reset air quality standard - real estate - core & shell
Our concise guide to the RESET Air standard for Core & Shell real estate projects.
What is a healthy building?
A healthy building definition is important to establish first and, for us, a building can only be considered “healthy” if it has a proven, positive impact on the mental & physical health of its occupants, whilst also doing no harm to the environment. We simply cannot accept that a building is good for People but harmful to the Planet, we must combine the two.
Imagine a people-focused building designed for maximum wellbeing benefits that also had a detrimental effect on the planet around it. The cross-over between green building concepts and healthy building concepts is obvious.
The rise of the healthy building movement over the past decade provides a new lens through which businesses can assess their performance and we are proud to be able to play a part in this process.
See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.
What is a smart building?
‘Smart’ is now right up there alongside ‘healthy’ and ‘green’ when it comes to desirable characteristics of a modern building.
We need data and information in order to monitor and optimize a building’s performance; ultimately ‘smart’ in this sense is effectively about ‘high performance’ buildings that are digitally connected with smart technology built in.
The leading smart building standard / certification for us is currently WiredScore, check them out here. They define a smart building by these four factors:
an inspirational experience
a sustainable building
a cost-efficient building
one that is future-proof by design
What is Indoor Air Quality in a healthy building?
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 is RESET for smart and healthy buildings?
RESET stands for “Regenerative, ecological, social and economic targets”. It is a healthy building standard and certification.
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 is the RESET Air for Core & Shell indoor air quality standard?
You’ll find that RESET AIR for Core & Shell, whether for new or existing buildings, is basically all about ongoing monitoring and analysis of high quality indoor air quality data, delivered to the RESET cloud via a network of professionally installed, pre-approved air quality monitors.
We are concerned primarily with particulate matter (PM2.5), Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) in the outdoor air and the supply air including recirculated air that affects the building in question.
The data will be communicated back to building occupants as a way to raise awareness about this important healthy building theme, that has never been more relevant than in the post-Covid world.
Nota Bene: the intent here is different to that of RESET Air Commercial Interiors; in this case we are not focused on the quality of ‘mixed air’ that occupants inhale inside the building, for example in office spaces or communal areas.
Again, we are concerned exclusively with the quality of the air being delivered through the building’s HVAC system.
What affects the air quality of air in an HVAC system?
Clearly there is a world of difference between a remote coastal or countryside building and one in the middle of a megalopolis such as Shanghai.
Factors to consider here are location as well as a building’s orientation, the general climate, the age of the structure and HVAC system equipment, use type, and zoning calculations.
Daily averages are calculated based on hours of occupancy and international standards for Indoor Air Quality (‘IAQ’).
Qualifying projects must remain within these limits for a full three months in order to be certified, although there are a certification statuses available before then too (see separate article here on that).
Particular Matter / PM2.5: Less than 12 μg/m3 (75% reduction. NB: When outdoor PM2.5 is ≤48μg/m3, indoor levels can be no more than 12μg/m3. When outdoor PM2.5 is >48μg/m3, filtration at the level of the air handling unit must remove 75% of PM2.5 at a minimum.
Total Volatile Organic Compound / TVOC: less than 400 μg/m3
Carbon Dioxide / CO2: less than 800 ppm
Temperature: Monitored only as this impacts PM2.5 and TVOC
Relative Humidity: Monitored only as this impacts PM2.5 and TVOC
What are the air quality Data Provider requirements?
Data is collected and transferred to te RESET Assessment Cloud online. For this reason projects have to use certified RESET Air Accredited Data Providers that connect to the RESET Assessment Cloud.
This may sound complicated but it isn’t really as some air quality monitor manufacturers such as Awair are also accredited data providers, so you deal with both steps in one purchase effectively.
Data is to be communicated to building occupants on an hourly basis, perhaps via a digital display in reception, a smartphone app or webpage. RESET want this information to be as visible as possible, not hidden away and hard to find!
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.
In order to certify for RESET Air for Core & Shell, projects need to demonstrate the mechanical (HVAC) system delivers air to occupants in line with the performance targets. For this to happen, we need a baseline established via outdoor air quality monitoring.
Indoor air quality monitors are then “paired” with the outdoor air monitors and the aggregated data can compared. This is the crux of the Core & Shell standard. Understanding this point is fundamental.
How do air quality monitors need to be installed for RESET AIR Core & Shell?
RESET Air accredited monitors that report PM2.5, CO2, Temperature and Relative Humidity need to be positioned within 5 metres / 16 ft of an air intake in a location that is pre-filtration and pre-mixing. Read that line again, it is really important!
If a building has 10 stories or less and one air intake, it only needs one outdoor monitor. That same building with more than one air take, needs still just one monitor but located wherever the air quality is deemed to be worst.
Taller buildings with a single air intake again need just one outdoor air monitor but if it has multiple air intakes then the monitor must be positioned at the highest air intake (or centrally if they are all on the same level).
Indoor monitor deployment meanwhile are based on a project’s total air volume. Mechanical systems that are not designed with constant air volume must calculate air volume based on the highest capacity airflow possible in the system.
To achieve Core & Shell certification a minimum of 30% of total air volume must be monitored.
These indoor monitors need to cover the usual suspects of PM2.5, TVOC, CO2, relative humidity and temperature.
Monitors should be installed post-mixing, post-filtration (or simply post-filtration if there is no mixing in the HVAC system in question). They should also be installed prior to dampers that limit airflow to a duct. The outdoor monitors have to be paired with an indoor monitor, this is essential.
