Armstrong World Industries Announces Strategic Healthy Buildings Partnership with 9 Foundations

LANCASTER, Pa., Oct. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE: AWI) today announced it has commenced a partnership with 9 Foundations, Inc. (9F), an independent scientific advisory firm founded by Dr. Joseph G. Allen, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, and co-author of the book Healthy Buildings. The team at 9F consists of leading scientific experts on the connections between human health and built environments, bringing unmatched technical knowledge and experience to the most critical public health challenges of our time, including Covid-19. With this partnership, 9F will work with AWI in its continued focus on manufacturing ceiling and wall solutions based on the most advanced healthy building science and design.

AWI CEO Vic Grizzle said, “We are very excited about this relationship with Dr. Allen and his healthy buildings team at 9F. Creating healthy indoor environments requires a holistic approach, and that means actively collaborating across disciplines to solve the complex problem at hand: making our spaces better for the health and well-being of people. At AWI, our team includes chemical, mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineers, chemists, material scientists and digital designers and technologists. Joe’s team at 9F includes experts in the fields of public health, infectious disease transmission and intervention, worker health and safety, and risk assessment and mitigation. By working together, we can advance our collective understanding of what makes a healthy space and develop ceiling and wall solutions that will make a meaningful difference in protecting people where we live, work, learn, heal and play.”

Building on a legacy of leading-edge product design and materials science, AWI currently makes sustainable ceiling and wall solutions that “clean, contain and protect” by improving key elements of indoor environmental quality: indoor air quality and ventilation, acoustics, and natural and supplemental lighting. 9F will work with AWI to evaluate new health-based technologies and innovation opportunities that support “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building” – ventilation, air quality, thermal health, moisture, dusts and pests, safety and security, water quality, noise, and lighting and views – and will help AWI grow its current healthy spaces portfolio.

Of the partnership, Dr. Allen said, “The pandemic has given the public a heightened awareness of how indoor environments influence our health and well-being. Healthy buildings are the new expectation, and rightly so. Companies like Armstrong understand this and want to lead in the global effort to radically change how we design and build. Together, we can realize our shared goal of creating indoor environments that optimize our mental and physical health and performance.”

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About 9 Foundations, Inc.

9 Foundations, Inc. (9F) provides strategic healthy buildings solutions to companies across major sectors of the economy, including finance, biotech, higher education, healthcare, commercial real estate, technology, and the arts. Its advisory services include best practices for managing infectious disease risk during COVID-19 and beyond, forward-looking initiatives to improve the health of indoor environments, real-time “sick building” investigations and crisis support, environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real estate, and technology evaluation and development. Comprised of experts in the fields of public health, infectious disease transmission and intervention, worker health and safety, and risk assessment and mitigation, 9F is bringing technical excellence to the global healthy buildings movement.

About Armstrong World Industries

Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (AWI) is a leader in the design and manufacture of innovative commercial and residential ceiling, wall and suspension system solutions in the Americas. With $937 million in revenue in 2020, AWI has approximately 2,800 employees and a manufacturing network of 15 facilities, plus six facilities dedicated to its WAVE joint venture.

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