FutureAir

Tag: Indoor Air

This is Air

April 2020

‘There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”‘

David Foster Wallace famously relayed the fish parable during his 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College. The tale prefaced a lecture arguing against living an oblivious, unconscious life. Now, his most widely read essay, “This is Water”, is a testament of the times; times in which we often chose oblivion over awareness.

Over the course of the past five years, FutureAir has focused on the science of air – examining how and why indoor air is often more dangerous than the air outside – with the goal of improving the air we breathe indoors. The formula is simple: expand awareness of the problem and then provide a solution. We want people to look around and ask “What the hell is indoor air?” and later yell out, “AIR IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST TEMPERATURE!”

Most of us never thought to question the air in the spaces where we spend most of our time – home, office, school; we didn’t think twice when buildings were sealed and non-operable became the norm. We do not even consider that thermostats should measure more than just temperature; nor can we recall when the first state-wide ban on smoking indoors went into effect (in 1995).

FutureAir’s inquiry into the seemingly common elements that surround us begs the importance of considering “hard-to-see” forces at work around us. FutureAir awakens us to the reality that the systems most familiar to us are often the ones we question the least and the things we take for granted may lead to unforeseen harm. In probing the atmosphere around us, we uncover endless opportunities for improvement.

Read the next segment of our inquiry into the invisible forces around us here.

Wallace, David Foster. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown, 2009.

Written by Mollie Wodenshek for Future Air

Dumb and Dumb Air

May 2019

A recent article from The New York Times suggests that the conversation about indoor air quality has entered the collective consciousness. That is to say, beyond physical health risks, indoor air quality effects on our mental capabilities as well.

For the last fifty years, builders and contractors have focused on eliminating the threats of outdoor air pollution while inside. Building codes require sealing that reduce the amount of air flow in exchange for better greater efficiency for heating and cooling systems. However, these sealing processes have created dangerous indoor climates. When we sit in sealed room toxins from chemical product treatments and our own human breath build up and create harmful environments.

Studies have demonstrated the detrimental effects that indoor air toxins pose to brain function. In 2009, William Fisk, a mechanical engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, experimented with indoor air pollution and found that people performed far worse when exposed to levels of carbon dioxide at 2,500ppm than those exposed to 1,000ppm of carbon dioxide. The New York Times stated that these levels are not usual in crowded spaces.

Since Dr. Fisk’s study, other scientists have taken up the issue of indoor air pollution. A Harvard study tracked its participants over a six-day period. They found that over the time span, as the levels of carbon dioxide grew from 500 ppm to 1,400 ppm, participants test score plummeted. The scientists were stunned by the results, not because of the decline in mental functions, but because the carbon dioxide levels they experimented with were not unusual. The levels of carbon dioxide they tested could be found in most indoor settings.

Although these studies demonstrate a negative relationship between indoor air quality and cognitive performance, the evidence is still far and few between. As The Times pointe out, other experiments have not met the same conclusion. The truth is that if you’re not looking for the effects of indoor air pollution, then you will not find them. Indoor air pollution is a silent killer.

Ultimately, we spend most of our times indoors and most of the time, our most important decisions are made indoors, often in small rooms with no ventilation. The New York Times’ article, “Is Conference Room Air Making You Dumber?” begs the question.

Other evidence suggests, “increasing the ventilation rate in schools can raise children’s scores on tests and speed at tasks, and reduce absences.” If we are already designing spaces for maximum performance and productivity, then these studies suggest going the extra mile to account for the factors that we cannot see.

The article concluded, “without a specialized sensor, you can’t really know how much carbon dioxide is building up while you hunker down in a small room for a long meeting.” If we only change the things that we can see and measure (think heating and cooling efficiency) than it is imminent that we invest in tools to make the invisible visible. Accounting for air quality in the spaces we spend the most time in will improve our health, cognitive functions, and our peace of mind.

“Is Conference Room Air Making You Dumber?” The New York Times

Written for FutureAir by Mollie Wodenshek

Image Credit: Hanna Barczyk

Healthy Materials

March 2019

Parson’s Healthy Materials Lab gave a talk entitled: The New Frontier of Materials: Human Health & Design that we at FutureAir believe is worth documenting.

Speakers outlined the dangers of the built environment. No one intends to pollute indoor air in building construction, but the chemical cocktail trapped inside poses an invisible threat—it is a silent epidemic.

