BURNSVILLE, MN — To further the healthy building efforts, the City of Burnsville prioritizes making creative upgrades to its structures. In order to achieve this goal, it has developed a number of building management guidelines for each City building named Bwell Healthy Buildings.
These standards serve as a road map for achieving health, wellness, productivity, and sustainability objectives through focused management practices and enhancements to workplace design, policies, and programs.
The key objective of this program will focus on education, signage, best practices, including collaboration with the City's employee wellness program for initiatives such as handwashing, drinking water and cleaning shared areas.
1. Water quality
Promote safe and clean water by using correct treatment, filtration and hydration.
- Residuals in the fluoride and disinfection system should be checked and maintained.
- Provide easily accessible filtered drinking fountains and the opportunity to refill water bottles.
2. Cleanliness
Optimize the cleanliness of buildings and work areas by the use of appropriate equipment, cleaning methods and signage.
- Implement best practices with proper equipment and chosen product.
- Antimicrobial activity for high contact surfaces.
- Permanent entryway systems to capture dirt and particles entering the building.
- Reduce surface contact with options such as automatic doors and foot openers.
3. Safety and Security
Optimize the safety and security of buildings through utilizing resources, equipment, plans, supplies, places and collaborations.
- Appropriate lighting for pathways and parking.
- Emergency resources (AED’s, first-aid kits).
- Reduce respiratory particle exposure.
- Provide personal protective equipment.
- Install sharps needle containers.
- Maintain an active Safety Committee.
- Provide storm shelter area.
- Implement fire alarm and sprinkler testing plan.
- Security cameras, software and alert devices.
- Implement emergency procedures for evacuation or shelter-in-place.
- Maintain a database of building emergency equipment and supplies.
- Back-up generator.
4. Health and Wellness
Integrate physical, mental, and social activity by establishing features and environments that encourage an active, healthy lifestyle.
- Maximize exposure to negative ions (linked to benefits for mental and physical health).
- Dedicated space for physical fitness and multipurpose rooms for wellness programs.
- A quiet room to support mental health.
- Provide showers and lockers to support active commutes to and from work.
- Walking trails within the building and campus.
- Break areas that can accommodate social activities.
5. Comfort and Lighting
Using workspaces, lighting, views and thermal building automation, create distraction-free, barrier-free, productive and pleasant indoor environments to boost productivity and alertness.
- ADA accessible design standards.
- Ergonomics program – visual and physical.
- Building automation system for thermal comfort control.
- Sound barriers and sound limits.
- Balance between direct task lighting and indirect ambient lighting.
- Solar glare control.
- Maximize natural daylight in workspaces.
- Active/adjustable workstations.
- Discourage strong chemical smells.
6. Sustainability
Enhance the sustainability of our built environments through implementing sustainable energy solutions, planning, and procurement processes.
- Expand recycling and compostable program.
- Prioritize environmentally safe/renewable consumables.
- Properly recycle retired parts, equipment, supplies.
- Continue installing LED lights and lighting controls.
- Perform regular energy audits.
- Participate in solar energy programs.
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