Case Study: How Salesforce Is Creating Healthier Workplaces Across a Global Portfolio with Kaiterra's IAQ Monitors

After recognizing the impact of air quality on employee health and well-being, Salesforce partnered with Kaiterra to install hundreds of indoor air quality (IAQ) monitors in 26 buildings across nine countries.

Using real-time data, Salesforce discovered how to tailor IAQ optimization strategies to each space, identified IAQ risks like phone booths without ventilation and office repurposing projects, and ensured IAQ remained intact during spikes of outdoor air pollution.

By creating healthier workplaces throughout its portfolio, Salesforce successfully optimized health and well-being for its occupants and went on to achieve Fitwel certification and receive Fitwel’s Best in Building Health Award in 2023.

Salesforce Project Scope and Goals

As a pioneer in the workplace experience, Salesforce recognized long ago how profoundly the workplace environment impacts employee health, well-being, and productivity. Their team had already initiated a workplace optimization strategy when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, at which point they accelerated their strategy implementation to ensure every Salesforce employee worked in a safe and healthy indoor environment.

When the Salesforce team decided to start monitoring IAQ, their primary goals were to reduce virus transmission and encourage in-office work throughout the pandemic. However, they also recognized the value of having IAQ data beyond pandemic-focused goals — they wanted to leverage this data to improve the workplace experience, create efficiencies in building operations, and inform design decisions to create even healthier, more efficient workplaces. The Salesforce team’s specific focus on healthy workplace optimizations led them to partner with Kaiterra to implement portfolio-wide IAQ monitoring.

Our project with Salesforce spanned 26 buildings across nine countries, deploying hundreds of air quality monitors to track and analyze IAQ in real time. With this data, Salesforce and Kaiterra worked together to gain an in-depth understanding of IAQ across the portfolio and identify what optimizations were needed to deliver a higher standard of health and well-being.

After monitoring air quality and analyzing patterns in the data, Salesforce made four key discoveries that changed not only how they managed IAQ but also how they handled building operations as a whole.

Four Outcomes Salesforce Realized by Monitoring IAQ

Outcome #1: Identified and eliminated blindspots in employee health and well-being

It’s well understood that every country and city has different air quality, but what many are unaware of — and what Salesforce quickly discovered in their data — is that no two buildings or spaces have the exact same air quality, even when they’re right next to each other.

When monitoring two buildings in the same city, Salesforce found that one had low PM2.5 levels and high CO2, while the other had high PM2.5 and low CO2 levels. Despite being in close proximity and the same outdoor conditions, these buildings had completely opposite IAQ readings.

The reason why is simple: the two buildings were managed by different teams, so they had fundamental differences in air quality. One team focused more on changing filters, while the other focused on adjusting ventilation rates, leading to drastically different IAQ readings despite using the same outdoor air to supply the building.

However, the differences in IAQ didn’t stop at the building level. To get even more specific, Salesforce installed a high density of monitors across two floors in one of their new buildings.

With 40 monitors tracking air quality in every space on those two floors, they made an even more surprising discovery: not only did two buildings in the same city have different IAQ, but two spaces in the same building had different IAQ readings. The huddle room and phone rooms had optimal air quality readings, but the phone booths installed on those two floors had substantially worse air quality.

Using this data, Salesforce uncovered the truth about how well each building and space managed IAQ, as well as how specific factors influenced their air quality. Although all of these buildings are well-designed and commissioned, complying with all HVAC standards and best practices for operating procedures, there’s never a guarantee that the building will perform optimally.

Buildings and spaces are like living organisms that change and adapt every day — and sometimes they fail. That’s why it’s never safe to make assumptions, but instead, use real-time data to truly understand how your spaces perform.

Now that the Salesforce team has data from continuous monitors, they can easily tailor each IAQ optimization strategy to each space, identifying concrete tactics for the operational changes that are needed to enhance the occupant experience and promote the health and well-being of every employee.

