Case Study: How The Alliance Center is Pioneering Innovation, Health, and Sustainability in the Built Environment with Kaiterra

We helped The Alliance Center facilitate tenants’ safe return to the office, and expand upon ongoing IAQ projects with further research, data sharing, certification, and building automation.

Image source: thealliancecenter.org

Customer

The Alliance Center is a coworking space, event venue, and environmental nonprofit based in a historic building in Denver, Colorado. Their mission is to bring people together in order to create a sustainable and inclusive future - supporting a healthy planet, a strong democracy, and a thriving economy. The organization’s Living Lab program pilots innovative sustainability solutions, using its building as a demonstration site - which means the building needs to operate at the highest levels of performance for occupants and the environment.

The Challenge

• The COVID-19 pandemic brought air quality to the forefront for tenants and other occupants
• The climate crisis in Colorado: fires in and around the state had become more prevalent, increasing particulate matter (PM) values and impacting outdoor air quality.
• Research and educational goals: as a nonprofit focused on health and sustainability, collecting air quality data would provide an opportunity to share data with others through the company’s Living Lab program. 
• Balancing air quality against energy consumption: the company is planning modifications to the building’s mechanical system, supported by air quality data, in order to improve energy efficiency without compromising occupant health.

• Support for certification requirements, specifically RESET

The Solution

The Alliance Center set out to improve air quality and increase transparency through a multi-faceted effort which included HEPA filtration and improvements to mechanical ventilation. Within this project, Kaiterra's air quality monitors were an important piece of the puzzle, as they would enable the company to collect much more accurate and granular data about the performance of different spaces in the building.

The Result

• New air quality insights: Almost immediately after implementing the monitors, The Alliance Center uncovered new insights about air quality in its building. They were able to identify a particular area that was experiencing higher values of TVOCs. They would not have known about this issue without accurate, continuous measurement in multiple locations.

• Research into visual air quality cues: While research is still ongoing on quantifying the impacts of sharing air quality data with occupants, Chris says that the visual cue of IAQ sensors has been valuable to instill confidence in tenants.

• Ongoing partnership: Kaiterra is participating in research efforts, data sharing, and system integration, with the ultimate goal and commitment to share information with the commercial sector.

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