Lighting Manufacturer Garners First IMMUNE Building Standard Certification for an Industrial Building

FUTURE Designs, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of luminaires and bespoke lighting solutions, has obtained the first IMMUNE Building Standard certification in the world for an industrial building, awarded by the Healthy by Design Building Institute (HDBI). The factory and headquarters achieved the label IMMUNE – Strong following the company’s successful implementation of the set of health and safety measures for its employees.

The certification marks the Healthy by Design Building Institute’s first major milestone in expanding The IMMUNE Building Standard beyond office buildings into other real-estate sectors that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. IMMUNE, a global open-source standard pioneered in April 2020 by Liviu Tudor, president of the European Property Federation and Founder of Genesis Property, is adaptable to any built environment, including industrial buildings, increasing the resilience of indoor spaces against current and future health threats and building trust among occupants.

“We are pleased to announce the world’s first IMMUNE factory, standing as proof for the flexibility and versatility of this truly global standard,” Tudor says. “In the current economy, still facing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are companies like FUTURE Designs that are laying out a coherent path to recovery, while demonstrating a groundbreaking approach and great leadership in protecting people’s health and wellbeing. We congratulate FUTURE Designs for the achievement of becoming the world’s first employer with a certified IMMUNE factory.”

In the past few months, FUTURE Designs has applied many measures to meet the 120-plus IMMUNE criteria recommended for safer environments and has achieved the Strong label for its factory and headquarters. The certification is based on the IMMUNE assessment process conducted by Build Green, an independent authorized building assessor and a contributor to the development of the standard.

David Clements, chief executive at FUTURE Designs, notes: “At FUTURE Designs, we have spent hundreds of hours and great resource investigating the most effective and efficient means to ensure our premises are sanitized to bat away the coronavirus. Our sole goal was to make our place of work the safest possible for all team members and to give them confidence and peace of mind during these extraordinary times. As a result, we have implemented measures recommended by The IMMUNE Building Standard, and we have also installed FUZONE500, our airborne and surface bacteria removal system, to all areas of our facility. Proof of our success is that to date we have had zero COVID-19 cases within our factory and assembly facilities and today we are delighted to be the first Industrial facility in the world to become IMMUNE – Strong.”

The IMMUNE standard is inspired by technologies and procedures developed and successfully applied in hospitals and medical clinics. Specifically, the standard is based on an IMMUNE Assessment Scoring Index comprising 120-plus measures recommended for implementation in buildings that include technical solutions for architectural engineering, technology and design, as well as operational protocols applied permanently or ready to activate in specific risk scenarios.

Among measures recommended by IMMUNE are very efficient air-filtering systems and technologies to enhance the sanitization of surfaces. Another important measure is the IMMUNE Quarantine Room, acting as a dedicated area in case of immediate need to isolate people at risk, and the Emergency IMMUNE Warehouse which is a rapid logistic system for immediate pandemic-response.