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An article recently published in Science, advocating for air quality standards in public buildings, is a fantastic position from many leading voices in the scientific air quality community.

I spent a little bit of time this week talking about it and some of the issues and challenges with the proposition.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0677

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Dan Hyde

Dan is a UX strategist, researcher, co-host of the Zero Ambitions Podcast (a podcast about sustainability and the built environment), and co-founder of the magazine that ultimately evolved into Passive House Plus.

At Everything is User Experience, Dan and Alex his co-founder develop the strategy that underpins everything from apps and websites, to bid writing, service design, and corporate sustainability communications. 

Working in the built environment, finance, and healthcare sectors, they carry out practical research that can be turned into simple, strategic packages that enable their clients to create experiences that work for all users.

In a full circle, Dan is a partner in a spin-off of the Zero Ambitions podcast, the Zero Ambitions Partnership offering much of the same strategy advice around UX, but focused specifically on the built environment, with Alex and Jeff Colley, the editor and owner of Passive House Plus and co-host of the podcast of the same name.

I wanted Dan on because he is just a great value to talk to anyway. One of his many skills.

However, beyond the performance gap in IAQ and ventilation in general, we have a significant communications gap, both with users of spaces and the stakeholders who deliver and manage them.

Good UX and design in how we structure strategy, communicate it, and provide ongoing support are everything. This chat scratches at some of these ideas.

EIUX website - https://www.everythingisuserexperience.com

EIUX LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/everythingisuserexperience/

Dan’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-hyde-61863112/

Futurebuild panel on YouTube (Does deep retrofit = deep impact Insights) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUIf45yc0wc

ZAP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/zero-ambitions-podcast

ZAP episodes - https://feeds.transistor.fm/zero-ambitions

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SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

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This week I ask the question.

If not you then who?

Who is going to measure ventilation in the context of retrofit assessment and other housing scenarios, beyond competent ventilation installers and assessors, and how might that look?

It was a question I raised in response to the publication of the RICS Residential Retrofit Standard.

Have a listen and let me know what you think

RICS Residential Retrofit Standard

Air quality matters in housing 

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Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

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SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

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A Conversation with Ellora Coupe

Discover how Ellora Coupe, founder of Her Own Space, is transforming the renovation and retrofit industry for women homeowners. Join us, where Ellora shares her innovative strategies that are making air quality and ventilation relatable and actionable. With her unique blend of branding expertise and renovation savvy, she advocates for healthier living environments and provides a platform that empowers women to take charge of their homes.

Collaboration and trust are key in the realm of home retrofit. Through Her Own Space, Ellora has cultivated a thriving community of over 3,000 women who support each other through the trials and triumphs of retrofit projects.

If you listen to the podcast, you have probably heard me talk several times about the need to better frame subjects like air quality in the built environment. To understand stakeholder needs and find ways to communicate in more effective ways.

I have a lot of respect for Ellora; she has created in her own space a place of story telling, knowledge building and trust. Something we could learn a lot from in nieces like air quality and ventilation.

Learn how to understand a stakeholder group, in this case, women in retrofit, renovation, and home building. But more importantly, open communication up into a dialogue—a conversation, a network.

Ellora Coupe - LinkedIn
Her Own Space
Her Own Space - Facebook

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Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

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SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

Send us a text

Simon Jones

I look back at the last 4 episodes of Air Quality Matters this week.

I discuss a good National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine document. 2024. - Health Risks of Indoor Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation 

A recently released paper on Indoor Air Quality, Thermal Comfort, and Ventilation in Deep Energy Retrofitted Irish Dwellings

Plus, I might have a few things to say about the outcomes of studies like this!

Health Risks of Indoor Exposures to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Solutions

Indoor Air Quality, Thermal Comfort, and Ventilation in Deep Energy Retrofitted Irish Dwellings

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Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

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Part - 2

Professor Catherine Noakes is a chartered mechanical engineer with a background in fluid dynamics.

She is the Pro-Dean for Research and Innovation for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Leeds where she leads research into ventilation, indoor air quality and infection control in the built environment using experimental and modelling-based studies. 

From April 2020- 22 she participated in the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), where she co-chaired the Environment and Modelling Group sub-focusing on the science underpinning environmental transmission of COVID-19. 

She has also contributed to numerous advisory and working groups including with WHO and as part of the working group for the Royal Academy of Engineering work on Infection Resilient Environments. 

In 2021, she was awarded an OBE for her contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and in 2023, she was awarded the Royal Society Gabor medal for her contribution to interdisciplinary science in understanding the transmission of infection.

We discussed as you would imagine, her work over the last few years and what the built environment can take away from this global pandemic. We talked about risk, air cleaners and her experience as a domain expert suddenly thrust into the pandemic's whirlwind.

Cath Noakes - LinkedIn
Cath Noakes - University of Leeds

Christmas Lectures - Going Viral

SAGE

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Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

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All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

Send us a text

Part - 1

Professor Catherine Noakes is a chartered mechanical engineer with a background in fluid dynamics.

She is the Pro-Dean for Research and Innovation for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Leeds where she leads research into ventilation, indoor air quality and infection control in the built environment using experimental and modelling-based studies. 