The speakers presented a metaphor between the food we eat and the air we breathe. Just like the food we ingest, the air we breathe also becomes a part of our bodies and enters our system. So if we label the ingredients on food items should we not also label the ingredients in the air? Shouldn’t we identify where these air pollutants come from—which products, which materials? We have a right to know which items contribute to the composition of the poisonous indoor environments we spend more than 90%of our time in.

The goal of the Healthy Materials Lab is to bring awareness to the health threats posed by poor air in our indoor environments. They do this by producing and conducting case studies, and their website is pretty much an encyclopedia for all things chemical toxins in the home. Finally, they partner with companies in the construction field to incentivize healthy building material choices.

Ultimately, the chemicals of concern may never go away, but we can make and encourage better decisions that lead to healthier realities. An important point that was raised was that most members of the Healthy Materials Lab are designers in practice. They want to create beautiful environments that are also sustainable and healthy. With the current climate crisis, it seems we all have to double down and integrate a sustainable practice into our work and lives to build a world we can live and thrive in.

Written for FutureAir by Mollie Wodenshek

Image Credit: Builder Magazine

The FutureAir Mission

March 2019

Musings on Language and Culture

I remember a time in college when I believed that language could change the world. I thought if we altered our vocabulary we could alter our perspectives. A sort of reverse brain wiring. Although the relationship between language and brain development has been hotly contested, especially amongst psychoanalysts, I still believed in the power of language to shape perspective and culture. By now, I have come to accept language as a tool rather than the end. So, how do we choose words to reflect the future culture we want to see. How do we build the world we want to live in through language?

In working with FutureAir, I have come to recognize the importance of the moment we are in. FutureAir is more than a startup company designing a product to offer a solution to a problem. Beyond FutureAir’s utilitarian value, we are creating awareness. We are opening a door. Perhaps we are opening Pandora’s box, but it is a risk we are willing to take.

The idea of FutureAir is to reevaluate the spaces we spend the most time in and explore the effect of those environments on our health. As a society, since the post-Vietnam war era, we have turned attention toward outdoor air pollution. We have created ways to mitigate the human effect on air pollution. We have enacted measures and plans to counteract the effects of carbon emissions in the air. However, all the while we have been caring for the health of our planet, we have neglected to observe environmental issues closest to home–those within the home. How do the microclimates affect our human health?

What is Clean Indoor Air?

FutureAir is focused on indoor air. In fact, FutureAir hopes to consider indoor air as a resource like outdoor air, water, fossil fuels, etc. In considering indoor air a resource it becomes a part of the common.

In the capitalist American society we live and work in, the common has often become privatized to make a quick buck off exploiting people’s needs while simultaneously excluding low socioeconomic communities from access to resources. FutureAir does not claim to solve this ingrained issue, but we do profess to be a socially-conscious company.

With FutureAir, we are introducing a new resource to the market. The question is: how can we market and brand FutureAir to acknowledge the failures of modern architecture and the dangers of indoor air, while also making the company, and the resource of clean indoor air, inclusive?

Ultimately, everyone deserves access to clean indoor air and FutureAir’s Smart Air Manager™
will allow consumers to monitor the quality of air within their homes. However, FutureAir also hopes to share knowledge, generate awareness, and create behavior change. Perhaps the latter will be met through the language we utilize to shape our mission.

The Dictatorship on Words

On the morning of Martin Luther King Day 2019, I sat down to my computer to address some language choice issues on FutureAir’s one sheet. Co-founder and CEO, Simone Rothman, her daughter, Tess Gruenberg, and I were struggling over how to properly define the mission of FutureAir. We set out to figure out how FutureAir relates to indoor air. Initially, we called clean indoor air a luxury resource, however, luxury necessitated exclusivity, which is counter to the foundation of FutureAir. So, we discussed the novel idea of clean indoor air as, simply, a resource.

I came to realize that clean indoor air was indeed a resource like any other (i.e. air, water, solar, etc.). A resource is defined as a stock or supply of assets that can be drawn on to function effectively. Research has demonstrated the value of clean indoor air as a means for greater health and productivity amongst a workforce. Therefore, clean indoor air is something we need to function effectively. However, the difference between clean indoor air and other common resources listed before is the descriptive word “clean”.

