The world was brought to a standstill by a virus that spreads almost exclusively indoors, revealing a simple but long-ignored truth: your building can make you sick–or keep you well. Updated with the latest research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the new edition of Healthy Buildings provides evidence-based strategies for making buildings the first line of defense against airborne disease. 

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Viruses like the one that causes COVID-19 can travel much farther than six feet. Air quality scientists say that, from the start of the pandemic, it also should have focused on improving the air we all breathe indoors.

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The amount of ventilation, or fresh outdoor air brought inside, is a critical determinant of health. But does air quality also matter for workers’ productivity and cognitive ability? Research on knowledge workers suggests so

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A question on the mind of every business leader is: How do I re-populate my buildings and restart my business? As employees return to offices, the authors suggest a framework companies can deploy to keep people safe without crippling their businesses and our economy, as well as a series of health performance indicators to measure their progress.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressure for companies to ensure workspaces are better ventilated. But eco-friendly design guidelines call for ensuring that energy heating or cooling such spaces isn not wasted. Are healthy and green building principles in conflict? They don’t have to be. Several actions, such as regular building tune-ups, filters, air-quality monitoring, and electrification, can lead to progress on one front without diminishing it on the other.

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Organizations that aren’t yet thinking about how to implement real-time air-quality monitoring in their buildings should do so soon. First, because any employee or customer can now collect rudimentary data in real time. Second, because corporate air sensor networks can offer timely actionable information in moments of crisis, enhance worker health and productivity and help them achieve climate and sustainability goals. It is important to know which indicators to measure, including CO₂, PM_2.5, TVOCS, T/RH and to think carefully about sensor placement and density, the setting of thresholds, and response plans. 

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Forever chemicals are toxic and widely used in buildings and yet they remain on the rise globally with little regulation to control them. In the United States, for example, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations currently cover only forever chemicals in water—and only six of the more than 10,000. But organizations have a responsibility and role to play in eliminating them from workplaces in the same way they might have asbestos in years past. At Harvard University and several corporations, leaders are following a simple, two-part playbook: Demand transparency from suppliers and avoid entire classes of chemicals.

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