How partnership working is tackling air pollution

Strong partnership working between a not-for-profit action group and Camden Council is helping deliver a multitude of green benefits, including the introduction of the world’s densest air pollution monitoring network which is helping raise air quality awareness among local businesses and residents.

The not-for-profit action group The Camden Clean Air Initiative (CCAI) was launched during the first COVID-19 lockdown in response to a reduction of NO2 emissions due to fewer cars being on the road. Despite its infancy, the action group has rapidly activated multiple initiatives aimed at both reducing and raising awareness of toxins in the air which have been embraced by local businesses and residents. The CCAI has also forged a strong working relationship with The London Borough of Camden Council. This relationship is helping deliver many projects, including connecting the council with AirScape, a company which gathers air quality data through its AirNode sensors, leading to the installation of the world’s densest air pollution monitoring network in Camden. The project has seen 228 AirNode sensors installed around Camden. AirScape funds the build, maintenance, and installation costs which it aims to offset by sponsorship of the AirNodes, while the council provides the location and power. The CCAI has been involved at every stage, from speaking with residents about the project and liaising with the council around the placement of sensors, and is now planning workshops for schools and businesses to raise awareness of the scheme and explain how the data generated by the sensor network can be freely accessed and used.

The AirNodes provide real-time data on PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 as well as temperature and humidity. Often the sensors are mounted on street lighting columns but can also be placed on buildings and other street furniture, subject to local planning rules. Through logging onto AirScape.ai residents, local organisations, schools and businesses can see hyper-local up-to-date data. This can be used for many purposes including: planning to walk, run, or cycle the healthiest route, see where the air is cleanest to choose where to live, work or send children to school and help understand where pollution is coming from and how it can be reduced. Georgina McGivern, Programme Manager at the CCAI, explained how it was able to connect the other stakeholders, AirScape and Camden Council, due to its existing relationship with the local authority.

Camden Council has been really supportive of our work and a fantastic partner. The AirScape initiative has been a great project and what is powerful is that it provides data. This complements everything we do because it adds fact to what we are talking about. It gives residents and local businesses a sense of empowerment to have that data at their fingertips too.

The new air monitoring network is not used by the council for its own statutory air quality monitoring, for which it has its own sensors, but it has welcomed the initiative’s ability to engage and educate the public on air pollution in the borough. Councillor Adam Harrison, Cabinet member for a Sustainable Camden, said:

Reducing air pollution is absolutely vital to improving the health and well-being of everyone in Camden. The data from this network will help us engage with our community, giving us the power to make smarter, informed decisions to tackle air pollution. Making this data freely accessible to all members of our community further demonstrates the council’s longstanding commitment to the open sharing of data in the public interest.

Antonio Mugica, Executive Chairman at AirScape, said there are many ways a local authority could use the data in addition to citizen engagement.

With our detailed data a council can work out the hyper-local sources of pollution and measure against legal limits and targets, decide where or when to prioritise local action and planning and inform the public about breaches in safe levels of air pollution.

The recent findings by the Francis Crick Institute on how air pollution can cause cancer (see page 3) is likely to push the issue of local air pollution further up the agenda with local authorities and residents becoming more aware of the dangers of air pollution.

Air pollution is killing people and people in cities are especially vulnerable. It is also important to act because a lot of the measures you can put in place to bring air pollution levels down are important in protecting the environment too, at a time when climate change is on everybody’s minds. It is all about creating clean air and a safer community for now and the future.

AirScape is already speaking with other London boroughs about adopting a network and, while the CCAI’s current priority is seeing a reduction in air pollution in Camden, McGivern says the organisation is keen to become a pan-London organisation in the future.

We have started with our local community, but know that air pollution does not obey boundaries so aim to introduce our projects to other Boroughs in the future.

When asked for any tips on how other local authorities could implement a similar scheme, Mugica and McGivern have a similar answer. Mugica feels the initiative has been particularly successful due to the collaboration between AirScape, the CCAI, Camden Council and the local community. McGivern agrees: “If a local authority was looking to have a similar project, what has worked well is the partnership between a not-for-profit, the local council and a business. Having that kind of partnership has been really effective. I don’t think a project like this would succeed without the support from each of those parties,” she explained.

• To find out more about AirScape visit: https://www.airlabs.com

• To find out more about the Camden Clean Air Initiative visit: The Camden Clean Air Initiative - https://camdencleanair.org/