Indoor Air Quality

Indoor plants help improve air quality.

Throughout the renovation, we were very careful to avoid products and materials that are known to off gas and contain substances such as glue and formaldehyde. No OSB board was used, and instead we used sheathing donated by Veridity Products as it uses 95% less glue than conventional sheathing products.

In the finishing stages, we used no MDF or particle board.  We made a concerted effort to replace our old particle board desks with solid wood desks and no new desks or chairs, that tend to contain fire retardants, were purchased. No carpets were installed in the building and all old carpets were removed.

Cleaning is done with ecologically-sensitive products with little to no scents.

Keeping staff and volunteers healthy is extremely important to us. Because of the scale of renovation, we were required by building code to install a ventilation system. The code now requires this because many air tight homes were being built with little opportunity for air exchange. These buildings often included materials that off-gassed and have resulted in human health concerns.  A ventilation system ensures air exchange throughout our building.  When it is too cold for the windows to be open and the ventilation system is in full force, an HVAC system efficiently transfers heat from the outgoing warm air to the incoming cool air.

We have also placed many indoor plants throughout the space to improve air quality by absorbing air pollutants.