Fresh Air, Humidity Limit Virus Spread

As office landlords begin to welcome workers back, humidity needs to be on their mind, according to DWS Group’s latest whitepaper on ESG investing in real estate in a post-COVID world.

“Humidity levels are also important to the way in which we manage a healthier building as viruses generally perform better in low humidity environments,” DWS says in the report.

In the paper, DWS urges building owners to optimize humidity levels between 40% and 60% as they attempt to minimize virus transmission. “Viruses do worse in higher levels of humidity,” says Jessica Elengical, head of ESG Strategy, Alternatives at DWS. “There’s an optimal range in which they’re less likely to survive. So things like that—where you can actually improve the air quality—are going to be important.”

DWS says that sensors can play a role in monitoring humidity and temperature, as well as CO2. 

“You need to enable the building to have the backbone to be able to capture more information and more data,” Elengical says. “You have to monitor the health of the building. That goes back to understanding what the level of carbon dioxide is, what the temperature is and what the humidity level is so that you can create this environment that’s less likely to spread the pathogen.”

There are specific steps that building operators can take to improve air quality and combat the spread of airborne disease. “If you think about how to prevent future outbreaks, things that help to reduce the air we circulation will be necessary as well as optimizing around humidity levels,” Elengical says.

In its report, DWS says that fresh air is essential in the quest for better air quality.

“This starts with improving the fresh air delivery rate, meaning less recycling of air [and potentially the pathogens that come with it], increasing the frequency of filter changes and regular maintenance checks of air handling equipment,” DWS said in the report.

Another way building managers can combat viruses is by thoroughly cleaning surfaces. “Cleaning practices will be pretty important as well,” Elengical says. “Having robust protocols around cleaning and new technologies that help to better and more deeply clean surfaces are important.”

As building operators think about cleaning, DWS urges them to emphasize sustainable cleaning practices. “Given the heightened need for sanitizing, green clean protocols can help to reduce exposure to those chemicals that can be harmful to human health,” DWS says in the white paper.

Elengical emphasizes that building operators should use care in cleaning air handling units and replace filters “the same way we think about replacing filters in our home.”

 “You need to make sure you can really enable better, cleaner air quality,” Elengical says.