Office Owners Make Sweeping Clean Tech Changes

DALLAS—To better understand office occupancy habits since the lockdowns, Kastle Systems has been studying keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from 3,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses across 47 states. The aggregated data tell a story of a nation that quickly sheltered in March and April and is now steadily heading back to work.

Four cities recorded decreases in occupancy rates including Dallas, which had a 2.2% decrease to 41.1%. Despite the drop, Dallas remains the most open city. Houston also maintained its spot as the second most open city at 37.9%.

As Dallas returns to the office, owners are making tech updates to enhance safety of buildings. Within the realm of those tech updates, Granite Properties has made changes portfolio-wide as part of a more than $10 million Inspire Wellness initiative. Will Hendrickson, managing director of Granite Properties’ Dallas office, recently shared what these changes mean for employee health and safety.

GlobeSt.com: As Dallas leads the return to the office in the country, how are office owners enhancing the safety of the office buildings?

Hendrickson: We’re in a time of major change and disruption and you can expect the return to the office to look very different, with office owners following CDC guidelines including frequent cleaning and protocols for social distancing and elevator capacity. You may also see significant long-term and high-tech updates focused on air quality and the touchless experience. Granite has spent several months researching and incorporating technological solutions and design updates to make significant safety improvements to our buildings. The effort is part of our $10 million Inspire Wellness program designed to boost the wellness and productivity of our customers and help mitigate viruses like COVID-19 in our buildings in Dallas and portfolio-wide. One of the lead initiatives of Inspire Wellness is installing the clean air technology, Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization technology/NPBI to HVAC systems and bipolar ionization to elevator cabs to continuously purify the air. We’ve created a touchless experience with touchless entry doors and by renovating the restrooms with touchless fixtures including faucets, soap dispensers, toilet flushing, paper towel dispensers and foot-operated door openers. We also placed self-cleaning NanoSeptic skins on high-touch surfaces including those building entries and elevator buttons. Powered by light, these NanoSeptic skins turn touchpoints into continuously self-cleaning surfaces by continually oxidizing organic contaminants. Another way to help reduce the risk of transmission and enable social distancing is to provide functional outdoor workspaces. Many Granite buildings feature outdoor workspaces offering a variety of seating options for work meetings or a quiet space to focus. We’re in the process of enhancing the outdoor work experiences across our portfolio.

GlobeSt.com: What is Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization and how does it work?

Hendrickson: NPBI is a safe, ozone-free and active air purification solution by Global Plasma Solutions/GPS producing high concentrations of positive and negative ions that travel continuously through the air and attach to harmful pathogens like bacteria, mold and viruses including COVID-19. The ions inactivate pathogens by disrupting the surface proteins and destroy its ability to replicate. As these particles cluster together, they become larger in size making them easier to catch and filter out of the air. A recent independent study conducted by Innovative Bioanalysis and designed for GPS aviation partner Aviation Clean Air showed that GPS NPBI reduced SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 by 99.4% in 30 minutes.

GlobeSt.com: How are you implementing it?

Hendrickson: Granite is combining NPBI technology with its existing HVAC filtration systems, which has demonstrated equivalency of a MERV 13 filter or higher, meeting or exceeding the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers/ASHRAE standards for fighting COVID-19, and creating a higher air quality similar to most hospital standards. We began with conducting several NBPI test pilots over the summer to understand the installation process and how it operated. We are slated to complete the portfolio-wide installation of the NPBI in HVAC systems and bipolar ionization in elevator cabs by the end of the year.

GlobeSt.com: Why did you decide to take a long-term approach with clean air technology like NPBI?

Hendrickson: Granite is first and foremost a people-centric company. We have always put our customers first. Since the pandemic hit, we have been in close communication with customers and have conducted regular customer surveys to address concerns and meet their needs. Our customers are very interested in the steps we’re taking to enhance the safety of our work environments. We felt it was important to go above and beyond CDC safety protocols to enhance the safety of our office building communities, and give them the confidence they need to return to the office. Combined with CDC and ASHRAE guidelines like frequent hand washing, mask- wearing and social distancing, our Inspire Wellness initiative places the well being of our customers at the heart of our buildings. We also want to give our customers comfort that if something like this happens again, we’re already ahead of the curve and created a much safer environment.