The pollutant control performance of exhaust hoods plays a crucial role in the indoor air quality and energy consumption of ventilation systems in industrial buildings. To better understand the impact of local ventilation on the industrial indoor environment, this paper presents a literature review of exhaust hood performance and its improvement technologies. To create an index for evaluating the performance of exhaust hoods, the capture velocity, capture efficiency, flow ratio of pollutant emissions and exhaust airflow and energy consumption are first introduced. A number of factors affecting exhaust hood performance are assessed such as hood type, hood opening size, exhaust rate, installation distance, pollution source emission and environmental disturbance. Compared to structural improvement methods, the use of active airflow is a more effective way to improve the exhaust hood performance. The most commonly used methods for determining the exhaust rate are the controlled speed method and the flow ratio method. The use of an exhaust hood with an appropriate exhaust rate and jet parameters (for an active air-assisted hood) can effectively improve the pollutant control performance and reduce the energy consumption that would be wasted on the redundant exhaust rate. With more information focused on exhaust hood performance, this work suggests more effective strategies for improving indoor air quality and reducing energy consumption in industrial buildings.