Thee are the steps a RESET accredited professional will follow:
define project boundary
deploy outdoor monitors
calculate total air volume
calculate 30% of total air volume
deploy and pair indoor monitor locations to outdoor monitors
deploy additional indoor monitors if necessary
Contact us to discuss your RESET air certification project or other indoor air quality queries.
RESET Healthy Buildings (podcast interview)
Regenerative buildings monitored for health: the RESET standard
Green & Healthy Places podcast 019:
RESET healthy buildings standard
Regenerative buildings monitored for health: the RESET standard
The ‘Green & Healthy Places’ podcast series takes a deep-dive into the role of sustainability, wellbeing and community in real estate and hospitality.
Green & Healthy Places with Matt Morley
Welcome to episode 19 of the green and healthy places podcast in which we explore wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hospitality.
In this episode we talk to Stanton Wong in China, President of RESET, a data-driven business that harnesses technology to monitor buildings from a health perspective.
We discuss the differences between the concepts of ‘green buildings’ in the West and ‘healthy buildings’ in Asia, the surge in interest in air quality post-pandemic, how the materials used in building construction and fit-outs connect with indoor air quality, how to create biomimetic indoor spaces that behave more like an outdoor spaces and the importance of high-quality data collection around Air, Water, Energy and Waste use in benchmarking healthy buildings.
Stanton is a seriously bright guy with a background in computer science and he’s now at the helm of an organization that just seems to be in the right place at the right time. So there is a lot of solid content in this conversation!
GUEST / Stanton Wong, President, RESET
HOST / Matt Morley
Founder of BioBlu sustainable yachting
Founder of Biofilico wellness real estate & interiors
Founder of Biofit Health & Fitness
======
FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI - excuse typos!
======
Matt Morley
Stanton awesome to be with you here today. Let's jump into it. Why don't you give us a quick intro to your personal background and your career path to becoming president of reset.
stanton wong
Hi, Matt, thank you very much for having me. I'm My name is Stanton. I'm currently the president of reset. In terms of career paths, it's been a little bit windy, but I think it makes perfect sense on why I'm here right now, I am a computer science major. So I have a tech background. My first jobs are all computer science and software development related. I was visiting Shanghai, which is where one of our offices are in. That's where my mother's from. So I was visiting Shanghai I met Ray for and then I really liked what they were trying to do, they were essentially trying to look at how technology can affect and figure out how to monitor and learn about building behaviors. So I joined in from the technology side, and then tried to help build the product around it. And gradually, I took on more responsibility until I'm now the president.
Matt Morley
I've been going through this process myself, as I mentioned to you, of you know, studying your RESET AIR professional qualification and it's one of the things that's really come through is that data driven approach. But you know, another thing that's been immediately stood out for me was was some of the content with the study materials around the difference between green and healthy.
So you kind of have this dichotomy in the market at the moment, there's green buildings, and there's healthy buildings but in some of the pieces that you've published online you mention how with China's 5000 year history of Regenerative Medicine, perhaps, you know, sort of a different terminology or different way of thinking about that?
stanton wong
Yes, s we came from a Western background, our company, our initial thinking was around provided a service for green buildings, that's traditionally what we've talked about. When we were pushing the idea in China, it was not very strongly received because traditionally, the environment, the concept of ‘green’ just wasn't part of the consideration whereas health and wellbeing in general was.
So once we started talking more about what a healthy building is, for occupants inside, there was a lot more interest in understanding what that meant. So when we started doing a few more talks and presentations, we realized that at least in China, the concept of health is a much stronger sell in terms of a concept then, then it is green.
Matt Morley
And you've also introduced the idea of this wonderful word biomimetic. So you describe the RESRT approach has been biomimetic which is essentially if I've understood correctly inspired by natural evolution?
stanton wong
Yeah. So this word really started when we were exploring how we wanted to approach air, I want to give a bit of a background First, we didn't actually start with air quality, per se, we were starting with healthy building materials. And when we were doing research into materials and just the data behind it, we were building calculators that would basically look at the TVOC data from certifications of materials and try to calculate how much TVOC off gassing would occur within a certain space. At depending on materials we used, we realized that no matter how many versions of calculator we went through, they were never accurate. And then at the exact same time, we were discovering that there were air quality monitor manufacturers that were developing monitors that were within a price range that felt very reasonable.
And so we transitioned to looking at what would air look like, if we were just wanting air quality? Will we get better data? So that's, that's how it started.
Then the biomimetic part is from a concept that our founder Rafer Wallace introduced - he grew up in an area that was next to a lake and in a forest. We were thinking - we spend so much time indoors, how can we create an indoor space that felt more like an outdoor space?
Outdoor spaces are constantly changing, depending on what's happening around, right, so trees are constantly sensing the temperature, the humidity, the birds are sensing everything, you hear the birds, depending on what's happening with the weather, you're getting a lot of feedback. But in an interior space, typically it feels a lot more dead because your mechanical systems aren't automated. Mostly it’s someone clicking a button to make the ventilation start or stop. That's kind of what the traditional indoor spaces like.
“We asked ourselves, how can we create an interior space that felt more like an outdoor space by getting data that’s collected to mimic or automate certain aspects of interior spaces to be more similar to outdoor spaces?”
