After Coronavirus, Offices Face Unexpected Health Threats

As millions of Americans return to work after the Memorial Day holiday, office buildings and corporate campuses are faced with several emerging threats that impact the health and safety of its workplaces. The New York Times has published a report about the growing environmental risks that office buildings face and their tenants will be dealing with as buildings reopen after nearly three months of being idle.

Landlords and property management teams in every major US market and those in other western hubs like London are preparing for 6-12 weeks period that will require an enormous surge in labor resources to tackle the mounting risks inside of their building's mechanical, ventilation and plumbing systems. Most large institutional real estate owners, have been addressing this impending risk from the start of the pandemic, having been well scared from the impacts of H1N1 in the early part of the last decade. Landlords have well established engineering teams and FM services protocols that are well versed in remediation and ventilation demands. 

New York City, which has been at the epicenter of the largest Coronavirus outbreak in the US, is slowly reopening its buildings. Landlords such as Vornado Realty Trust and their subsidiary, BMS-Building Maintenance Service are on the frontlines of working with building occupants to return their space to a pristine, safe and healthy operating environment. BMS, based in New York with a reach into Chicago, Washington and Southern Virginia markets, is responsible for over 100 Million Sf of client facilities and is a leading FM services provider to a variety of asset types. BMS has taken a forward posture, investing substantially in new technology to arm its highly trained staff with Electro-Hygiene Systems from HYGIENICA.

Disinfecting large office buildings is a critical defense strategy to ensuring a safe and healthy work environment for employees. Electro-Hygiene technology, originally developed for CleanRooms in GMP environments such as Biotech, Pharma and Computer chip manufacturing facilities, is proven to kill 99.99% of the virus when used in conjunction with an EPA registered List N disinfectant. 

As the workplace starts to reopen around the US, leading global corporations, fitness centers, government buildings and alike, will be utilizing advanced technical disinfecting technology like HYGIENICA to establish a new level of confidence with their tenants and the general public.