AALways on my mind
They grow up so quickly 🥰
Like proud parents, we’re sitting here on the eve of a big birthday, wondering what the next year and beyond will hold. No not our two daughters (their birthdays have taken up the first half of this month!) but our other baby - Air Aware Labs - which turns two tomorrow!
How does it all link? Well Sacha and Louise set up this Air Aware blog in 2023 after working on pollution locally in Brixton since 2019 - primarily to disseminate information from our Breathe London monitoring node in central Brixton, a programme we joined three years ago. Louise then got deep into it and decided to leave her steady job and set up an air pollution data company… which she did in January 2024 with Will Hicks, coming out of Imperial College. Sacha took the CTO (techie) role (which he joined fully last summer) and there we have it - happy families!
So for just this week we’re doing a bit of a retrospective on the second year of Air Aware Labs! Indulge us if you will…
Here are some of our big, proud parent, moments:
we launched our mobile app AirTrack in April, with a Cleaner Routes feature in September - it’s now used around the world to help people understand and reduce their exposure to pollution
we built many partnerships including Forest Bikes, Responsible 100, Global Action Plan, Asthma + Lung, World Economic Forum, Global Sustainable Sports and Our Planet Needs You
we’ve been on podcasts, at more pitch events than we can remember, co-hosted international webinars, on accelerators, in the press, in start up competitions (even winning one late last year!) and travelled in Europe (and Will in Asia)
our team has grown and spans Europe, Asia (Philippines plus connections into Singapore, India and China), South America (Uruguay) and many interns from the US!
We brought all our learning together in our Annual Report which we launched last month. The report found that 41% of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) readings and 20% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) readings from people using AirTrack around the world exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines. Exposure was driven by both steady background pollution, and also short, intense episodes, influenced by route choice, transport mode and timing. The report also delved into physiological data. Daily Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a marker linked to recovery and resilience, showed a moderate, statistically significant association with air quality, with cleaner air linked to better recovery. We hope you find it a good read!
The last few weeks have had two more exciting developments for the team. At the very end of 2025 we learnt that our first scientific article (for Cities journal) was in pre-print as it went through peer review. This explores how air quality evidence can evolve within transport and urban planning decision making. And someone has been noticing what we’re up to - as we were named in the top 100 UK start ups for 2025!
It’s a cliché to say that start-up life is a rollercoaster (we have not explored the dips here - take us out for a beer if you want those!) but it’s true. We’re ending this second year on a high, but seeing the even higher heights ahead of us!