Should you be considering improving Indoor Air Quality in your building?

Poor air quality in the UK contributes to 40,000 premature deaths per year and is not just linked to the big cities.

Clean air is a vital component of health and well being. Indeed, the United Nations reported that air quality in 44 UK towns and cities was too dangerous to breathe.

Most of our working and living time is now spent indoors where the air quality can be just as bad and even worse than outdoors. In 8 hours we can inhale up to 4,000 litres of air.  Do you know the quality of air that you are breathing?

Why should you monitor indoor air? 

The air quality in your building can be impacted by the ambient outdoor air quality which is polluted by vehicle emissions, industrial and construction sites, by poor ventilation practices and poor quality building materials and consumer products.

This can lead to lower productivity, fatigue and headaches which are all symptoms of sick building syndrome (SBS). However, these are short term reactions to poor air quality in buildings. Longer term poor air quality can cause or worsen respiratory conditions, cause heart and lung disease or even lead to cancer. The health and wellbeing of building occupants and its employees is increasing in importance, and should be protected and optimised where possible. Studies revealed that an effective workplace can increase productivity by 3.5% which is roughly 15 mins a day per person and for an office of 100 people this represents a monetary value of approximately £100,000 per year. 

But what can we do?

Firstly, auditing the current air quality in your building to see where you stand would be vital for benchmarking and adding in improvement plan. Which is where we come in. Veolia can provide a complete solution that includes audits, real-time monitoring, visualisation, analytics and purification solutions. We are able to monitor the key building pollutants in Carbon Dioxide, Particulate Matter and Volatile Organic Compounds and even go further than this if required to monitor NOx, formaldehyde and Ozone depending upon the use, nature and location of buildings.

Your business can then consider our range of technical solutions to optimise and purify the air. Depending on the extent of pollution and the nature and use of the building Veolia offer a number of purification options that look great, fit seamlessly into your building and are easy to maintain. 

Poor air quality in the UK contributes to 40,000 premature deaths per year

In 8 hours we can inhale up to 4,000 litres of air

An effective workplace can increase productivity by 3.5%

How could this benefit you?

  • Building owners can increase rent for providing healthy indoor spaces, more saleable/rentable space.

  • Hotels can utilise clean air is a differentiator in this field as people become more aware, concerned and active in healthy living practices.

  • Hospitals can ensure confidence and security of clean air environments with the reduction of harmful bacteria and infections in the air.

  • Offices can improve productivity of workers, reduce sick leave, attract and retain talent.

  • Schools and Universities can protect children and student’s health.