News Brief

IMMUNE Building Standard: The Latest COVID Response

Entering a crowded field of building re-entry solutions, IMMUNE is an open-source standard.

How can we safeguard the health of occupants while preventing future health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic? The IMMUNE Building Standard, developed by Bucharest-based Genesis Property in collaboration with The National Institute for Infectious Disease in Romania, is a new approach to assessing and certifying human health and safety measures in the built environment.

IMMUNE was developed on an open-source platform to address a number of concerns raised by COVID-19. For building professionals and owners, it is particularly important to assess health risks, as we spend 90% of our time indoors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also stressed that we are most prone to contracting the virus when we are indoors in the presence of others.

IMMUNE offers a standard for addressing these risks and protecting the health of occupants. The IMMUNE Assessment Scoring Index allows assessment of health measures—such as thermal scanning at entrances, de-densification of outdoor and indoor space, and touchless hand sanitizer dispensers—for commercial offices at any stage of the life cycle. (The creators claim the standard can be modified for other building types as well.)

For designers, IMMUNE is a guide for preemptively defending against health threats and mitigating their impact. Quarantine rooms and emergency warehouses are some of the notable features that architects can include in building plans.

For owners and building managers, this is a manual for effectively integrating health precautions into building operations and facility oversight. By assigning an “IMMUNE Steward,” building owners ensure there is a dedicated  professional to implement and monitor activities.

In the face of the pandemic, IMMUNE is not alone in its effort to implement health measures. LEED has deployed several “Safety First” pilot credits. The International WELL Building Institute has presented the Health-Safety Rating, which is a broader system for verifying safety-related issues as they pertain to design and operational policies. Arc Skoru, a USGBC subsidiary, has developed a set of tools called “Arc Re-Entry” that can be used to assess health measures, occupant experience, and air quality. Similarly, the AIA Re-Occupancy Assessment Tool offers an array of suggested measures and can be used for assessing a variety of facilities.

 

Published September 8, 2020

Gehrung, J. (2020, August 24). IMMUNE Building Standard: The Latest COVID Response. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/immune-building-standard-latest-covid-response

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Comments

October 7, 2020 - 10:21 am

There is also the Fitwel Viral Response Module certification.

October 7, 2020 - 10:22 am

There is also the Fitwel Viral Response Module certification.