Matt Morley
Which then kind of connects you with my favorite subject of biophilic design? Which is exactly the same concepts. How can you do that through the physical space and the materials and perhaps the sounds or the senses that you're, you're playing with in that room?
As I understand it, then you've got this air quality situation in Shanghai, that's obviously one of the worst in the world. And that's clearly a huge background piece to all of this that's going on. Right. So you're then from materials, you switch into air and start focusing more on that and create what is effectively a data standard and certification piece around air quality, which is your first step forward into this into this world still, would that be fair to say? Okay, but then like, what comes next like beyond that? How are you then? Because materials are coming back round? That seems to be like your next product or service coming to the market?
stanton wong
Yeah, so So I think what we've discovered for ourselves in the past couple years is that the direction we want to take is data driven and performance driven. So we want to look at what can data give us to help empower better solutions.
We haven't focused on solutions, what we want to do in the future is highlight more of the different solutions that are being implemented. Our focus is to standardize the data collection aspect, so that projects can be compared against each other, we can leverage larger sets of data to understand how different projects performed compared to others.
Basically, we want to do a lot of benchmarking. So air quality is where we started, we're going to go into materials.
But from a continuous monitoring perspective, we want to go into water, energy and waste. So with water and energy, I think it's relatively simple. It's really just continuous monitoring, instead of having a monthly paper trail of how much energy or water was used, we want to have a continuous data collection and the reason behind that is because we actually had clients asking about how does our air quality and A track system compare against our energy usage. And once you have that data layered on top of each other, you can start comparing and seeing how can we potentially save energy while maintaining good air quality.
“good air quality doesn’t mean you have to clean the air 100% all the time, it’s about maintaining a certain level of air quality. ”
stanton wong
So for example, if you have an empty office space, you don't need to have fresh air systems on 24/7, you only need to turn that on when there are people in the space and the CO2 levels are getting higher. Same for Particulate Matter (PM2.5 / PM10) filtration - it only needs to kick in when higher levels of PM are detected.
So for energy or waste or water, there's probably something that can be compared. So we're interested in setting a standard for collecting the data initially. And then we will do research into how we can cross reference it some more.
Matt Morley
So and then sort of basic terms, obviously, you've got the type of the HVAC system, which is the middleman between the indoor air that we're breathing in a building and the type of outdoor air that's coming in. So we touched on it briefly at the beginning, but I did just want to ask about location - how much of a role is that playing?
If you're in central Shanghai, and you've got another one of these dark clouds floating around? Surely there's got to be so much more work to do to ensure good quality baseline indoor air quality? Or is it just something that these h HVAC systems can handle As long as they're fully equipped and specced for that type of work?
stanton wong
Yeah, so this is a really good question. What we've discovered is that traditional HVAC systems, the online ones, they're not a very good fit for this kind of situation. So I'll give an example. One of the reasons we started separating Core & Shell from Commercial Interiors is because there is two different roles. One is the central hvac system. Core & shell is the property owner controlling the central HVAC system that includes fresh air systems. And then commercial interiors is typically tailored to the actual tenant or occupant space. The in the occupant space, you want the air to be clean no matter what but you don't actually have control over the central HVAC.
Typically you ask the landlord need more fresh air or something, they'll help you figure something out. But it's not instantaneous, they have to configure something, it's not automatic. So what we've discovered is at least for Pm 2.5, there's now a lot of single units that you would install in your occupant space, like in the ceiling.
Matt Morley
where the recirculation ones right with Yeah, having the portable ones you don't want the like the portable carry around once you want them installed in the ceiling.
stanton wong
Correct. Because we want it to be automated, we don't want it to be something where people are pressing to turn it on and off, it should be more natural. And when it's installed in the ceiling, you can have the tubing have the intake be on one side and the outtakeon the other side so that there's actually more circular motion, air motion. So it cleans the air better than a unit that's sitting on the ground and just trying to clean the air around it.
Matt Morley
Which is what we're seeing, almost this kind of like this sort of knee jerk reaction to? Yeah, I'm seeing it in crazy places, right, you know, go to the physiotherapist. And clearly they haven't got enough ventilation in there, you can see that the H vac systems really just not doing what it needs to be doing. And they've got like one solitary floor fan, if you want to call it that trying to do the work of the system.
“The pandemic has generated a lot more interest in air quality. Previously, air quality was invisible, aside from temperature and humidity. Nobody says ‘oh the CO2 levels are high in here’ - you might feel dizzy or sleepy, even if you don’t have any numbers to back it up. Air monitors help you understand more about the air you breathe. ”
stanton wong
So obviously, if you optimize it perfectly, it doesn't prevent file transmission 100%. Because if one person comes in with the virus, and they cough on somebody, the building can't do anything about that. But at least you're maintaining a system that lowers the chance of virus virus survivability, and improves immune system like human immune system so that you're at the strongest to defend against it. So, so that's something that we've been playing with, and we're trying to figure out how to make that more available. But um, generally, I think, with the pandemic, a lot more people are aware of the importance of air quality, and are looking into how they have how they can have more control over it.
Matt Morley
What would be the other possible sources beyond outdoor air and airborne viruses within an indoor environment that could cause pollution, or that might be damaging, or lowering the quality of the air in, let's say, an office building?
stanton wong
Yeah, I think the most common is the building material choice. So where we started was materials. And materials is not where you would generate PM2.5 but rather VOCs, that’s the big issue. So a lot of offices have a period where they're flushing out the air, right. And the assumption is that most materials will off-gas all their VOCs within a week or two, and then you're done. The unfortunate thing is, it depends on the material. And it depends on the temperature in the space.
