Corporates turn to GBCI India's LEED Safety First Pilot Credits and

Corporates turn to GBCI India's LEED Safety First Pilot Credits and
Arc Re-Entry in response to COVID-19

LEED Safety First Credits and Arc Re-Entry were released in response to COVID-19, align with public health and industry guidelines and help building teams provide healthy spaces and assist with re-entry

GBCI India, the nation’s foremost authority on sustainability in building design, construction and operation and the certification body for the LEED green building program, announced that it has received interest from corporates in the country for adopting its LEED Safety First Pilot Credits and Arc Re-Entry programme. Launched in response to the global pandemic, the nine LEED Safety First Pilot Credits outline sustainable best practices related to cleaning and disinfecting, workplace re-occupancy, HVAC and plumbing operations, building water system recommissioning and pandemic preparedness and response. Arc Re-Entry is a set of tools that can be used to document and benchmark infection-control policies and procedures, collect and analyze occupant experiences and to measure and track indoor air quality, thereby giving employers the opportunity to transparently provide their staff with a safe and healthy work environment. 

As companies in India reflect on how they can create safer workspaces for their staff and work towards preparing sustainable offices beyond the pandemic, GBCI is helping several companies implement the LEED Safety First Credits and Arc Re-Entry tool. UBER Engineering Office – Bangalore,Electronica Finance Ltd., Pune, Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, India, Nivea India Pvt Ltd – Peacock and Block 3 ITPP Kharadi (Capitaland, India) are some of the companies who have committed to implementing the LEED Safety First Pilot Credits. Danfoss Industries Pvt Ltd, SIERRA ODC Private Limited and Ela Green School are among the organizations who have successfully implemented the unique set of management tools available in Arc Re-Entry and have leveraged these to document high performance in facility management, occupant observations and indoor air quality.

Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, GBCI said, “The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for India. It has challenged our health and civic infrastructure. However, it has also given us an opportunity to reimagine and redesign our spaces. At GBCI India, we are committed to being part of this opportunity by providing developers as well as facility managers with solutions that will ensure the overall health and safety of their occupants. Our LEED Safety First Pilot Credits and Arc Re-Entry were developed to address this specific requirement for new spaces and occupied assets. These equip building project and design teams as well as facility managers with a platform that will enable them to deploy integrated safety processes like implementing infection control policies and procedures, documentation in alignment with relevant public health authorities, capturing occupant feedback and building occupant confidence and measuring indoor air quality. Through these tools, we want to help organizations design new construction and reopen their built spaces with the confidence that they are providing their employees with a healthy and safe workplace.”

There are nine LEED Safety First Credits available that can be used by LEED projects that are certified or are undergoing certification. Currently, 600 of these credits are being used by more than 400 projects around the world. Arc Re-Entry’s set of management tools are available for free for any project, anywhere to collect and manage disease control-related information. And because the indoor environment in buildings continually changes, Arc Re-Entry uses an iterative process where projects re-evaluate their score every week, month or quarter to ensure projects continue to perform and improve overtime. Facility managers and building owners can access the tool through the Arc performance platform and add data to generate a Re-Entry Comprehensiveness Score. Arc Re-Entry also allows facility managers to evaluate the relationship between expectations for policies and procedures with occupant experience and can help identify opportunities to implement the LEED Safety First Credits.

Ela Green School and SIERRA ODC opt for Arc Re-Entry to ensure a

 Ela Green School and SIERRA ODC opt for Arc Re-Entry to ensure a safe indoor environment for students and occupants

Arc, an affiliate of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), has launched Arc Re-Entry in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic

Arc Re-Entry provides tools to benchmark infection-control policies and procedures, collect occupant experiences and track indoor air quality

Today, Arc, a global technology platform, announced the first set of companies to adopt its Arc Re-Entry tool in India. Created in response to COVID-19, Arc Re-Entry prepares spaces for safe re-entry and its currently being leveraged by a variety of building types around the world, including offices, schools, factories and sporting venues. In India, Ela Green School adopted Arc Re-Entry to ensure its students and teachers could return to school in a safe and healthy environment, securing a Re-Entry Comprehensiveness Score of 87% across all three strategies: Facility Management (100%), Occupant Observations (87%) and Indoor Air Quality (73%). Similarly, SIERRA ODC Private Limited, an Indian Offshore Software Development Service Provider, has secured a score of 90% across these strategies: Facility Management (100%), Occupant Observations (90%) and Indoor Air Quality (80%).

The Re-Entry Comprehensiveness Score provides a comparable measure of the breadth and documentation of facility management policies, occupant experience and measured indoor air quality, including factors such as relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration and particulate matter. The three strategies within the score help projects share and compare information on policies used to manage the spread of infectious disease, engage with occupants to understand their experience, measure conditions to help management target action to improve this experience and, ultimately, build confidence in re-entering their spaces.

Arc Re-Entry’s set of management tools are available for free for any project, anywhere to collect and manage disease control-related information. And because the indoor environment in buildings continually changes, Arc Re-Entry uses an iterative process where projects re-evaluate their score every week, month or quarter to ensure projects continue to perform and improve overtime. Facility managers and building owners can access the tool through the Arc performance platform and add data to generate a Re-Entry Comprehensiveness Score. Arc Re-Entry also allows facility managers to evaluate the relationship between expectations for policies and procedures with occupant experience, and can help identify opportunities to implement LEED’s Safety First Credits and the WELL Health-Safety Rating.

Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, GBCI said, “India is managing the pandemic fairly well and we are seeing offices, schools and colleges, manufacturing facilities, warehouses and data centres increasingly start to open up. While we need to revive our economy, the health and wellbeing of our citizens is equally important, and tools like Arc Re-Entry allow us to support the re-occupancy that can help jumpstart economic recovery while also ensuring safe indoor environments. Organizations are adopting safety measures as they re-open and we have noticed heightened interest in monitoring building performance. We are excited to see Ela Green School and SIERRA ODC gaining the first mover advantage. There are many more in the pipeline and other early adopters have also committed to using the platform including Danfoss, JLL and K. Raheja to manage their COVID-19 safety protocols and communicate clearly with occupants to ensure their safety, and their confidence in facility managers.”

Ms. Samhita. M, Founder Director, Ela Green School speaking about opting for Arc Re-entry said, “Ela Green School has been designed and constructed to provide enhanced Indoor Environmental Quality. However, given the current scenario, we had to be doubly sure that our space is safe to guarantee reduced risk of contagion and transmission rate of infections. Arc Re-Entry gave us the opportunity to comply with global standards as well as a means for guidance to ensure safety. It also helps us to convey to our students’ parents on how we have addressed key safety parameters at school. In addition, by having Arc Re-Entry, we not only have a transparent display system of our measures implemented, but also a feedback system to study and evolve continuously to ensure that the integrity of a healthy learning space is sustained.”

Mr. Giridhar JG, CEO & Managing Director, SIERRA ODC Private Limited stated, “We wanted our return-to-workplace strategies to be implemented with a greater focus on people, providing transparency and also supporting a safe and confident re-entry for our employees, clients and suppliers. Hence, to evaluate and follow safety measures against the global COVID-19 pandemic with international standards, we went ahead with Arc Re-Entry.”