VIEWPOINT Constructing Ecosystems For Clean Air

Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy, and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power – economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.

Discussions on air quality controls are dominated by carbon emissions. Last year, TIME magazine named William McDonough, an architect, chemist and globally recognized leader in sustainable development and design, to the inaugural TIME100 Climate list, recognizing innovative leaders driving business climate action. His iconic architectural designs are renowned, like the Ford River Rouge truck plant, featuring North America’s largest living roof, and the NASA Sustainability Base, which generates more energy than it consumes and uses 90% less water than comparable structures.

His expertise includes carbon capture. “Climate change is the result of breakdowns in the carbon cycle caused by us: it is a design failure. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make airborne carbon a material in the wrong place, at the wrong dose and wrong duration. It is we who have made carbon a toxin. In the right place, carbon is a resource and tool,” McDonough says in his blog, emphasizing that being carbon neutral is not enough, we must work towards carbon positivity.

Start-up innovators are flocking to the carbon capture space. For instance, the Energy Monitor reports that Graphyte, a startup backed by Bill Gates’ climate solutions accelerator Breakthrough Energy, opened a factory that turns carbon-rich biomass waste from nearby paper mills into bricks – ‘carbon

— William McDonough

casting’ – that are safely stored underground, removing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Articles in this IFN explore the filtration industry’s role in carbon capture, building for clean air, and understanding environmental impacts on indoor air filtration.

On page 16, I interviewed David Gory, CEO of one carbon capture start-up, Airbuild. They are ingeniously utilizing rooftop solar panels to grow algae to capture carbon, create sellable biomass, and improve energy efficiency.

On page 31, Metalmark Innovations share research surrounding environmental impacts on indoor air quality. Using wildfire smoke as a variable on HVAC filter media effectiveness, they highlight the importance of MERV ratings to develop healthy air solutions.

Dr. Iyad Al-Attar continues his series on page 21, calling for higher levels of collaboration in the filtration industry to address a holistic solution to air filtration design. And on page 26, North Carolina State University researchers share a ground breaking air filtration technology that offers 99.9% efficiency in smoke and pathogen air removal.

As industry takes a proactive role in their sector, it contributes to collective change. McDonough says, “Sustainability takes forever. And that’s the point.”

Caryn Smith

Chief Content Officer & Publisher, INDA Media, IFN