Buildings will be our first line of defense after COVID-19: A conversation with Joe Allen

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Think of it now: the ideal building. A utopia of sustainable features married with biophilic design and wellness initiatives that help support the health and well-being of the people inside. We know those buildings exist, but we also know not every building is perfect. In fact, some spaces can contribute to making us ill. These buildings can pose a considerable threat to the people who are in them every day. We already know that unhealthy environments can lead to certain symptoms associated with Sick Building Syndrome.

The demand for buildings that support and enhance health has been mounting since the 1970s but has recently seen exponential growth. According to Assistant Professor of Exposure and Assessment Science and Director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dr. Joseph G. Allen, “This is an all-in moment for us. The healthy building movement was already gaining steam, but instead of it taking another five or six years, it’s taken off in the past two months due to COVID-19.”

Allen, author of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, notes that the buildings in which we live and work—along with the operational policies that guide them—will be our first lines of defense in a world changed by a global pandemic.

How can buildings prepare to reopen after COVID-19?
Allen suggests a few key steps to take before dormant spaces are ready for the return to business.

“Right now, many buildings are at low occupancy. There are some things you need to do to get [them] ready for higher occupancy. This goes beyond just those things important to COVID-19 mitigation. Water in buildings is quite stagnant at this point, and that’s a breeding ground for bacteria like Legionnella. We have to think about getting these buildings started back up in a safe and healthy way,” Allen says.

Assessing a building’s current state is key to reopening efforts. Allen encourages testing as one of several ways to better understand a building’s current status.

“There’s a clear need for testing in buildings. It’s the only way you can truly get a building’s pulse. Like going to a checkup in the doctor’s office, the first thing they do is get your pulse, blood pressure, et cetera, and it’s the same with buildings,” Allen notes. “You get the pulse of the space by doing indoor environmental quality monitoring, and this includes real-time monitoring for indicators of air quality and building performance, as well as more traditional industrial hygiene testing.”

Allen also stresses that many industry professionals and health experts agree there’s a concrete way to reopen offices and businesses in a safe, effective way—but the execution must be precise.

“First, we had to start by eliminating the hazard. This meant working from home to limit contact with the disease. The next step will be substitution: asking who are the minimum core personnel who have to be back in the building to keep it operational and running,” Allen says. “Then we need to add engineering controls to implement healthy building strategies like improving ventilation rate, including more filtration and enhancing disinfection and cleaning tactics. Next is addressing administration controls by coordinating with building owners to de-densify a workspace, including policies for how to handle close contact like lines at the elevator or how to work in shifts throughout the day. The fifth step is providing required personal protective equipment.”

Allen recognizes that no single strategy will fix the problem by itself. But if organizations implement a layered approach to return to work, they’ll be able to offer a safer, healthier environment that minimizes risks for everyone in the building.

Communication is key
Reopening spaces also requires transparency and public support for organizations. If it isn’t clear that you’ve taken the steps to prioritize health and safety, will anyone want to return?

“Companies are already innovating. They’re learning new efficiencies and committing to doing things differently moving forward. Organizations are looking at ways to make the health of buildings more visible. They’re looking for ways to create scorecards that communicate how they’re protecting people’s health and well-being, and how it’s grounded in science,” Allen says.

This is an inflection point for public health and wellness, and Allen suggests COVID-19 has shifted focus to the things that are most important.

“There’s this reconnection to the things that matter. I hope this is the moment we see the value in investing in healthy interventions,” he says. “It’s a total misnomer to think that only shiny new buildings can be healthy buildings. I have seen the worst of the worst in terms of spaces, and with just a little bit of attention to the systems and processes, you can turn a sick building into a healthy building just like that. It gives me a lot of hope.”

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