–Why Thailand’s offices need a burst of fresh air
Commercial office buildings are still feeling the shuddering impacts of the pandemic. But improving indoor air quality could not only help draw workers back – it could make them more productive too.
As cities and towns across Thailand navigate their way through post-peak pandemic openings, many are finding the path less straight than they would have hoped.
Unsurprisingly, many workers have some hesitations about returning to offices, and the effect is being felt in the commercial property market.
But there is an unlikely factor that can help revive the office – indoor air quality.
One of the reasons workers the world over are hesitant to return is concern over the airborne spread of COVID-19.
Improving the indoor air quality of offices can not only help limit future outbreaks and improve worker confidence – it can also make workers more productive.
Changing attitudes
During the pandemic’s early days, there was much focus on sanitising surfaces and hands and putting up barriers to droplet exposure.
But as we learnt more about our foe, it became clear that aerosol transmission was its chief weapon. This has driven a marked increase in interest in indoor air quality, particularly ventilation.
Globally, some restaurants are putting CO2 sensor readings on display, to reassure patrons their air is as fresh as their food.
Luxury hotels in China are promoting how filtered their air is and giving guests real-time information on indoor air quality, and big firms are offering information on indoor air quality as part of the package to lure top-tier expats.
Clearing the air
Big breezy windows are not available to many Thai office workers and, even if they are, outdoor air quality can often be below established health guidelines.
This means that HVAC is usually the chief determinant of indoor air quality, and HVAC engineers and building operators have three levers to pull: ventilation, filtration and disinfection.
By bringing more fresh air into a building, we can ensure that stale air and infectious pathogens get quickly dispersed and exhausted out where it can’t harm anyone.
By filtering fresh air, we can keep outdoor pollution out of people’s lungs, and by filtering the recirculated air, we can keep the harmful things in people’s lungs out of everyone else’s air.
And finally, by using technologies such as ionisation and UV-C light, we can destroy viruses and bacteria before they can cause harm.
Health benefits
There are costs to these interventions but they are dwarfed by the cost that airborne disease imposes on workplaces each and every year, even before COVID-19 dramatically escalated those costs.
In the US, researchers estimate that the flu alone costs 20 million days of worker productivity a year. Once you add colds and all other respiratory diseases into the mix, that number soars past 100 million, getting close to a day per year per worker. And that figure doesn’t even calculate all the productivity lost to people trying to work through feeling unwell.
And beyond reducing sick leave, a workplace with healthy air can help businesses keep their staff. Surveys show more than half of workers consider poor workplace health a major reason to change jobs.
The best estimate for what it would cost to construct new buildings to minimise airborne infections? Less than 1% of the total construction cost.
The math is of course more complicated when it comes to retrofitting existing buildings. But upgrading HVAC systems to improve indoor air quality is also an opportunity to install vastly more energy-efficient equipment, slashing operating costs and delivering even quicker returns on investment.
Mental benefits
While there has been much talk in recent months of air quality and the spread of disease, much less has been said about the startling effect air quality can have on the cognitive performance and productivity of workers.
Repeated research has shown how damaging stale air or airborne pollutants can be to the way we think and work.
In fact, studies have shown that in a boardroom without adequate ventilation, CO2 concentrations can very quickly impair someone’s complex thinking skills as much as being over the drink driving limit.
But the reverse is also true, with fresh air shown to increase employee productivity by up to nearly 300%, compared to the average office.
Fresh air is not always enough though – clean filtered air matters too. Thailand’s levels of PM2.5, the tiny particles emitted by traffic and power stations, frequently exceed World Health Organization standards, particularly in summer
As well as increasing the risk of heart disease and asthma attacks, these PM2.5 levels also dulls our thinking.
The estimates on the return on investment from boosting worker performance by improving indoor air quality are staggering. The US Department of Labor estimated that improving office air could boost the average worker’s productivity by $6500, for a cost of just $40 per person.
Leading the change
In recent centuries, many of the advances in public health have come from coordinated efforts to improve the quality and safety of the food we eat and the water we drink. Authorities have set standards and monitored them.
When it comes to indoor air quality, efforts have lagged far behind. The World Health Organization’s Indoor Air Quality Guidelines focus on volatile organic chemicals, and do little to deter the spread of airborne disease or ensure clear thinking.
Whereas it could be argued that previously we have not had the technology to make indoor air a source of health rather than a risk, we have that technology now. What we have lacked is the impetus, but the pandemic has provided that.
This is an opportunity to make people healthier and more productive, breathing new life into Thailand.
Learn more about improving indoor air quality in our white paper Better air, better workers? Why indoor air quality has never been more important. Download now.
by Hitachi Cooling & Heating
