People spend nearly 90% of their time indoors, yet indoor air can often be significantly more polluted than outdoor environments. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and reduced productivity. 
Ensuring healthy indoor air is essential for safer workplaces, healthier communities, and more sustainable buildings.
The Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air is a high-level, good-spirited pledge developed by Burnet Institute, Brown University School of Public Health, Australia Academy of Science, and The OSLUV Project. The Global Pledge aims to amplify awareness and drive momentum on improving indoor air quality. It is the first international commitment declaring that healthy indoor air is a fundamental human right. France and Montenegro are the first two countries to sign, alongside 165 other Founding
Signatories—organizations large and small from over 25 countries.
Air Club will actively strive to encourage more organizations to become signatories. We warmly invite governments (nations, states, and cities), non-governmental organizations, universities, schools, healthcare facilities, professional associations, advocacy organisations, businesses, and community groups to join. While the Global Pledge does not commit any signatory to binding actions, it does outline a set of priorities and calls for signatories to reconvene and report on progress.
1. Encourage more organizations to sign the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air. (view and sign the Global Pledge here) Invite the following to become signatories:
2. Individuals are warmly invited to join Air Club here, to become part of the global movement. By signing up, you will automatically be added to the Air Club newsletter list.
Populations spend 90% of the time indoors, yet indoor air can be substantially be more polluted than outdoor air. Poor indoor air quality causes over three million deaths annually and contributes to heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, infectious disease, and cognitive impairment. Children are an especially vulnerable population, and one to prioritize. Clean indoor air is a fundamental human right that can improve health outcomes, boost productivity, and promote health in places we live, work, and learn.
The ultimate goal is to create change. Attracting the attention and commitment of governments, intergovernmental organisations and multilateral bodies is key – to drive action at the highest levels, contributing to a global movement. Two countries are Founding Signatories of the Global Pledge and have committed to action: Montenegro announced a national initiative to improve indoor air quality in schools and France highlighted their Indoor Environment Quality Observatory. We encourage more countries to follow suit with concrete actions.
Non-governmental organizations are also crucial partners in building momentum within countries and advancing policy solutions. Businesses are another focus, as they can often act swiftly to create meaningful benefits for employees and customers alike. Welcome actions from Pledge signatories may include advancing healthy indoor air programs within a school district, university, hospital or office building; commencing indoor air quality data collection; publishing standards; or launching public awareness campaigns.
Air Club’s vision for the Global Pledge include:
Your organization can view and sign the Global Pledge at airclub.org. By signing, your organisation will join a community of countries and organizations committed to prioritizing indoor air quality. At upcoming international events and meetings, we will have the opportunity to announce new Global Pledge signatories and showcase their work.
Air Club - founded by Georgia Lagoudas, Bronwyn King and M Pang - is a global coalition of indoor air quality champions working to make indoor air healthy. Air Club aims to add indoor air quality to the agenda of major international gatherings, to ensure leaders everywhere are brought into the movement and become inspired to act. Air Club is a community that encourages the sharing of information, experiences, insights and lessons learned.
Anyone can be a member! Whether you serve in government, conduct research, spread awareness, develop innovative solutions, work with policymakers or play another crucial role in indoor air quality, you are invited to join Air Club (join here).
Air Club’s logo is a yellow canary, symbolizing the ‘canary in the coal mine’ -a marker of health telling us it is safe to breathe. The canary was the world’s first indoor air quality monitor. We’ve moved forward a long way since then with technology, but we’re still grappling with the same issue - how do we keep the canary alive and healthy with clean indoor air. That’s our collective challenge.
Air Club’s canary is named Monti - named after Montenegro, the country that spearheaded the high-level event at the United Nations, enabling the global indoor air quality community to meet in person for the first time, and hear from leading figures across government, diplomacy, health, academia, advocacy and more. You will soon be able to purchase Monti pins - stay tuned for details.
For more information contact: georgia@airclub.org or bk@airclub.org
Watch the video recording of Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action, held at UN headquarters here.
