The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has joined more than 150 worldwide organisations in signing the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The Pledge is an international commitment calling on governments, organisations, and businesses to take practical action to ensure that every person has access to healthy indoor air. It highlights indoor air quality (IAQ) as a fundamental human right and a critical component of public health, education, and economic productivity.
The pledge, which was launched at the Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action conference attended by political leaders, policymakers, scientists and health experts, states: “We declare, for the first time as a global community, that clean indoor air is a fundamental human right for protecting health and safeguarding well-being.
“Poor air quality in indoor environments – where populations spend up to 90% of their time – contributes to respiratory disease (including asthma and lung cancer), heart disease, infectious disease transmission, and cognitive impairment, in addition to potential impacts from carcinogens.”
In 2000, a World Health Organisation working group concluded “everyone has a right to healthy indoor air” and in recent years, both the United Nations (2022) and the World Health Organisation (2021) recognised clean air as a human right.
“The Global Pledge builds on those pioneering steps to help galvanize global action explicitly on indoor air quality,” the signatories said in a statement.
By signing, BESA joined a growing coalition of global partners who commit to:
BESA and its members have long campaigned for IAQ to be treated with the same urgency as outdoor pollution, warning that poor ventilation and exposure to indoor pollutants contribute to respiratory illnesses, lost productivity, and reduced wellbeing.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that IAQ is directly linked to 3.8 million premature deaths worldwide every year and BESA members are central to efforts to improve building ventilation that can reduce exposure to air pollutants and infectious diseases, aid human productivity, and improve sleep.
“Signing the Global Pledge was a natural step for BESA,” said technical director Kevin Morrissey. “Our members are at the forefront of designing, installing and maintaining the systems that determine the quality of the air we breathe.
“This commitment sends a clear signal: we will work with clients, policymakers, and partners worldwide to make clean indoor air the norm, not the exception.”
One of the Association’s first steps following the signing of the Global Pledge will be to host a major event to mark the fourth World Ventilation Day in London on November 6. The WorldVentil8Day Exchange is a free, full-day knowledge-sharing event bringing together engineers, consultants, housing providers, policymakers and regulators to focus on ventilation and IAQ solutions.
This builds on a suite of freely available IAQ guides, including Buildings as Safe Havens, Indoor Air Quality for Health & Wellbeing, and A Practical Guide to Mould produced by BESA’s Indoor Air Quality Group.
“These tools help building owners, FM providers and contractors take practical steps to assess, monitor, and improve indoor environments,” said the group’s chair Adam Taylor (left). “The pledge will also help us in our ongoing efforts to champion IAQ in regulatory debates, industry standards, and client education.”
The Global Pledge also aligns with several UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Good Health & Wellbeing (SDG 3) and Sustainable Cities & Communities (SDG 11), reinforcing BESA’s role in supporting healthier indoor spaces as part of the wider effort to create more sustainable built environments worldwide.
For details of how to attend BESA’s World Ventil8 Day Exchange visit the website here.