The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend about 90 percent of their day indoors, where the air quality can be significantly worse than outside. The Indoor Environmental Quality credit category promotes strategies that can improve indoor air as well as providing access to natural daylight and views and improving acoustics.
The Operations Building at Pier G approaches indoor environmental quality in the following ways:
The building includes walk-off mats and dedicated exhaust systems to remove dust from footwear and control sources of indoor pollutants
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems include high efficiency (MERV-13) particulate filtration
The HVAC system also includes supplemental outdoor air filtration and outdoor air quality monitoring
Carpets, paints, adhesives, and other construction materials have low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions
Each private office includes individual control over HVAC and lighting systems
The building provides daylight and or views to the vast majority of work stations and regularly occupied spaces within the building
A comprehensive indoor air quality management plan was followed during construction and a predetermined "building flush out" period was provided prior to occupancy