We think carefully about the food we eat and the water we drink. The air we breathe indoors, where most of us spend the majority of our lives, rarely gets the same attention. Tony Abate has spent nearly 30 years trying to change that.
Abate is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at AtmosAir Solutions, a global leader in indoor air purification and monitoring, and a Commissioner of the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air, an initiative led by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Ahead of Climate Week, we spoke with him about the commission’s work, the technology reshaping building operations, and why indoor air belongs in the climate conversation.
From Pledge to Framework
The commission launched a year ago at the United Nations in New York, on the same day the president addressed the General Assembly. Security was so tight that Abate walked 10 blocks to cover three. Inside, he found a room full of the field’s leading thinkers, and that day AtmosAir joined them in signing the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air.
Since then, the commission has worked much like ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. ASHRAE is the professional organization whose committees develop the standards and guidelines that shape how buildings are ventilated, heated, cooled, and kept healthy, and Abate has long been active in its work. Like an ASHRAE committee, the commission split into working groups, drafted recommendations, and circulated them for comment and revision. The result, a Framework for Action, debuts at this year’s Climate Week. Its guiding question is simple. “How do we take action so that healthy air is a right, not a privilege?”
The Wake-Up Calls
Indoor air quality isn’t new, Abate says, but for most of his career people took it for granted. It doesn’t announce itself unless something is obviously wrong. The pandemic changed that, revealing a threat people couldn’t see, smell, or feel that could nonetheless kill them.
He compares the lasting effect to security after 9/11: attention spiked, and it never fully returned to baseline.
Wildfire smoke has reinforced the lesson, and it is no longer an occasional or regional problem. Fire seasons now return year after year, and their smoke can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles, drifting into communities and buildings far from the flames. Once associated mainly with California and the West, it has reached places that rarely experienced it, including the East Coast. Abate recalls stepping outside his Connecticut home as smoke from distant fires rolled in. The sun was an orange ball, the air smelled like an incinerator, and his indoor air monitors showed colors he had never seen. For building owners and operators, recurring smoke events mean indoor air quality can deteriorate quickly, and planning for them is becoming a routine part of running a healthy building.
Awareness, however, raises a new demand. “Don’t tell me about a problem unless you’re going to tell me what I can do about it,” he says. His answer is monitoring.
Monitoring, Data, and AI
Abate predicts air monitors will be as common as thermostats within five years. The technology is ready, and it now has a powerful partner: artificial intelligence, which can process in seconds data that would take an analyst weeks.
AtmosAir recognized years ago that air quality data would be essential, and it merged with Awair, a leader in air monitoring, to build on its analytics platform. The company is now adding AI to that platform. Abate offers an example: an AI engine notices that a contaminant spikes every morning at 9 a.m. and recommends increasing ventilation and air purification at 8:30 to head it off. A building engineer could do that analysis, but it would take time and specialized skills. The AI does it instantly, making the engineer’s job easier and the building healthier.
Data also changes behavior. Abate admits to chasing a perfect score on his own living room monitor, adjusting systems until it finally hit 100. “It was almost like winning the Super Bowl.”
The Tight-Building Trade-Off
To cut carbon, buildings are being sealed more tightly. Abate likens a building to a jar: seal it, and whatever is inside stays there. That includes contaminants people generate simply by being present, like dust from skin cells and chemicals off-gassing from personal care products, fabrics, carpets, furnishings, and printers. Without an outlet, they concentrate.
The traditional fix was “dilution is the solution to pollution”: bring in outside air. But outside air must be heated or cooled, which is expensive, and it isn’t always clean. Through his work on the ASHRAE committee behind Standard 241, Abate has seen the thinking shift. “It’s not about outside air, it’s about clean air.” Clean air can come from outdoors when conditions allow, or from air cleaning technologies that let buildings recirculate conditioned air. That approach delivers healthy spaces that are also cost-effective and aligned with sustainability goals.
Why Air Belongs in ESG Reporting
Air is rarely the first thing companies consider in ESG planning, but Abate argues it may be the most impactful. Conditioning air is the largest energy use in most buildings, and within HVAC, the biggest load is conditioning outdoor air. Managing outdoor air more intelligently means using less energy while improving air quality.
Frameworks such as GRESB already factor in air quality. AtmosAir customer Empire State Realty Trust, owner of the Empire State Building, makes air purification a significant part of its sustainability reporting.
Planning for Climate Extremes
Extreme weather demands specific strategies. For wildfire smoke, Abate points to a sealed building envelope and positive pressurization, so air pushes gently out when a door opens rather than pulling contaminants in. With monitors tracking both outdoor and indoor conditions, operators can prepare in sequence: close outdoor air dampers, increase purification output, and, in severe cases, upgrade filtration.
Flooding brings moisture, and moisture brings mold, which can harm both a building’s structure and its reputation. Temperature extremes carry their own risks. Heat stresses HVAC systems, while cold, dry air creates conditions in which viruses thrive, an important consideration heading into cold and flu season. In every case, Abate says, data and technology make management far easier. “When you have the data, you have the knowledge, you have the power.”
Looking Ahead
Why does indoor air belong in the climate conversation? Because it is a direct product of climate conditions and affects people more than almost anything else. “What do we do more than breathe?”
A year from now, Abate wants the industry to agree on what defines good indoor air quality, and he’d like to see regulations requiring air monitoring so people understand what they’re breathing.
And his message for the rest of us: don’t fear the air inside your office. “Good, clean indoor air promotes good health. It is as important to you as good food and good water.” Treat it not as an adversary, but as a friend in your overall wellness.