Care Beyond Pure Air: What We're Doing During COVID-19

This is Who We Are

A crisis can be a defining moment for an individual’s character as well as an organization’s culture. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is challenging each of us physically and emotionally every day.

At Alen, we’re listening and taking action to serve our family of customers and coworkers, not to mention the larger communities to which we belong.

"In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers." - Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers)

This is a recap of what Alen is doing during COVID-19. It’s also a hub to ask questions and find resources. You may be wondering some of the same things, or maybe you’re trying to help your community in similar ways.

Not Business as Usual: Helping More People Than Ever

Alen’s vision—To inspire a healthier life and provide peace of mind for everyone through clean and safe air—took on a new urgency as people everywhere began using their homes like never before. In-turn, we were able to help more people than ever ensure the best indoor air quality for their families.

We see indoor air quality’s well-documented impact on immune health as an important part of flattening the COVID-19 curve. Every particle you inhale causes an immune system response. The fewer airborne particles you inhale, the more your immune systems can focus on wellness.

Deemed an essential business, we’ve maintained inventory levels and shipping schedules to keep our commitment to customers—all thanks to the selfless efforts of Alen teammates.

People Before Profits: How Alen is Supporting Employees

• Spreading Essential Wellness

As an essential business, we’ve continued shipping purifiers to help more people than ever breathe healthier indoor air. To do so, we’ve ensured that our warehouse staff, who’ve volunteered to continue doing this work, are well protected with necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), rested with extra days off, and compensated accordingly.

• Joining the Remote Revolution

Alen teammates not involved in shipping products from our Austin, TX headquarters have gone 100% remote. We already offered a flexible work-from-home policy and made use of popular tools like Zoom, Slack, and Confluence. But Alen has invested in helping teammates outfit their home offices to make this transition as smooth as possible.

• Caring for Mind & Body

We’re a tight-knit team here at Alen, so working at a distance has been tough. To stay connected, we’ve increased communication through weekly all-hands roundtables and virtual town-halls, plus regular Zoom coffee breaks and happy hours. We’ve also expanded our benefits to include mental health assistance and wellness coaching, and we’ve made it easier to add family members to our insurance plan in light of layoffs across many sectors.

• Considering Psychological Security

As a safeguard against all the fear and uncertainty, leadership is communicating its commitment to staff regularly and transparently. At our weekly roundtables, we discuss contingency plans to avoid job losses at all costs. Most importantly, we reaffirm our trust and belief in each other as highly accountable teammates. That includes patience in the new ways we’re collaborating and reassurance that we’re all empowered to take risks and think big without fear of reprisal.

Clearing the Air: How Alen is Educating and Answering Big Questions

• Beneficial Blogging

Last month, as the coronavirus crisis intensified, the first thing we did was publish a blog to provide factual information about what True HEPA air purifiers can and cannot do to protect against viruses. Since then, it’s become one of the internet’s most-read resources on the topic.

• Answering Your FAQs

As we all learn about this frightening disease together, finding truthful answers to questions is tough. We’re listening to your question— sent to our Customer Relations team and posted to blogs and social media— and we're working hard to respond quickly with useful, factual answers.

• Staying Social at a Distance

We’ve made sure to maintain a healthy number of conversations on our social channels like Facebook and Instagram. That includes everything from fielding questions to recommending safer alternatives to cleaning supplies to sharing thoughtful and zany ways we’re trying to stay sane. We’ve also upgraded our customer engagement software to ensure quick responses to questions via email, chat, and social.

In it Together: How Alen is Supporting our Community

Homemade Masks & Sew Much Love

• Beginning in March, Alen partnered with Austin-area sewing group,Sew Sisters, and over 400 volunteers to design, sew, and distribute some very special masks. Inside each handmade mask is HEPA filter material harvested from our T500 purifier filters. In a true labor of love, a volunteer carefully cuts the edges off each filter using a band saw. The HEPA filter material inside stretches over 17 feet when gently pulled apart. This can be cut into enough inserts for at least 40 masks that offer the protective equivalent of an N99 respirator.

• So far, over 1,300 handmade masks have been donatedto Austin-area hospitals, assisted living centers, hospice facilities, and more. And Sew Sisters is sharing this knowledge with the world. Check out their YouTube video.

• Want to support the Sew Sisters Mask Project? When you purchase a replacement filter, start a filter subscription, or buy an Alen air purifier using these links, we will make a one for one filter donation! A volunteer will harvest HEPA material to create 40 more masks for front line caregivers and essential workers. We’ll even send you a thank you email!

*We do NOT recommend using power tools to deconstruct your filters at home.

Feeding the Most Good

• To care for the fundamental needs of our community’s most vulnerable members, Alen has made a donation to the Central Texas Food Bank that will provide over 20,000 meals to Austin-area residents in need. Last year, the Central Texas food bank, (part of the Feeding America Network) provided over 39 million meals within the local community. Their on-site garden grew 36 different crops and harvested 7,534 pounds of fresh produce. The Fresh Food for Families program provided more than 1.3 million pounds of fresh produce. And their Healthy Options for the Elderly (HOPE) distributed more than 919,447 pounds of non-perishable food to low-income seniors.

In Conclusion: With Hearts and Smarts We Will Prevail

Here at Alen, we’ll continue to take our mission seriously, but ourselves not so much. Even though we’re apart, we are united around our customer-first commitment. We’re working hard to constantly refine our products, make our top-rated service even better, and bring exciting new indoor wellness innovations to life.

But we’re most proud of the time we’re taking to care for customers and one another on a deeper level, not to mention the ridiculous outfits we’re sporting on our Zoom happy hours and the opportunity to share some positivity with family and friends.

“Amid fear and uncertainty, I have found that the two most powerful antidotes are thankfulness and trust...remembering and reflecting on the good things,” said Alen CEO, Andy Graham.

Whether you’re an Alen customer or simply interested in better breathing,we always love hearing from you. Send us your questions, tell us how your Alen purifier is helping you through quarantine or, let us know how we can serve you better.