Healthy building certification for the UW Tower – education and demonstration

Summary of project proposal:

The student team would like to use the UW Tower, in particular, the newly renovated UW-IT space to demonstrate how to create a healthy workplace. Students in Professor Kim’s CESI 599 course will participate in a quarter long measurement and verification of indoor air quality, light, and other comfort criteria in addition to identifying and documenting relevant strategies that promote healthy workspace. The end product is to use the narratives as support documents to certify the newly renovated UW IT space as the possible Fitwel building. Fitwel is a nationally recognized certification system (similar to U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system). If UW Tower is granted the certification, it would be the first building on campus to be a Fitwel space.

Environmental impact:

The proposed project is part of the series needed to pursue the first healthy building certification at UW campus. The assessment that students will conduct includes evaluating performance metrics of healthy building standards for UW-IT space at UW Tower, such as air quality, water quality, light and comfort. It is expected that the presentation of the findings will motivate pro-environmental behavior to the building occupants, students and UW campus in general. Furthermore, the project will also demonstrate the importance of the indoor environmental quality and thus promote health-conscious individual behavior based on the measurable parameters. The bigger impact of this project is expected beyond addressing sustainability when the space successfully obtains healthy building certification and become the example for other buildings across the campus.

Student Leadership & Involvement:

CESI 599 requires that students are actively involved in the entire certification process. The class represents a wide diversity in terms of the students’ demographics from many different countries, as well as promotes interdisciplinary collaboration where the students come from different majors and departments within UW. Student groups will be responsible for documenting the findings as well as doing a presentation in front of all the stakeholders. The funding is requested to hold a whole building occupant presentation in the UW Tower auditorium which will be a unique experience.

Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change:

Having the all occupant presentation will be a great opportunity to reach out the employees of this University. We will discuss (and have the opportunity to educate) the benefits of good air quality, lighting, and comfort in terms of occupant benefits and improved productivity. In addition, the students will obtain a hands-on experience with daysimeter to learn one of the cutting-edge tools to measure light and health of the occupant.

Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability:

The requested budget does not cover all the measurement and verification needed for truly demonstrating the performance of a healthy workspace. However, Professor Kim (through her class) will be supporting relevant equipment that may be already available through her lab. She will also provide the necessary oversight. We are asking to supplement by acquiring daysimeter (to measure healthy/circadian light) to enrich the experience and make the assessment more comprehensive.

Project’s budget estimate and schedule:

We are asking for $998.50 in total. $338.50 will be spent on presenting at the UW Tower auditorium ($300 for auditorium rental fee and $38.50 for audiovisual) and $660 on daysimeter. We expect to acquire daysimeter before the scheduled CEE 599 about lighting topic on October 30th, 2018. The presentation at the UW Tower auditorium will be on December 6th, 2018.