Washington, DC, Feb. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Tower Companies (“Tower”) announced that its premier 1909 K Street property, The Millennium Building, is the first office building in Washington, D.C. to install revolutionary, sanitizing technology using Far-UVC 222nm light. In an effort to help their office building tenants accelerate their “return to work” programs safely, this innovative investment is one of many leading initiatives implemented over the past year. Tower is a privately-held and family-owned commercial property owner and manager throughout the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, and has been recognized as a sustainability and healthy buildings leader for decades.
“For more than two decades, Tower has recognized that buildings significantly impact human health,” said Jeffrey Abramson, Partner, at The Tower Companies. “As our understanding grew, so too have our investments to provide safe, efficient, and healthy spaces for our employees and tenants. As COVID-19 evolves and new strains emerge, our viral mitigation strategies are not only an integral part of our immediate response, but they also help us reimagine the healthy building of the future. That is why we have invested significantly in a number of state-of-the-art technologies, including Healthe’s layered solutions.”
Tower installed the Healthe ENTRY™ walk-through gate, which utilizes Far-UVC 222 to sanitize clothing and personal belongings in seconds. Tower’s Healthe ENTRY sanitization portal is a free-standing, walk-through arch sanitizer that uses Far-UVC 222nm light to remove up to 90% of the viral load on items like clothes, packages and backpacks in just 20 seconds. The Healthe ENTRY has been installed in the fitness center.
In addition, Tower also installed Healthe AIR™ ceiling troffers. The ceiling mounted troffers combine the germicidal properties of ultraviolet light and carbon activated filtration to improve air quality in indoor spaces. A quiet, high performance fan draws air through a HEPA/carbon filter and into a sanitization chamber where UVC LEDs target and inactivate remaining pathogens. Healthe Air is being placed in the property’s common area restrooms, conference center, and fitness center. Additionally, Tower is piloting air and surface sanitizing ceiling bars that use Far-UVC to penetrate and inactivate air and surface pathogens. This technology has been installed inside all of the elevators.
All of these solutions were developed by Melbourne, Florida based Healthe, Inc.
“Healthe is proud to be working with The Tower Companies which has set the industry gold standard for creating sustainable, healthy, and productive buildings of the future,” said Healthe Chief Commercial Officer Troy Temple. “We not only share their commitment to protecting public health, but given the aerosolized and unpredictable nature of COVID, we must continue to pursue a comprehensive, aggressive, and layered approach to disabling pathogens to ensure all industries are prepared to also face future, unknown viral threats.”
A return to work survey of employers in the Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland region was published by the Greater Washington Partnership. It found that based on a November-December 2020 snapshot, “on average, employers with [reopening worksite] plans expect that 63% of their employees will return to their office locations by summer 2021,” with on average, 29% expected back this winter.
A growing library of evidence, including independent research backed by many peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals, demonstrates a clear role for Far-UVC light in promoting human health and wellness. This includes being effective at inactivating pathogens in the air and on surfaces as well as being safe for use in indoor environments. One recent study, led by one of the world’s leading far-UVC researchers, Dr. David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, demonstrated the technology’s safety and efficacy against airborne viruses, including coronaviruses.
The Millennium Building, located at 1909 K Street NW in the heart of Washington D.C.’s Central Business District, is a 12 story, 235,000 square feet multi-tenant commercial office property that is owned and managed by The Tower Companies. Built in the early 1970’s, the property underwent a major renovation and was completely remodeled in 1998 to include four new floors - without increasing energy demand. Today, The Millennium Building is LEED Gold®, ENERGY STAR, and BOMA 360 Certified. In 2015, it also won The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Earth Award. In partnership with Healthe, Tower is taking yet another step to advance health and wellness strategies in the built environment.
In addition to installing Healthe’s technologies, The Millennium Building was the first globally to achieve Fitwel Viral Response Certification. The Fitwel Viral Response module provides annual, third-party certification of policies and practices informed by the latest public health research on mitigating the spread of infectious diseases within a building. The property is also equipped with UVC 254nm lighting and high efficiency MERV-15 filters in all air handling units, and undergoes rigorous 3rd party indoor air inspections and testing.
About The Tower Companies
For three generations, the family-owned Tower Companies has maintained a commitment to responsible development and continues to envision a world where buildings inspire and enrich the lives of their occupants and create positive social change. The sustainable building leader owns, develops and manages over 6 million square feet in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area consisting of office buildings, office parks, lifestyle centers, regional malls, eco-progressive live-work-play communities and hotels, with an additional 13 million square feet in the development pipeline. In 2004, The Tower Companies was the first in the United States to achieve LEED® certification at a multi-family community, Blair Towns, and since then, 95 percent of their commercial and multi-family residential properties have achieved LEED® certification and 80 percent are ENERGY STAR® certified. In addition, Tower publicly reports their portfolio’s carbon footprint to The Climate Registry and offsets 100 percent of GHG emissions by supporting renewable energy projects in North America. Through a partnership with the Department of Energy, the Tower Companies pledged to reduce energy and water consumption 20 percent by 2020, then surpassed those targets in 2017. The Tower Companies is an international authority in the industry and has been recognized for its commitment to sustainability and energy independence by numerous national organizations and federal agencies, including the U.S. Green Building Council, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and more. Learn more at www.towercompanies.com.
About Healthe
Healthe is the technology leader in developing and deploying sanitization, circadian and biological lighting solutions that inactivate pathogens in the air and on surfaces, regulate the body’s internal clock, boost performance and enhance sleep. Its mission is to harness the power of light to create a safer, more productive and healthier environment. Learn more at www.healtheinc.com and connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
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