INDOOR ENVIRONMENT
Built Environment Assessors will commence your Indoor Environmental Audit by calculating your NABERS Indoor Environment Rating. The NABERS Indoor Environment rating system for buildings or offices allows owners and managers to accurately assess the indoor environment performance of the building to others in the market. Indoor Environmental Assessment is a crucial part of building management as it is the first step in managing the building's impact on its occupants.
Indoor environment quality is an essential part of the sustainability plan for any building or office. The quality of the working or living environment created within a building is directly linked to the occupants' health and quality of life. This is especially the case for societies where many people spend a large proportion of their working life in an artificially maintained environment.
The internal environmental quality of a building can be influenced by a variety of factors including:
* Thermal comfort (i.e. temperature, humidity and air speed)
* Acoustic comfort (i.e. the ability of building to decrease or insulate external noise as well as the noise levels within the tenanted space)
* Indoor air quality including ventilation effectiveness and levels of pollutants (chemical, biological and physical)
* Maintenance and cleaning of HVAC and process systems
* Lighting that maximises daylight whilst minimising glare and heat
* Office layout including the spatial arrangements of walls, partitions, furniture and equipment in relation to fixed elements like windows and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
The ability for a tenant or building manager to control and manage these factors may vary from building to building. Facilities management generally control the thermal comfort, cleaning and maintenance of HVAC systems and the capacity of the building to buffer noise.
A NABERS Indoor Environment rating:
* Provides industry recognition and a clearly defined productivity advantage for buildings or offices with a high quality, healthy and environmentally friendly indoor environment.
* Encourages the adoption of industry best practice in indoor environmental management of commercial buildings in turn minimising the building's overall impact on the occupants.
* Rates a building or office by assessing its actual performance, based on physical measurements and an Occupant Survey.
© NABERS 2009 - Used with permission. www.nabers.com.au
Indoor environment quality is an essential part of the sustainability plan for any building or office. The quality of the working or living environment created within a building is directly linked to the occupants' health and quality of life. This is especially the case for societies where many people spend a large proportion of their working life in an artificially maintained environment.
The internal environmental quality of a building can be influenced by a variety of factors including:
* Thermal comfort (i.e. temperature, humidity and air speed)
* Acoustic comfort (i.e. the ability of building to decrease or insulate external noise as well as the noise levels within the tenanted space)
* Indoor air quality including ventilation effectiveness and levels of pollutants (chemical, biological and physical)
* Maintenance and cleaning of HVAC and process systems
* Lighting that maximises daylight whilst minimising glare and heat
* Office layout including the spatial arrangements of walls, partitions, furniture and equipment in relation to fixed elements like windows and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
The ability for a tenant or building manager to control and manage these factors may vary from building to building. Facilities management generally control the thermal comfort, cleaning and maintenance of HVAC systems and the capacity of the building to buffer noise.
A NABERS Indoor Environment rating:
* Provides industry recognition and a clearly defined productivity advantage for buildings or offices with a high quality, healthy and environmentally friendly indoor environment.
* Encourages the adoption of industry best practice in indoor environmental management of commercial buildings in turn minimising the building's overall impact on the occupants.
* Rates a building or office by assessing its actual performance, based on physical measurements and an Occupant Survey.
© NABERS 2009 - Used with permission. www.nabers.com.au
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.
The NABERS Indoor Environment rating for offices measures five factors:
* Thermal comfort
* Air quality
* Acoustic comfort
* Lighting
* Office layout
As with other NABERS ratings for offices, you can choose to rate a Base Building, an individual Tenancy or the Whole Building. The rating is based on the level of control that the tenant or the building management has over the factors considered.
The NABERS Indoor Environment Whole Building and Tenancy ratings are based on two sets of measurements:
* Quantitative "physical" measurements of indoor environment conditions in a space using specialised equipment,
* Occupant Satisfaction questionnaire consisting of a set of multiple choice questions developed to measure the satisfaction of occupants in a particular space.
The NABERS Indoor Environment Base Building rating is based on quantitative "physical" measurements of indoor environment conditions only.
There are three types of NABERS Indoor Environment Ratings:
Tenancy
Tenant’s control of the indoor environment within the tenanted space, including the air quality, acoustic comfort, lighting and the office layout. The rating includes quantitative measurements and an occupant survey.
Base Building
Central services and common areas of a building under the control of building management including thermal comfort, air quality and acoustic comfort. The rating includes only quantitative measurements.
Whole Building
A combination of the above where the tenant is the owner and/or has control of the services. The rating includes quantitative measurements and an occupant survey.
After completing the audit and assessment of Air Quality, we will then measure the results against the NABERS Indoor Environment benchmarks and give your building a star rating that represents that level of performance.
What does the rating mean?
5 stars
Excellent performance!
Your rating indicates that you have combined superior equipment selection, operation and management to enhance the quality of the building’s indoor environment for its occupants.
4 & 4.5 stars
Your building demonstrates strong indoor environmental performance reflecting good equipment selection, operation and management.
3 & 3.5 stars
This rating represents above average performance.
You are managing certain aspects of indoor environment, which reflects an awareness of the importance of indoor environment impacts on occupants. Improvements are still possible.
