FutureAir

Category: air

Improving Indoor Air Health & Comfort

May 2016

From May 12-13, our co-founder and chief engineer Michael Wang will be joining the world’s leading innovators at the RE•WORK Connected Home Summit in Boston. The event will discuss creating the next generation of the smart connected home, by applying IoT and machine learning to create smarter, more efficient buildings.

The connected home growth rate is estimated to reach $490 billion in 2019. The Connected Home Summit will showcase the opportunities of emerging trends in the sector. Industry leading speakers, including CTOs, CEOs, founders, designers and engineers are experts in low-cost sensors, connected devices, automated systems, virtual assistants, security systems, energy meters, household appliances and wireless connectivity.

During his talk at 9:35 am on Friday, May 13 Michael Wang will cover improving indoor health and comfort, the intersection of design and technology, and FutureAir’s mission and hardware sensing platform.

If you are in the Boston area, this is a don’t miss event.

More details can be found here: https://re-work.co/events/connected-home-boston-2016

How Does Indoor Air Quality Affect You?

March 2016

3,000 gallons.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that’s how much air we each breathe in a day. You would think that taking in that much of anything into your body would be worth pausing to consider. And yet, even though breathing is one of the most vital and fundamental functions of life, we rarely give much thought to the air that envelops us.

When people do stop to think about air pollution, what comes to mind is outdoor pollution, acid rain, or images of the Beijing skyline hidden beneath smog. However, air pollution also manifests indoors through wood, oil, household cleaners, and building materials, and can be anywhere from 2 to up to 100 times the outdoor level. And since we spend 90% of our time indoors, could this potentially have a major effect on our health and productivity?

This is what Aclima, an environmental health startup, aims to measure and discover. In 2015, Aclima announced a partnership with Google to monitor not only outdoor but also indoor environmental air quality using a network of sensors. 500 sensors are connected across 21 global Google offices in order to measure 500 million data points a day including temperature, humidity, noise, light and air pollutants. The data collected can update and monitor real­time air quality information through backend software. The ability to measure these factors can lead to decision useful information in designing workspace and promoting the comfort, welfare and productivity of employees.

Resources:

Environmental Sensor Startup Aclima Is Studying The Air Googlers Breathe


https://aclima.io/blog/posts/aclima-google-map-air-quality/
http://www3.epa.gov/air/basic.html

Photo credit: TechCrunch

Taking on Indoor Air

February 2016

From a short visit to a remote village in South America emerged the seed of an idea.

In an otherwise exquisitely designed yet simple home, I experienced the unexpected and fantastic feeling of no temperature at all, of perfect comfort. A combination of natural airflow and a simple ceiling fan made this happen.

Nevertheless, the conventional ceiling fan above was a visual eyesore in contrast with surrounding well-designed interior space. The ceiling fan, still a basic propeller form, was dated and old-fashioned.

At FutureAir, we are reimagining indoor air. Our mission is to improve indoor air quality comfort and energy efficiency.

On the FutureAir blog we will share a collection of ideas, news and research to keep you informed on all things air related to design, science, technology and the environment. We’ll also give you an inside look into what we are working on and thinking about at FutureAir.

If you want more information, have a question or there’s something you’d like us to write about, just leave a comment on one of our posts. We’d love to hear from you.

COP21 Paris Round-Up

December 2015

After COP21, we wanted to take a moment to highlight key background information along with our recommendations on how to learn more and to get involved following the positive momentum from Paris.

Key COP 21 Leaders

    1. Laurent Fabius, COP President & French Foreign Minister – “Paris 2015 Climate deal must have legal force”
    2. General Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary – “calls on leaders to take drought seriously”
    3. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India – “steered India’s elevation from spoiler to facilitator”
    4. Todd Stern, US Special Envoy for Climate Change – “formed climate consensus with China with hostile congress at his back”
    5. John Kerry, US Secretary of State – “world must seize chance to kill climate warming HFC’s”
    6. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCC – “Turning Point is here. Join the wave of change”

Two of Our Favorite COP21 Articles

    1. Natural Resources Defense Council (Rhea Suh) – An Insider’s Journal from the Paris Climate Talks
    2. New York Times (Justin Gillis) – Climate Accord Is a Healing Step, if Not a Cure

Films To Watch

The Burden
300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds
Do The Math
Consumed
Racing Extinction
Time to Choose

