Air awareness: Why good air is still underestimated
When will high-quality air become as normal as clean drinking water? The pandemic highlighted the importance of healthy indoor air, yet awareness has declined once again. Why do we pay attention to lighting and acoustics, but rarely think about what we breathe every day? Perspectives from medicine, research and business show that air awareness is about much more than technology.
Air is with us all the time. Yet it remains invisible.
While lighting, acoustics and interior design are immediately noticeable, good indoor air often goes unnoticed until it is missing. That is one of the defining characteristics of indoor air quality: it influences health and well-being continuously, without always being at the centre of attention.
This makes air awareness particularly challenging. We tend to pay less attention to what we cannot see. As a result, air quality still receives less attention than visible aspects of the indoor environment.
Air quality and health
The pandemic effect
Business impact
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people became aware for the first time of the role indoor air plays in everyday life. CO₂ monitors, ventilation concepts and air purifiers became topics of public discussion.
Much of that attention has since faded. At the same time, the pandemic helped many people understand how air behaves within buildings and why controlled ventilation matters.
The next challenge is to stop seeing air quality only through the lens of crises and infection control, and instead recognise it as a permanent part of healthy indoor environments.
»Air is invisible. Most of the time, we only notice it when it becomes poor.«
Perspectives from medicine, research and business at the TROX Life round table
Air has a perception problem: its impact is often indirect.
Many people understand that high CO₂ levels can affect concentration. Yet the connection between healthy indoor air, well-being and performance often remains abstract.
At the same time, HVAC technology is frequently explained through systems and functions rather than through the benefits it delivers to people.
Healthy indoor air is not created by a single discipline. It emerges where expertise from medicine, research, engineering and business comes together.
Greater air awareness will therefore not be achieved through individual measures alone, but through collaboration. Scientific findings must be communicated clearly. Technical solutions must be easy to understand. And organisations need compelling reasons to invest in healthy buildings.
The decisive factor is not a single solution.
It is the interaction between different disciplines.
Good air does not begin with technology. It begins with awareness. International initiatives such as the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air aim to strengthen public awareness of healthy indoor environments.
The key question is therefore not only: How do we improve air quality technically?
It is also: How do we make good air a natural part of everyday life?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Air awareness means recognising the importance of good air before it becomes a problem. It highlights the impact indoor air has on health, well-being and performance.
Because air is invisible, we rarely think about it. Its importance usually only becomes apparent when a room feels stuffy or concentration starts to decline.
Above all, a greater awareness of indoor air quality. CO₂ monitors, ventilation concepts and air purifiers demonstrated that indoor air can be measured, managed and improved.
Whether in offices, schools or public buildings, good air helps people stay focused, comfortable and productive.
Air awareness grows when knowledge is communicated clearly, practically and in ways people can relate to. This requires collaboration between medicine, research, technology, business and policy.