Outcome #2: Lowered the health and productivity risks tied to phone booths

In the high-density monitoring project from Outcome #1, Salesforce placed air quality monitors in two types of phone booths in the office. They found that both phone booths had worse IAQ than the other spaces in the building, and one type of booth (“Type B”) had especially poor air quality. 

Looking closer at the technical specifications, they found that the Type B phone booth lacked a ventilation or air circulation system — the only time the air was refreshed was during the few seconds when the door was open so occupants could enter or leave. Starting with the first occupant of the day, CO2 levels quickly increased and kept rising until the end of the workday. 

By harboring excessive levels of CO2, Type B phone booths posed a significant risk to Salesforce employees. Once CO2 levels exceed 800 ppm, which quickly happened after the first session of the day in this type of booth, occupants suffer from cognitive impairment and decreased productivity — CO2 levels over 1,400 ppm are linked to a 50% decline in cognitive functioning scores.¹

On top of the cognitive impacts of high CO2 exposure, the lack of ventilation in the Type B phone booth meant that every occupant’s exhaled air stayed inside, forcing the next occupant to work in a booth filled with re-breathed air — which increased the risk of virus transmission for respiratory diseases like COVID.

After seeing this data, Salesforce quickly removed Type B booths from the office and made it a requirement that all phone booths have adequate systems for air circulation. However, the answer wasn’t as simple as choosing a phone booth with proper systems for air quality. Looking at their IAQ data, Salesforce also discovered that, despite having a ventilation system, the Type A phone booth still had higher CO2 levels than the surrounding open spaces. 

They later connected the dots with data from nearby IAQ monitors and realized that the “fresh air” that the phone booth’s ventilation system was circulating in was the air that existed in the surrounding open office space. Even if the open space had an optimal level of CO2, that level served as the baseline for the phone booth, which inevitably accumulated more CO2 throughout the day, leading to consistently higher CO2 levels in the booth.

After recognizing the challenges with the Type A phone booth, the facilities team decided to keep the booths in their office but limit their use. After 10:00 am, occupants are no longer allowed to use the phone booth because, according to the data, the CO2 levels exceed healthy levels after that time.

In addition to limiting phone booth utilization, the facilities team also took the initiative to share the IAQ data with the workplace team. Now, both teams are applying these insights to future operational and design decisions to protect other Salesforce employees from the health risks of phone booths, ultimately creating healthier workplaces to support a more productive workforce.

Outcome #3: Improved health and business outcomes from office repurposing projects

Whether it’s moving into a new building, downsizing a current portfolio, or switching up how a room is used, workplace leaders repurpose spaces all the time to better meet the needs of their company. However, when making these big-picture decisions, many fail to take IAQ into consideration.

As a result, they can unknowingly introduce threats to workplace well-being, such as signing leases for buildings with IAQ issues or downsizing based on occupancy limits without confirming that the HVAC infrastructure can accommodate more people in a smaller space.

This happened in one of Salesforce’s buildings, where the workplace team had repurposed a meeting room into a ping pong room. The goal was to make an enjoyable space where employees could take a break and have fun together — but instead, they noticed that everyone who entered the room started to feel worse the longer they were inside.

After installing IAQ monitors, Salesforce saw that the culprit behind these negative health effects was high CO2 levels. They looked into the HVAC settings and saw that the HVAC system was ventilating the space as if it was still a meeting room (where occupants are typically sitting most of the time), not a recreational room where employees are active and exhaling more CO2.

The Salesforce team immediately changed the HVAC settings to align ventilation rates with the higher CO2 levels, making their ping pong room a space that not only lets employees have fun but also helps them feel energized while taking a break. 

Now that the workplace team has continuous IAQ data on hand, they can double-check before starting their next repurposing project that they’re making the smartest design decisions that will benefit occupants’ health as well as their overall workplace experience. 

