Johnson Controls and Phylagen sign Healthy Buildings joint development agreement

CORK, Ireland, Sept. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, today announced it has signed a joint development agreement with Phylagen, a leading biotechnology company in the field of microbiome optimization of indoor environments. Through this agreement, which includes a strategic investment in Phylagen, the companies are developing cutting-edge technology that leverages the science of building microbiomes to advance the future of healthy buildings.

Johnson Controls and Phylagen believe that future improvements to indoor health and safety require deep understanding of the unique indoor microbiomes of individual buildings. Microbial life such as viruses, bacteria and fungi are all around us, including in every building and every surface. These microbes not only impact overall health and wellness, but they also share meaningful data about whether or not indoor environments are safe and optimized.

"Phylagen's work provides practical and effective alignment with the Johnson Controls focus on a future committed to healthy people, healthy places and a healthy planet," said George Oliver, chairman and CEO of Johnson Controls. "Phylagen's ability to understand the untapped potential of the indoor microbiome is critically important as we not only respond to our new normal for managing indoor environments but prepare to make buildings safer, smarter and more responsive long-term."

"The pandemic has reaffirmed what indoor microbiologists have long believed - the biology of indoor air is critical to our health and must be better understood and managed," said Dr. Jessica Green, CEO and co-founder, Phylagen. "Our partnership with Johnson Controls will exponentially advance our understanding of the indoor microbiome, reshaping how we design and operate new and existing buildings. We spend 90% of our lives indoors ? this work is vital to the future of public health."

For more information on Johnson Controls clean air strategies visit: https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/openblue/openblue-clean-air

About Johnson Controls
At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet. With a history of more than 135 years of innovation, Johnson Controls delivers the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through its comprehensive digital offering, OpenBlue. With a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world's largest portfolio of building technology, software as well as service solutions with some of the most trusted names in the industry. For more information, visit www.johnsoncontrols.com or follow us @johnsoncontrols on Twitter.

About Phylagen
Phylagen is a biotechnology company analyzing and optimizing the indoor microbiome - the ecosystem of viruses, bacteria and fungi that inhabit the places we live, work and play. Led by Dr. Jessica Green, a founder in the field of indoor microbiology, Phylagen's team of internationally recognized scientists combine microbial genomics and data analytics to solve complex problems like pandemic management and environmental health and safety. Phylagen has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer.

SOURCE Johnson Controls International plc