EG Rising Star launches air certification scheme

EG Rising Star alumnus Olga Turner Baker has launched an air quality certification scheme that collects data and rates air quality inside buildings.

Turner Baker, who was one of EG’s Rising Stars in 2016, has already trialled the service at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter, Quintain’s Tipi BTR scheme at Wembley Park, and The Office Group’s Summit House.

Landlords who want to sign up to the scheme will be charged a base fee of £7,500. Office landlords will then be charged an additional 5p per sq ft, and residential property owners will be charged £175 per apartment for the service.

AirRated installs sensors in buildings to collect data over a three-week period on the concentration of carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, chemicals and dust.

Scientists review the data to grade the air quality inside the building. If the building passes Air Rated’s minimum threshold, it will receive a rating. These ratings are: AirScore Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

The Met Office received a Silver rating, Quintain received a Gold rating and TOG received an AirScore Certified rating.

Ralph James, FM and technical services manager at the Met Office, said: “The results were highly reassuring, reflecting the hard work that property management has been doing to ensure and maintain good levels of air quality.”

Baker Turner, who is chief executive of AirRated, said: “Our aim at AirRated is to create an internationally accepted industry standard for classifying Indoor Air Quality across all use classes in the built environment.

Air quality is arguably the single greatest determinant of our overall health and well-being in buildings, and it is paramount that we begin to map and quantify this in order to develop better strategies for improving Indoor Air Quality and creating better living, working and leisure environments.”

Portrait by Jon Enoch

 

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