Outdoor air quality is at the forefront of policy agendas and decision-making, but should policymakers and businesses care more about indoor air quality?
Key takeaways
- Improved workplace air quality through a 95% reduction in indoor pollution could boost London employees’ productivity by up to 15%.
- That could deliver an additional £38bn of economic activity to the London economy, boosting overall output by between 4% and 8%.
- Similar positive outcomes were seen for LA, Singapore, Sydney and Barcelona.
Air pollution and its impacts on both the environment and health are quickly becoming one of the most critical issues to businesses and policymakers worldwide. A wealth of research links air quality to short- and long-term health issues, but its impacts on the economy are less well understood. So CBI Economics carried out new analysis to understand its effects in the workplace, and how this translates throughout the economy.
Health effects have rightly placed pollution at the forefront of political and economic agendas. Although the debate has somewhat shifted in the UK recently, policymakers globally have recognised environmental challenges through measures ranging from low emission zones and transport electrification to renewable energy investment and emissions trading schemes.
But this policymaking almost exclusively focusses on outdoor air quality, when the air we breathe indoors is no better, and sometimes even worse. Harmful outdoor pollution seeps indoors through our ventilation systems and windows, as
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