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CANCELED Government Affairs Lunch and Learn 12/4/25
Unfortunately, the December 4th event has been canceled. We are hoping for the event to be rescheduled and will provide an update later.
Join us for a Government Affairs Lunch and Learn on December 4th at 12pm! The event will be held at the ASHRAE Washington Office (1255 23rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037). If you are interested, please register before November 21st by email: [email protected] or [email protected]. Details about the event can be found below.
Translating the Global Call to Action on Indoor Air Quality into Building Practice
Session Description
This year, the Health in Buildings Roundtable gathered leaders from ASHRAE, ARPA‑H, IWBI, USGBC, and others at the National Academies to sketch out an IAQ Moonshot: make clean indoor air inevitable through a blend of requirements and ROI‑backed innovation. Panelists argued to “raise the floor” with codes and standards like ASHRAE Standards 62.1 and 241, while building the automation, evidence, and governance layers that prove value and scale adoption. They highlighted the Global Call to Action to ensure “clean indoor air is a fundamental human right.” This session translates those insights into actionable steps for building engineers, demonstrating how a new tool operationalizes trade‑offs so healthy air becomes a necessary investment—and how carrots (productivity, absenteeism, O&M savings) and sticks (minimum operations requirements) work together.
Learning Objectives
After this session, participants will be able to:
1. Summarize the Global Call to Action and “IAQ as a human right” framing, and describe why a “carrots + sticks” strategy is required for durable adoption.
2. Explain how ASHRAE 241 (Infectious Aerosol Control) complements 62.1 and why “raise the floor” on mandatory operations is a central Moonshot theme.
3. Evaluate trade‑offs inherent in providing cleaner indoor air (e.g., filtration/ventilation vs. energy and absenteeism).
4. Outline a practical data governance approach (sensors, QA/cleaning, verification, minimal‑necessary metrics) to make IAQ data comparable and useful.
5. Differentiate public vs. private pathways (e.g., school dashboards vs. owner liability) and select reporting models that incentivize action.
6. Identify where automation (sensor‑to‑control interventions) can deliver “set‑and‑forget” IAQ with documented health and cost outcomes.
Speaker Bio
Brian Gilligan, P.E. is a professional engineer and workplace strategist with over 25 years of leadership in sustainable real estate, health-based design, and energy efficiency. As a former member of GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings, he led national initiatives such as Workplace 2030, the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge, and the Health in Buildings Roundtable (HiBR) with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is the creator of SHEAR—a Space, Health, Energy, and Resiliency modeling framework integrating health performance metrics, IAQ data, and lifecycle carbon analysis into real estate decision-making. His current work bridges science-based IAQ research, ASHRAE standards, and workplace strategy to accelerate implementation of the Global Call to Action on Healthy Indoor Air.