ROCIS and Linda Wigington’s Quest for Healthier Indoor Air

For more than four decades, Linda Wigington has been at the forefront of the home performance industry. From her early work with the Affordable Comfort conferences, she has consistently encouraged home energy professionals to broaden their scope, focusing not just on saving energy but also on protecting the health and well-being of the people living in those homes.

A Pioneer in the “House as a System” Approach

In the 1980s, many home energy efficiency programs offered insulation upgrades, efficient light bulbs, storm windows, and exterior caulking. Under Wigington’s leadership, Affordable Comfort stood out by advancing the “House as a System” approach, which considers buildings as interconnected ecosystems. Occupant engagement, indoor air quality (IAQ), and “do no harm” were central components of this vision. 

From the very beginning, conference presenters consistently emphasized the importance of combustion safety and moisture control, while also addressing risks associated with gas cooking and unvented space heaters. They understood that making a home more energy-efficient must go hand in hand with making it healthier. Energy retrofits that fail to account for unintended consequences can sometimes create new problems, such as backdrafting or increased moisture levels. By integrating IAQ into energy efficiency practice, Wigington helped build a foundation that would become standard across the home performance industry. 

Now, through her leadership of ROCIS (Reducing Outdoor Contaminants in Indoor Spaces), Wigington is applying her systems-thinking approach to an often overlooked challenge to healthy homes: how outdoor pollution—from industrial sources to traffic emissions to wildfire smoke—enters homes and affects indoor air quality. Her work with ROCIS builds on her lifelong commitment to making homes not only energy-efficient but also safer and more comfortable.

From Efficiency Pioneer to Air Quality Advocate

Wigington is best known in building science circles for her leadership in energy efficiency. In 1986, she founded the Affordable Comfort Conference (now the National Home Performance Conference, hosted by the Building Performance Association), which has become the home performance industry’s flagship event. Over nearly three decades, she organized more than 50 national and regional conferences that brought together contractors, researchers, utility program designers, program implementers, trainers, and policymakers—many of whom still cite those gatherings as foundational to their careers.

She also served as a consultant to Habitat for Humanity’s Green Team, a founding board member of Passive House Institute U.S., an editorial advisor to Home Energy magazine, and is director of the 1000 Home Challenge. Her work helped define and elevate the field, encouraging a holistic approach to buildings that prioritized occupant engagement, comfort, safety, durability, and measured performance, rather than just predicted outcomes. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) honored her with the Champion of Energy Efficiency Award. And, the Building Performance Association recognized her contributions by establishing the Linda Wigington Leadership Award, which celebrates visionary leaders in the home performance and weatherization industries.

As the industry matured, Wigington has always sought deeper improvements. More than a decade ago, she shifted her focus to examining how outdoor air quality impacts the air quality inside our homes. That shift to looking beyond indoor sources to also include outdoor contaminants set the stage for ROCIS.

ROCIS: A Practical Approach to a Hidden Problem

Launched in southwestern Pennsylvania, ROCIS addresses a persistent and under-discussed issue: how outdoor air pollution impacts indoor spaces. Older, leakier homes are often hit hardest, but no buildings are exempt. Even the most efficient homes—tightly sealed, well-insulated, heated, and cooled with the latest equipment—can still experience serious indoor air quality issues from outdoor air pollution.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is a region long shaped by heavy industry and complex air quality issues. Steel mills, fracking operations, compressor stations, and coke plants all contribute pollution that is only compounded by traffic emissions. With its valleys and river basins, when stagnant conditions or weather inversions occur, contaminants can become trapped close to the ground throughout the region.

While the impacts are greater for those living closer to the pollution sources, many people are surprised to learn that outdoor pollutants end up inside homes across southwestern Pennsylvania. Everyone in the region inhabits the same airshed.

For families living in the region, poor ambient air quality isn’t just an occasional problem tied to wildfire smoke or smog events; it’s part of daily life. That reality makes the home a critical line of defense. ROCIS helps households recognize how outdoor pollutants migrate indoors and equips them with practical, low-cost strategies to reduce exposure.

ROCIS asks a tough but practical question: How can people living with poor regional air quality protect themselves from outdoor air pollution in their homes? (See ROCIS Primary Investigator Don Fugler’s white paper Protecting Homes from Outdoor Pollution.) By grounding the program in this regional challenge, Wigington and her team created a model with lessons far beyond Pennsylvania. Communities across the country facing poor ambient air quality can adapt the same tools and approaches to make their homes healthier.

The Low-Cost Monitoring Project

Through ROCIS, Wigington and her team developed the Low Cost Monitoring Project, which loans participants affordable indoor and outdoor air quality monitors and supports them through a cohort-based learning experience. Participants (who may be homeowners, renters, teachers, or small business owners) track fine particle pollution (PM2.5), carbon dioxide, radon, and other indicators over a three- to four-week period. Along the way, they try out various solutions—using box fans and filters, modifying HVAC settings, installing effective vented range hoods, using induction cook tops, keeping windows closed, or experimenting with portable air cleaners—and share their findings, collaborating with peers over a multi-week, facilitated experience.

A distinctive strength of the project is its reach: More than half of the participants report both benefits in both their personal and professional lives from their involvement, and many are connected to regional environmental or health initiatives. This means the lessons they learn don’t just stay in their homes—they ripple outward into workplaces, community programs, and policy discussions.

The best results in particle reduction are achieved with a combination of filtration and particle source limitation. Other common and important interventions include radon mitigation, induction cooking, and the installation of vented kitchen range hoods.

The core idea is empowerment: demystifying air quality through direct engagement and accessible data. LCMP participants spend three to four weeks observing how their household activities  and outdoor events, such as wildfire smoke or the use of a wood stove, can impact indoor air quality. The results can be eye-opening, revealing sources of pollution that are invisible yet impactful, and equipping homeowners with fundamental strategies to protect their health. 

Since 2015, more than 600 people have taken part in over 60 monitoring cohorts. At the end of the cohort, LCMP Participants can have their forced air system checked to determine the  viability of using a longer run-time and better filter for whole house filtration. Learn about the air handler modifications and experiences from monitoring in the ROCIS Clean Air Chronicles.

Wigington remains deeply engaged with the program, facilitating sessions, reviewing data, co-developing tools and strategies, and continually refining the model based on participant feedback. “It’s still evolving,” she says. “And that’s the point. People need support to observe, experiment, and learn in their own homes.” 

Why Air Quality? Why Now?

Recognition of the importance of IAQ is growing especially in the wake of COVID-19, wildfires, and growing awareness of environmental health. Wigington saw this coming. Her long-standing focus on real-world performance made her especially attuned to the gap between what a building should deliver and what it actually does.

“I’ve always believed performance has to be verified,” she says. “We can’t assume that energy efficiency alone means we’ve done a good job. If the air inside the home is unhealthy, then we’ve missed something critical.” ROCIS is a response to that belief. It’s practical, data-driven, and rooted in equity—seeking to deliver tools and knowledge to people who often lack access to high-end technology or technical expertise.

Looking Forward 

Indoor air quality is a central aspect of how we define building performance. ROCIS is expanding, with new cohorts, updated tools, and more communities getting involved. And Wigington is at the heart of it, asking tough questions, supporting her team, and demonstrating that better outcomes are possible when we focus on what truly matters.  

Her message today remains consistent: Performance is essential. Buildings affect lives. And with the right tools and support, everyday people can make real, measurable change in both their personal and professional lives—in their homes, in their communities, and across the industry.

The ROCIS initiative is supported by Nonprofit Partners, Inc., through a grant from The Heinz Endowments.