I realized the impact indoor air quality could have on health for the first time years ago while renovating our new home. We were not sleeping well and getting sick often. Then I read about the effects fine dust and air pollution can have on the human respiratory system, both near-term and over a lifetime.
Shortly thereafter, we put air filters in each room in the house. We also upgraded to MERV 13 rated air filters for our HVAC system and began changing the filters more frequently. We went from getting sick all the time to essentially not getting sick at all.
The positive impact managing IAQ had on our health later helped motivate my decision to join Awair. I was excited to grow the Awair sales team, but also to join the company in its mission to increase awareness about IAQ and ensure people can breathe safely, anywhere they spend time indoors.
When I joined the company in mid-2020, all Awair employees were working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of on-boarding new hires, we shipped each sales member an Awair Omni air monitor to put on the wall directly behind them to be displayed in the many virtual meetings throughout the day. It was a sales-focused idea initially, but what we learned empowered us to have more productive, happier, and healthier employees of our own.
With Awair Omni on the wall, each sales representative, including myself, noticed a slow rise in CO2 throughout the day while working at home via the on-device lights or software notifications. As a result, each rep eventually said something to the effect of: “I literally just started opening my window and cracking my door to improve my Awair Score when I saw the score go down, and now I can work until I want to stop. I don’t feel foggy or exhausted like I did prior to managing my air.”
Now we all find ourselves cracking open a window or a door for twenty minutes or so periodically during the workday, even before our air score goes down. There is still the normal tiredness after a busy day, but the difference in performance and hitting our goals has been remarkable for our team.
Of course, it had already been well-established and scientifically proven that CO2 negatively impacts focus and productivity. We all knew that, factually, as part of our own sales roles. But this particular circumstance points to how knowing and sharing air data in real-time, versus objective facts, can change behaviors and improve well-being and performance longer-term. "Seeing" the air makes a huge difference in behavior and well-being.
Interested in learning about and improving your own air? Or how to help your employees do so? Awair offers solutions for both home and commercial application. If you would like to buy an entry-level residential device for yourself, please try Awair Element. If you’d like to learn more about our enterprise solutions or ask about discounts to provide to your employees, please click reach out to sales via clicking below:
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