Indoor Air Quality

In general, we spend a significant amount of our lives indoors. Indoor environments have a huge impact on our Physical Health, Mental Wellbeing, Academic achievement and Professional performance. Indoor Air quality is essential in positive outcomes of interior spaces.

The primary strategies for maintaining good indoor air quality are:

• Providing suitable ventilation with clean fresh air
• Selecting low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) building materials
• Maintaining a thorough cleaning programme
• Using entry/exit mats to capture dust, dirt and contaminants before they are brought into the building.

The Ministry of Education provides guidance for Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort in education facilities.

For all new or up-graded learning spaces, 90% of carpets, ceiling materials, and paints used within the building envelope must be specified to comply with the maximum allowable Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) content, or the maximum allowable VOC-emission rates, according to one of the standards or certification schemes identified in the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) or Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) Recognised Eco-Labels list.

New and up-graded buildings must be unoccupied for a minimum of one week ‘bake off’ period after completion of the interior linings, carpet/vinyl and interior painting, to allow for the dissipation of VOCs. During the first 8 weeks of occupancy, buildings should be regularly purged (windows and doors opened fully, maximum mechanical ventilation) outside of occupied hours.

An acceptable test result is , <500 µg/m²/hr, measured over a 24 hour period.
All products supplied by Inzide meet this criteria, with low VOC test reports to support this. You can download these reports, they are available in our download centre.