Healthy building movement gets a shot in the arm

The green building industry’s increased focus on the myriad health and wellness aspects of the built environment reached a fevered pitch this week at the Super Heroes Awards Gala, in which the U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC) officially launched its Building Health Initiative.

A wide array of Bay Area corporations and other organizations ranging from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Genentech to the City of San Francisco and California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) have signed on as founding partners in a fast-growing movement to elevate green building as a public health benefit and accelerate development of transparency standards in building materials. Among its wide array of action items, the initiative will facilitate collaboration among a unique coalition of commercial building owners and tenants; architects, engineers and builders; building product manufacturers; legal professionals; labor and healthcare professionals and institutions.

Noting that most participants signed on within a day or two of learning about the initiative, Dan Geiger, executive director of USGBC-NCC, said it marks the first time major

[source: http://www.sustainableindustries.com/articles/2013/10/healthy-building-movement-gets-shot-arm]