Knowing the breath, Air Quality Monitoring Application in Jabodetabek

2018 Asian Games in Jakarta & Palembang may be the moment when air quality becomes the talk of citizens and the media on a national scale. The case of forest and land fires that occurred several times would also be included in the category of events that triggered the issue to become a national issue. However, agree or not, the discussion about air quality is far from sufficient in the daily conversation of the people.

Piotr Jakubowski, former CMO Gojek, trying to liven up this conversation through a platform. Together with Nathan Roestandy, he founded "Breath". Piotr plays the role of chief growth officer, while Nathan occupied the position chief executive officer. According to Piotr, Nathan formerly known as the founder of Zulu, has been researching this topic since 2016. In short, the two of them have established breath as a platform that can help residents of Jakarta and its surroundings in accessing data and educational resources regarding hyperlocal air quality.

Piotr said this idea started with the worsening air quality and the lack of local initiatives to describe the situation based on data. It was so bad, the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan even mentioned that The loss caused by air pollution reaches Rp. 60 trillion.

So what exactly does breath offer to the public? Air quality data is the answer. There are a number of fundamentals according to Piotr that differentiate the breath from other air quality platforms. First in terms of accuracy. The breath uses its own sensor which displays data taken directly and real-time.

According to Piotr, there are several other platforms that only take second-hand data via API or use satellite data only. There are also those whose data recording is not real-time.

"That can be misleading and unprofitable for users because yesterday's good data recording does not mean the current air quality is good too. Breath only displays the latest data," said Piotr.

Nafas has installed 46 sensors spread across Jabodetabek. Their sensors can update air quality data every 20 minutes. The data presented in the breath application are Air Quality Index (AQI) and Particulate Matter (PM) 2,5 levels.

The application also displays recommendations that need to be carried out according to the latest air conditions. With this number of sensors, Piotr claims to be the largest provider of air quality data in Jakarta.

Piotr did not say breath as a non-profit organization. The method they take to run the breath is through sponsorship programs. More specifically, the breath embraces individuals or companies that pay attention to ESG (environmental, social, governance) to sponsor the installation of sensors. One of the companies that has become a sponsor in Breath is Mandiri Bank.

Apart from helping the public access better air quality data, breath offers them a number of advantages. One of them is by displaying the sponsor's logo into the application as part of the program brand sponsorship.

"In our sponsorship plan, we have a number of initiatives with partners including brand sponsorship within apps, collaborative marketing activities, and access to more detailed data," said Piotr.

Nevertheless, the goal that Piotr and Nathan coveted through their breath had no small challenges. Education to the community is the biggest homework. The reason is that raising the issue of the dangers of air pollution is like a scary job because the threat factor is not visible. Though the consequences of shortening a person's life expectancy up to 4,8 years.

However, since the pandemic started, Piotr believes that people's views on air quality have changed. Besides that, breath also intends to work with various types of organizations and individuals to boost education to the Indonesian people about air quality.

"The key to success is educating as many people as possible that bad air can affect health and how to reduce exposure to bad air as much as possible," concluded Piotr.

So far, breath is only available in the Greater Jakarta area. Piotr said there is no plan to expand the scope of his work area because he still wants to strengthen his presence in Jabodetabek. Breath can be accessed on the Play Store and AppStore.