Abstract

The world’s first AI-powered audio-inclusive certification for the built environment. Sownd Certification makes sound work for everyone, across comfort, behaviour and connected audio. A credential a business can show, and a trust signal for the 60% of people who are noise-sensitive.

Description

Noise is the most ignored layer of the built environment. It costs businesses billions a year in lost productivity and quietly excludes the 60% of people who are noise-sensitive. Sownd Certification is the world’s first AI-powered audio-inclusive standard for the built environment. It assesses how well a space works for everyone who uses it, across three tiers: Bronze (acoustic comfort and the physics of sound), Silver (behaviour and personalised experience for people who hear differently) and Gold (technology and zoning, including biophilic soundscapes and connected audio via Auracast integration).

Each tier combines objective measurement, AI-assisted analysis and a review of how a space is used and by whom. Certified spaces can opt for a physical Sownd Plaque and a public listing in the Sownd Directory. Sownd Affects came to life after eight years of R&D. It was founded by a profoundly deaf entrepreneur who became noise-sensitive after starting to wear hearing devices. The standard encodes that lived experience and the company exists to make sound work for everyone, and to make that work publicly accountable.

The first Pioneer cohort committed to rolling Sownd Certification out across their offices and projects are engineering, acoustics and architecture firms behind projects such as Mercedes F1, Warner Bros, the Royal Albert Hall and many of the tallest towers in London and abroad. A documentary on the 2025 Pilots won Best Documentary at two festivals, in Berlin and Barcelona, and in 2026 demand for Sownd Certification is expanding to 35 markets internationally.

ISA Entrant: Sownd Affects