Breeze Technologies: Environmental Sensor Solutions to Improve Air Quality

Air pollution, over the years, has snowballed into a threat to human lives. Each individual has contributed to it and hence, needs to take the responsibility to make better surroundings for the coming generation. Statistics explicit that air pollution poses the single biggest environmental threat causing death to 7 million lives and also costing the global economy 5 trillion USD per year. Currently, the air quality data is obtained from a limited supply of measurement stations that are cumbersome and unable to transmit data in real time within a limited range. However, organizations are in a predicament when it comes to extracting information from the public data sources which are limited due to the high cost of equipment, inability to analyse data among stakeholders, and limited context on data interpretation. Breeze Technologies helps businesses breeze through these challenges and adopt new measures to determine hyperlocal air quality. Breeze Technologies offers air quality sensors, air quality data and air quality analytics software, offering the ability to measure the air quality. The company employs IoT and AI to help cities and firms develop better clean air action plans and a more liveable environment.

Founded in 2015, this pioneering start-up was brought to life by a European-funded innovation and an accelerator programme for smart cities. In association with NASA, Breeze presented its breakthrough technological innovation to accumulate hyperlocal air quality data at the 2016 World Clean Air Conference in the “Next Generation Air Quality Monitoring” track. The firm has been recognized by the European Parliament and the European Commission as one of the most promising start-ups. They collaborate with corporate partners and citizen scientists to develop compact air quality sensors that employ cloud and AI to collect data in real time and create hyperlocal maps to improve air quality. Further, the data is shared with cities, building managers and citizens to understand and refine the air quality both in urban environments as well as in indoor environments.

One instance that highlights the success of Breeze Technologies is when it launched its first smart city pilot in July 2017 in a district named Rothenburgsort, the second-largest city in Germany. They installed several urban air quality sensors and made the data available through its citizen portal that allowed people to access real-time air quality data about the places they live and work at. The project received immense support and appreciation from the local community and the district council. Ultimately, the project managed to create awareness about air quality across cities, consequently, ensuring that the consumption and mobility behaviour of the masses demonstrate more sustainable habits.

The company’s environmental intelligence solution enables cities and corporates to create a liveable environment. Breeze has the support of a dynamic and interdisciplinary maven of scientists, analysts, engineers and former consultants with international work experience. The team works closely with several research institutes and universities and is also guided by multiple EU and German innovation programmes. As a part of its AI for Earth Initiative, Microsoft is rendering support to the company. Besides, Breeze seeks to share air quality data with other industries believing that the number of people benefitting from it is limitless.