Rating of Indoor Environmental Quality in Systems of Sustainability Assessment of Buildings

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has an important impact on health and wellbeing of building users. In order to maintain an acceptable IEQ, policies, strategies and guidelines on achieving the required IEQ have been developed. Control and evaluation of indoor air factors is needed for ensuring the sufficient air quality. Impact of emmisions from building materials, furnishings and HVAC systems to indoor air quality should be included in the assessment of indoor environmental quality. In many systems for sustainability assessment of buildings is put a great emphasis on indoor environmental quality. This paper provides an overview of sustainability assessment systems for rating of indoor environmental quality. The criteria included in LEED, BREEAM and other well known systems for assessment of indoor environmental quality are presented. Building environmental assessment system (BEAS) developed for application in Slovakia is also introduced. Worldwide used rating systems were based on the development of BEAS. This is multi-criteria system contained six main fields such as site selection and project planning; building construction; indoor environment; energy performance; water and waste management. System consist from 53 indicators of assessment.