So for example, if certain adhesives if they're not high quality, it's possible for them to off-gas for a long, long time, or certain varnishes as well. At the same time, if, for example, it's a really hot day, it's 40 degrees in door, when the sun is shining, and before the air conditioning turns on, that can affect how stable the varnish is, and lead to off gassing. Even a year or two afterwards.
“If you don’t make good interior material choices, it’s very possible that you’re in a space that’s relatively toxic, especially if there’s not enough fresh air coming in to dilute those VOC’s in the air”
Matt Morley
And so we're talking about varnishes, glues, paints, possibly the carpet, fabrics used, or even the stuffing inside furniture such as sofas and things. These are all potential sources of volatile organic compounds, right, which is correct, we mustn't be just like, distracted by the organic word. These are negatives, not all of them are harmful, but some of them are. And if those levels rise too high, then the impact of that on us is or will be some of the symptoms then of a typical, like sick building that we might recognize, but not have known the sources of.
stanton wong
If you're getting headaches, or you're feeling like your throat is uncomfortable and itchy. Those are very simple and basic symptoms of breathing air, that's not great. So, yeah, those are those are probably the most obvious ones. With a lot of vo C's you're going to smell it as well. So a lot of when you're entering a newly referred, newly furnished space, you're going to smell something a lot of like, in China, at least pregnant women. Once they smell that they're immediately telling them they're their company that they're not working in the office. So because they know that that can have actually long term detriment to their baby as well. It's possible and it's not a risk they want to take so is a lot of these effects from air quality is much more longer term and it's not obvious right away.
Matt Morley
So if we were, let's say if you if you were to take a project that was in a rural location, then or say you're in the middle of the sea, you might think that the indoor air or the Yeah, the outdoor air quality coming into the building passing through the the air conditioning system would be well, what could be better, right? But then materials. If you've if you've stuffed that, that indoor space, whether it's a residential building or commercial building with materials that are bringing in off gases, or that are producing off gases, then you're, you're potentially creating a situation whereby the indoor, the outdoor air quality is really quite good. It's fresh air, there's there's no industrial use nearby, etc. But you've got a reduced quality of indoor air because of the off gases being produced by your furniture, glues and paints and vanishes.
stanton wong
Indoor air is almost always worse than outdoor air because of the way we've built our world. The indoor air issue didn’t exist for our ancestors because we didn't have such enclosed indoor spaces.
Even for example, in China, most families are very used to the fact of opening windows every day, they want to bring in the fresh air, obviously, now we have the Pm 2.5 issue. But previously, the idea was you want to dilute the air, you want to bring in the fresh air, right? Because indoor, there's an indoor buildup of potentially chemicals or other things if you don't know what's going on. So the the most simple way is just opening windows bringing in fresh air diluting everything. VOC's are not a problem outdoors. Because it's been completely diluted.
Matt Morley
And I know you guys are really big on on the quality of the monitors in place. In fact, a lot of going going through this process of becoming the sort of accredited professional, a lot of it is like how good is your is the monitor? And what grade is it and how is it deployed? And where is it deployed? And I found that going so deep into that was fascinating. But it then raises the questions like there's just this hit, there's been this huge surge in, let's call them consumer grade monitors, right. And I'm standing here with one of these, these these Dyson, air cooled fans that constantly sends me readouts that don't seem to make much sense, and I can never quite work out what's going on. So let's let's cut through all the marketing talk, right? Like realistically, these these consumer grade monitors and fans that we have on our desks or in our bedrooms? Is there any merit in that? Is there? Is there value in it? Are they is it really just a marketing ploy? Or how do you see it from an insider perspective? Hmm,
stanton wong
I think there's two different things to consider. One is the accuracy of the monitors. And then the second thing is, it really is about where it's playing. So for example, the Dyson one, right, and a lot of filters, like filtration, air filtration units, they have a monitor on it. The issue with that is it's only like the way air filtration works as it cleans the air around it first. And if the fan is not blowing hard enough, it's still only going to clean, you know, the closest air around it. So when I'm recommending my friends to a solution for air quality at home, I asked I tell them to buy a separate air quality monitor, put it on the opposite end of the room from the filter. And so that's how you determine whether or not the air quality in the room is actually clean. If you're using the monitor, if you put the monitor right next to the filter, most of the room is actually not at the level that you're expecting.
So that's one thing. The other thing is consumer models are actually very good at giving a basic trend of understanding what's happening, the thing that they're not very good at is the accuracy between the units. So what we've seen a lot is if you buy five consumer units and you place them all next to each other, it's very possible that two of them are reading a little bit or quite a bit off from the other three. So it's not balanced in that way. But all of their trends are probably going to be very similar. So they're going to all peak at around the same time. They're on a dip at around the same time. But their numbers are not going to be quite that similar. That's that's something that we've seen.
So if you're in an office space where you're trying to illustrate that you are leveraging air quality for either automation or you're trying to show that you have high quality data, you want to use something that is more consistent with numbers of reports. So that's why we've been doing testing - our tests are really just asking manufacturers to give us five different monitors have the same make. And we tested over three weeks to a month and see how they perform in different situations. And even even Grade B ones that we've tested multiples of them have failed the first test, and we have to send them back with a report telling them what's wrong. And then they have to fix the factory calibration process. So before it gets shipped, if it's not properly calibrated, properly stored before shipping, then it's very possible that the numbers will just get wacky, because sensors are not, they're not completely stable yet.
