![]() ![]() “As soon as they made the changes it became their market differentiator, then all the other schools had to follow suit, and that’s what we’re seeing replicated now in the commercial market. “We worked with a couple of schools in Shanghai and Beijing in 20,” says Tom Watson, director of engineering at environmental consulting company PureLiving, which now works with around a third of Fortune 100 companies to clean up their office air. As public interest and regulatory arguments for improving indoor air gather strength, Chinese businesses and institutions are rushing to be ahead of the curve. Meanwhile, as part of its 13th Five-Year Plan, Beijing mandated at least half of new urban buildings must be green-certified by 2020. Launched by the China-based architect Raefer Wallis, a Reset-certified space must have been within healthy limits for PM2.5 (12 µg/m 3), carbon dioxide (600 ppm), VOCs (400µg/m 3) and other pollutants for three consecutive months, and is reassessed annually. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty ImagesĬhina’s only home-grown, international green building standard, Reset, is primarily focused on indoor air quality. By the end of this year, sales are expected to more than double in size to 7.5m air purifiers, in a market worth nearly 16.5bn renminbi.Ī growing number of employers and building managers are installing air filters in offices, while relocation companies are offering indoor air-quality assessments to top-tier expats, and Starbucks built its enormous new Shanghai Reserve Roastery to Leed Platinum standards, including air quality monitoring.īad air day … the sun rises over Shanghai, where PM2.5 pollution recently showed a 9% year-on-year increase. In 2013, market research provider Euromonitor says there were 3.1m air purifiers in China, in a market worth 6.9bn renminbi (£774m). Public awareness in China is on the rise, though. “Most people spend 90% of their time indoors, and the exposures that we are getting from that time remain largely unexamined.” “Indoor pollution is a very serious problem and health threat, not just in China but worldwide,” says Sieren Ernst, founder of environmental consultancy Ethics & Environment. Most people spend 90% of their time indoors and exposures remain unexamined Sieren Ernst Indoor pollution is a very serious threat. As well as PM2.5-heavy air entering homes and offices through open windows or poor insulation, high levels of formaldehyde, carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – gases that can be emitted by poor building materials, furniture, paints and adhesives – are an additional concern. Even in very polluted cities, indoor air quality can be worse than the air outside. While air pollution has long been on the nation’s mind, indoor air is a newer battleground. Guests have so far rated the Shanghai hotel highest for satisfaction out of the Langham Group-owned brand’s 22-hotel portfolio. “I think people can sleep easier knowing that the air quality in their room is far superior to any other hotel, and far superior to what it is outside,” says John O’Shea, managing director of Cordis Hongqiao. A screen inside a Cordis hotel room shows the air inside is 9.7 times cleaner than that outside. ![]()
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