As COVID-19 becomes endemic and hybrid working becomes the norm, a great deal of time and energy is going into managing a safe return to the office and a move to new styles of working.
As hard FM systems are adjusted to suit new workplace expectations and futureproof sites, Johnpaul Pearson, Business Support Director at Anabas, talks about understanding workplaces and using technology to better design and plan a workplace of the future. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we were witnessing a shift in how organizations utilize their workplaces.
Stimulating collaborative activities
Greater emphases have been placed on promoting employee wellbeing, encouraging creative thinking, and stimulating collaborative activities, with corporate office spaces, in particular, being repurposed to embrace new, more flexible working conditions. The pandemic has accelerated and expanded this trend dramatically.
Organizations also need to update their workspace health and safety precautions
Not only have companies come to realize the benefits and necessities of permitting remote and hybrid patterns of work, but the events of the past two years have also thrust our daily exposure to pathogens into the limelight. As a result, organizations also need to update their workspace health and safety precautions. Be it improving ventilation, increasing cleaning activities, or introducing capacity limits and social distancing measures, never has managing indoor air quality been of greater significance to ensuring offices are attractive and productive spaces for employees to work in.
Beyond direct exposure
But before we get to this stage, we must understand the air we breathe. Here, I will set out why this is so important. Firstly, the fact that air quality is in the spotlight is a good thing. With so much of our daily lives currently focused on health – and airborne illness particularly – increasing attention is being paid to air quality and this isn’t a trend that will end any time soon.
Many respiratory illnesses are, like COVID-19, airborne. Every year, flu alone is responsible for hundreds of thousands of GP visits. However, air quality has a huge impact beyond direct exposure to pathogens; environmental pollution could be responsible for 40,000 early deaths every year. And exposure to air pollution extends far beyond the fumes inhaled when walking along a busy road.
Volatile organic compounds
It should come as no surprise that air quality is an important determining factor regarding our health
Sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are near-ubiquitous in daily life, from perfumes and cleaning products to building materials and mattresses. Ongoing exposure to VOCs can lead to long-term health issues – for instance, poor air quality has long been associated with sick building syndrome, which leads to illness and higher rates of presenteeism as employees find themselves tired and lacking focus.
It should come as no surprise that air quality is an important determining factor regarding our health. Each person consumes around 2.5 kilos of food per day and drinks 2-3 liters of water. While not everyone eats as well as they like, we are all aware that the quality of the food we put into our bodies is important, and no one would willingly drink dirty or polluted water.
Indoor air quality
However, each person breathes around 11,000 liters of air each day, yet rarely do we consider the quality of the air we take in, especially when indoors. This is critical, as several studies indicate that Americans and Brits spend as much as 90% of their time inside. But the narrative is changing. This increased attention on indoor air quality is sparking a new health consciousness that is unlikely to disappear after the pandemic.
Each person breathes around 11,000 liters of air each day, yet rarely do we consider the quality of the air
Before organizations can take steps to improve the air quality in their workplaces, it is vital they have the know-how and tools to measure and understand it properly. For example, CO2 monitors, like those the government is installing in schools, offer a simple and effective way of measuring the effectiveness of ventilation. Because we exhale CO2, high levels being found inside means the air being breathed out and most likely to contain pathogens is not being removed from the space.
Informed spending decisions
But there are also far more sophisticated sensors on offer that can provide ratings on a host of important air quality metrics. We have installed sensors on a room-by-room basis with multiple clients. These devices measure in real-time levels of particulate matter, CO2, radon, and VOCs, as well as humidity, temperature, and air pressure – information which feeds into an overall virus risk rating that determines how safe a room is to use at any one time.
Real-time data from such monitors and devices is displayed on screens in office lobbies and at reception desks to assure all site users – furthermore, the data can be used by decision-makers to make informed spending decisions and direct air quality investment to areas of their workplaces where it is most needed.
Activating air recirculation
Car manufacturers are also leveraging smart technology in their air conditioning systems
It’s an exciting time to be working on air quality as it has the potential to transform the health of cities and individuals alike. With moves to create a greener country and the UK government’s target to hit net zero by 2050, monitoring CO2 and other air pollutants will become increasingly important for organizations to demonstrate that they are doing their bit.
As technology becomes increasingly streamlined and sophisticated, we may also begin to see air quality monitors being integrated into smart devices such as watches and phones, with wearable health monitors such as Fitbits already commonplace. Car manufacturers are also leveraging smart technology in their air conditioning systems. By measuring oxidizable or reducible gases (such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons) in the air outside, control systems can respond by activating air recirculation which stops the polluted air from entering the vehicle.
Air control systems
There is no reason why the same principles can’t be applied to air control systems in buildings in the future. With COVID-19 likely to become endemic within the UK population, devices that can monitor the likelihood of viral transmission have huge potential and should be something employers look at as part of their workplace offering.
The pandemic has been a huge shock and a tragedy to many parts of the world, but it has also opened many eyes to the attention – or lack thereof – that we pay to our health on a daily basis. These pressures have brought rapid technological innovation and changed the way people interact, and it certainly has the potential to change much more in the coming years.
For corporations, being at the forefront of the movement for cleaner air will be one of the major ways they can reassure and persuade employees to return to the workplace. This will only happen if we truly understand the air we breathe.
