CRI听力:Multinational Companies Offer Clean Air in the Office to Attract Employees

Multinational firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, J.D. Power and WPP, have spent thousands of dollars installing air filtration systems and real-time monitoring devices.

These are booming times for the clean air industry.

Louie Cheng, Chief Executive of an indoor environmental consultancy, PureLiving China, said his company's manpower has increased a lot, with many more projects under their belt.

"We've pretty much been doubling our staff continuously for the past four years, starting from a one man show to now fifty staff or so across four offices. In terms of our clients, we've done now about 4,000 projects related to almost exclusively air quality in China and we probably do about 600 to 800 projects per year."

Some property developers such as Kerry Properties and Jiaming Investment have also implemented air system upgrades in the hope that better indoor air quality will attract more new tenants.

Geoff Broderick, an executive at J.D. Power, says more and more people are attaching great importance to the environment of their workplace.

"Our people have so much to worry about on a day-to-day basis running the business, whether or not they're breathing quality air shouldn't be one of those, so we wanted to make sure that our people had that good quality air."

Liu Jia, an employee at J.D Power, appreciates the effort.

"Air pollution, a big topic, is a social problem. So, many colleagues including me have air purifiers at home, and we have attached great importance to health. If we can enjoy a same safe and healthy environment in the office, we will feel really relieved. At least our health is protected during our 8-hour working time and at eight hours at night."

Serious air pollution and smoggy weather have been a big issue in China recently.

This winter, Beijing issued red alerts for air pollution twice, meaning the pollution was at the most hazardous level.

A red alert is triggered when the government believes air quality will surpass a level of 200 on an index that measures various pollutants for at least three days.

Earlier this morning, an orange alert for smog, which often blankets major cities, was also issued in the capital, which is also under a yellow alert for air pollution.

Levels of PM2.5, the smallest and deadliest airborne particles, rose above 500 in some parts of Beijing today.

Weather forecast says heavy smog in Beijing will last until the weekend.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.