Calderdale Clean Air for Schools

Today (17 June) is Clean Air Day 2021, a nationwide awareness day to increase people’s understanding of air pollution, its effects on both climate change and public health and what needs to be done to reduce it. 

The World Health Organisation and UK Government recognise that air pollution is a major public health risk and poses the single greatest environmental risk to human health. That’s why the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are taking urgent action to curb the impact air pollution has on communities across England through its Clean Air Strategy and the delivery of a £3.8 billion plan to clean up transport and tackle NO₂ pollution. 

Here at Evotech we are passionate about improving air quality and we want our children to breathe clean air, be well and have the best chances to learn. However, indoor air can be five times more polluted than that outside and so, today, I have written to the one hundred head teachers in Calderdale explaining how poor indoor air quality can adversely affect the health and wellbeing of occupants, especially children, and offering them the chance to have free indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring solutions installed at no cost to the school. 

Evotech will provide five Calderdale schools with a fully funded, air quality monitoring programme for the next academic year, and we will also support the schools in the creation of a bespoke learning package around the topic of air quality. 

Our engineers will fit both indoor and outdoor air monitoring solutions and our in-house air quality bureau will provide support and advice, analysing the data and providing monthly reports. They will also alert the schools when air quality is poor and react to any indoor air quality issues with the provision of professional technical support where possible.  

We are working with our partners Airthings and Airly to make this happen. Each indoor sensor will be linked to the Airthings’ cloud dashboard that shows easy to read, air quality data in real time and where alerts can be set up. Each Airly outdoor air quality sensor will monitor outdoor air and provide hyper-localised air quality data in an easy to access format. Airly already have fifty sensors installed in school grounds in the UK, and over 4,500 sensors across Europe. 

I have also written to local MPs, asking them to get involved by supporting the initiative, and use their political influence to help drive outcomes that benefit the community, like establishing school streets and promoting active travel. Evotech hopes that the campaign will gather momentum, and that we can join forces with local businesses and communities to further inform the debate around air pollution and increase awareness both locally and online. 

If you think your school would benefit, from indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring solutions and an air quality healthcheck, then ask your head teacher to complete the form on our campaign page.