Outcome #4: Optimized building performance and occupant health during episodes of environmental stress 

Even with a working HVAC system, spikes in outdoor air pollution can still influence IAQ — especially if the building doesn’t take any additional precautions for the specific outdoor conditions. Salesforce found two examples of this in their IAQ data:

1. Wildfire smoke: In 2023, Canada had a series of destructive wildfires that spread wildfire smoke across the U.S. The Salesforce team used their IAQ monitors to watch their offices in the path of the smoke each day, making necessary changes to building operations (like closing down the lobby, for example) to ensure as little pollution entered the building as possible.

However, in some of their buildings, they found that PM2.5 levels were still high after they made these changes — meaning the building’s occupants were at a higher risk for short-term respiratory issues as well as countless long-term complications including heart disease, respiratory infections, neurological disorders, and several types cancer.² 

These health issues also impacted the employees’ ability to work. On average, a 1 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5 reduces annual productivity by over 26 hours.³ Factoring in the exponential increase in PM2.5 levels during the wildfires (we’ve seen indoor levels reach above 100 µg/m³), Salesforce likely experienced substantial productivity loss before getting PM2.5 under control in this building.

After seeing how poorly the building filtered out PM2.5, the Salesforce team asked the landlords to replace the air filters on each floor. Using IAQ analytics on the Kaiterra dashboard, they were able to watch, in real time, as PM2.5 improved on each floor as the maintenance team worked through the building.

2. Ozone spikes: Washington, D.C. is a known hotbed for ozone in the summertime, putting residents at risk for eye and nose irritation, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and impaired lung functioning.⁴ When Salesforce began monitoring IAQ in their D.C. office, they soon discovered that their occupants also faced these risks while in their building, as indoor ozone levels increased when outdoor levels spiked.

They quickly began researching solutions and learned that carbon filters could effectively remove ozone from the indoor environment. They contacted the landlord and asked them to install carbon filters in the HVAC system, and in a short period of time they saw through their IAQ data that all of the ozone had been removed from the space. 

This single IAQ optimization not only protected their occupants from ozone-related health complications but also made it easier for employees to work efficiently in the office — for every 10 ppb decrease in ozone concentration, workplace productivity increases by an average of 4.2%.⁵

These are just two examples of how Salesforce is using IAQ data to protect its employees from harmful exposure to air quality threats like PM2.5 and ozone. By turning their IAQ insights into operational changes, the workplace team is directly contributing to a healthier workforce, which leads to higher workplace productivity and, ultimately, better business outcomes. 

If you have a global portfolio, then some of your buildings likely face an increased amount of environmental stress, such as the recent wildfires in L.A. or heavy air pollution in India. These environmental threats make it crucial to build your workplace strategy with health and well-being in mind, so you can protect your employees from the substantial risks associated with air pollution.

The same applies to companies that lease their workplaces — by monitoring and keeping tabs on IAQ, you can help hold your landlords accountable for maintaining a healthy indoor environment that defends against these threats.

What's Next for Salesforce's IAQ Monitoring Project

"The next thing we need to do is get more Kaiterra sensors!"

 

- Workplace MEP, Salesforce

When Salesforce stepped into this project with Kaiterra, they wanted to use their IAQ data to optimize the workplace experience, streamline operations, and equip the design team to create the healthiest workplaces possible for their portfolio. Throughout our project, we uncovered several hidden IAQ risks, like phone booths and environmental stress, that the team was able to quickly address to move the needle even further on their well-being strategy. 

In just a short period of time, the Salesforce team has leveraged their IAQ data to gain a deeper understanding of their indoor environments and create high-performance workplaces that work for, not against, their employees’ health, well-being, and productivity — with many more gains to be realized as they continue monitoring air quality. As a direct result of their IAQ optimizations, Salesforce was able to achieve Fitwel certification with Kaiterra and also received the Best in Building Health Award from Fitwel in 2023. 

Despite all of the outcomes the Salesforce team has already realized with their IAQ data, this is only the beginning of their IAQ optimization initiative. In addition to installing more Kaiterra sensors in their global portfolio, Salesforce will continue sharing their data to encourage more collaboration with landlords and to show employees how invested they are in creating a workplace that promotes their health and well-being.