By ERT EDITOR for ERT MAGAZINE
Quiet Mark – the international certification programme – is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
What started in 2012, with a mission to restore the value of quiet back into society, has since grown into an invaluable resource, making it easier for consumers, architects and trade buyers to source the quietest products and building materials, to enhance wellbeing through reduced noise in our homes.
Back in 1959, John Connell OBE established the Noise Abatement Society and was instrumental in lobbying the Noise Abatement Act through parliament in 1960 – when noise became a statutory nuisance for the first time in the UK.
Today, over 1,200 appliances and acoustic materials, from over 90 global brands across more than 70 product categories, have passed the expert technical acoustic assessments to achieve Quiet Mark certification. When buyers see the distinctive ‘Q’ certification logo (right) alongside a product, they know it’s one of the quietest, most pleasant sounding or most technically effective in noise reduction or acoustic properties in-category.
Quiet Mark has drawn together a unique alliance of major retailers, including Argos, Currys, John Lewis and Very, to help shoppers find the quietest appliance technology and acoustic materials available on the market to support people’s health and wellbeing. These partners are enabling buyers to make a more informed choice about quieter high-performance products and materials they will share their lives with.
In May last year, John Lewis & Partners reported more than 10,000 searches a month for appliances during the pandemic lockdowns that include the term “quiet” on the retailer’s website, with washing machines and kettles the most likely devices to be linked to the search.
Mr Connell’s daughter and granddaughter now run the Quiet Mark organisation as Co-Founders; Gloria Elliott OBE and Poppy Szkiler, the CEO, have been reflecting on some of the key milestones in Quiet Mark’s mission so far.
This timeline image highlights some year-by-year milestones of Quiet Mark’s campaign to improve health and wellbeing through reduced noise in homes and improved acoustics throughout all areas of the built environment.
Read the original article on the ERT Magazine website here.
Acoustics Academy is the new online platform to equip and empower architects and designers with a guide to expertly verified leading acoustic solutions
New-build floors must achieve acoustic values as set out in Building Regulations Part E, and most new extensions must meet them too. The regulations apply to refurbishments as well, albeit with slightly less strict measures. Values for airborne sound insulation, such as speech or TV noise, and impact sound insulation, such as footsteps, must be met.
KB-Resource caught up with Poppy and she agreed to be interviewed. Poppy Szkiler is the founder and CEO of Quiet Mark, a third-generation family business. The global certification program campaign (founded in 2011) is associated to the UK Noise Abatement Society (NAS) charitable foundation, which was founded by Poppy’s grandfather, John Connell OBE in 1959 and led today by her mother Gloria Connell OBE. Today, her company is conducting expert acoustic testing and verification of products, and over the past 10 years has driven change in manufacturing worldwide to prioritize noise reduction within the design of everyday machines, appliances, technologies and house build materials, creating the first one-stop platform for third party approved noise reduction solutions for every living space to health and well-being.
18 months after the first lockdowns: over half of UK adults would now factor noise into their future employment decision and would also like a quieter home - reveals Quiet Mark's new trend.
NBS has announced a new partnership with Quiet Mark to empower architects to specify ‘acoustics first’, by providing a short-cut for specifiers to source responsible products.