Matt Morley
So something we haven't mentioned thus far is just is that the approach that the researcher takes is very much more about it seems to me the destination than the journey, you're non prescriptive, you're not saying you must do X, Y, and Z in order to secure air quality, you're really focused on the quality of the monitors how they're deployed, how they're maintained, how they're installed, where they're located. And then really, it's all goes into a cloud based data storage system where you're constantly monitoring the quality of the air in the space. And your focus is very much on that, right? Rather than saying, well, you must use only natural materials in your space where you must use this type of ventilation system, you've chosen to focus very much more on the data outputs, right? That's kind of your key differentiator.
stanton wong
You're completely correct. So we're based in China, And so in China, we have to take into consideration Pm 2.5, that's of a common issue. If you're in certain parts of Europe, if you're in a more rural area, that might not be a that might not be something you need to care about. So you don't need as many recirculation units that are filtering the air instead. Well, and the other thing to think about is also like co2 levels, there's no way to prescribe exactly what a space needs, because the density of different offices are different. So if you're in a space, like if you're in an area where land is relatively cheap, you're going to have an office space that's significantly larger than a city center. So the way that you design, your H, exosomes might be completely different.
stanton wong
So instead of saying that you have to have a certain type of solution, we recommend that you have the data to figure out what is the most optimal solution for your kind of space, because it doesn't make sense to spend so much money to have something that doesn't really make a difference. I'll give an example, in in China, because of COVID, they had a rule where all h vac systems had to run a, I think it was 100% fresh air capacity. That means bringing in so much fresh air that there's not enough time to heat it in the winter, or like to cool in the summer, it's just so the indoor spaces feel very uncomfortable. But you got all the fresh air right. And so that's not a proper solution for a situation like that. Instead, if you had co2 monitors, you would understand how much fresh air to bring in. So you can maintain a system that is more energy efficient, and produces all the effects that you need. So that that's just an example. But um, our concept is if you have the data, you know how to create a solution for the project.
Matt Morley
So that might suggest then that you would so let's look at the process then of going through the reset err certification, because that might not necessarily involve an MEP consultant, for example, if your data coming out within those three months is immediately good, right? So if everything's working fine, but so what point might you expect? What's the team? What's the resource going on? Like? How does that process go from from a project, making a request to become part of the of the standard and take the certification and like, who might they need on that team to make that happen?
stanton wong
So our recommendation is almost always start just by monitoring, just one monitor in your space is better than having nothing because it gives you it first brings awareness to the air quality data, because that's never been that's not something that's talked about. In in the US, for example, ASHRAE doesn't have very much content around continuous monitoring. It's all spot testing one time test. And then what do you do with that data? That's the information they have.
So continuous monitoring, using this data to figure out what to do is still relatively new. Even if you bring in MEP experts, a lot of them don't know how to approach this. That's really the big biggest issue that we're encountering right. Now it's that, yes, you can get the data you can monitor. But what do you do after that, if you have a good space, and the air quality is already good, it's it's not very complicated, you just get certified. You install the monitors, you go through the process, which includes three stages.
The documentation, which is you demonstrate, you show where you're going to install your monitors the site audit, which is we verify that they're installed properly, in the right place. And then the data audit, which is a is a continuous audit of the space forever, you get the certification after three months, but we need to continue tracking the project. Because if you stop, then we assume that something has happened, and you lose the certification. So we're not one of those. We're not a one time sort of certification, it's more of an operate operational certification where we're tracking the whole time.
Matt Morley
Yeah. And then you get into and then you can imagine, it might provide peace of mind. It might provide transparency for, let's say, a commercial building, owner, landlord who, through their facilities, management wants to communicate their tenants that look, we're doing everything, everything's good, you've got good indoor air quality, is we have nothing to hide equally, it can raise an alarm, right. And at that point, you can imagine the project then whether it's MEP, or it might be that they have a materials issue, or there might be off gases going in. And so your data will be able to give some sense of where the problem is right, based on whether it's co2, whether it's m PM, 2.5, PM, 10, or some other point that's creating issues, right. So you'll be able to get pretty close to get sniffing out where the problem is.
stanton wong
Yeah, our best case studies are best stories are all around how quickly people found out what the issue was. So I'll give to one is a commercial interiors case like story. There is a project that was that has that was passing every month, right, they've already got certified everything. And all of a sudden, one month they failed. They looked at the data and saw that on, I think the 16th or 17th of a certain of a month, all of a sudden the tvoc numbers went up and it stayed up.
So to see if it spikes and drops, not a big issue because perfumes alcohol, all that stuff can affect today's TVOC sensors. So Friday afternoons, typically, a lot of offices will have a high spike of TVOC, because it's happy hour. But if TVOC goes up and it stays up, that means something just got installed, that is permanently off gassing, like a significant amount of TVOC. So we looked in the data we told we helped, we asked the tenant, what do they install or add to the space on that day, and they found out that they installed the whiteboard. And the glue used for the whiteboard was off gassing TVOC heavily. So they removed it, they scraped off all the glue, and then the TVOC went back normal. So that's an example of like having the data to figure out what went wrong.
