Part 2: Why the Silence? Admitting that airborne health risk persists raises uncomfortable questions

Continuing on from Part 1, several important questions remain outstanding:

·        Why were mitigation strategies sidelined for so long?

·        Why haven’t public buildings been retrofitted?

·        Why are workers still breathing stale, recirculated air?

The honest answer may be this: retrofitting is expensive, and systems thinking is inconvenient. But ignoring the problem also comes at a cost.

This is where supply chain innovation intersects with public health and sustainability.

Sustainability in supply chains is often framed around emissions reductions, responsible sourcing, and circular economy principles. But clean indoor air and the systems that support it, are just as essential. They sit at the intersection of workplace safety, public health, and environmental resilience. From a UN Sustainable Development Goal perspective, this aligns directly with SDG 3.9 (reduction in illness and death from hazardous air pollution, including indoor air), and SDG 11.6 (improving urban air quality and reducing the environmental and health impacts of urban systems). These goals reflect an evolving understanding that sustainability must account for the environments in which people actually live and work, not just greenhouse gas reporting or supply-side interventions.

Clean air isn’t simply an environmental issue or a compliance checkbox. It is foundational infrastructure, essential for maintaining safe, equitable, and economically productive workplaces. And yet, despite its centrality to health and resilience, it remains overlooked in many supply chain sustainability agendas. While supply chain leaders increasingly embrace sustainability for regulatory compliance and competitive advantage, few recognise that poor indoor air quality is a silent disruptor. Investing in air quality improvements through ventilation upgrades, air filtration, or real-time monitoring could become a defining feature of innovative, forward-thinking supply chains. The economic consequences of neglecting indoor air quality are already being felt.

A European Commission analysis published in January 2024 estimated that the long-term effects of Covid removed between 621,000 and 1.1 million people from the EU workforce in 2022, resulting in a 0.2–0.3 percent loss of GDP, roughly equivalent to losing the entire workforce of Amsterdam or Lisbon. Yet, despite these staggering losses, discussions around workforce resilience often overlook a key factor: the air we breathe. When businesses suffer operational setbacks due to staff illnesses, indoor air quality is rarely considered as a contributing factor. Perhaps it should be.

 Supply chain leaders have embraced automation, visibility tools, and digital twins as innovation levers. But resilience is not just about data, it’s about conditions. The conditions under which people can think clearly, recover quickly, and keep systems running. Clean indoor air might not look like radical innovation. But neither did seat belts, or refrigeration, or the concept of rest breaks. Sometimes the most profound advances are the ones that let people simply keep going.

The best innovators don’t wait for public outcry or media pressure. They anticipate invisible risks, and act before others catch on.

Johanne Harrold is a PhD researcher in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Atlantic Technological University (ATU), funded through the EU’s OSCAR doctoral programme. Her research explores how strategic thinking and collaboration shape innovation and sustainability across European food supply chains. She writes the Supply Chain Innovation Brief on Substack, translating academic research into practical insights for business and policy audiences. Johanne also works with Clean Air Advocacy Ireland (CAAI) to highlight how healthier working environments and resilient supply systems contribute to national sustainability goals and the broader UN 2030 Agenda.  

LINKEDIN Profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanne-harrold-85566735/

References

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