Four Steps to Jumpstart Your IAQ Project

Rochester, MN – 12/28/2020

“In recent years, comparative risk studies performed by EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health.”
(source: epa.org)

Step 1: Identify your needs

 Ensuring your district’s buildings are in compliance with the current environmental guidelines from the State’s Department of Education and Health Department can be a daunting task for many districts. What are the guidelines? When is the district required to be compliant? Can we phase the required environmental corrections to ease our funding resources?

These are common questions we receive from school boards, superintendents and facility directors. Having successfully completed over 30 Indoor Air Quality projects within six Southern Minnesota school districts, our team has the experience and knowledge necessary to lead districts through the process of planning for Indoor Air Quality facility improvements.

Understanding the needs of your district is vital to the success of facilitating a smooth process for your project. In some cases, districts will hire a designer/architect to perform their assessment, whereas our team would collaborate with the designer as it relates to budget and schedule. More commonly, districts contract with Knutson’s facility assessment team to review each building’s environmental condition and prepare a comprehensive list of now, near and future corrections to use for planning.

Step 2: Plan your project

Understanding the needs of the district, both from resource allocation/funding, timing, procurement and scheduling is paramount to delivering a success project. Our team will work with the district’s multiple project stakeholders including, faculty, staff, administrators, designers and subcontractors to communicate the purposed scope of work and the timeline for completing the project. Knutson has completed numerous building IAQ projects either during a 10-week summer break window or a phased plan throughout the school year, and can work with you to customize a plan that is right for you.

Step 3: Communicate to stakeholders

Ensuring that the students, faculty and staff have an environmentally safe building is the responsibility of each school district. As part of the district’s project team, we will create a comprehensive communication plan that outlines what is being done, when it is being done and how it is being done as it relates to the Indoor Air Quality construction. Our team will create various messaging platforms for multiple mediums including social media, project signage, newsletters, videos and site tours. We have found that when all the stakeholders are engaged and aware, the project flourishes.

Step 4: Execute your project

Call to action: Ensuring that your construction partner can perform is on the minds of every administrator, board member and key project stakeholders. With over 30 Indoor Air Quality projects within Southern Minnesota, our education team has the metrics to demonstrate our success.

Have Questions? Contact Tony Joseph by phone at 507.206.2529 or by email at [email protected]!