Johnson Controls, UL and SafeTraces Partner to Help K-12 Schools Assess Indoor Air Quality with Leading Science and Technology
September 02, 2021 at 07:02 am EDT
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Johnson Controls announced that it will pair its OpenBlue Healthy Buildings portfolio with the new collaboration between UL and SafeTraces. In March 2021, UL, the global safety science leader, and SafeTraces, a market leader in DNA-based safety technology, announced a new program to evaluate the effectiveness of their indoor air quality, ventilation and filtration systems, and infection control strategies for airborne diseases including coronaviruses, in K-12 schools. Through the program, Johnson Controls, UL and SafeTraces will leverage science-based indoor air quality and infection risk assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of mechanical systems in K-12 schools. Johnson Controls is the first in its industry to leverage data provided by UL and SafeTraces to collaborate with K-12 administrators to address any gaps and create a blueprint for a comprehensive, long-term clean air strategy. Johnson Controls offers K-12 administrators tailored services for the full building lifecycle through OpenBlue Schools, a complete suite of connected solutions that deliver impactful sustainability, new student experiences, and respectful safety and security that combines more than 135 years of building experience with cutting-edge technology. Working together, these three leaders in healthy buildings offer K-12 schools a holistic program to create healthy classroom and campus environments. UL's Healthy Building program provides indoor environmental quality, energy and sustainability services for the built environment. In this instance, UL's assessment consists of a comprehensive data review, HVAC system inspection, air quality testing, ventilation assessment, exhaust system verification, and risk assessment via SafeTraces veriDARTTM technology. A core component of UL's Healthy Building program, veriDARTTM by SafeTraces is the first aerosol-based solution for verifying HVAC system performance for health and safety in real world environments. With support from the National Institutes of Health and other leading research partners, veriDART leverages patented DNA-tagged bioaerosol tracers that safely simulate airborne pathogen mobility and exposure in order to identify potential infection hotspots, test ventilation and filtration efficacy, and inform safety and financial planning with independent science-based performance data. Serving schools for well over a century, Johnson Controls is the industry leader in smart buildings and connected technologies and oversees the full lifecycle of building operations for school administrators. For example, Johnson Controls OpenBlue Schools integrates building IT, communications, administration and classroom learning systems with core building systems to create smart, connected schools. Examples of OpenBlue Schools solutions include predictive maintenance, contract tracing, social distance monitoring, mask detection and skin temperature screening.
Johnson Controls International Plc specializes in the design, manufacturing and marketing of equipment for the regulation and safety of buildings. Net sales break down by family of products and services as follows:
- building regulation, integrated management and security equipment, systems and services (64.1%): refrigeration, ventilation, air conditioning, heating systems, access control systems, anti-intrusion, video surveillance, safety and protection devices and fire detection and suppression systems, etc. to commercial and industrial buildings. At the same time, the group provides installation and maintenance services. Net sales break down by geographic region between North America (60.1%), Europe/Middle East/Africa/Latin America (23.9%) and Asia/Pacific (16%);
- heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, fire protection and security systems for residential and commercial uses (35.9%).
Net sales break down by source of revenue between sales of products (75.6%) and services (24.4%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (52.3%), Asia-Pacific (20.9%), Europe (18.2%) and other (8.6%).