The fact is, clean indoor air is not currently a given. Additionally, clean indoor air is limited. Workplaces, institutions, homes and other buildings have neglected to consider indoor air quality in building infrastructure at least since the 80s. Only in the 2010s have we seen a reversal of this negligent thinking. In FutureAir’s endeavor to bring awareness to the polluted nature of indoor air and provide a means to clean it, we are creating a resource that does not currently exist. It is a resource that comes out of deterioration and reckless development. It is a resource that comes out of decay; perhaps it rises from the ashes.

So the question remains, how do we frame clean indoor air as a resource when it is born from decay and not inherently abundant? How do we frame clean indoor air as a resource when it is a result of the man-made built environment? This brought an even deeper question: how do we, as a society, recognize nature as ubiquitous and not mutually exclusive from the man-made environment?

Ontologically…

As we parsed words on Martin Luther King day, I began to think about Martin Luther King, the master orator, and a MLK scholar I had seen speak at Colorado College in 2017, Russell Rickford. Rickford recited a poetic analysis of the “true” Martin Luther King versus the “King” that is socially acceptable, force-fed to us to the point of regurgitation.

The former King spoke of nonviolence but his orations threatened the status quo of society. He spoke of things that divided people in order to uplift Black Americans who had been oppressed and pushed to the fringes of society. He adamantly spoke out against imperialism and the war in Vietnam. He valued protest.

The latter King is white-washed and passive. He believes in love as the driving force behind unity. He is nonviolent to the point of non-threatening. He is the King we are enticed to remember in order to keep the rest of us silent.

The latter King is palatable, easy to digest for the people in society who benefit from capitalism, imperialism, and oppression. The latter King makes it seem as if equality has been achieved, and we all stand equal in society. The latter King paints a picture of inclusivity without one actually existing.

In Conclusion

The connection between MLK day and the word choice debacle with FutureAir is not to say that FutureAir’s issues are comparable to the Civil Rights Movement. But the lesson to be learned from King is about who dictates history. The people who write history are most often the ones who benefit from it.

In developing the FutureAir brand and creating a new resource of clean indoor air, we are in effect writing history. We are not alone in this process either. Other companies are also serving to create clean indoor air. In this crucial environmental moment, we have a choice between accessibility and exclusivity.

So much of the sustainable movement has been commodified. This is not to say that commodification is unnecessary or bad. However, commodification can result in exclusivity that makes the common inaccessible. Think bottled water. The difference between water and clean indoor air is that although both are currently limited, clean indoor air has the potential to be abundant.

Air, as a natural resource, affects us in the manufactured domain in the form of indoor air. In its current state, indoor air is polluted. Thus, clean indoor air is, in theory, a new resource. As a resource, it is by nature, common. FutureAir and others are working to introduce the importance of clean indoor air into society’s environmental consciousness so everyone has the opportunity to benefit from it.

Tools and means to achieve clean indoor air may be a luxury, but it is important to remember that knowledge itself does not have to be commodified. With FutureAir, we hope to choose words that express the common nature of clean indoor air, and more importantly, how critical clean indoor air is to human health. FutureAir’s Smart Air Manager™ is a tool, but it is not the end. At FutureAir we are creating a means to achieve the next indispensable resource: clean indoor air.

Written by Mollie Wodenshek for FutureAir

References
Rickford, Russell, “It’s time to reclaim the true Martin Luther King,” Washington Post, 2018.

Measure Air, Change Air

March 2019

During the Industrial Revolution, humanity adopted the mantra, “Ignorance is bliss.” Collateral damage went unobserved. Side effects were not on the radar. We built this world inconsequentially.

In the modern age, societally, we have turned towards awareness. Droves of people have come to the forefront of development in order to remedy years of ignorance that have led to a sickening of humanity and our one and only Planet. Perhaps, we were truly ignorant in the past, or perhaps, we can forgo our ignorant perspective because now we have the means to change. But, how do we enact this change?

Public Health Policy & Law

Research from Jamie Chriqui, Jean O’Connor, and Frank Chaloupka, produced in 2011, evaluated the necessity of policy for public health awareness. Their article, “What Gets Measured Gets Changed: Evaluating Law and Policy for Maximum Impact,” uses examples of tobacco, obesity, and vaccination policy to demonstrate how change takes effect. In their review, they noted the importance of public health policy and law surveillance. In order to enforce behavioral change the “policy inputs” must be measured. In-depth analysis of policy provides information about what does and does not work.