2 & 2.5 stars
This rating represents average building performance. Your building is managing aspects of indoor environment. There is still scope for significant improvement, and changes will have a noticeable impact on your indoor environment performance.
1 & 1.5 stars
This is a poor rating, indicative of poor indoor environment management and/or outdated equipment. There are significant changes that can be implemented to improve the building’s indoor environment.
0 stars
Your building has a poor indoor environment and lies outside the rating scheme. It is very likely that there will be a range of simple improvements that could bring your indoor environment within the rating scale.
© NABERS 2009 - Used with permission. www.nabers.com.au
* Thermal comfort
* Air quality
* Acoustic comfort
* Lighting
* Office layout
As with other NABERS ratings for offices, you can choose to rate a Base Building, an individual Tenancy or the Whole Building. The rating is based on the level of control that the tenant or the building management has over the factors considered.
The NABERS Indoor Environment Whole Building and Tenancy ratings are based on two sets of measurements:
* Quantitative "physical" measurements of indoor environment conditions in a space using specialised equipment,
* Occupant Satisfaction questionnaire consisting of a set of multiple choice questions developed to measure the satisfaction of occupants in a particular space.
The NABERS Indoor Environment Base Building rating is based on quantitative "physical" measurements of indoor environment conditions only.
There are three types of NABERS Indoor Environment Ratings:
Tenancy
Tenant’s control of the indoor environment within the tenanted space, including the air quality, acoustic comfort, lighting and the office layout. The rating includes quantitative measurements and an occupant survey.
Base Building
Central services and common areas of a building under the control of building management including thermal comfort, air quality and acoustic comfort. The rating includes only quantitative measurements.
Whole Building
A combination of the above where the tenant is the owner and/or has control of the services. The rating includes quantitative measurements and an occupant survey.
After completing the audit and assessment of Air Quality, we will then measure the results against the NABERS Indoor Environment benchmarks and give your building a star rating that represents that level of performance.
What does the rating mean?
5 stars
Excellent performance!
Your rating indicates that you have combined superior equipment selection, operation and management to enhance the quality of the building’s indoor environment for its occupants.
4 & 4.5 stars
Your building demonstrates strong indoor environmental performance reflecting good equipment selection, operation and management.
3 & 3.5 stars
This rating represents above average performance.
You are managing certain aspects of indoor environment, which reflects an awareness of the importance of indoor environment impacts on occupants. Improvements are still possible.
2 & 2.5 stars
This rating represents average building performance. Your building is managing aspects of indoor environment. There is still scope for significant improvement, and changes will have a noticeable impact on your indoor environment performance.
1 & 1.5 stars
This is a poor rating, indicative of poor indoor environment management and/or outdated equipment. There are significant changes that can be implemented to improve the building’s indoor environment.
0 stars
Your building has a poor indoor environment and lies outside the rating scheme. It is very likely that there will be a range of simple improvements that could bring your indoor environment within the rating scale.
© NABERS 2009 - Used with permission. www.nabers.com.au
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.
At this point we can either submit your audit data for certification, or investigate all of the potential options you have to improve your score and increase indoor environmental performance. Within this stage of the assessment, you have the option to investigate engineering options for your business (i.e. HVAC), to simply complete a desktop review of all of the options available for your business, to prepare a cost benefit analysis, and/or a full feasibility study.
Upon completion of this assessment you will have the ability to make an informed decision based on cost and implementation feasibility, as to whether you submit your current NABERS audit or implement efficiency measures and management and re-audit to increase your rating prior to submission.
Upon completion of this assessment you will have the ability to make an informed decision based on cost and implementation feasibility, as to whether you submit your current NABERS audit or implement efficiency measures and management and re-audit to increase your rating prior to submission.
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.
Once your company has reviewed the engineering design options and the cost benefit analysis information, we can also assist with any specifications of equipment or installation. We can also assist you with tendering the implementation of any system to 3 approved service providers, and/or principal contractors. This process will ensure that all reconfiguration works are completed at the lowest possible cost.
Our national team of specialist water efficiency assessors knows the industry and can offer your organisation a significant volume of industry experience and information to help in reducing the overall cost and also in streamlining the process.
Our national team of specialist water efficiency assessors knows the industry and can offer your organisation a significant volume of industry experience and information to help in reducing the overall cost and also in streamlining the process.
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.
Should you require us to, we can the oversee the construction project and provide advise, supervision, or ever complete project management services to ensure that the installation project goes exactly to plan. We have on our books, a national list of suppliers providing numerous indoor environmental throughout each state or territory.
In addition, we have also completed many case studies to assess which of the thousands of products that are on the market actually work and may be best suited to your situation.
In addition, we have also completed many case studies to assess which of the thousands of products that are on the market actually work and may be best suited to your situation.
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.
Once you have developed and implemented all changes to your indoor environment, we will then monitor things like the air quality and acoustic comfort to assess the effectiveness of each of the management measures outlined in the plan and also to ensure that the plan is being implemented appropriately by all staff. Once the effectiveness of the plan has been validated and we are sure that your overall performance score has now increased, we will discuss the outcomes of the monitoring with management and propose the re-audit.
Once re-audited, we will submit your improved data to the NABERS Accreditation body for certification.
Once re-audited, we will submit your improved data to the NABERS Accreditation body for certification.
Call 1300 138 366 to arrange a free consultation.