Sick buildings, sick kids: facilities construction and management take on illness prevention

University Business, July, 2005 by Rebecca Sausner

MITIGATING THE RISK

Think your insurance covers mold damage? You're probably wrong. Most policies now exclude coverage for mold-related claims, a trend that began several years ago when "insurers saw a wall of mold claims coming at them and did what insurance companies always do when there is a new source of loss they didn't see coming--they excluded it," says Dave Dybdahl, president of American Risk Management Resources Network.

Now, if you want coverage for mold-related toss you must find an insurance company that deals with environmental insurance. The problem, says Dybdahl, is there are only about 12 of them in the country.

"The issue is that for every place that you depend on insurance to either pay claims or back up an indemnity for someone, there's now a gap for mold-related claims," he says.

By the same token, IHEs should make sure the architects, engineers and builders also carry separate environmental insurance.

"People always tell contractors, 'You're not working for us without insurance,'" Dybdahl says. "But they're not paying attention to what's covered by that general liability policy."

When pricing environmental insurance, you can expect it to cost about one-fourth the amount you pay for fire insurance on the same facility, Dybdaht suggests.

Resources

American Risk Management Resources Network www.armr.net

ASHRAE www.ashrae.org

Building Science Corp. www.buildingscience.com

Butt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates www.burthill.com

Centers for Disease Control www.cdc.gov

Kromm, Rikimaru & Johansen www.krjarch.com

Peter Basso Associates www.pbanet.com

GREEN BUILDING=HEALTHY BUILDING?

Many IHEs are actively pursuing the sustainable building agenda, says architect Alex Wing, and that often means seeking certification via the leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org). Green buildings, which seek to conserve energy and water and are built to minimize environmental impact, are often among the healthiest buildings to live and work in because they pay special attention to indoor air quality and use products that don't emit pollutants.

"Buildings will have much less pollutants if people follow LEED's standards," says David Kromm, who is building a LEED certified "net-zero" building for Crowder College (Mo.), a process that means the building produces as much energy as it uses to operate.

The LEED certification process awards points for different aspects of a building that embrace "green" materials and techniques. Designing buildings that are meant to prevent the spread of disease could translate into points in the LEED system.

"One could argue, in the context of a LEED certification, that designing a building to be a healthier building from a disease perspective would warrant 'innovation' points," Wing says.

RECOMMISSIONING

To bring older buildings up to current indoor air quality standards, and mitigate the spread of illness and growth of mold, often requires new HVAC systems, or "recommissioning" older systems.