Greater access to low-cost indoor air quality (IAQ) sensors may create new scrutiny for facility management teams. As technology advances, more employees and tenants will be able to independently measure ventilation and filtration, identify a wider range of contaminants, and evaluate building performance.
Dr. Joseph Allen, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program, and an IFMA Global Fellow, said facility managers are entering an era of unprecedented transparency, where occupants may hold operators and owners accountable for a building’s condition.
The shift comes as organizations prioritize workplace experience and invest in return-to-office strategies. “Buildings are the single greatest health and business opportunity of this century,” said Allen during a recent IFMA webinar. “The person who manages your building has a greater impact on your health than your doctor.”
Indoor air quality: a critical focus
Science is giving building occupants more reason to care. A landmark 2021 study by the Healthy Buildings Program, conducted among 302 office workers across the globe, found that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon dioxide (CO2) directly impacts cognitive performance and influences decision-making, creativity, problem-solving, and information processing.
During testing, researchers recorded 0.8-0.9 per cent slower response times for every 10ug/m3 increase in PM2.5. Throughput (correct responses per minute) was 0.8-1.7 per cent lower for the same concentration increase. They also found that for every 500ppm increase in CO2, response times were 1.4-1.8 per cent slower, with 2.1-2.4 per cent lower throughput.
Newer issues are adding pressure. Airborne infectious diseases can travel along air currents, linger in the air, or stick to surfaces, where they are eventually inhaled by someone. As wildfires grow more frequent and intense, the resulting smoke creates exposure to gaseous and particulate matter air pollution that is associated with acute and chronic health conditions.
Such challenges have elevated IAQ from a technical concern to a human-centric priority. Kwok Wai THam, associate professor in the department of the built environment at the National University of Singapore and president of Indoor Air 2026, the flagship event of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ), recently said during an Air Quality Matters podcast in June that the most important industry shift in the last two decades has been the recognition that clean indoor air is a fundamental human right, much like access to clean water.
Higher ventilation rates and enhanced filtration that exceed current minimum targets are now important public health strategies. The IAQ focus is also no longer anchored to reactive maintenance but proactive bio-surveillance, real-time sensor networks, and predictive analytics powered by artificial intelligence. Buildings are now capable of detecting, responding to, and mitigating IAQ problems before occupants even notice.
The future of IAQ monitoring set to empower consumers
Building occupants who rely on subjective observations about stale or stuffy spaces, and related symptoms such as itchy eyes and headaches, can now support their concerns with measurable data about carbon dioxide and particulate matter levels.
“That’s never been available to people before,” Allen said. “[The result] is a power shift because it’s putting the knowledge and information in the hands of the consumer, the employee, or a customer at your restaurant.”
This technology is set to become even more accessible. Allen predicts that personal smartphones will soon provide real-time IAQ information, similar to outdoor air quality data that is already available through public monitoring networks on mobile apps.
Whether data stems from built-in phone sensors or from crowd-sourcing, he expects future sensors to become cheaper, more accurate, and able to quickly detect a wider range of contaminants such as formaldehyde, as well as specific viruses and bacteria. This increased visibility into building performance may likely raise occupant expectations and create opportunities for organizations that showcase healthy indoor environments.
As employers focus more on collaboration and workplace amenities, Allen’s advice is to not overlook IAQ. “You’re trying to spur innovation at your company—spending all this money to bring your high performers back in,” he mused. “You have this beautiful amenitized space and bad indoor air quality. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Many buildings have limited the amount of outdoor air brought indoors, which can contribute to drowsiness and reduced cognitive performance. Pairing good ventilation with high-grade filtration can help control both outdoor pollutants entering the building and indoor pollutants that are recirculated. FMs may also need to develop new expertise around monitoring, interpreting, and communicating building performance to the people they serve as indoor environmental quality becomes a more visible measure of workplace experience.
“If you’re not getting a handle on that right now in your facility, sure enough, someone is going to tell you what the data is,” said Allen. “And you’re going to be caught off guard in a year or two as new sensors become available.”
