University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus
OP-3: Indoor Air Quality

The UC Denver Indoor Air Quality Management practice is four-tiered as follows: 1. Construction Standards - UC Denver follows specific guidelines and ASHRAE standards regarding Indoor Air Quality (in both construction design and assessment of building conditions post construction). The university either meets and/or exceeds the minimum fresh air recommendation standards for construction mechanical design as defined by ASHRAE and also the mechanical codes we adopted. For example, our labs have 100 % exhaust, which is not required by any specific construction code. UC Denver has a requirement that all renovation projects/construction projects (when renovations will occur in occupied buildings) complete an Indoor Air Quality control plan. 2. Energy Management System - Three full time staff manage the university’s Siemens Apogee energy management system (EMS), which monitors campus HVAC systems, including certain air quality components such as CO sensors, CO2 sensors, and humidity sensors. The EMS is designed to control indoor air quality as well as trigger staff response when the system detects air quality indicators beyond pre-set allowable ranges. The system is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 3. Occupant Feedback/Complaints - “Global Link” is the campus-wide customer feedback system for facilities-related inquiries and complaints. Building occupants use this system, which includes a phone hotline and email address to provide feedback on indoor air quality. Calls and emails produce work tickets for response by professional facilities staff people, including Environmental Health & Safety (EHS). When EHS provides response to any Indoor Air Quality or odor complaint, they use recommended NIOSH standards and/or OSHA PELs as a minimum standard. Additionally, they use the EPA tools, process, and practices for IAQ in Large and Commercial Buildings (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/largebldgs/) and provide written reports of their investigations and resolutions (when an investigation is not resolved within a day for example). 4. Auditing - Periodically (typically annual) preventative maintenance occurs on all HVAC system equipment (which is not uniform across all buildings) and is documented through UCD work order system. Additionally, an annual (minimal) Occupational Health Exposures inspection of all laboratories occurs from the EHS department and it includes an indoor air quality component.

Collaboration on this credit involved input from Christina Aguilera (EHS Env Compliance/Industrial Hygiene/Hazardous Materials), Dave Thorson (Facilities Building Automation Supervisor), Art Steinman (Facilities Projects), and Leslie Miller (Facilities Operations). A Rule of Thumb of 62.5% of Gross Square Footage was utilized to determine total occupied space. Unmonitored buildings were subtracted to establish space covered by the IAQ practice.