The Importance of Ventilation in the Post-Pandemic Workplace

A White Paper By: Mike Gould BSc, MinstR, HVAC Manager at JD Cooling Group™

Overview

Covid-19 has intrinsically changed the way we view and manage workplace health and safety. Specifically, the government and scientific community has placed an emphasis on improving the quality of ventilation within indoor environments as a way to minimise the spread of Covid-19. Experts agree that the current rules on ventilation are failing to stop infections, including Covid-19. This development continues to turn health and safety regulation on its head, signalling the beginning of a new model of improved ventilation conditions in workplace environments even as we emerge out of the pandemic.

This white paper is a call to action for the change in regulation needed to ensure adequate ventilation within workplace and public indoor environments. Specifically, incorporating learnings from the pandemic following the devastating impact to wellbeing that poor ventilation can cause. This document provides insight into the importance of workplace ventilation systems in terms of employee wellbeing; the scientific case for good ventilation in minimising the spread of Covid-19 and other viruses; how mechanical ventilation systems work; ways to make the workplace a safer environment; a trend moving from comfort in the workplace to wellbeing within the workplace and concludes with a number of recommendations as we look to the future.