Another example that was really was, um, TVOC You know, office building can affect other tenants, because a lot of the eight fax systems are all connected. So there is a there was a newer building in Shanghai, and they only allowed construction teams to come in at night to work because some of the other spaces already occupied. They noticed that on an on a certain afternoon that TVOC and pm two and five were spiking on one of the floors, they had monitors in the H vac systems. And so they sent a security guard over and they found two workers trying to catch up on some of the work that they had to do. And then obviously, they kicked them out. But they did this within half an hour of seeing the data spike. So it's just it's little things like this, it's if you first of all, their team is starting to leverage the data, which is something that they probably wouldn't have done before, if they didn't have the data. And with the data, you can make really quick response time. So you can solve a lot of issues.
Matt Morley
It's an important point to mention also the idea of no you actively promote the communication of that data, right? you encourage like maybe having a display screen in reception, or by the elevator. So as people come in, they get some sense of where we're at on the day, right? So if you really, the data isn't managed and stored in your cloud and it stays there. It's very much kind of this positive feedback loop right where it's constantly coming back through to each project that then communicates that to the the occupants themselves. I think that's key because they're There is often that sense of things taking place at some strategic level, but then the occupants maybe not engaging with it or worse, you know, having an air more air quality monitor on their desk and taking, trying to take ownership of it. But it's poor data. And it's, you know, it's just not it's not reliable, right. So you're trying to put, like a building level system in place.
stanton wong
Yeah. Speaking of the monitor on the desk, one of the impetus for starting the standard, or making the standard official was also a legal case where somebody said that they brought a monitor into the office and said, the air quality in this office is crap, right. But then the office obviously had nothing in place to fight back, they had no data, they had nothing that they could show, right, so they had to settle. But um, that's by making it official, you're showcasing that you've installed monitors in the right places, they're not installed in some closet, which is still things that we see where the data is faked. And having a third party verify just means that everything is legit and aboveboard.
Matt Morley
I love it. I'm a real fan, I really encourage people to check out the cert and honest piece of info is that it's very reasonably priced. It's not a prohibitive cost, whereas some of the other certs can can really come with quite a heavy price tag. And, you know, I love the fact that you've, you've priced yours to make it much more accessible to a wider audience. I think that's I think that's key. And in a sense that it invites a longer term relationship, which, which I think is also fundamental. So it raises the question like, what's next, like what's coming in your, in your pipeline over the next one to two years? What are you working on for the future?
stanton wong
Yeah, so the first thing that we're trying to do right now is to flesh out our suite of standards. So we I mentioned that we're already doing air, I mentioned that we're going to be doing water, energy and waste waste is interesting, because it hasn't been done before with continuous monitoring. What we're imagining is to have IoT scales that will monitor how much weight gets put into a trash bin. And then once that trash bin is lifted, and the weight is removed, that gets stored into a system. So you're tracking how much waste is being generated every day from a weight perspective. Obviously, it's not a panacea, it doesn't give you all the right information. But it gives you a starting point to understand how much is being how much waste is getting created. And if you want to take it a step further, it would be separating the bins and tracking each bin separately.
So for example, a bin would be for recyclables. And another bin might be for organics, every every region has their own kind of separation strategy. So we're not going to set one in stone. But we're going to make it available that people can select different strata, like different organizations try structures for this. And hopefully making this data visible make it so that there's more awareness to how much waste is being generated. So that's the initial concept. For all four of these, the long term goal is to create a benchmarking system that allows you to compare projects between projects. So we're, in the long term, we're not looking at setting specific standards globally.
In terms of thresholds for what the data level should be, it's gonna be probably something that's collaborative, with a local group, because for example, let's just say air quality, temperature and humidity is different for every region, right? If you're in the tropics, versus if you're in a colder area, the numbers are gonna be very different. So what you're targeting might be very different as well. You might not like the optimal humidity and temperature might not be exactly the same for different areas. So we want to work with the local region to set the thresholds for that.
Our focus will only be on making sure that you're collecting the right data or the most accurate data. And so we're our focus for our standards will always be around that. The other standards that we're going to be doing as materials and again, our our mo our focus is going to be on collecting data. So for materials, every project has a list of materials that is actually installed in the space. We want for every project in the future to have that list. And we start scoring that list based on how much information in regards to health or carbon or safety of each material is collected.
So we're the scoring system is not necessarily going to be initially based on how good the material is because once you see it you'll you'll realize whether or not it's good, because that's the stuff you're installing to your space in We want you to do the research of the materials that you're aware of what you're actually putting into your space. So the scoring system is based on how much do you understand what's actually going in? Are you actually collecting that information? Do the materials that you select actually have any of the information that you're looking for, and materials that are actively trying to collect more information for these aspects will be will be more noticed. So we want to incentivize materials to really care about the health aspect, the carbon aspect, that kind of stuff.
Matt Morley
Yes, we were very much part of a wider infrastructure, which includes product health certificates, or healthy environmental product declarations, things like that, right. So that, yeah, there's then that middleman that's sourcing the materials that have already been through that that rigorous process of securing certifications for the for that individual product that then gets installed within a wider fit out with a green procurement policy that then secures the right kind of standards for materials and indeed, knock on effect, air quality. So it's really this sort of Tetris puzzle, right, then you're sort of encouraging that, that network of players to come together to do the work to collaborate and then measure and monitor those results over time?
