Indoor Environmental Quality
Protecting the people inside
Indoor Environmental Quality has two prerequisites: Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance (ventilation designed to ASHRAE 62.1) and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control - no smoking inside, and prohibition within about 25 feet (7.5 m) of entrances, outdoor air intakes, and operable windows.
Credits include Enhanced Indoor Air Quality Strategies (entryway systems, filtration, isolation rooms, increased ventilation), Low-Emitting Materials, Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan, Indoor Air Quality Assessment, Thermal Comfort, Interior Lighting, Daylight, Quality Views, and Acoustic Performance.
Low-Emitting Materials covers categories such as adhesives and sealants, paints and coatings, flooring, composite wood, ceilings/walls/insulation, and furniture, each with VOC content or emission limits and database or certification documentation. Construction IAQ Management follows a five-part SMACNA-style plan protecting ducts and absorptive materials; IAQ Assessment offers a flush-out (about 14,000 cubic feet of outdoor air per square foot of floor area) or air testing. Thermal comfort requires design to ASHRAE 55 plus, in the credit, monitoring and a survey.
Traps
- Thermal comfort appears as both a prerequisite-style design requirement and a monitoring credit.
- Low-emitting credits are about emissions and VOC content, not recycled content.
- Flush-out volumes are per square foot of floor area - a common numeric distractor.
- Daylight is measured by simulation metrics such as spatial daylight autonomy and annual sunlight exposure, not by window-to-floor ratio alone.
Rule of thumb
Control hierarchy: source control beats ventilation, ventilation beats filtration. Worked example: a team wants credit for fresh air; increasing outside air rates earns Enhanced IAQ points, but ASHRAE 62.1 ventilation itself is only the prerequisite.