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A year on from the United Nations launch, the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air sets out a coordinated roadmap for worldwide change
On 22 September, during Climate Week in New York, the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air launched the Global Framework for Action: Advancing Healthy Indoor Air through Societal Engagement and Market Transformation. This first-of-its-kind global roadmap is designed to establish healthy indoor air as a public health imperative, a market priority and an everyday expectation in buildings everywhere.
The iAIR Institute is proud that Dr. John McKeon, Principal of the Institute, contributed to the Framework as a Commissioner and signatory.
From Commitment to Action
Last September, the iAIR Institute joined the launch of the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air at United Nations Headquarters. At that event, the Global Commission was created and a global community declared, for the first time, that healthy indoor air is a fundamental human right. Dr. McKeon was invited to serve as a Commissioner, joining more than 100 leaders from 30 countries.
Over the past year the Commission has grown to more than 200 Commissioners from over 40 countries. Scientists, public health leaders, technical experts, building practitioners, business leaders and advocates have worked together to turn that pledge into a practical plan.
“We did not need another report diagnosing the problem or explaining why it matters,” said Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which stewards the Commission. “We needed an actionable plan for changing the systems, markets and expectations that shape the air inside our buildings.”
What the Framework Contains
The Framework sets out nine interconnected levers of market transformation, 40 strategic focus areas and nearly 180 recommendations. The nine levers are:
- Building awareness and public engagement
- Innovation, research and development
- Advocacy and policy development
- Education and training
- Driving demand and market incentives
- Financing and resource mobilization
- Codes, standards and leadership certifications
- Partnerships and collaboration
- Implementation, monitoring and evaluation
The levers are designed to work together. Research informs standards and building practice, policy creates demand and accountability, financing accelerates deployment, education builds the workforce needed to deliver improvements, and public awareness and trusted performance information support every other lever.
The shared vision is a future in which healthy indoor air is expected, measured, valued, financed, governed and continuously improved in all the places people live, learn, work and heal.
Why It Matters
Household air pollution alone contributes to more than three million premature deaths each year. Moreover, poor indoor air increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Global Framework for Action healthy indoor air informs policies that protect people indoors.
Many of the solutions are already available. Source control, moisture and mold prevention, healthier materials, ventilation, filtration, monitoring and good building operations can all reduce exposure in homes, schools, workplaces and healthcare settings.
“What has been missing is a coordinated, trans-disciplinary strategy for applying what we know at the scale this fundamental requirement for human health demands,” said Dr. Lidia Morawska, Co-Chair of the Commission and Distinguished Professor at Queensland University of Technology.
Dr. McKeon’s Perspective
As both a physician and President of ASHRAE Ireland, Dr. McKeon brings clinical and technical perspectives to the Commission’s work. His statement at the launch reflects the iAIR Institute’s focus on evidence, verification and standards:
“As a physician who has spent decades working at the intersection of health, science, and the built environment, and as President of ASHRAE Ireland, I see this challenge from both a clinical and a technical perspective. Healthy indoor air can’t remain aspirational. It has to be measurable, verifiable, and built into the codes, standards, and certifications that shape our buildings. No single discipline can deliver that alone, and the Global Framework for Action gives us a collaborative, science-backed roadmap to finally make healthy indoor air the norm, not the exception.”
Dr. John McKeon, Principal, iAIR Institute
This emphasis on verification reflects work already underway across the iAIR Institute’s network. Through Airmid Healthgroup, independent laboratory testing measures how products, technologies and interventions perform in reducing indoor air contaminants, giving building owners, manufacturers and specifiers the evidence they need to make informed decisions. This type of trusted performance data supports several of the Framework’s levers, including innovation, codes and standards, and implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
What Comes Next
Global Framework for Action healthy indoor air is a common starting point, not a one-size-fits-all plan. In its next phase, the Commission will support national organizations and coalitions as they develop tailored Blueprints for Action. These will translate the framework’s strategic direction into country-specific priorities, implementation pathways, financing approaches and stakeholder responsibilities.
The iAIR Institute looks forward to supporting this work and to helping connect evidence-based solutions with the policies, standards and practices that shape healthier buildings.
The Global Framework for Action is available at wellcertified.com/global-framework-for-action.