On the road to ASHRAE 2026 in Austin, a stop at a state-of-the-art insulation manufacturing plant offered a first-hand reminder that healthier buildings start long before occupancy
Dr John McKeon with the Knauf McGregor team JT Tristan Mark Jumper Val Salazar outside the facility ahead of the iAIR Institute Scientific Leadership Forum at ASHRAE 2026 in Austin supported by Knauf North America
On the drive south from Dallas toward Austin and the 2026 ASHRAE Annual Conference, McGregor, Texas, might easily read as just another exit on the highway. It is not.
Pull off the road, and the scale of what has taken root in this central Texas town becomes clear. Two global names, operating almost side by side in the same industrial corridor. One of them is Knauf, whose recently opened manufacturing facility produces Performance+ fiberglass building insulation for commercial and residential use across North America. The other, visible just across the road, is SpaceX.
The McGregor Industrial Park directory sign says it all Knauf and SpaceX two global innovators in completely different fields operating in the same small Texas town One building materials for healthier buildings on Earth The other building vehicles to take humanity beyond it What connects them is materials science
One company is engineering materials that will shape healthier buildings on Earth. The other is engineering vehicles capable of sustaining human life beyond it. What connects them, underneath everything, is materials science: the painstaking, exacting discipline of understanding how substances perform under real-world conditions.
Rocket equipment on the move near McGregor Texas In an industrial corridor that is home to both Knauf and SpaceX the scale of innovation happening in this small Texas town is hard to miss
That is exactly where Dr. John McKeon, Principal at the iAIR Institute and Chief Medical Officer at Airmid, found himself on the day before the iAIR Institute Scientific Leadership Forum, hosted in conjunction with ASHRAE 2026 in Austin, and generously supported by Knauf North America.
Indoor Air Quality Testing From the Factory Floor to the Scientific Forum
Dr John McKeon at the Knauf McGregor facility ahead of the iAIR Institute Scientific Leadership Forum at ASHRAE 2026 in Austin Before the science the factory floor
There is something uniquely valuable about seeing a product at its point of manufacture. Before asking how a building performs, it is worth understanding how the materials themselves are conceived, engineered and made. That understanding cannot be fully acquired from a data sheet.
Dr. McKeon was welcomed to the McGregor facility by Valentin Salazar, the plant manager, JT Tristan, HR Manager at McGregor, and Mark Jumper, who guided him through the operation. The Knauf McGregor plant, which came online in October 2024 after three years in development, spans 600,000 square feet and brings close to 200 jobs to the McGregor community. It represents Knauf’s eighth manufacturing location in the United States, and it reflects the company’s commitment to producing at scale without compromising on quality.
Dr John McKeon with the Knauf McGregor team Mark Jumper and Valentin Salazar inside the facility in front of the plants Texas state installation Independent science and manufacturing expertise in conversation
Walking the facility offered a perspective that laboratory science alone cannot provide. Airmid’s work as an independent contract research organisation for indoor air quality testing depends on a rigorous understanding of how products are designed and quality-controlled before they ever arrive in the laboratory. Seeing that process first-hand, and meeting the teams responsible for it, is a reminder of why independent indoor air quality testing exists: not in isolation from manufacturing, but in conversation with it.
Healthier Buildings Begin with Indoor Air Quality Testing
When people discuss indoor air quality, the conversation tends to centre on what happens inside an occupied building: ventilation rates, filtration systems, air exchange, humidity control. Of course these things matter enormously. But they are not where the story of a healthy building begins.
Healthier buildings begin with the materials selected by architects at the design stage. They begin with the insulation installed in walls and roofs, the adhesives used in construction, the coatings applied to surfaces. Long before a ventilation system is switched on, decisions have already been made that will influence the indoor environment for the lifetime of the building.
This is the thread that runs through Airmid’s work on indoor air quality testing. Independent laboratory testing of building materials and insulation products provides the scientific foundation on which certification programmes, standards and public confidence are built. The progression, from manufacturing quality through independent testing to certification and ultimately to healthier buildings, functions as a system. Each stage depends on the integrity of the one before it.
Dr John McKeon with Valentin Salazar Plant Manager at Knauf McGregor inside the facility Knaufs mission committed to safety quality and innovation is visible on the wall behind them
Visiting a facility like Knauf McGregor reinforces that the science on indoor air quality testing is not abstract. It is grounded in real manufacturing processes, in the decisions made on the factory floor, and in the relationships between manufacturers, researchers and the built environment community.
A Forum Built on That Foundation
Dr John McKeon and Dr Jessica Green lead the conversation at the iAIR Institute Scientific Leadership Forum
The iAIR Institute Scientific Leadership Forum, which takes place this week at Cedar Door in Austin, brings together senior voices from research, medicine, industry and the built environment for a high-level conversation on the future of indoor air quality and healthy buildings. Among the speakers is Dr. Jessica Green, Program Manager for Resilient Systems at ARPA-H, who leads the BREATHE programme, focused on building resilient indoor environments for air and total health.
Knauf North America’s support for that forum is entirely fitting. A company that has invested significantly in understanding how its products perform, and in bringing that manufacturing expertise to conversations about building science, belongs at the table where those conversations happen.
From the production lines of McGregor to the forum in Austin, the message is consistent: the future of healthy buildings depends on collaboration between manufacturers, independent scientists, standards developers and public health leaders. That collaboration does not begin when a building is occupied. It begins, as Dr. McKeon’s visit made plain, on the factory floor.
Related Tests and Services at Airmid
- Advisory Services for Indoor Air Quality and Product Validation
- Validate Your Product for Market Success
- Accredited Environmental Testing Facilities for Bioaerosol, Airborne Pathogens, Allergen, and Virology Studies
