After years of helping forward thinking clients tackle the overlooked problem of indoor air quality (IAQ), the decision by the Biden Administration to highlight the issue is a vindication of what Microshare has been saying for years: The health and safety of indoor spaces is not a mere matter of comfort, but more of a life and death issue than most people realized.

Our experience supports that there is a direct relationship between occupancy density and air quality.  As we look to understand the overall health of indoor environments, a combined view of occupancy and air provide actionable insights.

The White House has recently announced a Clean Air in Buildings Challenge which is a set of principles and best practices to assist building owners and operators with reducing risks of airborne viruses while indoors. As well as the Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure.

Throughout the two years of the pandemic, experts have proven ventilation and filtration are recognized as important components in spreading COVID-19 and that poorly ventilated spaces or environments where temperature and humidity are improperly calibrated will accelerate the spread of the viral illness.

Improving a building’s IAQ generally comes down to measuring exposure to dangerous elements, for instance, carbon dioxide, which typically builds in an indoor space as more people populate a building.

The White House’s ‘Action Plan’ highlights the clear need for air quality regulation in its statement below:

While teachers and education leaders have long raised concerns about the level of comfort and air quality in our classrooms, the pandemic has laid bare disparities in access to healthy facilities, including modern, efficient and clean HVAC systems. Outdated, inefficient buildings also saddle underserved school districts with higher energy bills and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions, keeping them in a cycle of underfunding operations and overpaying maintenance costs. This Action Plan will help schools make facility improvements that simultaneously deliver health protections, savings, and climate benefits.

Despite years of industry and academic research backing up this conclusion, there has been scant governmental effort as large as this to combat it. Guidelines are on offer from professional groups and several government agencies on matters like CO² buildup and the optimal temperature and humidity mix. But existing advice is both contradictory and voluntary. Outside a class action suit or other civil complaint, there has not been an enforceable standard in place in the United States nor in other major global jurisdictions.

This is not to say air quality regulation is coming soon, but it seems to be on the horizon. Besides, the market is pushing employers in this direction anyway. Even employers have begun to see the importance of wellness offerings to their staff’s productivity, recruitment and retention. The rise of the Chief Wellness Officer is testament to this trend: CWOs are now an integral part of corporate Return-to-Office plans. While acknowledging the importance of IAQ is vital to making a change, Wellness Officers haven’t had a clear idea of how to deal with it head-on. The White House is now making the “what to do” part clear.

The primary actions outlined in their guidance include, creating an action plan for clean indoor air, optimizing fresh air ventilation, enhancing air filtration and cleaning, and conducting community engagement/communication/education. The school infrastructure Action Plan includes planning tools to help schools improve air quality, energy efficiency, and more.

Microshare primarily deploys sensors to track the most important air quality indicators such as CO₂ levels, humidity, temperature, and other variables that have a direct bearing on safety and productivity. Our experience supports that there is a direct relationship between occupancy density and air quality.  As we look to understand the overall health of indoor environments, a combined view of occupancy and air provide actionable insights. EverSmart Air, our turnkey indoor air quality solution, produces this data in real-time to alert CWOs, HR staff and facilities managers to any problems and reassure occupants.

EverSmart Air creates the data that identifies all these issues with real-time monitoring, giving facilities professionals the dashboards, industry benchmarks and other tools they need to mitigate problems and provide occupants with peace of mind.

Ronald Rock | CEO, Co-founder | RRock@microshare.io