I think it's, it's great. And it's exactly what we needed for the industry. I think you've got to, yeah, some amazing, amazing growth years ahead of you. So Best of luck. Congratulations with that, where can people find you what's the best way to reach out and follow along for the work that we set are doing.
stanton wong
So we're constantly updating our website. The website is reset dot build, r e s e t dot v UI LD, there's no.com dot build is the end of it. And that's probably the best way to follow us. We also have a newsletter. So if you scroll down to the very bottom of the homepage of the webpage, there'll be a link, there'll be a link to follow our newsletter. And if you have any questions, info at reset dot build is the go to email. And if you want to email me directly, it's Stanton at reset dot build.
Healthy buildings and RESET Air quality commercial interiors
Smart Healthy buildings with RESET AIR for Commercial interiors
Smart Healthy buildings with RESET AIR for Commercial interiors
What is a healthy building?
A healthy building is a smart building that, while respecting the planet wherever possible, places most emphasis on human health and wellbeing of occupants.
Factors include indoor air quality (IAQ), visual comfort, light quality, acoustic performance, active design, thermal comfort and cleaning protocols - it requires a combination of multi-sensory design and healthy design strategies.
See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.
What is indoor air quality?
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.
What is RESET Air standard for Commercial Interiors?
RESET is about continuous monitoring, analysis and transparency around indoor air quality that specifies monitor standards, deployment processes, maintenance and reporting requirements.
The RESET AIR Commercial Interiors certification can be applied to both new and existing buildings, it should be distinguished from the Core & Shell version of RESET Air.
The Standard covers particulate matter PM2.5, Total Volatile Organic Compounds ( TVOC), CO2 and CO for 80% of occupants in regularly occupied space types, that data is then reported back to those occupants as a way to raise awareness around indoor air quality, the air monitor data is uploaded onto the Assessment Cloud and analysis on an ongoing basis.
RESET do not dictate a specific way of achieving these performance targets, instead they focus specifically on the quality of the data. So project teams have to define the space types included in a monitor deployment plan, with a narrative of how they arrived at that decision submitted to RESET.
What are the RESET indoor air quality performance targets?
PM 2.5 from <35ug/m3 (acceptable) to < 12ug/m2 (high performance)
TVOC from < 500 ug/m3 (acceptable) to < 400 ug.m3 (high performance)
CO2 from < 1000 pppm (acceptable) to > 600 ppm (high performance)
Temperature: monitored but no specific targets
Relative Humidity: monitored but no specific targets
Carbon Monoxide: < 9ppm acceptable (only applicable to spaces with combustion)
What about the air quality data?
RESET have an algorithm for daily averages based on hours of occupancy in relation to the performance targets above. These results must stay within the acceptable limits constantly for three consecutive months in order to be awarded the initial certification.
Projects have to use an accredited Data Provider that reports in to the RESET Assessment Cloud. That data is then communicated to building occupants via a smartphone app or graphic signage for example. The aim is transparency and dialogue around this subject, between facilities management and occupants / tenants.
How to choose the air quality monitors?
RESET make this relatively easy in that only certain suppliers are allowed, based on quality standards and regional coverage. The monitors then need to be mounted 3-6 ft from the ground, at least 16 ft from an operable window and at least 16 ft from an air filter or fresh-air diffuser, as well as being hard-wired to a permanent power source.
All of this has to be incorporated into the monitor deployment plan created by the project RESET AIR Accredited Professional or ‘AP’.
Other important information in the certification process
A project boundary must be physically distinct from other interior spaces in the building. Once defined it must remain consistent for all subsequent calcs.
The total number of occupants is based on where each occupant spends the majority of their time
Full certification requires 80% of occupants or more to be covered by the monitors, Partial Certification is just 30% of occupants covered
Create a list of regularly occupied spaces (more than 1hr per day) based on function type within project boundary, excluding transition spaces such as corridors
Deploy one monitor in each regularly occupied space type so that in total they cover the total number of occupants for Full or Partial certification purposes (based on their usual location within the office and a monitor having a range of up to 5,382 sq ft (unless a proof of uniformity test permits an extension to 10,764 sq ft)
A detailed monitor deployment plan has to be submitted to RESET for review
Contact us to discuss your healthy building, indoor air quality or RESET certification requirements.
Healthy Buildings: RESET Air quality certification statuses
A guide to the RESET Air standard’s various statuses and what they mean for certification for a smart building, healthy building or green building project.
What is a healthy building?
Healthy building design focuses on indoor air quality (IAQ), visual comfort, light quality, acoustic performance, active design, thermal comfort and cleaning protocols - it requires a combination of multi-sensory design and healthy design strategies.
What is RESET Air healthy building standard?
RESET stands for “Regenerative, ecological, social and economic targets”. 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.
Applicable to a wide variety of project types, both commercial and residential, RESET leverage the latest data standards that help assess air quality data from reliable sources (almost 20 accredited air quality monitors at the last check).
There are more than 500 RESET Accredited Professionals around the world, assisting as consultants in the RESET certification process for clients and generally championing the RESET indoor air quality program within the real estate industry.
New modules on Materials, Energy, Water and Circularity are in the pipeline to join the Air module that was launched first.
What are the RESET Air certification statuses?
These statuses are a response to the need for greater levels or phases that a project passes through on its path to healthy building certification with RESET.
RESET ENTRY STATUS
A short-term certificate for those with at least one month of continuous monitor data, this was a way to address concern around airborne pathogens in the indoor environment, post Covid-19.
This helps building owners to make a quick decision around improving their air quality in their property.
