BSI fast tracks indoor environmental quality standard following pioneering work by EFT Consult

British Standards Institute (BSI) has recognised the importance of the pioneering work EFT Consult and its partners have conducted over the past six years towards the creation of PAS 3003, a new standard designed to assess indoor environmental quality.

BSI is now fast-tracking the incorporation of PAS 3003 into a new British Standard, BS 40101, Building Performance Evaluation, which is due to be published this year.

To advance this new British Standard, BSI will continue to seek the guidance and expertise of members of the PAS steering group – primarily EFT Consult, DRS and RDM, along with its other collaborators and partners.

The new Standard, BS 40101, will address the many issues involved in improving indoor environmental quality – and, therefore, the health and wellbeing of the building’s occupants – in all buildings. It will closely follow the work EFT Consult and its partners have done in the development of PAS 3003, incorporating areas such as efficient and suitable lighting, heating, ventilation, and minimising the unwanted and harmful effects of air and noise pollution.

BS 40101 will create a set of standards for healthier buildings, aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of occupants.

It will direct how design, installation, operation, maintenance, and ongoing monitoring, measuring and reporting can influence factors such as those outlined previously, and it will determine benchmarking parameters to develop a Wellbeing Performance Rating that could be applied to any building.

Chris Jenkins, director at EFT Consult, said:

“The advancement of the work we have done on PAS 3003 into the new BS 40101 is not only great news for eft consult and everyone who has been involved with the PAS’s development to date – for it vindicates and recognises our hard work – but it’s also good news for anyone who works in an office or regularly visits any building – and that’s just about everyone.

“Rather than simply being a recommended code of best-practice as is the case with a PAS, this new British Standard 40101 will mean that all of the important recommendations our combined work has highlighted will now be given the full weight of a British Standard.”

Dave Kieft, CEO of Raven Delta Group, which includes EFT Consult, DRS and RDM, said:

“The news of the introduction of this new British Standard is a culmination of works we have been undertaking for over six years, following our identification of the issues regarding the environments we both work and live in, and what became the driver for us to deliver change.

“Three years ago, it became our mission to deliver that change and was the beginnings of PAS 3003 now to be fully incorporated into BS 40101.

“The identification of the importance of what we were delivering by BSI, and the wider recognition by the industries and clients we represent, goes to verify the level of competency and professionalism of both the EFT team and the entire steering group, and has led to the position we now find ourselves in, which will now provide deliverable, harmonised and clear standards for our industries and clients to specify and follow.”

If you want to find out more about the work that has gone into the Publicly Available Specification (PAS 3003), and how it will feed into the new British Standard (BS 40101), contact us at [email protected]