As the greening of commercial real estate gathers momentum,owners and developers are paying more attention to theirproperties' effects on the people inside the buildings as well ason the outside world. A major force behind this push towardimproved indoor air quality comes from corporate tenants.

"Many of the large tenants, in particular professional servicefirms, are starting to focus on this area," says Jackson Lehr, anassociate with the sustainability strategy consulting firmGreenOrder. "A good example of that is Bank of America and thestrong focus they've got on IAQ in the new tower going up at 42ndStreet and Sixth Avenue. Their green effort goes beyond energy andalso looks at the indoor environmental quality. And they'll bemonitoring the IAQ in that building, which not a lot of people aredoing yet."

IAQ "has always been a focal point as it relates to corporateAmerica's leasing needs and requirements," says Richard Hartz,executive vice president with Aragon Construction. "With workenvironment being a major component of corporate build-outs, it iscritical that design engineers specify and scope state-of-the-artmechanical air distribution and filtration to exceed all buildingstandards."