Australian launch leverages world class lab research that supports strategies implemented by the largest school systems in the United States

World-leading healthy building technology is being rolled out by Delos, a wellness real estate and technology company, across Australian schools to help create safer learning environments. The roll out will commence in Sydney in November 2021. The first round of schools to install the advanced air filtration technology, including Delos’ high efficiency particulate air purification units, includes 150 Sydney Catholic Schools and several independent schools.

• Helps to improve air quality in classrooms

• Capable of removing particles as small as 0.007 microns at 99.99% efficiency

• Millions of students globally currently benefit from the technology

By merging health sciences with building sciences, Delos has been leading the integration of evidence-based health interventions into indoor environments for nearly a decade, and, for the past 12 months, has been helping schools across the world address airborne health concerns due to COVID-19 through its Healthy Classroom Initiative.

The Healthy Classroom Initiative combines enhanced air purification and operational protocols with the goal of delivering improved health outcomes for students, educators and staff. Leveraging four years of research examining fine and ultrafine particle filtration, including conducting a review of 100 plus air quality devices and technologies, Delos has provided more than 200,000 evidence-based air purification units to school districts, with more than 2.7 million enrolled students collectively, including the public school systems in New York City and Chicago as well as over 50 Catholic schools across the United States.

“Delos is known throughout the world for its commitment to researching, measuring, improving and maintaining healthy buildings,” Delos Australia President, Bill Giannikos said.

“After providing hundreds of thousands of air purification units to schools across the United States in response to the pandemic, we are absolutely delighted to bring this laboratory tested, evidence-based technology to Australia, starting in Sydney.

“We are in talks with the government and independent schools, Catholic schools, universities, TAFE institutions and early learning centres from other parts of the country to further progress installation of the technology in Australia.”

Delos’ solutions are informed by science – including its own research platform, the Well Living Lab (founded as a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic) – the world’s first lab exclusively committed to research, development and testing of innovations designed to improve human health in the indoor environment.

Delos’ subsidiary, the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), has become the world’s largest certification body for healthy buildings, with programs now adopted in nearly 100 countries across more than two billion square feet of building spaces.

Vatican’s Pontifical Orientale Institute, based in Vatican City, selected Delos to implement evidence-backed air purification units based on the company’s scientific and data-driven research approach.

Father David Nazar, Rector of the Pontifical Orientale Institute in Vatican City, commented, “We have done extensive research on the science of healthy buildings and were impressed by the depth of work done by Delos and IWBI. We understand indoor environmental factors such as air quality and thermal comfort, impact learning and performance, and COVID-19 remains a threat. As a leading learning institution, we want to lead by example and bring forward our recommendation for the strongest, science-backed solutions.”

To understand how air purifiers can impact potentially harmful airborne particles and overall air quality in a school classroom, the Well Living Lab conducted a study in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, using the same air purification units supplied by Delos. Currently under peer review, the study found that these air purification units reduced particle transmission by increasing the number of air changes per hour (ACH) as well as a better mixing of clean and filtered air back into the room, air quality was improved throughout the classroom, not just near the units, and infectious particles accumulated on surfaces 33 percent slower when these units were used, compared with using an HVAC system alone.

About Delos

Delos is a wellness real estate and technology company guided by the mission to be the world’s leading catalyst for improving the health and well-being of people around the world by improving the indoor environments where they live, work, sleep and play. Informed by more than seven years of research and rigorous analysis of environmental health impacts on people, Delos and its subsidiaries offer an array of evidence-based technology and solutions for residential, commercial and hospitality spaces. Delos is the founder of the WELL Building Standard™, the premier standard for buildings, interior spaces and communities seeking to implement, validate and measure features that support and advance human health and wellness. Its subsidiary, the International WELL Building Institute, administers and continues WELL’s development and drives market adoption. Delos’ advisory board is comprised of leading professionals across real estate, government policy, medicine and sustainability, including renowned wellness luminary Deepak Chopra and sustainability advocate Leonardo DiCaprio. For more information about Delos, please visit www.delos.com.au/.