Implementing a Building Readiness Plan to Curb Infection Transmission
As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, indoor air quality has become a top priority for business owners. In response, ASHRAE has released its Standard 241-2023 , which includes an updated, specified Building Readiness Plan (BRP) for improving indoor air quality. This is a significant step in ensuring that building owners and managers are taking the necessary steps to protect their environments from harmful contaminants and curb the transmission of diseases and infections.
The updated ASHRAE Standard 241 provides guidelines for building managers to develop a Building Readiness Plan that can be used in crises as it is a collection of all the information needed to improve air quality to remain open during high-risk outbreaks. ?The plan outlines strategies for improving indoor air quality, but with a greater focus on long-range disease transmission instead of general air quality. These measures can help reduce the spread of dangerous airborne viruses, including COVID-19. By implementing such measures, businesses can create a better environment for employees and customers.
Four main aspects are necessary for any Building Readiness Plan: Focus, Intervention, Preliminaries, and Documentation.
Focus
Building Readiness Plans must have a goal of maintaining “equivalent clean airflow for infection control.” Equivalent clean airflow is the flow rate that is required to ensure that there is enough uncontaminated/non-infectious air per person in a space. This can help identify areas of concern that might require alternative measures including increased ventilation or air cleaning.
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Intervention
This aspect takes a more in-depth look at the measures that must be taken to ensure equivalent clean airflow. Two controls that can be used to determine if alternative measures are effective: engineering control and non-engineering controls.
Engineering controls include any type of ventilation, filtration, or air cleaning technologies . It would be useful to include information about technical specifications and requirements and operation and maintenance schedules. Any tools that increase ventilation, purify the air or filter contaminants would count as engineering controls. For instance, you might consider adding an in-duct air purification unit to your HVAC system that is capable of inactivating pathogens and bacteria, which commonly slip past HVAC filters that only target larger particles.
A quality Building Readiness Plan also identifies the three modes of operation, when they should be used, and how their target flow rates change. The three modes include infection risk mitigation mode, normal mode, and temporary shutdown. These protocols are used to protect the safety and well-being of building occupants and should be used to determine how to proceed in situations with high-risk factors.
On the other hand, non-engineering controls refer to anything that doesn’t relate to the previous controls of ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning. You might want to include information about building occupancy, personal protective equipment, social distancing, and cleaning procedures. It might help to think of non-engineering controls as ways we as humans can help reduce the risk of transmission via daily procedures like cleaning or choosing to wear a mask when ill.
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Preliminaries
Before you can begin drafting your organization’s Building Readiness Plan, you must undergo a 3-step preliminary process of collecting necessary data on current intervention technologies and procedures.
The first step is an initial assessment of existing ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning systems — their capacity, operation, maintenance, and specifications. It also requires an in-depth assessment of the space, which can include the room volume or occupancy schedule. This will better allow you to determine what alternative measures are needed, as well as when and where.
Following the initial assessment, you can begin the planning and implementation phases, which involve calculating the difference between the target equivalent clean air flow rate and the actual output/capabilities of current systems.
Lastly, the commissioning step is where intervention methodologies are put to the test. This allows you to verify that the alternative methods and technologies added during the planning stage are successful in achieving the predicted target.
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Documentation
The easiest, yet most commonly missed aspect of a Building Readiness Plan is that it is physically documented somewhere, whether it be online or via a physical copy. It’s necessary to write your BRP down so that it is accessible to all employees and able to be evaluated, maintained, and updated.
According to the new standard, a BRP should be updated whenever:
●??????? Buildings or systems are altered;
●??????? Changes are made to building use or space occupancy category;
●??????? A significant change in occupancy density occurs;
●??????? Or other changes are made that are inconsistent with system design assumptions.
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With the updated ASHRAE Standard 241, building owners and managers can now create Building Readiness Plans that can help them prepare for and respond to periods of increased risk of transmission of infections and pathogens. By focusing on air quality, business owners can ensure they are actively working to reduce risk factors for their inhabitants. The new standard provides essential guidelines for creating a Building Readiness Plan that can help businesses identify potential issues before they are exacerbated, as well as reduce the risk of airborne transmissions of viruses in their space. In short, having a Building Readiness Plan that focuses on indoor air quality is essential in creating stable working and living environments for all.