Would We Choose IAQ over Michelin Stars?

26 March 2021

Are we now in a world where we choose our restaurant based on the internal air quality (that it’s COVID-secure) over and above the menu or the Michelin stars?

Before COVID-19 indoor air quality (IAQ) was an afterthought for most of us. Now in a COVID-world, it’s on everyone’s minds.

The IAQ of the spaces we might have to occupy with others is very much a concern for everyone - from hospitals to other people’s homes and supermarkets to schools, IAQ plays a huge part in the transmission of the virus.

All studies show that poor IAQ also has a direct impact on health and well-being. When we know that Europeans spend more than 90% of their time indoors, we understand the importance of measuring air quality and putting in place appropriate measures to improve it.

Are we now in a world where we will choose our restaurant based on the IAQ over and above the menu or the Michelin stars? If we chose our supermarkets based on IAQ or picked one pub over another not for the beers on tap but for the knowledge that the internal environment in one is more desirable and safer than the other.

Will we value IAQ ratings alongside food hygiene scores? You can see the reality here – IAQ affects almost everything we do.

If customers choose air quality first and foremost, what does that mean to business? One restaurant is chosen over another, revenue streams die, customers once loyal and faithful to their local pub may venture further afield taking custom elsewhere. Drivers at filling stations push on for an extra few miles to get to the next station stop. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but could it be the future…

For now, businesses have a duty of care to their staff, and customers to ensure the internal environment is managed with health and wellbeing in mind.

The good news is that this can be managed with smart building IoT technologies like CODA, which ensures occupant health and wellbeing is managed and that internal conditions are maintained to reduce impact.

CODA works by monitoring the health, safety and wellness of building occupiers with IAQ management, occupancy management as well as improvements in ventilation, temperature and humidity control. All of these factors, if not well controlled, can facilitate an increase in viral load and an undesirable and health detrimental internal environment for the occupier.

Amidst today’s urgent call for radical measures to protect people’s health across sectors, forward-thinking companies in the real estate and facility management sector are pushing the boundaries of IoT in commercial buildings to safeguard occupants’ safety in the long run and tapping into our CODA device and the benefits it brings.

IoT services and solutions help to not only manage and control the internal environment for health and wellbeing but also provide data to deliver insights and updates, evidence that the internal environment is being managed. Alerting on levels where activities breach desirable levels ensures occupants, building owners and operators are aware of issues and rectify these before causing harm to the occupiers.

All of this gives confidence that the building is ‘safe to enter’ and conforms to standards around health and wellbeing as well as COVID-secure and health and safety.

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For more information or to find out how the team at CODA can help you, please call us on +44 345 241 2889 or email info@codacloud.io.