Health and Safety: “Healthy Boat” Program

Ensuring a Healthy Environment in the Face of Viruses: An Essential Challenge

How can we ensure a healthy environment to combat the spread of the virus in shared spaces such as buildings and ships? Equans has mobilized its experts to address this challenge, which will be critical in the coming months and years. Tailored to each client’s specific context, the “Healthy Building” and “Healthy Vessel” programs provide concrete solutions to ensure business continuity while strictly adhering to health and safety standards. These offerings are based on solutions in HVAC, digital control, and facility management—areas in which Equans has long-standing and recognized expertise. Objectives: to improve indoor air quality, enhance the effectiveness of preventive measures, facilitate social distancing, and ensure optimal disinfection of premises.

New Solutions for Improving Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) on Boats

Today, solutions exist to combat biocontamination and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). These solutions require precise technical HVAC expertise to ensure they are properly sized so that they are scalable and can be integrated into a centralized system. This is a major challenge in the context of a health crisis, particularly in the confined spaces of ships, whether for defense or tourism purposes.

As a leader in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) in the marine sector for over 35 years, Equans offers customized solutions tailored to existing equipment while meeting the requirements of shipowners and cruise lines (footprint, weight, energy consumption, etc.).

The "Healthy Boat" Program

Tailored to each operator’s specific needs, the “Healthy Vessel” package includes, in particular, the cleaning and disinfection of Air Handling Units and fan coil units, as well as the adaptation of HVAC-R technical room designs to incorporate new virus-fighting equipment as needed. There are numerous “plug-and-play” innovations available: integrated UV-C lamps, photocatalytic oxidation chambers, high-efficiency filters identical to those used in hospitals, electrostatic filtration, and exhaust fans.

The offering also includes modifications to automation programs to incorporate a “virus mode” and, in the event of an emergency, the creation of a medical zone. The HVAC system then operates in “safety” mode, providing 100% fresh air treatment, pressure control, and, if necessary, absolute filtration.

This comprehensive set of high-performance solutions meets the needs of ship operators, enabling them to ensure both the health and safety of passengers and the full operational efficiency of their facilities and equipment.

The “Healthy Building” Program

In addition to specific solutions for improving air quality on boats, Equans has developed numerous tools to ensure optimal health and safety in shared spaces in all types of buildings. Leveraging digital control and facility management systems, the “Healthy Building” offering addresses the three major challenges facing buildings in the era of COVID-19.

Three Major Challenges for Buildings in the Age of COVID-19: A Range of Concrete, Customized, and Scalable Solutions

- Decontamination
  
  The first step is to ensure decontamination by installing networks of contactless hand sanitizer dispensers, temperature-measuring stations or cameras, contactless door-opening systems, or even an app that allows users to call elevators remotely from their cell phones.
- Social Distancing
  
  Social distancing is ensured through a workstation and parking reservation app and a virtual badge that enables real-time compliance with the new occupancy rules, the installation of counting sensors (automatic access control), and the implementation of crowd management systems using video analysis. The installation of plexiglass partitions at workstations, the redesign of offices to accommodate future uses, and a meal delivery service for pre-ordered meals in a Covid-19-compliant space—all aimed at compensating for the lack of full-scale on-site dining—round out this suite of measures.
- Prevention
  
  Finally, the “Healthy Building” offering contributes to prevention through solutions such as real-time monitoring of indoor air quality via dashboards, alerts, and an awareness program, as well as the upkeep and maintenance of facilities and the management and optimization of equipment.