Empire Communities Becomes First Residential Builder in North America to Achieve ASHRAE 241’s Clean Air Requirements for Indoor Health with ERTH360 Air
August 12 2024 - 1:24PM
Empire Communities, an award-winning residential homebuilder in
Canada and the United States is proud to announce that its standard
home model featuring ERTH360 Air enhancements has achieved the
rigorous clean airflow requirements of ASHRAE Standard 241 — the
new high bar for infection resiliency. This first-of-its-kind
achievement is a testament to Empire’s commitment to providing
homes with the highest standards of indoor health and
sustainability. ASHRAE Standard 241, Control of Infectious
Aerosols, is a landmark standard published in July 2023 and applies
to all building types, commercial and residential.
The clean air performance of Empire’s standard home with ERTH360
Air was evaluated and verified to meet the standard’s targets using
a new test method that ASHRAE Standard 241 introduced to the
industry, known as ‘air tracing’. Poppy, a venture-backed company
based in San Francisco, has pioneered air tracing as a rapid,
low-cost commissioning / retro-commissioning technology and service
for any building. The Poppy Certify program has been used in over
1,000 locations globally, promoting gold-standard health measures
while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. Empire’s
attainment of Poppy Certify status underscores the company’s
commitment to creating a healthier and safer environment for its
homeowners.
“In our 31st year of homebuilding, Empire continues its
dedication to ensuring the safety and comfort of our homeowners
while constructing more sustainable homes. Achieving Poppy Certify
status is part of a broader initiative to introduce ERTH360 Air in
select Empire communities,” states Dan Guizzetti, Co-CEO of Empire
Communities. Andrew Guizzetti, Co-CEO adds, “This underscores our
commitment to enhancing homebuyers’ health and well-being by
providing clean and healthy indoor air, while minimizing
environmental impact through balanced energy use.”
Empire Communities joins an elite group of sustainable, healthy
buildings across various sectors that have been assessed using air
tracing and have achieved Poppy Certify status. This breakthrough
in single-family homes demonstrates that accessible HVAC upgrades
combined with comprehensive testing enable a home with central air
conditioning to meet the most stringent requirements of ASHRAE
Standard 241. The Empire Communities standard home featuring
ERTH360 Air improvements used a bypass HEPA filtration unit,
alongside MERV 13 filters, and a 175 CFM energy recovery ventilator
(ERV) to enhance indoor air quality and sustainability.
For the homeowner, ASHRAE Standard 241 offers numerous
benefits by promoting healthier environments for occupants. These
benefits include:
- Clean air necessary to substantially reduce the risk of disease
transmission.
- Reduced occupant exposure to various pathogens, including the
SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19, as well as influenza
viruses and other disease-causing agents that inflict significant
personal and economic damage each year.
- A separate area where a household member known to be infected
can isolate with the clean air equivalent to a patient room in a
healthcare facility.
"Poppy congratulates Empire Communities on achieving this
landmark for single-family homeowners and builders. Poppy Certify
is awarded to buildings that satisfy performance requirements
linked to ASHRAE building standards for the control of infectious
aerosols," says Elizabeth Caley, Co-CEO of Poppy.
The ERTH360 Air package was developed by ERTH360 to demonstrate
that strategic improvements to standard homes can significantly
enhance indoor air quality. ERTH360 also designed a Discovery Home
at Empire’s Avalon community in Caledonia, Ontario featuring more
substantial indoor environment improvements, including clean air,
filtered water, and circadian lighting. This model also
successfully passed the ASHRAE Standard 241 test, showcasing its
effectiveness in improving indoor environmental quality.
About Empire Communities: Empire Communities is a
vertically-integrated homebuilder involved in all sectors of the
new home-building industry, including both low-rise and high-rise
built forms. Celebrating over 30 years of building inspiring new
places to live, Empire has an established tradition of creating
prestigious award-winning new homes, communities and amenities, and
has earned a reputation for outstanding attention to detail and
customer service. Since its inception in 1993, Empire has built and
sold over 35,000 new homes and condos. Today, Empire is one of
North America’s largest privately held integrated residential
homebuilders, with current communities in Toronto, Southwestern
Ontario, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and
Tennessee.
For more information, please visit Empire Communities | Building
New Homes and Communities in North America.
About ERTH360
Empire acquired ERTH360 in 2022 and has established it as a
separate business unit focused on designing healthier indoor living
environments that improve occupant health and well-being while
using more sustainable building materials.
For more information, please visit ERTH360.
About Poppy:
Poppy is the market leader in advanced air technologies for
healthy, sustainable buildings. Poppy revolutionizes how buildings
measure equivalent clean airflow, manage rising energy costs and
secure health in buildings with their patented air tracing
technology. Poppy serves locations in 25 cities, across Canada, US,
Europe and the Middle East, helping building operators to reduce
costs, decarbonize, and protect occupant health. Poppy was founded
in 2019 and is based in San Francisco and Toronto.
For more information visit Poppy.com.
Ashley MacLaren
Empire Communities
+1-905-307-8102, 1200
amaclaren@empirecommunities.com