If you asked a building or facilities professional how they address indoor air quality (IAQ) in their spaces, they would probably point you in the direction of building code. The problem is that the building code is only designed to meet the minimum standards for air quality. In other words, the code aims to minimize health issues related to poor IAQ, instead of going above and beyond to optimize the health and wellbeing of the people inside.
Certain building certifications like WELL, LEED, and Fitwel provide deeper guidance into how buildings can ensure their occupants breathe clean air, but there’s still a lack of consensus among these certifications. Plus, many of these are just recommendations and not strictly enforced. As a result, we only see a small percentage of buildings that actually pursue and achieve these certifications.
Ultimately, it’s up to each company to decide which IAQ policies they are willing to commit to, and who will take ownership—the facilities team, building engineers, the workplace team, and even the HR team all play a role in this.
Before we can get into the details of how we should plan and execute an IAQ project, the crucial first step is understanding why we should care so much about improving the air our occupants and employees breathe.
The Silent Killer of 7 Million People
A common misconception many people have is that poor air quality only affects certain parts of the world (we’ve all seen pictures of Beijing during heavy pollution). The truth is, less than 1% of people around the world breathe air that meets the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The health-related consequences of this can be devastating, from infections and heart disease to stroke and respiratory distress.
In total, the cumulative impact of outdoor and indoor air pollution results in 7 million premature deaths each year worldwide. To put that number into context, poor IAQ has a greater impact on our health and quality of life than malaria, HIV, drugs, alcohol, and even war. The data couldn’t be more clear: air quality is a crisis that can no longer be ignored, and we have to start doing something about it.
The Role of the Workplace in Improving Health and Wellbeing
Tackling air pollution is too big of a job for one person to handle, but there is a way that workplace leaders can help protect their employees from the health-related impacts of breathing polluted air. It all starts with the air that circulates your building.
Unlike outdoor air, we can completely control the air that’s inside our buildings. That means poor IAQ is a 100% solvable problem! Because we spend 90% of our time indoors, an effective IAQ solution can drastically reduce the amount of polluted air we breathe every day. As an employer, building owner/operator, or facility management professional, you could potentially have a greater positive impact on your occupants’ health and well-being than their doctors—just by improving the air they breathe at work.
Looking Beyond Building Code and Prescriptive Metrics
Improving IAQ in the workplace requires a shift in how we think about our spaces. First and foremost, we have to see code for what it is: a checklist (i.e., a “this building hopefully won’t kill you” checklist). Meeting code criteria is a necessary first step to having a healthy building, but we have to be more aspirational and go above and beyond what the code requires to promote health and wellbeing, instead of simply trying to prevent employees from getting sick.
The second part of the equation is changing how we evaluate air quality. Many buildings rely on prescriptive engineering metrics, like HVAC set points and airflow rates, to get an idea of how effectively their building delivers fresh air. The challenge here is twofold. First, these metrics are only meaningful to engineers. Second, they don’t measure or guarantee outcomes.
HVAC systems are built to specific conditions in each space, but we know that spaces get repurposed all the time, occupancy levels fluctuate throughout the day, the original room design gets changed, and equipment eventually breaks down. Prescriptive engineering metrics aren’t equipped or designed to provide real-time data to help us understand how these events actively impact air quality.
Instead of looking at prescriptive parameters to see how buildings should perform, we should measure IAQ data in real time to know how the building is actually performing. With performance-based data, we gain the most accurate picture of air quality in our buildings and can be confident that our occupants are in a healthy space.
Why We Have to Shift the Mindset About IAQ
The great news is that we have performance-based IAQ monitors available to help quantify the health and well-being of our spaces. The not-so-great news is that many companies hesitate to invest in IAQ solutions because they’re more focused on the immediate costs than the long-term benefits. However, when you crunch the numbers, you’ll find that IAQ monitoring and improvement take up a very small percentage of the budget for a multi-million dollar building.
It’s not uncommon to see a company spend $100 million to construct a state-of-the-art, high-performance office building with the latest technology and amenities, only to question the ROI of a $10,000 annual budget for IAQ monitoring—an investment that directly improves employee health and wellbeing, which leads to higher productivity and satisfaction.
What Are the Next Steps Building and Workplace Leaders Should Take?
Shifting the mindset about IAQ is just the first step to creating a healthier workplace. The next phase is initiating an IAQ project, which includes four key steps:
1. Get aligned with your team. Understand that IAQ is not the sole responsibility of the building engineers or facility managers. This should be a priority for the entire company, as it impacts your most valuable asset: your employees.
2. Structure your budget correctly. Make separate budgets for IAQ monitoring and improvement. Simply having the data isn’t enough; be sure you can address the issues that you discover in your IAQ data.
3. Don’t treat IAQ as an afterthought. Strategically prioritize and budget for IAQ early on, either during the building design process or during your search for a rental location. If you’re renting office space, get IAQ terms into your leasing service level agreements (SLAs) before you sign.
4. Create a data strategy. Many projects install monitors just to tick a box for building certification requirements, and most of the time the data sits untouched on a dashboard. Make sure you have the time, expertise, and technology in place to help you get the most out of your data.
Investing in better IAQ for the workplace will yield enormous long-term benefits for both the company and its employees. Until the standards change, it’s up to each company and building to decide if they will go beyond the bare minimum to create a workplace that truly promotes the health, well-being, and productivity of its employees.
