{"id":18037,"date":"2013-10-30T20:35:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T20:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedpoints.com\/?guid=e63fb4cac84f2342901d1ca65e849d8c"},"modified":"2013-10-30T20:35:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T20:35:59","slug":"healthy-building-movement-gets-a-shot-in-the-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/healthy-building-movement-gets-a-shot-in-the-arm\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy building movement gets a shot in the arm"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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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<\/a>, in which the U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC<\/a>) officially launched its Building Health Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A wide array of Bay Area corporations and other organizations ranging from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG<\/a>) 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.<\/p>\n

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 corporations and institutions from multiple sectors have come together to publicly commit to improving human health through green building.<\/p>\n

“We’re expanding the conversation,” Geiger told the San Jose Mercury News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There is a growing recognition in medicine that the built environment has significant health impacts,” said advisory board member Elizabeth Baca, a physician who works on policy to improve the built environment. “Physicians want to understand the underlying causes of their patients’ conditions. That’s why we ask, ‘Where do you work, live and play?’ It is imperative that the medical profession and building industries learn from one another about the health impacts of the built environment.”<\/p>\n

The Building Health Initiative builds on years of work promoting the vitality of healthy workplaces and reducing the widespread use of harmful chemicals in buildings. One of the most talked about changes in LEED v4<\/a>, the USGBC’s sweeping new ratings set to launch next month at Greenbuild 2013<\/a> in Philadelphia, is the rewarding of points to projects that report toxicity in building materials. LEED v4 is expected to have significant impact across a wide variety of industries.<\/p>\n

In phase one, pledges emerging from the Building Health Initiative vary according to the type of company involved. Google, Genentech, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE<\/a>) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM<\/a>) are pledging to develop procurement practices and processes that consider materials transparency and emerging standards such as Health Product Declarations (HPDs<\/a>). Adobe plans to study its LEED certified workplaces to determine if they measurably contribute to more collaborative, creative, innovative and healthy employees – the type of study companies have for years found difficult to quantify. Other partner pledges include creating resources for affordable housing, community outreach, researching the relationship between climate change and health, educating clients and peers about health impacts of the built environment and developing Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[pagebreak]In phase two of the initiative, founding partners will develop a series of educational programs and related events.<\/p>\n

Genentech, the highest ranking corporate sponsor in the batch is also working with founding partners Webcor Builders and architect Perkins & Will on a new 250,0000-square-foot office building in South San Francisco.<\/p>\n

“As an organization committed to improve human health, we also want to promote the development of environments that contribute to the health and wellness of our employees and communities where we work,” said Carla Boragno, Genentech’s vice president of site services.<\/p>\n

With USGBC-NC as a recognized innovator among its peers, the overall impact on the global green movement could be substantial. The chapter is home to 6 percent of worldwide LEED-certified square footage, not to mention some of the most impactful companies on the planet.<\/p>\n

Following is a full list of Building Health Initiative founding partners:<\/p>\n

Visionary<\/strong><\/p>\n