New guidance, created by industry experts, was recently finalized to give educators, administrators and school district leadership step-by-step ways to improve the indoor air quality in their facilities.

The guide — “Design Guidance for Educational Facilities: Prioritization for Advanced Indoor Air Quality” — offers a checklist as well as prerequisite and optional tasks in order of importance for school district or school leadership, so they can sit down with design engineers and a qualified contractor to discuss what is needed. Designed to be useful and simple, the free document empowers educators with the knowledge and connections to improve the indoor air quality in their facilities.

 The guidance was created by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Technical Committee 9.7 – Educational Facilities Working Group.

 “The guide gives schools a tool to help them determine their risk. It helps to identify the problem and allows them to make educated choices,” said Chris, Ruch, working group member and director of education for the National Energy Management Institute.

“An engineer can give clients a plan based on physical verifications of existing HVAC infrastructure instead of assumptions.”

The document is available as a free download on the ASHRAE Free Publications site  and is also available through the NEMI website.