A UK based designer and manufacturer of luminaires and bespoke lighting solutions, has been awarded the first IMMUNE Building Standard™ certification in the world for an industrial building, awarded by the Healthy by Design Building Institute (HDBI).
FUTURE Design’s factory and headquarters in Kent, in the South-East UK, achieved the label IMMUNE™ – Strong following the company’s successful implementation of the set of health and safety measures for its employees.
The IMMUNE certification marks the Healthy by Design Building Institute’s first major milestone in expanding The IMMUNE Building Standard™ beyond office buildings, into other real estate sectors that have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The IMMUNE Building Standard, the first open-source global certification standard to certify built environment’s level of immunity to withstand present and future health challenges and minimize the impact of a pandemic such as COVID-19 and other bacteriological or toxicological threats.
In the past few months, FUTURE Designs has applied many measures to meet the 120+ IMMUNE™ criteria recommended for safer environments and has achieved the Strong label for its factory and headquarters. The certification is based on the IMMUNE™ assessment process conducted by Build Green, an independent authorised building assessor and a contributor to the development of the standard.
David Clements, Chief Executive at FUTURE Designs, said: “Our sole goal was to make our place of work the safest possible for all team members and to give them confidence and peace of mind during these extraordinary times. Proof of our success is that to date we have had zero Covid-19 cases within our factory and assembly facilities and today we are delighted to be the first Industrial Facility in the world to become IMMUNE™ – Strong.”
The IMMUNE™ standard is inspired by technologies and procedures developed and successfully applied in hospitals and medical clinics. Specifically, the standard is based on an IMMUNE™ Assessment Scoring Index comprising 120+ measures recommended for implementation in buildings that include technical solutions for architectural engineering, technology and design, as well as operational protocols applied permanently or ready to activate in specific risk scenarios.
Among measures recommended by IMMUNE™ are very efficient air filtering systems and technologies to enhance the sanitization of surfaces. Another important measure is the IMMUNE™ Quarantine Room, acting as a dedicated area in case of immediate need to isolate people at risk, and the Emergency IMMUNE™ Warehouse which is a rapid logistic system for immediate pandemic-response.
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