A critical focus of the article concerned the “feedback loop” in making law and policy. In a sense, policy making is a bit of trial and error. Public health policy and law are the tools for change. The results of the implemented policy affect the on-going modification of that very policy. It is important to remember that policies evolve over time.

Ultimately, it is not enough to simply observe a problem, enforce a policy like a bandage, and call it a day. Implementing change is only half the battle. “We must ‘measure’ or evaluate the nuances of a given policy by evaluating its breadth and depth in a systematic and reliable fashion,” write the authors. Continuous surveillance allows policymakers to recognize where policy is successful and where it needs improvement.

Smart Air Manager

In the modern age of awareness, we need to evaluate the spaces where we spend our time as components of health. What’s more, we need to observe the invisible forces at work that affect our lives. We spend 90% of our time indoors, and yet there is little research on how indoor climates affect our health. FutureAir is designing a product to observe our indoor air. This monitoring system will allow us to work smarter to protect our health.

SAM™ is FutureAir’s Smart Air Manager that measures and reports air quality information in real time. SAM™ reports the levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH₄), temperature, and humidity. We already know that these chemicals can create toxic environments. SAM™ tells us when these components reach harmful levels, and it initiates action to improve air quality.

The dashboard above is an overview of a complete week of data generated by SAM™. The bottom axis represents the day of the week, and the line graphs the particles per million of each element in the air (or, in the case of temperature and humidity, the graph shows the degrees and percentage respectively). The graph is also color coordinated for easy reading of the air. When the line is red, the air quality is dangerous–blue indicates air within the normal parameters, as defined by international agencies such as the EPA. The gray shadow map represents the previous day’s measurements for easy comparison.

On this particular graph, the VOC’s and CO levels were hazardously high during the latter half of the week.

SAM is a real-time air quality manager that brings awareness to the invisible problem of indoor air pollution and our health. One day, SAM’s measurements could affect policy and law change.

FutureAir is a means to policy and lawmaking. FutureAir is an investment in public health. Only through opening the door of the great unknown can we change it. “What gets measured gets changed” is the adage for the modern age.

Written by Mollie Wodenshek for FutureAir

References
Chriqui, James, O’Connor, Jean, and Chaloupka, Frank, “What Gets Measured Gets Changed: Evaluating Law and Policy for Maximum Impact,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2011.

Clean Air and Productivity

January 2019

Finally, something we can all agree on–the value of productivity. In our capitalist economy, employers and employees alike search for ways to increase worker output. Facebook and other large corporations have entire campuses for offices. These campuses provide cafeterias, gyms, and dry-cleaning facilities for employees. As a result, employees spend more time on campus and attentive and less time around town distracted.

The secret to productivity is about the workplace environment, but perhaps it is more intuitive than big business, big perks, and bright colors.

Recent research shows that indoor air quality can affect cognitive functions and our health and well being. Cognitive functions are those mental processes that lead to the acquisition of knowledge and allow us to carry out our daily tasks. And are definitely related to the air we breathe. A study by Harvard Business Review reported a five to six percent increase in worker productivity when the Air Quality Index (AQI) was reported as “good,” or between 0-50, rather than “poor,” or between 150-200 (as published by the EPA).

The researchers explained the variations in productivity as a consequence of particulate matter in the air. Particulate matter enters through our nose, mouth, and skin and enters the bloodstream. It travels to our central nervous system (CNS) and lodges in the brain stem. This causes inflammation of the CNS, cortical stress, and cerebrovascular damage. “Greater exposure to fine particles is associated with lower intelligence and diminished performance over a range of cognitive domains,” the study concludes.

The effects of air pollution on worker’s health have been previously researched but focused on workers in outdoor environments. The Harvard study demonstrated, for the first time, that knowledge-based employees also face the dangers of air pollution indoors.

Indoor spaces are containers for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are the by-products of building materials and cleaning supplies and other pollutants often caused by humans. The unusual combination of these compounds makes them uniquely dangerous. A study conducted in 2013, demonstrated how a just-painted room had a similar effect on participants as consuming alcohol (Satish et al).

A study conducted in 2015 tested cognitive functions amongst participants in different building settings. The buildings were divided into “Conventional”, “Green,” or low VOCs, and “Green +” or “Green” with higher ventilation rates. The experiment was conducted for six days, and on two of those days, researchers increased the amount of CO₂ in the air. Each day the participants took a test that examined nine cognitive functions. The “Green” setting demonstrated a 61% increase in cognitive function, while the “Green +” setting showed a 101% increase in cognitive function.

