Where to work? Balancing air quality, energy efficiency and hybrid options

This month, we saw the alarming impact of unhealthy air across the northeastern U.S. from the wildfires ravaging through Canada. For many in the region, it was their first experience of the effects of this kind of natural disaster, with New York City recording amongst the worst air quality index (AQI) scores in the world and the worst in the city’s recorded history. The advice? Limit time outdoors – spend time indoors – especially for those with pre-existing respiratory conditions.

Compare this with our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. While several years ago, many people may not have questioned that the air in their office was safe to breathe or may not have considered the airborne pathogens from the person across the room could get them sick, the pandemic changed our understanding. Advice hinged on limiting contact with large groups in indoor spaces, with outdoor gatherings preferable. In other words, spend time outdoors.

How our buildings – our homes, workplaces, schools – protect us from poor indoor air quality (IAQ) is now at the forefront of the public consciousness, but it has long been a central tenet to our work at IWBI. While many employers advised staff to stay home when wildfire smoke was at its worst, the mechanical ventilation of commercial buildings is more likely to produce healthier air quality than a typical residential setting due to increased air changes, ventilation, controlled thermal comfort, filtration strategies, and ongoing maintenance and monitoring.

On June 8, our research team led the Where to work? Balancing air quality, energy efficiency, and hybrid work options webcast, hosted by IWBI’s Senior Vice President of Research Dr. Whitney Austin Gray and Vice President of Research Angela Loder. A panel of esteemed experts joined the conversation, including Adhishesh Sood, Global Policy and Partnerships Manager, Honeywell; Brian Gilligan, Director, General Services Administration; and Deepa Sathiaram, Executive Director, En3 Sustainability Solutions. The group discussed the cost of improved air quality for organizations, the connections between human health and climate change, and how trends in hybrid work can impact how commercial office spaces are designed and operated.

“The issue [surrounding] air quality is global. Air does not observe country borders, bounds or regions clearly, and the unhealthy conditions that [the northeastern U.S.] faces are conditions that those in Beijing face 10 months out of the year,” Dr. Gray said. “For those in New Delhi, there is a constant state of unhealthy air at an AQI of around 200 year-round. This kind of air quality is linked to over nine million deaths a year.”

When it comes to companies addressing indoor air quality, and why it’s important, Deepa Sathiaram said, “The outdoor air quality is getting worse, so we must look at improving this quality indoors. After the pandemic, we’re spending more time indoors with working from home and hybrid work, so this will become more and more important. We also need to look at the materials and their VOCs when it comes to designing these buildings.

“Companies are focusing on better designs. Today we’re looking at better filtration systems than ever before. Better ventilation designs. So there’s a lot on the design and construction side, and some on the facilities management side, too,” Sathiaram added.

Brian Gilligan and Dr. Gray also discussed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recent recommendation for IAQ, recommending five equivalent air changes an hour. Gilligan noted that “…[this] used to be the max, so we’re looking at a new standard [baseline] recommendation that used to be considered stringent before.

“As outdoor air quality worsens, this is a real opportunity to improve our buildings’ resilience, improving long term health – especially if we bundle this with a concerted effort towards delivering energy efficiency,” he said.

The relationship between energy efficiency and air quality is too often cited as a tension versus an opportunity. Dr. Gray sees these two areas as not at odds, but as an area for synergy. “Historically, energy efficiency has been easier to measure. Now we have new ways of measuring employee health and linking to the bottom line for a company. With hybrid work, we are rethinking energy efficient strategies that are also beneficial for human health, such as how to use smarter building technology to detect when spaces are occupied for energy use and communicating this to employees to encourage collaboration at peak times,” she noted.

Adhishesh Sood agreed. “You do not have to cannibalize on energy efficiency while you’re talking about indoor air quality,” he said. “Our stakeholders were coming back to us after receiving new guidance that their energy bills were going through the roof. They were told not to use any recirculated air, and they’re undertaking fresh ventilation all the time. So it’s really finding a happy medium.” Sood also spoke to the importance of sensor technology and placement to manage the balance in an optimal way.

Sathiaram expanded upon this by sharing the benefits of addressing sustainability and health outcomes. “With LEED, it was simple early on to demonstrate the cost benefits when it comes to energy savings. We tell clients that they need to look at WELL as an investment. At the end of the day, human health and well-being is critical. I see both as being so important – no matter how efficient we are, our buildings are for people and they need to address the needs of people.

“One great example of satisfying both is a project with Google in Bangalore, where they’ve utilized dynamic glazing for the first time in India. The facade changes the tint depending on natural light, and balances energy efficiency and wellness,” Sathiaram said.

Dr. Gray expanded on the connection between environmental quality and energy efficiency with lighting. “We know with eye fatigue the ability to adjust your own personal lighting solution can enable you to reduce the overhead lighting that in some cases we’ve linked to issues around headaches and migraines. So here we have potential, depending on how that lighting is controlled across to the floor, to improve energy efficiency and human health outcomes.”

With the link between climate change and human health so clear, workplaces and hybrid options that support health through indoor air quality and lighting are the way of the future and good business.

It is no longer a question of addressing either environmental sustainability or health. Instead, we must see them as “two lines of the same railway,” as Sathiaram noted. Without one, the other suffers.

See the full webcast here, and read more on the quest for resiliency in our buildings against wildfires here.