Healthy Buildings

How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity

By: Joseph G. Allen, John D. Macomber

Narrated by: Adam Lofbomm

From our offices and homes to schools, hospitals, and restaurants, the indoor spaces where we work, learn, play, eat, and heal have an outsized impact on our performance and well-being. They affect our creativity, focus, and problem-solving ability and can make us sick - jeopardizing our future and dragging down profits in the process.

Joseph Allen and John Macomber make a compelling case in this urgently needed book for why every business and homeowner should make certain relatively low-cost investments a top priority. Grounded in exposure and risk science and relevant to anyone newly concerned about how their surroundings impact their health, Healthy Buildings can help you evaluate the impact of small, easily controllable environmental fluctuations on your immediate well-being and long-term reproductive and lung health.

Cutting through the jargon to explain complex processes in simple and compelling language, Allen and Macomber show how buildings can both expose you to and protect you from disease. With decades of practice in protecting worker health, they offer a clear way forward right now, and show us what comes next in a post-COVID world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2020 Tantor

Great Ideas / Too Fluffy

Excellent food for thought..
Sloppy audio editing
Too much filler content

Reading a synopsis of the 9 key points would be just as informative.

More research, please.

Although his concepts create a baseline for businesses to follow when it comes to some level of evidenced-based practices for infection control, I feel there's still more to be discussed and considered. There's a lot of emphasis on HVAC systems, air quality and flow which can seem technical and impractical for some industries and property owners. IDK, I thought there would be more medically-based theories than what was offered.

A high level overview

The target audience is not homeowners or consumers, unfortunately. I was expecting to learn how to improve the air in my house, office room, and hotels or Airbnb’s I stay in, but this is mostly targeting building contractors, managers, and large companies.

The benefits of clean indoor air are undeniable, and spending less than 1% of one’s budget on upgrading filters and doubling ventilation rates can bring a 10% increase in profit and productivity improvement.

I was hoping this went more into home solutions for cleaner air, like air purifiers, how to filter outdoor air, and masks.

Sometimes the author underestimated their audience and didn’t go into the technical details deep enough. This book is not for regular consumers, but I wish it was.

Important read for everyone

This isn’t a ‘I stayed up all night reading’ type of book but is puts the importance of heathy buildings in terms that everyone can understand. Important for not just building professionals but all building occupants (Aka everyone)

Read this if you work in building industry

Every architect, facility manager, and building owner should read this, it is crazy that it took a pandemic to start the discussion about indoor air. Dr. Joe Allen has ben researching the topic for years and presents it in an approachable manner. What we breathe is more important than what we eat or drink, as we consume four times the amount of it.