How to Fix Indoor Air Quality and Improve Cognition by over 60 Percent with Aki Soudunsaari

Can you really increase your cognition by over 60% just by spending time in nature? Naava CEO and Co-Founder, Aki Soudunsaari, explains the problems with indoor air, why you may want to spend more time outside, and how to upgrade your office air.

Who is Aki Soudunsaari?

Aki lives and breathes entrepreneurship, which he defines as "ideas into action". Equipped with over 10 years of experience, he is a true expert of growth venturing with a passion for human behavior, winning teams, educational leadership and company culture.

After working as a teacher of physical education and health sciences, Aki worked on his PhD in the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics and was a visiting scholar in Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship at San Jose State University. He ran Global Venture Labs' growth venturing programs for a few years, where multidisciplinary students solved companies problems and learned entrepreneurial thinking and processes.

Aki's personal mission is to improve people's health, happiness and performance. During his PhD work he met Naava's co-founder Niko, and this led to the birth of Naava.

Six years later, Naava has grown from an innovative experiment of two young men, to a global business. Naava brings nature indoors, creating natural environments where we can feel healthier and happier.

Aki has been nominated for EY's Entrepreneur of the Year (2017), PWC’s Most Valuable Entrepreneur (2015) and Young Academic Entrepreneur (2014) awards. He was invited by the President of Finland to join the Finland 100-year ceremonies in 2017, and he has been a keynote speaker at tens of different seminars, events, and conferences.

Key Highlights:

• [5:00] How bad is the air quality in the world?
• [7:00] 61% increase in cognitive performance from improvement in indoor air
• [9:12] The benefits of having plants indoors
• [10:09] Indoor air quality is much worse than outdoor
• [15:40] The problem with humidity in our buildings
• [18:25] How Naava got started
• [22:31] Testing air quality
• [24:21] It's all about the microbes
• [27:39] Your microbiome and air quality
• [30:19] How Naava works
• [38:12] The range of effectiveness for a Naava
• [40:38] Controlling our nervous system with plants
• [40:47] Aki answers the final questions

Resources Mentioned:

• Naava's website
• Promoting human health through forests: overview and major challenges
• Shinrin-yoku (forest-air bathing and walking) effectively decreases blood glucose levels in diabetic patients
• Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments
• NASA Microbial Research
• NASA - Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement

‍