• September, 22 2025

Remember the V in commercial HVAC

When it comes to indoor air quality, there’s a generational gap, according to a recent online survey of 1,006 adults commissioned by Fellows, which makes IAQ products.

Some 45 percent of Millennial and Gen Z workers in the U.S. say they would consider leaving their employer over poor IAQ, compared to just 18 percent of Baby Boomers. 

“Respondents in the Millennial generation (people born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s) and Gen Z (those born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s) are far more likely to worry about the health consequences of poor IAQ,” it said. (Boomers generally are considered the people born between 1946 and 1964.)

Younger respondents reported finding more IAQ problems. While 60 percent of Baby Boomers experienced at least one IAQ concern, some 77 percent of younger workers did.

Your place?

About 52 percent of respondents described the air in their workplace as very clean; 61 percent felt their employers were moving in the right direction on IAQ. Most respondents (68 percent) hold employers – not government or building owners – responsible for the air they breathe at work.

As Fellowes noted, these findings could have long-term implications because Millennials and Gen Z comprise the bulk of the workforce of the future.

Many respondents want to see more equipment to improve their air and make them trust their employers more. Some 49 percent wanted air purifiers; 45 percent favored updated HVAC systems, and more than a third asked for visible IAQ monitors and access to real-time IAQ data (36%).