Smart Building Collective (SBC) and GO AQS are proud to announce a strategic partnership focused on advancing indoor air quality (IAQ), healthy building standards, and evidence-based smart building performance across Europe.

This collaboration brings together SBC’s certification and research framework with GO AQS’s deep technical expertise in indoor air quality, health-oriented performance standards, and building science. Together, the organisations aim to strengthen the integration of verified air quality metrics into smart building strategies, certification pathways, and EU-funded research initiatives.

As regulatory pressure increases and occupant expectations evolve, indoor air quality is no longer a secondary technical metric, it is a core determinant of well-being, productivity, and trust in the built environment. Through this partnership, SBC and GO AQS will collaborate on EU research projects, asset-class-specific studies, and the development of practical methodologies that define what “healthy air” truly means in operational buildings.

Nicholas White, Managing Partner at Smart Building Collective, commented:

“Indoor environmental quality, and specifically air quality, must become a measurable and safeguarded pillar of smart building performance. Our partnership with GO AQS strengthens the Smart Building Certification framework with deep technical expertise and internationally recognised health standards. Together, we are helping the industry move from intention to evidence, ensuring that energy optimisation and smart readiness never come at the expense of occupant well-being.”

Sotirios Papathanasiou, Founder of GO AQS, WELL Building Institute Air Advisor and Expert Advisor at The Safer Air Project, added:

“Indoor air quality is the value that reassures the well-being of occupants. Through this partnership with Smart Building Collective, we are reinforcing the role of health-driven standards within the smart building ecosystem. By combining scientific rigour, certification alignment, and real-world data from EU research projects, we can provide the clarity the market needs around what healthy air quality truly means, and how to achieve it in practice.”

The partnership will focus on:

- Integrating advanced IAQ metrics and safeguards into the Smart Building Certification framework
- Supporting EU Horizon research initiatives addressing energy performance, flexibility, and health co-benefits
- Developing asset-class-specific IAQ research and guidance (office, residential, education, mixed-use)
- Contributing to evolving thought leadership on healthy indoor environments
Bridging global standards (including WELL and related frameworks) with operational smart building strategies

By aligning smart energy optimisation with health-first performance safeguards, SBC and GO AQS aim to support a new generation of buildings that are not only efficient and flexible, but demonstrably safe, resilient, and human-centred.