For the highest level of health and safety, rely on operations & maintenance to play a critical role.
Since COVID-19’s emergence, campuses have strongly emphasized deep cleaning and disinfection to keep staff, faculty, students, and their spaces safe, but janitorial measures are only part of the equation. The multi-level and multi-stage efforts needed to combat the risk of illness require collaboration among all sectors of integrated facility services.
Facility engineers play an extremely important role in protecting the health and wellness of everyone who enters a facility. To keep everyone safe, it is crucial that engineers develop and stick to an effective plan.
Listed below are just some of the operational initiatives you should include in your preparations, based on the UG2 ReNewSM Engineering4HealthSM program:
HVAC Prep and Maintenance: These days, high indoor air quality is essential. Air filtration and safety checks are key for keeping staff, faculty, and students healthy. HVAC work is about far more than firing up the equipment, it involves extensive engineering expertise for upgrades, training on-site staff, and testing systems to ensure there are no potential issues like mold and bacterial growth that could pose a serious health hazard.
Electrical Work: Electrical setup and maintenance are a big part of achieving operational efficiency, especially if more security controls are put in place. For example, a campus might have more access controls than in the past, to allow for greater distancing between students. A comprehensive engineering plan considers how changes in usage can affect overall efficiency and cost.
Installation of New Equipment: As part of a comprehensive engineering plan, replacing older equipment that’s less efficient or doesn’t provide higher levels of health benefits and safety may be necessary. Also, many campuses have turned to touch-free options such as entry doors in areas like restrooms or shared kitchen spaces to prioritize cleanliness.
Plumbing Readiness: Similar to HVAC, campus-wide plumbing should be thoroughly inspected by engineering. This is especially true after long breaks where water could become stagnant—a potential health hazard that could have detrimental effects.
How a building is maintained is crucial to the successful creation of a healthy campus environment. The UG2 ReNew Engineering4Health program offers best practices in addressing all aspects of a building’s operation, including systems like filtration, air stream disinfection, air exchange, plumbing traps, deep cleaning of cooling and heating systems, and maintenance of seasonal systems like air conditioning, among many others that maximize health and safety benefits, both now and into the future.
Expanding Your Knowledge
As you consider your campus’ short-term and long-term success, don’t hesitate to contact UG2 to discuss your campus’s specific needs. If you’re in higher education, now is the time to build capability and resources, and UG2’s extensive experience and insights have proven valuable to a range of educational customers.
Our UG2 ReNewSM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4HealthSM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need to function at the highest level while keeping safety your top priority.