Partners for a Clean Environment to host webinar on COVID-19 and indoor ventilation

Boulder County, Colo. - Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE) will host a live webinar, COVID-19, Ventilation, and Energy Efficiency for Building Owners and Managers, on Aug. 27, from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Commercial building owners and managers will learn what changes to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems will best reduce COVID-19 transmission risk for occupants, the common limits of HVAC, and how to preserve energy efficiency while making modifications.

“PACE has always been committed to helping businesses save energy and improve indoor air quality,” said Zac Swank, PACE Business Sustainability Coordinator. “Since the start of the pandemic, we've been approached by community partners asking what they can do to make their buildings safer for the people inside them. In this webinar, we’ll be bringing in leading experts in the fields of environmental epidemiology, air quality, building energy
efficiency, and HVAC engineering to help answer those questions.”

PACE began in 1993 as a partnership of local governments and businesses committed to creating a business community with environmentally sustainable practices. As part of Boulder County's Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience, PACE has continued to evolve and expand its offerings as the one-stop-shop for business sustainability in Boulder County.

Dr. Kristen Fedak is an environmental epidemiologist and researcher at Colorado State University (CSU) and the Occupational Health Coordinator with the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE). In CDPHE's COVID-19 response, Kristen serves as the subject-matter expert for industry/workplace prevention, mitigation, and response. In her research at CSU, Kristen focuses on air pollution/particle exposure assessment and health effects. Her research recently transitioned from characterizing air pollution exposures from diverse emission sources and the implications for cardiovascular and respiratory disease, to characterizing bioaerosol (human respiratory) exposures from various activities like talking, singing, and playing instruments and the implications for COVID-19 risks.

Jim Zarske is a Director of Sustainability Services at NORESCO, one of the largest energy services companies and sustainability consulting firms. He is a licensed PE, CEM, LEED AP with more than 20 years of engineering experience with a focus on building energy efficiency and sustainable design. He has provided numerous services for the new and existing built environment including energy auditing, energy modeling, commissioning, retro-commissioning, measurement and verification, and HVAC design. He has long leveraged his experience in HVAC design, building maintenance practices, indoor air quality assessments, and building controls and technologies to provide guidance on how to improve the health of indoor environments.

For more information about this program, contact PACE program administrator Zachary Swank at zswank@bouldercounty.org.

For more information about Boulder County’s sustainability mission and to learn about other programs, visit www.boco.org/Sustainability or contact Christian Herrmann at cherrmann@bouldercounty.org.