Product or Innovation of the Year – Wellbeing
Awarded to products or innovations that make a significant contribution to the wellbeing element of building performance, including in the areas of lighting, acoustics, air quality, renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Winner: arbn well – arbnco
The breadth of arbnco’s collaboration with industry and academic partners, plus its focus on operational performance, helped persuade the judges to present this award for its innovative environmental sensing system, arbn well.
arbn well is the first high-density indoor environmental quality sensing service dedicated to health and wellbeing, for use in new and old offices, homes, hospitals, schools and universities.
A network of sensors measures temperature, relative humidity, CO2, total volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and light levels, and communicate over a private network using an improved version of LoRa.
This ensures there is no interference with Wi-Fi or mobile, and was another aspect of arbnco’s product that impressed the judges.
Real-time information is provided to building managers, and reports are generated automatically to identify long-term issues and trends in the building performance. Feedback is also collected from occupants via an app or from display terminals.
arbn well has so far provided evidence for problems as diverse as lack of ventilation, over-ventilation during off-hours, high PM levels (pollution), and unexpected comfort issues, such as undetected cold spots. The feedback app has also increased awareness and engagement among facilities managers and end users.
The award judges could ‘see continuous evolution and improvement of the product’, and noted that arbnco’s creative pricing structure (rental scheme) was flexible and good for the circular economy.
They added that it was good to see a range of approaches and effort being put into wellbeing improvements.
Shortlist
BUS Wellbeing Survey - Arup
Concept Analysis Tool (CAT) - Atkins
Neuron Smart Building Digital Platform - Empowering Building Sustainability and Wellbeing through AI & Digital Technology - Arup
Wise - Swegon