Page 22 - College Planning & Management, April 2018

Facilities CAMPUS SPACES
Improving IAQ in
Your Foodservice
Environments
Foodservice facilities have specific needs. Here are some things to think about when it comes to one of those needs: healthy indoor air quality.
BY ELLEN KOLLIE
TIGHT MAINTENANCE and operations budgets. Pri- ority on classroom and residence hall spaces. These are just some of the reasons foodservice environments are sometimes not given the attention they need, especially in terms of creating and maintaining healthy indoor air quality (IAQ). What, then, are the most important considerations? College Plan- ning & Management recently asked this of Terry L. Pellegrino,
FCSI, who has more than 32 years design consulting experience. She is a principal with Rippe Associates, a Minneapolis-based foodservice design consulting firm.
CPM: Why do we care about IAQ in higher education foodservice environments?
Pellegrino: For two reasons. The first is that these environments can be hazardous in terms of things like carbon dioxide emissions and gases we find in such items as propane tanks. The second is that, as a working environment, it’s one of much heat and humid- ity, and both of those need to be controlled.
There are two groups of people in the foodservice environment. The first is students, who dine with us three meals a day through- out the school year. We don’t want them in an environment that’s not safe and conducive to their well-being. The second is that, in dining, we have a lot of long-term employees who have been with the institution for 25 to 30 years, and we want them to have a good working environment, a safe working environment.
CPM: Do foodservice environments require more care in terms of IAQ than other types of campus spaces?
Pellegrino: The number of air changes in a food service envi- ronment is high because the space has a high exhaust require- ment. When doing cooking display, the required exhaust levels are even higher. It becomes costly. But it’s very important in the long run because, the better we balance the exhaust and supply, the better the IAQ and the better the operating costs. But, it’s a delicate balance.
CPM: What can be done in terms of design to ensure high-quality IAQ in foodservice environments?
Pellegrino: One thing that is mandated today that’s a positive thing is that we have to have sensors in the duct collars of the exhaust hoods. As soon as the sensors sense heat generated by the cooking equipment, they send a signal to turn on the exhaust fans.
Many facilities are grandfathered in and so they don’t need to
22 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / APRIL 2018
WEBCPM.COM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF RIPPE ASSOCIATES