K Raheja Corp becomes First Indian Real Estate Developer to adopt Arc Re-Entry to ensure safe building operations

K Raheja Corp, one of India’s leading real estate conglomerates, that is known for meticulously curating buildings that rank high on sustainability, has adopted the Arc Re-Entry tool for its commercial office tower, Raheja Tower, which is also its headquarters in Mumbai’s BKC location. Arc Re-Entry was created in response to COVID-19 and prepares spaces for safe re-entry. It is available on the global Arc technology program, and is owned by Green Business Certification Inc, the world’s leading sustainability and health certification body. Based on a comprehensive analysis, Raheja Tower received an overall score of 84%, categorized as ‘Excellent’ on the Arc Re-Entry platform. This score provides a comparable measure of the breadth and documentation of facility management policies, occupant experience and measured indoor air quality, including factors such as relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration and particulate matter. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as safety and hygiene at the workspace gain increased importance with the pandemic in the backdrop.

With this, K Raheja Corp becomes the first developer in India to adopt the new tool. Utilizing Arc Re-Entry provides Arc platform users with a Re-Entry Comprehensiveness Score, which is an outcome of tools that analyse 90 days of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) data – such as Co2 concentration, Particulate Matter10 and Particulate Matter 2.5 levels, TVOC (total volatile organic compounds), relative humidity, temperature, etc. – and compares it with global office IAQ data to generate the comprehensive score.

The three-fold approach helps buildings share and compare information on best practices to curb the spread of infectious disease:

1. Engaging with occupants to understand their experience
2. Measuring conditions to help management target action to improve this experience and
3. Building client confidence when re-entering their office spaces

This achievement is part of a comprehensive infection control management system in place by K Raheja Corp across its business offerings that follow the most stringent protocols. Raheja Tower has been built using low VOC paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants, while establishing a systematic building management system for controlling temperature and HVAC equipment. The building is designed to allow for 30% extra fresh air and has installed MERV 8 & 13 air filters which are serviced regularly. As a best practice, only green-seal certified chemicals are used for daily housekeeping activities in the building.

Speaking on the achievement, Mr. Vinod Rohira, CEO, Commercial Business said, “Arc Re-Entry is a credible global validation to our very comprehensive safety and hygiene protocols. The Arc Re-Entry tool helped us analyse performance and create customized reports, which are a necessity today. The tool not only helps us benchmark our air quality to global standards, but also encapsulates outside-in feedback from occupiers. This helps us evolve and improvise, to ultimately fortify confidence amongst occupiers, as they plan their strategies for re-entering the office spaces. We are glad that Raheja Tower has demonstrated superior performance across multiple metrics, and we stay committed to measuring performance every 3 months and constantly improving indoor air quality. We will soon be replicating this across our commercial spaces.” 

Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, GBCI said, “Learning from the Covid-19 experience, we will have to build more resilient spaces in the future. Our Arc Re-Entry tool was developed to address the specific requirement for ensuring health and safety in new spaces and occupied assets. We are happy to confirm that based on our comprehensive analysis through our Arc Re-entry tool, Raheja Tower has achieved an excellent score of 84%. We congratulate K Raheja Group on this achievement and encourage other organizations to avail of the Arc Re-entry tool as they contemplate on reopening their offices safely.”

The recent deterioration of the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the country has reported alarming consequences indicating severe conditions that may not only affect those with respiratory diseases, but also healthy people. Measures to counter the ill effects of poor air quality are now more necessary than ever.

As torchbearers of sustainability initiatives in real estate, K Raheja Corp was the founding member and one of the first signatories to the memorandum of understanding with the CII-Green Building Council to construct green buildings in India back in 2007 and has remained committed ever since. With its buildings certified in the categories of Gold and Platinum, K Raheja Corp has a green footprint of over 20mn sq ft.