Citadel Sciences and Kaiterra Team to Equip U.S. Schools with Enterprise-Grade Air Quality Monitoring

FALLS CHURCH, Va., Oct. 19, 2026 — Citadel Sciences today announced an exclusive, multiyear partnership with Kaiterra to bring continuous indoor air quality monitoring to K-12 schools nationwide. Kaiterra's sensors already monitor more than 1 billion square feet of commercial real estate worldwide and are deployed at 28% of Fortune 500 companies. Districts get room-by-room readings around the clock, not one-time spot checks, so leaders can catch and fix the conditions that affect student health, attendance and learning. Citadel and Kaiterra will kick off the partnership at Greenbuild 2026, Oct. 20-23 in New York City.

Commercial real estate has spent years investing in the sensors, standards and certifications that define a healthy building. Schools — where children spend about 15,000 hours from kindergarten through graduation — haven't kept pace. The research shows what's at stake:

• D+ is the grade the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's school infrastructure in 2025. The average main school building is 49 years old, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
• More than a third of absences from respiratory illness could be cut by updating facilities and meeting ventilation standards, a 2026 peer-reviewed study of more than 45,000 students estimated.
• 12% faster work on school tasks is possible when classroom carbon dioxide falls from 2,100 to 900 parts per million, a 2020 peer-reviewed analysis of classroom research estimated.

"School leaders are juggling aging buildings, tight budgets and families who want answers," said Austen Krause, co-founder and president of Citadel Sciences. "And they're often making million-dollar decisions with little data to go on. The stakes are real: More than one in five students are chronically absent, and energy is districts' second-largest expense after teacher salaries. Kaiterra's continuous monitoring shows what's happening, room by room. We help leaders turn that into a plan to fix what matters most, make every dollar count and show their communities real progress. That's what putting health first looks like."

Citadel and Kaiterra already work with districts nationwide, and no two schools need the same thing. A school near oil refineries, one on a busy city street and one battling classroom humidity each need different solutions. Getting that right is especially critical for under-resourced districts, where budgets are tightest. Kaiterra's battery-powered monitors run for up to an industry-leading eight years, and their data helps leaders target investments precisely instead of spending on interventions they don't need. The wireless Sensedge Go monitor and cloud data platform give districts a detailed picture of conditions in each classroom, tracking up to 17 parameters, including carbon dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and other pollutant gases, as well as temperature, humidity, light and sound and occupancy.

Citadel turns that data into a health-first strategy for the whole district. Its platform and team help superintendents and boards see the health of every school, business officials cut wasted energy and invest in the fixes that work, facilities teams hold vendors accountable with verified results, and teachers bring real building data into the classroom and curriculum.

"We've spent a decade working with the world's largest organizations to create healthy buildings and workplaces. We've seen over and over again how continuous air quality and environmental data bring measurable ROI, drive real improvement in the built environment, and create a better experience for the people inside. There's no reason schools should be the exception," said Liam Bates, co-founder and CEO of Kaiterra. "Partnering with Citadel gives us a team that knows schools and how to bring that technology into a K-12 environment to drive that change."

The announcement builds on the recent Healthy Schools for Healthy Kids Summit, where the Healthy Schools Network, the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and other national organizations came together around a shared agenda for healthier school environments. Interest in healthy buildings has taken off. In just a few years, adoption of IWBI's WELL Building Standard has grown from its first billion square feet to more than 6 billion, spanning nearly 100,000 locations in 137 countries. Kaiterra's monitors and data platform are used by organizations around the world to measure and improve indoor environmental quality and to support WELL certification. Now Citadel and Kaiterra are bringing that same level of evidence and accountability to K-12 schools.

"Every child deserves a school that protects their health, supports their learning and opens doors to opportunity," said Jason Hartke, head of global advocacy, International WELL Building Institute, the global authority for advancing healthy buildings, organizations and communities. "Investing in healthier schools is investing in children and their futures. It's encouraging to see partners come together around that shared mission, exactly the kind of collaboration the Healthy Schools for Healthy Kids Summit was designed to inspire."

"School should be the cleanest air kids get all day," said Dr. Lewis Hofmann, Citadel's health science lead and former White House physician. The partnership brings that vision within reach for districts nationwide. The joint offering is available now, including through cooperative purchasing contracts such as OMNIA Partners, Sourcewell and TIPS. Citadel and Kaiterra representatives will be at Booth 1524 in the Greenbuild 2026 Expo Hall (Hall 3A) to meet with district leaders and answer questions.

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