This status does not require the same calculations on occupants in each space, as one single monitor can be enough to help understand if there are any immediate air quality problems with an indoor space. However the project must use a RESET accredited monitor installed in line with the standard and an accredited data provider.
RESET CONNECTED STATUS
A project with accredited monitors and data provider platforms installed, tapping into the power of the RESET Cloud but not necessarily going forward into full RESET certification.
A way to access the data and used for purposes such as stakeholder / tenant engagement, benchmarking and so on.
Project deployment quantity calculations are recommended but not obligatory. One monitor may suffice here but data is ongoing, not just a 30-day timeline as per ENTRY status.
RESET PRE-ACCREDITED STATUS
For projects with a RESET AP on the team and have created a monitor deployment plan using the standard, calculating how many monitors are required and in which locations, along with a pre-deployment plan that has been approved by a RESET Auditor, making it the Approved Deployment plan of record.
This status reflects the amount of work that has gone into the pre-deployment phase, perhaps even before a building has been constructed. Ideal for design phase projects prior to physical installation.
RESET ACCREDITED STATUS
All steps for deployment and installation have been completed, with data now bing collected through an accredited data provider, just waiting to see the data results. So it is a project 100% ready to go generating high quality data.
RESET CERTIFIED STATUS
Projects that have met all the monitor deployment criteria and the data they provide has passed the performance requirements after a minimum of three month of data.
Multiple stakeholders are likely engaged in maintaining this status as it involves both the building owner and ongoing maintenance via facilities management and tenants.
Contact us to discuss your indoor air quality enquiry or indeed RESET AIr certification.
A guide to RESET Air Residential - healthy building standard
The Biofilico guide to RESET AIR Residential healthy building standard
The Biofilico guide to RESET AIR Residential healthy building standard
RESET Air Residential in summary
RESET approach the subject of indoor air quality with a long-term perspective and therefore have created a healthy building standard for residential projects that specifies continuous monitoring rather than a one time only test.
This healthy building standard for residential projects specifies air quality monitor deployment, performance, maintenance and reporting. It can be applied to both new and existing interiors, whether single home or multi-family.
What is the goal of the RESET AIR Residential?
The standard sets out to continuously monitor particulate matter / PM2.5, as well as Total Volatile Organic Compounds / TVOCs, CO2 and CO in all regularly occupied space types.
This data must then be communicated to the residence’s inhabitants as a way to raise awareness and promote engagement with the theme.
Daily Indoor Air Quality IAQ targets are set to measure performance, in addition to zeroing in on the monitors themselves, their installation, the data they produce and ongoing calibration.
This healthy building standard is all about good data in other words!
Indoor Air Quality Certification
RESET Air recognizes that hours of occupancy, cooking areas, sleeping and entertaining all have a direct impact on indoor air quality within a home, which in turn should influence the air quality monitor deployment plan in their view.
For this reason, the certification is non-prescriptive, with space types includes or excluded based on a rationale provided by the ‘Reset AP’. Targets are given for average indoor air quality for PM 2.5, TVOC and CO2, as well as Carbon Dioxide (in spaces with combustion only) while Temperature and Relative Humidity have to be monitored but no specific targets are given.
High performance targets are also provided as global benchmarks in excellence for indoor air quality, specifically for PM 2.5, TVOC and CO2.
Indoor Air Quality Performance Targets
PM 2.5 can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. It is not to exceed 35 g/m3 or 12 g/m3 (high performance).
VOCs include formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and styrene, with long-term exposure a risk for liver and kidney damage, amongst other things. The targets are not to exceed 500 g/m3 or 400 g/m3 (high performance).
CO2 affects productivity and comfort, causing headaches and cognitive issues so should be limited to 1000 ppm or 600 ppm (high performance).
Carbon Monoxide results from combustion and can cause dizziness, unconsciousness or worse, so levels should not exceed 9 ppm.
Data is sent to the RESET Assessment Cloud for analysis and daily averages calculated from hours of occupancy should not exceed performance targets for a total of three months in order to receive the initial certification… but that is just the start!
What data providers and air quality monitors are required?
Only accredited data providers can report data to the RESET Assessment Cloud, with hourly data uploaded for occupant’s to see on an ongoing basis, for example via screen display or smartphone app.
Our friends at AWAIR offer monitors and the data upload as well, making them a sensible solution.
Only calibration grade (A) or commercial grade (B) air quality monitors are accepted, not consumer grade monitors (C).
These monitors need to be installed on a wall, in a central location within each designated space type, 3-6 ft from the ground and at least 16 ft from an operable window, a minimum of 16 ft from air filters or fresh-air diffusers and hard wired to a permanent power source.
Finally, a Carbon monoxide detector has to be within 5 metres of bedrooms.
How to calculate monitor deployment
This is a key deliverable for the RESET AP (professional consultant on the project) and requires that they:
define the project boundary
identify regularly occupied spaces (more than 1hr each day), with sleeping areas individually itemized / treated separately
deploy one monitor for each space type and one in every sleeping area
deploy one CO detector within 16 ft of each bedroom (this could be in a corridor between multiple bedrooms), if there is a source of combustion, or is adjacent to a parking garage for example (monitors should also comply with local code)
ensure a monitor range of 500m2, i.e. no single space type larger than 500m2 can use a single monitor, that is the maximum range for a single unit
Contact us to discuss your indoor air quality project requirements
RESET Air standard for healthy building & interiors
Our introduction to the RESET Air healthy building standard and certification process, from a consultant’s perspective.
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.