All this knowledge comes at a cost worth paying attention to. The standard for indoor air quality comes from The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). However, recent research shows that these standards do not maximize employee health. The standards strike a balance between what is acceptable and what is affordable. Green buildings are more effective at increasing productivity and reducing health risks, but they cost a pretty penny.

Increased air quality often requires newer systems and greater ventilation which means more energy. A Harvard study found, “doubling the ventilation rate would cost less than $40 per person per year in all climate zones investigated, and would improve the performance of workers by 8%. This was equated with a $6,500 increase in employee productivity per year.” Although the initial cost may be great, “the increased productivity of an employee is more than 150 times higher than the energy costs associated with increased ventilation.” Though green buildings may impact carbon emissions more than necessary.

The workplace, home, and classroom should be spaces that stimulate the mind. If the workplace is a space we feel good in we will be more productive, if the classroom is invigorating it will encourage children to learn, and if the home is comfortable we will relax. For years we have designed spaces to be ergonomically sound and attractive. Now, with environmental insight constantly advancing, we can create spaces to maximize our attention, productivity, and health.

Written by Mollie Wodenshek for FutureAir

References
Change, Tom, Graff Zivin, Joshua, Gross, Tal, and Neidell, Matthew, “Air Pollution is Making Office Workers Less Productive,” Harvard Business Review, 2016.
MacNaughton, Piers, Satish, Ush, Guillermo, Jose, Lauren, Cedeno, Flanigan, Skye, Vallarino, Jose, Coull, Brent, Spengler, John, and Allen, Joseph, “The impact of working in a green certified building on cognitive function and health,” Building and Environment, Volume 114, 2017.
UL Environment, “Technical Brief,” Effects of Indoor Environmental Quality on Performance and Productivity, 2016.

Photo
Courtesy of Flickr user OliBac via Creative Commons

RESET Healthy Buildings

July 2018

RESET Indoor Air Quality

Now, indoor air quality is something that we have discussed previously on our blog. In fact, indoor air quality is the foundation of FutureAir, so the RESET Air Standard is right up our alley. RESET is an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) certification administered by GIGA. GIGA is an organization that measures the effect of the built environment on human health. RESET, like WELL, places human health at the center of building design. However, RESET is specifically focused on clean indoor air.

Let us refresh about the importance of indoor air quality. First of all, we spend 90% of our time indoors! Research has shown that improving indoor air quality can improve human health. Additionally, improving indoor air quality serves to improve productivity amongst workers. Cleaning our indoor air is a preventative measure that results in a healthier community and a more efficient economy.

RESET’s air quality measurements come from data accumulated over a three month period. Other green building certifications rely on data from a single day–perhaps even a few hours of a day. The three-month long data collection paints a more accurate picture of the long-term indoor air environment. Furthermore, the ongoing data collection allows for occupants to understand the air quality fluctuations within their space and learn how to improve air quality. This ongoing quality control suits the human learning curve and encourages behavior change.

How Does It Work?

The RESET air standard is broken down into two categories–Commercial Interiors (CI) and Core&Shell (CS). The RESET Air CI focuses on individual interiors and their health effects on occupants. The RESET Air CS monitors the health performance of entire buildings.

Unlike other green building certifications, RESET does not have a fixed certification standard. Instead, RESET is performance-based driven by technological measurements. The certification takes into consideration the fluctuations within spaces. Therefore, the certification accounts for the ebb and flow of air quality over time. The certification falls to the individuals to make a case for their projects. Additionally, the certification must be renewed annually.

In order to achieve certification, a project must meet air quality standards as defined by industry best-practices and international standards. Indoor air quality is tracked by RESET certified monitors and averaged for a daily measurement. The average must fall within RESET’s parameters.

RESET IAQ Measurements

RESET evaluates the PM2.5 (Particulate Matter 2.5), TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds), CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), CO (Carbon Monoxide), Temperature, and Relative Humidity. The acceptable measurement for PM2.5 is less than 35 μg/m3 and for TVOC is less than 500 μg/m3. CO2 must fall below 1000 parts per million and CO below 900 parts per million. If a building meets these measurement standards on average it meets certification. RESET also lists High-Performance targets for buildings that meet a more rigorous standard.

