Carpet for Schools: Enhances Health
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Architectural Record recently published an article based on studies by the Carpet and Rug Institute that discusses the benefits of carpet over hard surface flooring for health and air quality. Improved air quality and lower life cycle costs can greatly affect a building's LEED status. Also, in education, it is proven that healthier buildings = healthier and enhanced learning environments, strongly affecting student achievement, social development, and attendance. And, now there are a plethora of sustainable carpet choices out there. However, the sustainable design and LEED credits have mostly had predilections toward hard surface flooring in order to improve air quality, so I found this article to be very surprising and, in ways, enlightening.
I was wondering if there have been any other studies, findings, or personal experiences in college and university environments that suggest similar results as published in this article both to further validate and to inform the issues raised in this article.
Article link: http://continuingeducation.construction.com/article.php?L=98&C=639
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In continuing to search myself for a source from a third party researcher to add credibility to this article's publishings, I came across a press release from Cornell University's CHFERG - Cornell Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Group, which "focuses on ways to enhance usability by improving the ergonomic design of hardware, software, and workplaces, to enhance people's comfort, performance and health in an approach we call Ergotecture. We recognize that this is also as an important component of the Department's Ecotecture sustainable design approach".
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March01/carpet.schools.ssl.html
Please post if you know of any publishings more current than this, as I am still very interested in validating these claims since it is so contrary to conventional sustainable design wisdoms.