Books to Read

    1. The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
    2. Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway
    3. End of Nature & Cradle to Cradle by Bill Mckibben
    4. Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
    5. This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Be Informed – Join the Movement

www.350.org
www.climaterealityproject.org
www.climatemama.com
http://www.climatechangenews.com/

Other Favorites

Climate Action
Circular Ecology
Climate Environment
Earth Justice
Nature
NRDC
Planet Green
Sierra Club

For a Cleaner Planet

October 2015

It’s been a busy few – climate focused – weeks here at FutureAir. On September 21st, during Climate Week NYC, I hosted a lively discussion alongside architect and wind farm entrepreneur, Matthew Baird. Taking place at Civic Hall, we discussed data and presented dramatic images that depict the state of our climate. Matthew spoke about the success he has found in developing and selling renewable energy, in addition to running his successful NYC-based architectural practice.

Directly following my Climate Talk in NY, I went to Miami where I was honored to be a mentor at Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training. Covering topics such as climate science and climate crisis solutions, the three-day conference was filled to capacity with individuals and thought leaders from around the globe who wanted to learn more and take action.

With December’s Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris fast approaching, the conversation about our climate is heating up. I am pleased that this topic is getting more attention, with everyone from presidential candidates and the Pope, to businesses and policy makers getting involved.

Since the state of our climate is so top of mind, I thought I would briefly share an impactful life experience that provoked my concern for our planet and part of the inspiration behind FutureAir.

In 2014, I spent six transformative months living and working in Shanghai. I fell in love with the international metropolis and could not get enough of Chinese language and culture.

Despite my affection for the city, I simply could not understand how it could be commonplace for people to consult an outdoor air quality app, daily, to decide how much time they would spend outdoors. My disbelief was coupled with dismay at seeing so many facemasks as I explored the multicultural city. But what I grappled with most was witnessing the innocent kids who use them everyday, regardless of air quality, because they have grown so accustomed to wearing them.

Living in the United States, we are lucky that this is not our everyday reality. YET. It was from then on that I decided to take action and work to affect tangible change. My hope is for FutureAir to do its part to create a healthier home and cleaner planet.

Discussing the Climate Crisis

September 2015

In honor of Climate Week NYC and our commitment to taking action, our founder Simone, will be giving a Climate Reality talk followed by a lively conversation with architect and wind farm entrepreneur, Matthew Baird about how we can all take action.

Following intense training with Al Gore this past spring, Simone became a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.  With this comes access to the Climate Reality Project library of incredibly compelling data, moving images and a commitment to spread the word about the seriousness of climate change.

It’s a hot topic, join us. Send us an email or sign up here.

Monday, September 21, 2015 – 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM ET

Civic Hall
156 5th Avenue
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10010

For more on climate change, take a look at the Climate Reality The Business of Climate Solutions webinar. Simone participated as a panelist in the August 27 discussion, which covered how businesses are going green and its affect on their bottom line.

Climate Crisis = Reality

July 2015

A concern for the health of our planet is a part of our DNA, so attending Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training was critical to understanding the science behind climate change.

The Climate Reality Project’s mission is to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis through education and encouraging urgent action.

The Road to Paris, the organization’s latest, more urgent campaign is aimed at uniting citizens, corporations, and organizations to demand a global agreement to limit greenhouse gases at this December’s United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of the Parties meeting in Paris (COP21).

We’ve made a commitment to act, to be a catalyst for change. We were honored to participate in the Climate Reality Leadership Training this past May where we spent three empowering and life-changing days in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with world-class scientists, strategists, communicators, and technical specialists learning about the science of climate change and the direct results on communities around the world.

A few takeaways:

  • We were super impressed by Al Gore’s passion, energy and in depth knowledge of the scientific and historic data on climate change
  • We enjoyed meeting an incredibly diverse group of Climate Leaders of mentors, speakers and attendees. – From students, farmers and filmmakers to builders, museum directors and professors from all over the world each was eager to learn and make a difference by helping spread word of the urgent need to change our path of destruction
  • We were surprised by the progress made by the state of Iowa in growing jobs in manufacturing by creating renewable energy sources which now supply 30% of the state’s energy with mostly wind and some solar

For a general overview on the climate crisis check out Climate Reality’s Climate 101.

Get involved. Be a part of the solution.