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In 2022, an estimated 72% of office workers worldwide worried about air quality in their workplaces’ buildings—emphasizing the importance of improved ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning in buildings.
The federal government has a role to play in ensuring that the needs of tenants can be met by building owners and managers.
The Roundtable is a part of the Healthy Workplaces Coalition, which focuses on advancing federal policy aimed at helping businesses and organizations implement health and safety improvements in workplaces and the built environment.
Policies that support investments in improving indoor air quality and other healthy building strategies will make our nation’s built environment more resilient. In addition, such investments will facilitate return-to-office trends that are vital to our nation’s long-term economic prosperity.
US-EPA has indicated its consideration of a possible commercial building label for indoor air quality (IAQ) that might complement its voluntary Indoor airPLUS labeling and partnership program, for single- and multi-family residences. Any similar commercial IAQ labeling program should be demonstrated and tested in actual assets first before it might be released to the marketplace.
The Healthy Workplaces Coalition formed in May 2022 and is comprised of national organizations, industry leaders, and trade associations—including The Roundtable.
The Coalition aims to support policies such as financial and other incentives that help businesses defray some of the extra costs incurred for improved sanitation and safety practices prompted by the spread of COVID-19.
The Biden administration launched an initiative called the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge, aimed at encouraging building owners and managers to sign a pledge to regularly inspect and maintain HVAC systems, optimize fresh air ventilation, enhance air filtration, and communicate IAQ practices with building occupants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR for Certification for Buildings program is a proven platform for building owners and managers to “label” their assets as top energy efficiency performers in the marketplace.
Investors, tenants, and employees seek buildings and workplaces with ENERGY STAR ratings because they signal well-managed, profitable assets with reduced carbon footprints.
To complement its “whole building” rating program, in 2018, the EPA issued its first labels to recognize commercial tenants for high-performance design and construction of leased spaces.
The behavior, space design, and equipment choices of tenants can account for more than 50% of energy consumed in commercial buildings—beyond the owner’s ability to control. Expanding EPA’s ENERGY STAR program to add tenant-based recognition is thus a key objective to achieve better efficiency, lower energy use, and a reduced carbon footprint attributable to U.S. real estate.
