Local Government
Local Authorities are required to monitor air pollution levels for statutory reporting, but there is an opportunity to do much more in terms of education, awareness, public avoidance and using data to plan interventions to mitigate pollution. AirSensa is uniquely placed to facilitate this through large sensor networks, providing air quality monitoring as a service.
Potential sources of funding
1. Private sector sponsorship / unit sales
Private sector revenues come from local businesses sponsoring units on local schools and buying for their own buildings. Schools sponsorship covers AirSensa unit provision, ongoing maintenance, and potentially educational materials provision. Deliver Change would value your assistance (and that of schools/parents) in contacting and introducing suitable private sector businesses, particularly those larger businesses that could be interested in multiple unit/school coverage.
2. Commercial building unit purchases / planning requirements
This funding typically comes from commercial building owners and developers who wish to own the AirSensa units outright. This funding is most simply achieved by including a requirement to install AirSensa units in the planning regulations. The regulations would specify the number of units required (dependent on size of the development), and as agreements would be directly between the developer and Deliver Change, would avoid using any borough resource at all. This approach can replace the requirement for temporary monitoring, but provides 5 years’ worth of data.
3. Public sector infrastructure spend from Section 106 resources
Deliver Change is working with some councils on using existing section 106 funding to build out the public infrastructure-based coverage (from whichever source is available – often there is little or no pollution-related fund, but there is in other areas). This would fund units (again on a 5-year maintenance package) on council buildings, council-owned residential developments, etc. This could be planned as a single early transaction and create a highly visible promotion for the borough’s action on air quality.
4. Public health funds
Over time the biggest beneficiary from improved air quality is the health service, through reduced health impacts. Deliver Change has discovered that increasingly public health officers are being included in discussions around overall funding for the project.
5. Smart City projects
Currently, Deliver Change are discussing a number of ways of funding projects from future revenue streams – generating coverage without any financial input from councils or other sources. Deliver Change is also working with a number of existing funded projects (for example the replacement of street lighting with new LED equipment) to embed air quality monitoring in other infrastructure. Deliver Change is happy to explore options in your area.
The Benefits: For Councils
Healthcare
Useful information for citizens; everybody will be able to access pollution avoidance and alert apps, and other health-related information (such as daily exposure tracking)
Education
Supporting and enhancing the education of the next generation, providing them with which tools hitherto, have been unavailable – aiming to help achieve long-term behavioural change
Planning data
Free on-going access to detailed air quality data; data from the network will be available to the council free of charge for use in planning, healthcare, and other activities
Visible action
Visible action on air quality; the council’s support for the AirSensa project will demonstrate its commitment to addressing air quality and care for its citizens
Educational Programme and Councils
Deliver Change
Deliver Change is responsible for all site and financial agreements – there is no requirement for council input to that (resource-consuming) process – but we would value the council’s support for our work with schools. This could include any or all of:
- Noting the council’s support in existing communications to schools (e.g. newsletters) for example by drawing attention to the availability of free AirSensa equipment
- Helping us to understand relevant current council education activity to ensure we are adding to the work and not confusing school and teachers;
- Co-branding our schools information pack