From April 2020- 22 she participated in the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), where she co-chaired the Environment and Modelling Group sub-focusing on the science underpinning environmental transmission of COVID-19. 

She has also contributed to numerous advisory and working groups including with WHO and as part of the working group for the Royal Academy of Engineering work on Infection Resilient Environments. 

In 2021, she was awarded an OBE for her contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and in 2023, she was awarded the Royal Society Gabor medal for her contribution to interdisciplinary science in understanding the transmission of infection.

We discussed as you would imagine, her work over the last few years and what the built environment can take away from this global pandemic. We talked about risk, air cleaners and her experience as a domain expert suddenly thrust into the pandemic's whirlwind.

Cath Noakes - LinkedIn
Cath Noakes - University of Leeds

Christmas Lectures - Going Viral

SAGE


 

Support the show

Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

Send us a text

Part 2

Priyanka Kulshreshtha -  is a founding member and Secretary of the Society of Indoor Environment (SIE), a policy think tank for issues related to indoor environmental quality in India.  She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi.

She has been on the editorial board of prominent international journals, including the  Journal of Health and Pollution, Sustainability in Environment, Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, Environmental Research, to name just a few.

She has been the Editor of SIE's quarterly newsletter, “THE INDOORS “, since 2019.

She has experience working on the European Union Project “HEALTH EVENT” and has, to her credit, more than 30 publications in international journals, articles, and conference papers.

A visiting faculty at the International Centre for Environmental Audit and Sustainable
Development and has also worked with policymakers in India regarding
formulation and scoping of IAQ guidelines.

With two decades in the field of indoor air quality management. Her core domain of work is research on Indoor Air Quality and its exposure assessment. Priyanka is a fascinating window into the field of air quality in India right now, where it has come from and where it may be heading.

She is at the heart of an exciting yet challenging environment, with so much at stake and potential. You really get the sense talking to Priyanka that things are on the move in India, and there is a generation of bright and committed researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals making waves.

We had a great conversation about the particular challenges of air quality in Dehli and other parts of the country, her work around homes, schools, the workplace, standards and where all this might be going.

Priyanka Kulshreshtha - LinkedIn

Society of Indoor Environment (SIE)

Indian Insititute of Sustainable Development 

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Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

Send us a text

Part 1

Priyanka Kulshreshtha -  is a founding member and Secretary of the Society of Indoor Environment (SIE), a policy think tank for issues related to indoor environmental quality in India.  She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi.

She has been on the editorial board of prominent international journals, including the  Journal of Health and Pollution, Sustainability in Environment, Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, Environmental Research, to name just a few.

She has been the Editor of SIE's quarterly newsletter, “THE INDOORS “, since 2019.

She has experience working on the European Union Project “HEALTH EVENT” and has, to her credit, more than 30 publications in international journals, articles, and conference papers.

A visiting faculty at the International Centre for Environmental Audit and Sustainable
Development and has also worked with policymakers in India regarding
formulation and scoping of IAQ guidelines.

With two decades in the field of indoor air quality management. Her core domain of work is research on Indoor Air Quality and its exposure assessment. Priyanka is a fascinating window into the field of air quality in India right now, where it has come from and where it may be heading.

She is at the heart of an exciting yet challenging environment, with so much at stake and potential. You really get the sense talking to Priyanka that things are on the move in India, and there is a generation of bright and committed researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals making waves.

We had a great conversation about the particular challenges of air quality in Dehli and other parts of the country, her work around homes, schools, the workplace, standards and where all this might be going.

Priyanka Kulshreshtha - LinkedIn

Society of Indoor Environment (SIE)

Indian Insititute of Sustainable Development 

Support the show

Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.

Send us a text

Part -2

Stephanie Taylor received her Medical Degree from Harvard and subsequently practised pediatric oncology while researching cellular growth control mechanisms for the next several decades.

While taking care of hospitalised patients, she became increasingly convinced that the
healthcare facility played a significant role in patient healing and in healthcare-associated infections.

Determined better to understand the built environment's impact on patients, she returned to school and obtained her Master's in Architecture.

She is an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer and is on the Standards Committee for Performance Metrics for Occupied Buildings. She is also a member of the US Green Building Council technical advisory board on Indoor Air Quality.

In 2019 she founded Building4Health to scale the powerful yet underutilised
approach of managing IAQ from a medical perspective to support occupant health.

She brings together a fascinating convergence of human health, microbiology and architecture, I first met her a few years ago in Athens where she was giving a plenary presentation on the impacts of the microbiom of buildings on human health and it was one of the presentations that has stuck with me ever since.

So it was a real privilege to get to have an extended conversation with her about her journey from medicine to buildings, the philosophy and approach of Build4Health and how these two areas of expertise can come together.

After all, we mostly build buildings for people and a human-centred approach is a perspective we sometimes lose.

Stephanie Taylor -  LinkedIn
Build4Health 

Support the show

Check out the Air Quality Matters website for more information, updates and more. And the YouTube Channel

The Air Quality Matters Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

Eurovent Farmwood Aereco Aico Ultra Protect Zehnder Group

The One Take Podcast is brought to you in partnership with.

SafeTraces & InBiot

All great companies that share the podcast's passion for better air quality in the built environment. Supporting them helps support the show.