#TRENDS IMPACT 2023
The Trends Impact Awards are an initiative of Trends together with founding partner PwC and with the support of Antwerp Management School. They join forces to give business projects with a positive impact a boost, accelerating the transition to a more sustainable economy.
The Trends Impact Awards highlight sustainable projects of large and small companies and aim to help companies in their transition to a sustainable business model. Trends awarded the 12 winners of the second edition at a gala evening at the Brussels Expo on Wednesday 25 October.
The topic of wellbeing
The post-pandemic explosion of welfare initiatives has shown that a one-sided approach does not necessarily improve people's well-being. The jury seeks projects that recognise the shared responsibility of the employer and employee and contribute so that people can live healthier lives, have meaningful work and feel happy, stimulated and connected.
Nominated: 30 Days Without Complaining (Solvay), De Groote - De Man, Elia, Ethias, Euroclear, Move to Happiness Hub, Publicis Groupe, Springbok Coaching, TakeAir, Vitamineatwork, We're Smart World and eBloom.
The article was released for our finalist spot in the Trends Impact Award 2023 in the category of well-being. You can find the Dutch article here
With the overwhelmingly positive results from 2023, we are set to communicate our 2024 pilot program this week. An iconic twin-tower skyscraper in one of the Netherlands' most vibrant cities. An ambitious research program in scale and complexity!
Our ambient air needs certain micro-organisms to be healthy.
The problem is that the air in office buildings is too clean and sterile due to all the ventilation and cleaning systems. TakeAir meets this with systems that disperse healthy and benign microorganisms in an indoor environment. The aim is to make people in that environment feel better and strengthen their health, which also allows them to be more productive. TakeAir started some pilot projects in offices in Flanders and the Netherlands last year. In the coming period, it will collect the impact and results of these. The results so far look promising. "It is a project with a very distinct approach. If it turns out that it really promotes the health of employees, then you have gold in your hands," says PwC jury member Tom Verboven. "Healthy air is a basic right for everyone and an important social issue. This project offers employers the chance to invest in it, for the benefit of their employees. That's clever," says jury member Kirsten Florentie of Telenet. The challenge for TakeAir is in translating the science to a lay audience. "Because it is so technical, that requires an extra effort," says Kirsten Florentie. "Well-developed case studies, showing the effects on well-being and productivity with unambiguous data, are certainly not superfluous in such projects," adds PwC's Tom Verboven.
“The challenge for TakeAir is in translating the science to a lay audience”
It’s only a small part of this great article written for our finalist spot for the #TrendsImpactAward2023. But it means the world to our scale-up organisation. Reading the article we can only notice that the jury has understood the science of what we are doing, and they know where we are going. Our company vision statement is crystal clear: To become the most qualitative and scientifically proven supplier of biological and microbial technologies for the built environment. Our pilot programs in 2023 show that we are on the right track to realise this vision statement. For our three pilot cases, we have promising results:
- We increased indoor microbial quality (+30%).
- Microbial air quality refers to the total microbial load and concentration of pathogens present in the air of your building.
- A more diversified indoor microbial landscape.
- The variety, quantity, and diversity of microorganisms in a given environment is called a microbiome. Every building, even an office can be distinguished by its own microbiome.
- Lowering the dominance of indoor pathogens (-20%).
- A pathogen, in the broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ.
- A two-fold increase of beneficial organisms present.
- Our designed microbiome for indoor air treatment offers several cultures of organisms creating a more microbial-balanced indoor environment and increasing exposure to biodiversity.
- A drastic drop in fungal load for the building (-64%).
- Moulds or fungi are microorganisms. They are found everywhere. Some moulds cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems. And a few moulds, in the right conditions, produce "mycotoxins," poisonous substances that can make people sick.
An immense challenge for TakeAir was to make the science of what we do approachable and understandable. A daunting task in the start-up days of our company. As we have grown and learned we can only notice that the world is open and ready to understand what healthy air truly is.
