Dag Andresen - Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Veidekke Entreprenør AS
We are all concerned about the environment. Sometimes however we forget that the most important environment for our health and wellbeing is the one closest to us - the air inside our homes and workplaces.
For 50 years now, the Asthma and Allergy Association has been working on and promoting research into asthma, allergies and eczema. This work has provided unique expertise and has resulted in knowledge that is relevant for us all. NAAF has its own experts in many areas, in this case Britt Ann K. Høiskar, who has a doctorate in atmospheric physics and is technical manager for indoor and outdoor air quality, and Knut Skulberg MD, who is senior adviser on indoor air quality.
“Collaborating with NAAF gives us the best basis for being able to build and offer homes with good indoor air quality,” says Dag Andresen, managing director of Veidekke Entreprenør. “By implementing all the little things that NAAF knows affect air quality and by putting them into Veidekke’s building process at an early stage, we achieve an overall effect that represents a real difference for the users of our buildings,” explains Andresen. “And now we will also be able to offer this expertise to customers for whom we build commercial buildings. These could be office buildings, schools, kindergartens and nursing homes,” adds Andresen.
Positive developments from this technical collaboration include:
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Well thought out ventilation solutions (in terms of function and maintenance)
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Least possible gas generation/emissions from surface treatments
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Focus on simple maintenance and cleaning
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Heating solutions that promote good indoor air quality
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Choice of materials that contain/emit fewer dangerous substances
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Allergy-friendly planting of exterior areas
We also envisage creative thoughts and new solutions when we share knowledge and experience in this way so as to achieve new common goals.
“New associations of serious players are the future and they give our work an exciting new dimension. Implemented in the right way and at the right time, focusing on indoor air quality is not an expensive and complicated element for the building industry, but a decisive competitive advantage that will benefit the end user. Our technical collaboration with Veidekke is a triple winner situation: for the association, for Veidekke and not least for the people whose homes and workplaces we are creating,” says Geir Endregard, secretary general of NAAF.
At Årvollbrinken in Oslo, Veidekke Eiendom is building homes using NAAF’s knowledge and expertise. This is the first collaboration project and it shows that the vision is both robust and real. “In this project we have already started going beyond what is required by the authorities. In the interest of our customers, we are setting even higher standards for indoor air quality and we are proud to be able to offer safety and health at a level that has not been attainable before,” says project developer Elin Hoff Johansen of Veidekke Eiendom.
