Current initiatives
This past year we have been heads-down building the Inspired Air Fund — formerly Clean Air for Schools — within Renaissance Philanthropy, to improve indoor air quality for children worldwide. Here is what we are building.
Market shaping
Building off our work with the U.S. Green Building Council, we are publishing a target product profile and model RFP for air cleaning technology designed for classrooms — quiet, out of sight, highly powered, affordable, and serviced at scale.
Flagship implementations
Based on those learnings, we are partnering with school systems to design the next generation of air filtration systems that will work for decades. These will be rigorously evaluated and will set the standard for school systems around the country.
Clean Air Capitals
We are engaging city governments across the country, building and supporting champions, and identifying and overcoming specific bottlenecks to progress — giving a package of technology, tools, and know-how to city leaders across dozens of cities.
New technologies
We are advancing the development of in-room positive air pressure systems to address the highest pollution contexts, with pilots running in India and China and several more in development.
Policy and standards
We support the international policymakers who sign on to the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air — 273 signatories from 45 countries, including four governments.
Team and field building
We are fortunate to work with some of the leading national experts in indoor air quality, education, public health, and biosecurity — alongside the many advisors, collaborators, and local leaders who have partnered with us to date.
While we focus on improving indoor air quality for children at scale through schools, this is the cornerstone of a broader effort to build a society — including daycares, libraries, offices, restaurants, mass transit, and many more public spaces — that provides abundant clean air to all.
This is not a ten-year facilities program. Modern in-room filtration needs no construction, no HVAC replacement, no new staff, and nothing asked of teachers. A superintendent, governor, foundation, or mayor could begin deploying cleaner air this school year.
Can pilot air purification technology in high-need classrooms and expand based on results.
Can establish indoor air quality standards and funding mechanisms.
Can advocate for healthy learning environments as a basic educational right.
Lead in paint. Asbestos in schools. Smoke in restaurants. Pathogens in drinking water. Each was an ordinary part of life until the evidence became impossible to ignore.
New Field notes from phase one of fund-building — read Inspired Air
Health, learning, and pandemic resilience — and why schools come first.
The case for clean airRandomized trials, natural experiments, and cohort studies, with the inconvenient findings kept in.
Research libraryWhether you lead a city or a district, fund this work, or want it for your own school.
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