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GRANT TO PROMOTE LATEST INDOOR AIR QUALITY GUIDANCE FOR BUILDING OWNERS AND MANAGER

Release Date: 10/03/2001
Contact Information:



Note to Correspondents

As part of the ongoing effort to support the President’s energy plan, EPA has awarded $135,000 to the University City Science Center (UCSC) of Philadelphia to promote the awareness and use of good indoor air quality practices by building owners and managers, thereby improving public health.

Targeting building owners, managers, and environmental consultants, the Center will use this grant to create familiarity with state-of-the-art indoor air quality guidance and software such as EPA’s “I-BEAM”, and then to encourage the target groups to incorporate these tools into their building management efforts. I-BEAM (Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model) is comprehensive, state-of-the-art computer software used by building professionals and others for managing indoor air quality in commercial buildings. I-BEAM and other computer software contains extensive guidance on improving energy efficiency without sacrificing indoor air quality. The resulting reduction in energy demand should curtail emissions of global warming gases and other outdoor contaminants from power plants.

To help create awareness of these tools, the Center will send mailings to target groups, place articles in trade magazines, conduct demonstrations at trade shows and training events, and try to forge links from building- related websites to EPA’s “Indoor Air Quality in Large Buildings” website: www.epa.gov/iaq/largebldgs/.

UCSC, owned by a consortium of 30 academic and scientific institutions, is the nation's first and largest urban research park, developing and managing research & technology parks in Pennsylvania, Delaware and soon, New Jersey.

UCSC will perform this work in cooperation with its indoor environmental quality training center, the MidAtlantic Environmental Hygiene Resource Center (MEHRC). An independent, non-profit organization in Philadelphia, MEHRC aims to meet the diverse needs of those concerned with indoor environments by providing training in engineering, microbiological, health, legal and other issues.

For further technical information, contact David Mudarri of EPA at 202-564-9053 (mudarri.david @epa.gov)


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