There is a worldwide trend to develop a tool that can provide comprehensive assessment ofbuildings for sustainability. Many efforts were found to propose approaches for energy-savingand resource-recycling, and on the other hand buildings for sustainability should maintain theacceptable indoor environment quality to maintain the occupants health. This paper presentsa comprehensive index, IEI(AHP), composed of the filtered physical indicators, for quantitativeassessment on the built environment.

Toxicologically derived guidelines for the evaluation of VOC concentrations are still sparse.Therefore a schema is proposed for establishing target or intervention values which includesfollowing basics: i) Guidelines are derived from statistical values of representative studies. ii)Guidelines should refer to standardized analytical methods. iii) Guidelines should exist for allvolatile indoor air contaminants. iv) Possibility of dynamic adaptation, if the VOC mixturechanges. v) Up-to-dateness. vi) TVOC concept and values for groups of VOC should beincluded.

To promote good indoor air quality (IAQ) and public awareness of its importance, theHKSAR Government has implemented an Indoor Air Quality Management Programme since2000. This paper gives an overview of the programme and the progress made to date. It alsogives a brief account of the voluntary Indoor Air Quality Certification Scheme for Offices andPublic Places promulgated by the government in September 2003, to promote and recognizegood IAQ management practices in these buildings.

The stake of sustainable development is to ensure today's and future developments of awealthy and healthy society in a high quality environment. This is also valid for sustainablebuildings that should take account of environmental, economical and social stakes. Thisincludes, among others, low energy use, good indoor environment quality (IEQ) and health.One of the aims of the European HOPE project is to evaluate buildings from these points ofview.

Under the aspect of consumer protection different kinds of labelling systems for materialemissions have been developed in many European countries and by industrial organizations.Despite a common market there is no harmonized system for material emission available inEurope. In the second half of 2001, the European Collaborative Action on Urban Air, IndoorEnvironment & Human Exposure established a working group to bring forward theharmonization of the indoor material labelling schemes at European level.

The scope of this paper is the definition of some indoor air quality health-based criteria forhealthy buildings. One possible approach to establish indoor air quality health-based criteriacould be to define target values of a set of measurable parameters (chemical, physical andbiological) related to health. Target values to assess the parameters are set according to fullexposure (e.g. WHO guidelines, 24 h all people) or partial exposure (e.g., EPA guidelines, 8 haverage adult).

Klima ADE is a program for fast selection and calculation of air diffusion devices, which isbased on:- Design criteria for the thermal environment are based on EN ISO 7730 (optimaloperative temperature and maximum mean air velocity in occupied zone).

The German Federal Environmental Agency has published a ‘mould guide’, which aims at harmonizing procedures to investigate and evaluate indoor mould contamination. The policy behind the guide is not to make a health assessment for every individual case ba

The Healthy Building Technology Programme was established in Finland to abolish thefactors causing building related problems as it was clearly seen that deficiencies in indoor airhad an economical importance even at the national level (Rantama, 2003).

A very important issue for all activities for better IAQ in Finland has been the introduction of theclassification guidelines for indoor air quality and climate. These guidelines, published by FISIAQ,including measurable target values, cleanliness requirements and emission criteria for buildingmaterials, have been in use in Finland since 1995 and were revised in 2001.An essential part of the successful IAQ classification has been the emission classification ofconstruction materials.