In order to measure IAQ, buildings must use Grade A (calibration grade) or Grade B (commercial grade) monitors. In other words, the RESET certification is separate from the technology used to monitor the air. The technology is a third-party resource and expenditure. The certification reviews the IAQ measurements in relation to the defined space and the total number of occupants of the building.

RESET in the Built Environment

RESET has human health benefits as well as economic benefits. RESET certified buildings attract more tenants, retain more employees, and reduce building insurance costs. Recently, as of October 2018, RESET and WELL partnered up to align certification processes in order to capitalize on each certifications strengths. Anjanette Green, of RESET, stated, “This cooperative spirit is exactly what makes me so excited and optimistic for the future of architecture and design.” This collaboration makes human health improvements more accessible and achievable!

Written by Mollie Wodenshek for FutureAir

Resources:
“About GIGA,” GIGA.
PureLiving, “LEED, WELL, RESET – What is the Difference?”, PureLiving: Indoor Environmental Solutions.
“RESET Air v2.0: How to Meet New Standards for Commerical Interiors,” Kaiterra.
“RESET Air Standard for Commercial Interiors v2.0,” RESET.
“WELL and RESET align to make both certifications easier for project teams,” International WELL Building Institute.

Photos:
RESET

Lovegrove and the Future of Air

April 2017

Design “Intraspective” at the Pompidou Center in Paris from April 12 – July 3, 2017, is a must see, while work continues on Lovegrove’s next venture: Re-imagining indoor air.

FutureAir, established in New York in 2014 by Simone Rothman and Ross Lovegrove, along with a team of scientists from Harvard, MIT and Columbia, sets out to provide increased awareness, highly innovative, smart-control applications and actionable products to monitor and deliver comfort and purity as well as energy efficiency for indoor air.

As the go-to platform for 21st century air-conditioning, FutureAir brings new awareness to the critical issue of indoor air pollution and its effect on health, comfort, productivity and general wellbeing. Sophisticated and affordable sensor technology developed by FutureAir, identifies harmful gas emissions and dust particulates, while monitoring room temperature and humidity to provide optimal thermal or “real-feel” indoor air comfort for home, school and office as well as in hotels and hospitals. Additionally FutureAir products, enabled with IoT device-to-device communication, regulate excessive energy output and “cooling waste” to reduce overconsumption and greenhouse gases emissions into our atmosphere.

The sleek Ross Lovegrove biomimetic designs for FutureAir products create a new standard for an industry sorely lacking in aesthetics. His late-career emphasis on Convergent Design, which combines emerging technology with new materials, is particularly evident in Lovegrove’s new designs for FutureAir. His organic, earth-centric works are inspired by the logic and beauty of nature mixed with social and environmental consciousness. “This idea of Convergence”, Lovegrove explains, “is an inevitability in this day and age, when we are looking for a new model of industrialization”. “Design will become more bespoke as we make only what we need and design’s beauty and logic creep in as ecology and as evolutionary. More and more designers will be asked to do something useful, to do something relevant.”

The future of quality air and the optimal indoor environment has found its designer. Ross Lovegrove…now partnering with science to evolve the way we breathe and live.

Photo credit: Andrew Bordwin

Air Pollution Brings Down The Stock Market

April 2017

“Every time air quality decreased by one standard deviation, we saw a 12% reduction in stock returns.”

Comparing daily data from the S&P 500 index with daily air-quality data from an EPA sensor close to Wall Street, Professor Anthony Heyes and his colleagues from the University of Ottawa found a connection between higher pollution and lower stock performance concluding that air pollution brings down the stock market.

Apparently being exposed to bad air can make you feel depressed which in turn can reduce your cognitive capability. Bad moods and lower cognitive capabilities tend to reduce the appetite for risk, associated with lower returns.

For the complete article, click here

Interview by Scott Berinato

FutureAir x Boffi @ Civic Hall

August 2016

Civic Hall has a new addition to everyone’s favorite meeting room…a Boffi ceiling fan!

FutureAir’s sensing platform is now connected to a hand-crafted stunning ceiling fan to make it smarter while keeping guests cool in a sleek often occupied conference room where FutureAir has been collecting live data related to air quality and thermal comfort for the past few months.

FutureAir is piloting our own sensing technology in the beautiful Boffi ceiling fan – the first of a series of product partnerships, while we work on our own product line with Ross Lovegrove, FutureAir founder and renowned industrial designer.

Boffi is a high-end Italian kitchen and bathroom manufacturer, but happens to make what we think is the most beautiful fan on the market.