ASHRAE Journal - April 2020 - 88

IEQ APPLICATIONS
COLUMN

Lan Chi Nguyen
Weekes

ASHRAE's Discussions
On Health and Wellness
BY LAN CHI NGUYEN WEEKES, P.ENG., MEMBER ASHRAE

Much of the perceived conﬂict between indoor environmental quality and energy efﬁciency results from just two elements of an energy strategy: the tendency to minimize
outdoor air ventilation rates and the willingness to relax controls on temperature and
relative humidity to save energy.1
To address this concern, a multidisciplinary task
group was formed as part of 2018-19 ASHRAE President
Sheila Hayter's vision to ensure that ASHRAE takes a
leadership role in the new energy future by deﬁning
the relationship between energy, the buildings that
use this energy, and the wellness of those who occupy
them.
The focus of the ASHRAE Multidisciplinary
Task Group on Health and Wellness in the Built
Environment (MTG.HWBE) is to help foster and
expand organizational partnerships in this subject area, particularly with organizations developing high performance building rating systems (e.g.,
ASHRAE [bEQ], U.S. Green Building Council, [LEED],
International WELL Building Institute [WELL Building
Standard], GIGA [RESET Standard], etc.), government agencies (U.S. General Services Administration,
U.S. Centers for Disease Control, National Research
Council of Canada), research institutes and industry.
The MTG is also coordinating with various ASHRAE
groups such as Technical Committees (TCs), Task
Groups (TGs), and Technical Resource Groups (TRGs)
whose scope of work relate to the health and wellness
of the occupants in the built environment.
The goals of this effort are to strengthen and improve
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the development and utility of these green building
rating systems; to increase ASHRAE's knowledge and
expertise in this emerging ﬁeld; and to enable ASHRAE
and it members to become more effective in disseminating the results of research and practice in this ﬁeld to
ASHRAE members and others.
The MTG's objectives are to:
* Aggregate existing and newly issued scholarly and
non-scholarly literature related to enhanced health and
wellness in the built environment;
* Ensure that research results and other developments are integrated into existing ASHRAE publications such as the Handbook, guidelines, guides and
standards;
* Develop and maintain technical online resources
on ASHRAE's website regarding enhanced health and
wellness in the built environment;
* Provide opportunities for new research and development on how to measure the tangible effects of the
built environment on the enhanced health and wellness
of the building's occupants; and
* Communicate the tangible and non-tangible
beneﬁts of applying enhanced health and wellness
Lan Chi Nguyen Weekes, P.Eng., is director of physical resources at La Cité College in
Ottawa, ON, Canada.
https://www.ashrae.org/
ASHRAE Journal - April 2020

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