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Accreditation: GBAC, Well Join Operators In Putting Safety To The Test
Accreditation: GBAC, Well Join Operators In Putting Safety To The Test
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The Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee is among the venues to achieve GBAC Star accreditation.
Programs leading to accreditation or certification of venues undertaking sanitization protocols have been a major feature of the industry’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Venue operators like ASM Global, Spectra and Oak View Group (which owns VenuesNow) and cleaning and maintenance companies like ABM Industries and Jani-King have developed protocols of their own. Outside entities have instituted programs that lead to stamps of approval for measures to safeguard health and reassure those wary of returning to games, concerts, meetings, conventions and trade shows.
Jonathan Adkins, vice president of marketing at ISSA, which launched the Global Biorisk Advisory Council Star program, reports that more than 3,500 facilities have either committed to or attained accreditation.
“The venues industry continues to be an ardent supporter of GBAC STAR with a growingnumber of stadiums, arenas, convention centers and more committing to and achieving accreditation every week,” he said in an email.
Another program, the International Well Building Institute’s Well Advisory on Sports andEntertainment Venues, of which OVG CEO Tim Leiweke is a co-chair, leads to a health and safety rating and has seen hundreds of organizations, including major sports teams and leagues, come aboard, said Allen Hershkowitz, the New York Yankees environmental science adviser and a program participant.
“I know some of the venues that have already gone through the rating are presenting that information to their suite purchasers,” Hershkowitz said. “I’ve been told explicitly that there’s been a comfort level in the business side of the sports organizations that have adopted the rating.”
The two programs announced Nov. 17 that in an effort to speed the adoption of best practices, the GBAC Star accreditation would count toward achieving the Well Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.