Pursuing occupants’ health and well-being in building management: Definition of new metrics based on indoor air parameters

The spread of COVID-19 has affected the lives of millions of people. Pandemic has made people more sensitive to health issues. In particular, the growing concern for the virus spread in confined spaces has promoted the necessity to improve indoor air quality. Literature is stressing how buildings must be designed and operated pursuing occupants’ health and well-being, with a particular attention for indoor air parameters. This poses the challenge of monitoring and assessing these aspects through proper metrics. In this paper the approach towards a multi-step assessment procedure embedding in buildings assessment health and well-being related variables and indicators is elaborated. They are intended to inform a building manager of the potential influence of air conditions on human health and well-being. Moreover, a set of monetary metrics (i.e., impacts) is proposed to translate energy and indoor air related building performances into euros, putting the basis for a comprehensive economic evaluation. The application of the set of proposed metrics to an Italian hotel (i.e., Italian pilot of H2020 MOBISTYLE project), enabled to map some indoor air conditions causing health concerns, and to identify clusters of guests with best and worst indoor air conditions, to be targeted by new management strategies. Despite case study specific limitations, the application exemplified how the methodology can expand the traditional energy-based performance assessment for building management towards indoor air domain and the related economic impacts, with implication on results in terms of overall economic performance of the building from both a private and public perspective.