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Green Indoor Environments
EPA's Green Building Web Portal
This site is a gateway to many different EPA programs to improve the environmental impacts of building and development. These include Energy Star, Water Efficiency, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, and more.
Do your buildings create a healthy environment for their occupants? The building industry is increasingly focused on making its buildings greener, which includes using healthier, less polluting and more resource-efficient practices. Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) refers to the quality of the air and environment inside buildings, based on pollutant concentrations and conditions that can affect the health, comfort and performance of occupants -- including temperature, relative humidity, light, sound and other factors. Good IEQ is an essential component of any building, especially a green building.
Creating a better indoor environment can help building owners, managers, occupants, architects and builders to minimize or eliminate the negative health effects, liability, bad publicity, and costly renovations and repairs often associated with IEQ problems. Improving IEQ involves designing, constructing, commissioning, operating, and maintaining buildings in ways that reduce pollution sources and remove indoor pollutants while ensuring that fresh air is continually supplied and properly circulated.
The EPA is tackling the problems associated with maintaining building IEQ through a collection of cutting-edge voluntary and informational programs. EPA’s Indoor Environments program promotes the use of integrated, whole building approaches to protect occupant health while saving energy and money. The program focuses on major building types including offices and institutional buildings, schools, homes, as well as major cross-cutting indoor air quality issues like mold and moisture. EPA offers resources from informational pamphlets to interactive CD-ROMs on how everyone from builders to homeowners can improve their indoor environment.
Free resources and information from EPA’s Green Indoor Environments Program are listed below by topic. If you have questions you can contact us, or you can call the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Information Clearinghouse at 1-800-438-4318. For a list of free publications available visit epa.gov/iaq/pubs
Green Indoor Environments Resources
Schools
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The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools Program equips schools with comprehensive guidance, training, checklists, and other
resources to establish and maintain good indoor air quality. The program has resources for all school personnel including administrators, facility managers, health professionals, teachers, and maintenance staff.
epa.gov/iaq/schools
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IAQ Design Tools for Schools is a web-based guidance to assist school districts, architects, and facility planners design and construct the next generation of schools with improved IEQ. epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign |
Homes
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Indoor Air Quality for New Homes discusses many of the common pollutants found within homes. Links are provided for various pollutants
which include information regarding the health effects of these pollutants and ways in which they can be addressed and reduced.
epa.gov/iaq/homes |
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The Radon Program program provides guidance for builders and code officials on building new homes to minimize the lung cancer risks associated with radon. Publications on radon resistant new construction techniques and standards are available from EPA. epa.gov/radon and epa.gov/radon/rrnc |
Offices and Institutional Buildings
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The Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM) provides a wealth of information to building professionals on how to improve and manage IEQ in large buildings, from the parking garage to the copy room. epa.gov/iaq/largebldgs/i-beam/index.html |
Mold
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Mold has emerged as a potentially serious health threat in all types of buildings. EPA provides detailed guidance on how to avoid and mitigate this threat in such
publications as:
Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings, and
A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture,
and Your Home. For more mold resources, see epa.gov/mold |
Federal Activities
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The Federal Interagency Committee on Indoor Air Quality (CIAQ) is a gateway to indoor air and environment research related activities within the Federal government. The CIAQ holds tri-annual public meetings involving member Departments and agencies and other public and private stakeholders. epa.gov/iaq/ciaq |