Pearl Building Rating System - Estidama

Credit Section
LBi: Livable Indoors
Most people spend over 80 percent of their lives indoors 1 and considerable research links
time spent indoors to health and wellbeing related issues. Creating a ‘livable indoors’ is
therefore of benefit to all people and hence all buildings in Abu Dhabi.
Further research suggests that green buildings with improved indoor environmental quality can
reduce the number of work days lost to sick leave by approximately three days per person per
annum 2 . Similarly, an increase of almost five percent in productivity has been attributed to
healthier indoor environments.
This credit section assists in developing buildings that address the challenges of improving
occupant health and wellbeing whilst fostering economic growth anticipated from productivity
gains, staff retention and reduced absenteeism.
The livable indoors section introduces many aspects that are important in the design of a
building interior such as:
� Indoor Air Quality Management practices during construction and after occupation;
� Ventilation quality during normal building operation;
� Material selection to reduce harmful emissions;
� Improving thermal comfort by promoting beneficial design practices and outcomes that
foster a well thought through HVAC strategy and a greater degree of occupant control; and
� Use of natural daylight, which is consistent and abundant in the region, together with
appropriate artificial lighting aims to create visually comfortable environments.
In particular, the main theme of this section was based on the following primary considerations
in relation to what constitutes a healthy and comfortable indoor environment:
When reviewing the livable indoors components, consideration must also be given to how they
will relate to other aspects of the Pearl Rating System, such as the balance and interrelationship
with energy consumption.
1 EHSMS CoP 11 – Air Quality V1.2 July 2009, Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi.
2 CB Richard Ellis & University of San Diego, “Do green buildings make dollars and sense?”, 2009
Pearl Building Rating System: Design & Construction, Version 1.0, April 2010 74 of 223