Traveling abroad for a few months and getting to know a different culture - it sounds like a grand adventure. But what happens when a pandemic holds the world in its grip? Does the adventure fall through? No, say our three Global Management Trainees: Mie Haugsted, Kirstine Rose Arfelt, and Timo Edler. They have been in Switzerland since September 2020, are staying until December, and are experiencing the country in a truly unique way. They dug through their photo albums for ISS and shared a few anecdotes with us.
When the novel coronavirus spread rapidly in the spring of 2020, a large portion of the workforce began working from home. Office buildings emptied out, and employees returned to their workplaces only slowly and in phases as the year progressed - if at all.
This new situation raised questions for companies and presented building operators with new challenges. Departments - or even entire buildings - were shut down, while others are now only partially or intermittently occupied. Isn’t it possible to reduce ventilation or turn off the heat in such spaces?
But even where operations continue, questions arise. In some places, employees continue to work together daily because working from home is simply not feasible. How can we ensure that the virus cannot spread in such situations? The issue of indoor air quality is becoming significantly more important for workplace safety.
Changing Requirements: Adapting Building Systems
“Every client faces a unique situation and articulates their specific needs. We analyze these and propose suitable solutions,” explains Björn Waizenhöfer, Head of the ISS Excellence Center TGM. He adds that, thanks to its wide-ranging experience, ISS can draw on proven standards and best-practice examples.
What does this look like in practice? For example, if a building’s occupancy is significantly reduced because many employees are working from home, the capacity of the ventilation, heating, and plumbing systems in unused rooms can be reduced under certain circumstances, leading to lower energy and operating costs. Any adjustments to the technical systems are made in compliance with legal regulations and industry standards. This ensures that the customer can always be confident that workplace safety requirements are met and that all systems are operated in accordance with the law.
Many customers are unaware that these systems often cannot simply be shut down. Minimal heating of vacant spaces and the regular “flushing” of drinking water pipes to prevent stagnant water are often necessary to meet hygiene standards and protect the value of the investment. Even if systems or buildings have been partially or temporarily taken out of service, specialized knowledge and a delicate touch are required to bring the building services back online. For example, ventilation systems must be brought back online gradually to maintain control over the air pressure inside the building.
Consulting Expertise: Intensive International Exchange
ISS’s consulting expertise is based on experience drawn from various sources. “We regularly exchange ideas within the ISS Global Engineering Group with specialists and engineers from various national organizations,” notes Björn Waizenhöfer. This allows us to benefit, for example, from new insights and concepts or a jointly developed strategy to quickly provide national and global ISS clients - especially where ISS manages properties across multiple countries - with well-founded solutions and best practices.
In addition, we continuously monitor scientific studies on the latest research and developments in the field of indoor air quality. For example, there are now industrial air purifiers equipped with HEPA filters that have been proven to help reduce aerosol levels in the air. Before introducing such innovations to clients, we verify that the solution actually delivers the desired added value.
Even as the pandemic situation stabilizes, flexibility and expertise remain key priorities for the ISS Excellence Center TGM. “It remains to be seen whether the world of work has undergone lasting changes as a result of the crisis. If, as a consequence, workspaces and buildings need to be redesigned and the building services infrastructure adapted, we can advise our customers with a holistic approach,” emphasizes Björn Waizenhöfer.
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