Welcome to the UK Indoor Environments Group.
The UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG) was launched in 2003, with the aim to co-ordinate and provide a focus for UK activity concerned with improving indoor environments for people.
We are a unique, independent and impartial multidisciplinary network of professionals working in the field of health, wellbeing and indoor environments. We are committed to promoting the development, synthesis, dissemination and application of evidence relating to policy and practice in the UK indoor built environment, with the ultimate aim of improving health and wellbeing.
The fact that people spend the vast majority of their time inside buildings – at home, at work, in vehicles, shops, etc. – is widely acknowledged, yet while the outdoor environment has received much attention, the importance of the quality of the indoor environment in relation to human health and wellbeing has been widely unrecognised and under-researched. Moreover, addressing problems relating to the indoor environment, which might include issues as diverse as indoor air quality, transmission of infectious disease, lighting, ventilation and thermal comfort, physical and mental health, comfort and wellbeing, requires a highly multidisciplinary approach and involves numerous different stakeholders. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has highlighted the importance of indoor environments for our health and well being on a global scale. Yet there is a fundamental lack of mutual understanding around the notions of ‘health’ and ‘wellbeing’ within the context of indoor environments, and an inadequate understanding of how to support health and wellbeing indoor using an evidence-based approach and in a sustainable manner. This lack of coordination and alignment cuts across policy, research and professional practice.