The Great Indoors

August 18, 2009

Recently, the Trespa Design Centre hosted a presentation by Paul Bates, an educator from the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, on the importance of good indoor air quality.  The presentation really got me thinking about some of the places where I’ve lived and worked in the past and how a large component of those experiences was based on environmental conditions.

Having lived in urban environments for the past few years, I’ve become used to smog and other effects of pollution outdoors, but rarely have I considered the quality of the air at home or work.  It’s easy to assume the air we breathe in these places is healthy because we don’t drive or smoke in them, but there are so many contributors to poor indoor air quality.  Alarmingly, many of the culprits which reduce the quality of air indoors are important to the comfort of the occupants.  Components ranging from poorly ventilated HVAC systems to flooring adhesives can be to blame.

Thankfully, people are paying much more attention to this issue today than ever before.  Using the abundance of information and resources available on the GREENGUARD website, anyone can find a diversity of products, including Trespa, that are used in design and construction that will minimize the impact on a building’s indoor air quality.  In turn, users will enjoy better air in the place where they spend most of their time.

If you have an opinion on the topic, I would appreciate hearing from you, especially on the following points:

Have you ever lived or worked in a place where you’ve been affected by poor air or other environmental factors?

What do you think are the worst pollutants in the places where you spend most of your time?

What resources have you used to check the potential indoor environmental impact of building products?

Please email all responses or questions to z.brewster@trespa.com