BBRI ~ Perfection
Belgian Building Research Institute (BBRI)
Project: Perfection
The project involves eleven partners and is coordinated by the Belgian Building Research Institute (BBRI). The overall goal of the project is to create a framework of indicators (Key Indoor Performance Indicators; KIPI) describing the indoor environment a tool to allow the evaluation of its quality and policy recommendations. The KIPI indicators are divided into four main categories:
- Health and Comfort
- Safety and Security
- Usability and Positive Stimulation
- Adaptability and Serviceability
Each sub-category consists of performance indicators that are further characterised by specific technical indicators. For a detailed elaboration, see the figure below.
A database containing the standards, regulations, policies and research activities of 27 countries has been created. It represents an inventory of standards, regulations and technologies across Europe (as well as beyond) that relate to indoor performance integrated within a sustainable built environment. Relevant ongoing and recent research efforts and policies on indoor performance integrated within a sustainable built environment have also been included in the same database. Of the four categories, health and comfort is clearly the one that is most covered by research, technological development and indicators. For example, regarding water quality, the literature showed that the ingress of microbial contamination, and the proliferation and dispersal of bacteria growing on water contact surfaces (especially legionella), as well as the addition of chemical substances from piping, jointing and plumbing materials are the principal hazards that may accrue in the drinking-water systems of (large) buildings. Besides this, the project is also working on policy recommendations relating to indoor environmental technologies, standards and regulations. For more information about the project, e-mail to perfection@bbri.be A software tool: user engagement
A decision support tool was developed based on the KIPI framework: http://www.indoorperformance.net It consists of an evaluation tool, where users such as builders or designers as well as individual citizens can assess their indoor environment against the KIPI indicators. This can help when designing a building or help foster an understanding of how an existing building can be improved. It also allows for the publication of outstanding projects for promotional purposes. ‘For example, if there is a new and innovative air conditioning system or technology in a building, which has a positive impact on indoor air quality, then we would like to evaluate and promote it through an online tool that clearly shows the impact this product has on the quality of the indoor environment.’ The tool is already in use, but will become fully operational and available to the public in June 2011.
EU-xpert
The project decided to use EU-xpert as a collaboration tool to create the periodic reports so as to avoid an excessive exchange of e-mails and Word documents between scientists working on the project. The use of the tool was announced at a consortium meeting. The system was set up with a clearly defined structure in line with the EU template for periodic reports and also reflected the description of work: work packages and deliverables were included. After the announcement, an introductory e-mail was sent along with the manual explaining the ways in which the tool can be used. Tasks were defined by assigning sections of the document to individual scientists who then received an assignment e-mail with a direct link to that section of the report where they had to make their contribution.
Monitoring the progress of the reporting was easy: gaps in the report could easily be traced. There was no negative feedback from the users. Copying from Word into EU-xpert was widely used. On completion, the report could easily be generated as a Word document. The report was finalised in Word and a PDF version was created. When uploading the report to SESAM it transpired that some sections of the documents – such as the Publishable Summary – had to be submitted separately. Major benefits of EU-xpert proved to be the collection of texts in a single tool in such a way that the information was not lost in a deluge of e-mails. Furthermore, the latest version of the texts was always available. FP-tools’ service was quickly and efficiently delivered, such as, for instance, minor modifications to the template. The project is pleased to be working with a tool such this.
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