incorporated into the standard.

What air quality monitors are accepted by RESET AIR?

Direct read or hand-held instruments may be good for a walk-through survey or in detecting a specific pollutant but they have been deemed unsuitable for RESET as the standard requires high quality and constant air quality data in order to detect trends and patterns over time in a specific, fixed location. A lab test is good for a deep-dive but will only reflect a specific moment in time.

RESET provides standards for the deployment, location and installation of monitors that have been classified as Grade A (reference grade) or Grade B (commercial grade) only, excluding the increasingly common consumer Grade C.

It is RESET APs (accredited professionals) that are responsible for the monitor deployment plan, RESET then acts as the neutral stakeholder capturing data in the cloud. As all monitors will gradually drift over time and need to be cleaned / recalibrated, the occasional follow-up site visit is required to inspect the monitors, again by a RESET Accredited Professional.

To discuss Biofilico assisting with your project’s RESET Air certification process please contact us here.

RESET Air standard for healthy building & interiors