WGBC’s Air Quality in the Built Environment campaign Plant A Sensor

‘Plant a Sensor’ is a global air quality campaign, led by the World Green Building Council and RESET, in collaboration with the Wilson Centre and our partners at the Earth Day Network. The campaign champions the worldwide roll-out of air quality monitoring devices in and outside of buildings.

We are delighted to work in partnership with the Earth Day Network as proud contributors to the Earth Challenge 2020. In celebration of the upcoming fifty-year anniversary of Earth Day, the Earth Day Network are collaborating with partners, including the Woodrow Wilson Institute and US Department of State, to launch Earth Challenge 2020 – a citizen science campaign aimed at data-gathering across six environmental themes. Air quality is one of the focal areas identified, with the long-term target of increasing access to data required for researchers and policy makers to be equipped with accurate information about the state of our environment, and within that, the quality of our air. Earth Challenge 2020 is aiming for one billion interoperable data points to be installed to collate global coverage of these environmental elements. All data collected through ‘Plant a Sensor’ will be made publicly available to Earth Challenge 2020 via RESET Earth platform.

Kathleen Rogers, CEO, Earth Day Network said:

“2020 is a crucial year for a range of pressing environmental issues including the existential threat posed by climate change. Everyone everywhere needs to up their game if we are to solve the challenges and unleash the opportunities. EC2020 is about mobilising the public with purpose to collect quality data that will lead to scaled-up action and foster decisive and defining solutions including on air pollution. We are delighted to have joined forces with WorldGBC to boost our collective success in our 50th anniversary year”.

‘Plant a Sensor’ objectives

‘Plant a Sensor’ will advance the work of the World Green Building Council’s Air Quality in the Built Environment campaign, run in collaboration with RESET, as part of Better Places for People global project.

Raefer Wallis, CEO RESET said:

“We cannot improve what we cannot measure is one of the guiding principles of the Plant a Sensor campaign and is particularly true for an invisible airborne threat. The size, urgency and threat of environmental issues needing to be solved by our current and future generations is beyond the ability of any single organization or government to address. Decisions and actions at all levels need to be based on facts. For this, good quality data must be easily made accessible and easily shared. This partnership serves as an international catalyst for all those goals.”

With the building sector responsible for 39% of energy-related carbon emissions, and a host of other pollutant sources contributing to ambient pollution (including heating and cooling, transport and manufacturing as well as localised emissions from construction) it is clear that a sustainable built environment is vital in mitigating the global air pollution crisis. Air pollution is a substantial contributor to global climate change, and the largest environmental threat to human health today. Furthermore, internal air pollutants from poor quality building fabric, unhealthy materials or unsuitable ventilation pose further risks to human health beyond those circulating in our outdoor air.

The data collection consolidated by WorldGBC, RESET and Earth Challenge 2020 will facilitate a global boost in awareness about the extent of the air pollution crisis. We hope this knowledge will empower action, and trigger necessary responses from citizens, the private sector and policy makers.

WorldGBC will support this campaign by engaging our network and audience in the global roll-out of air quality monitors, and also utilise the generated data to further our research and advocacy objectives on a global and regional level, also empowering GBCs on a national level.

How to get involved

WorldGBC & RESET are aiming to collect data from 1000 locations by the launch of Earth Challenge 2020, so we need all the help we can get! We are aiming for global coverage – all regions of the earth, and both within and outside of buildings. If you have existing projects and case studies to feature, please contact us.

We are looking to recruit both supporters and partners (corporate or non-corporate organisations looking for more involvement in the campaign) and participants (citizen scientists – namely any enthusiastic environmentalist individual equipped with a sensor).

If you are interested in getting involved as a participant of the campaign, we will soon be releasing detailed information about how to use existing sensors, purchase and deploy new sensors, and where to submit the data to contribute to the campaign.

If you are interested in getting involved as a supporter or partner of the campaign, please contact WorldGBCdirectly to explore opportunities.

We will also be releasing more information shortly regarding monitor and sensor types, data grading, data privacy and GDPR compliance, accompanying metadata collation and FAQs.