Connect the Dots
The reality that every building industry professional must face is that it is impossible to divorce infrastructure from social outcomes. Nevertheless, a disconnect exists between them for two reasons: the drivers for the creation of built environments often don’t consider the larger context and the people creating them sometimes have difficulty making the connection between the two, according to Peterson.
He explains the drivers for the building industry are often limited to profit, governmental factors and private interests (constructing a home or building for a business, for example).
“Those are perfectly great drivers, but within those there isn’t much that says, ‘What are we doing to support the inhabitants and the users of those buildings or landscapes, as well as the social component of health?’” he muses. “‘How does this contribute to a larger goal that we have for our community, a neighborhood, city, region?’”
To that point, Peterson shares a frequent scenario he encounters after giving talks in which an audience member will approach him and say, “Wow, I’m so interested in the kind of work you do. I wish I was doing work that matters in the same way.” His response is to ask the person—often a designer or architect—what they are currently working on, to which they’ll reply: “Well, I’m working on this mid-rise building in downtown Pittsburgh,” for example.
Peterson advises people in these situations to go back and reconsider the work before them and realize they have an enormous opportunity to improve people’s lives—a mid-rise building in Pittsburgh has a far bigger social footprint than many smaller projects celebrated as having a stated social agenda.
For facility managers, building owners, contractors and other building professionals who have agency over the quality and specificity of where people live, work, play and worship, Peterson offers this bit of advice: “I would encourage them to own that reality and participate as thoroughly as they can. I think what we don’t want to miss is how so many people’s work in this field has the chance to really make a difference, and all you have to do, I believe, is understand that and work toward it.”
Dig Deeper
For facility executives and design and construction professionals who want to learn more about sustainable initiatives that have a social impact, check out these programs that are geared specifically toward the building industry:
- Declare Label—Declare is a product “nutrition-label” disclosure program developed and managed by the International Living Future Institute, Seattle, that is transforming the building materials marketplace through transparency and open communication. For manufacturers, Declare offers an expanded point-of-entry into groundbreaking restorative projects and a new platform to connect with consumers. For design professionals, ILFI has created the Declare product database that enables them to make selections that meet the Living Building Challenge’s stringent materials requirements, streamlining the materials specification and certification process.
- JUST Label—The International Living Future Institute’s JUST program is a voluntary disclosure program and tool for all types and sizes of organizations. It is not a verification or certification program. Rather, the program provides an innovative transparency platform for organizations to reveal much about their operations, including how they treat their employees and where they make financial and community investments. This approach requires reporting on a range of organization—and employee-related—indicators. Each of the indicator metrics asks for simple yet specific and measurable accountabilities for the organization to be recognized at a One, Two or Three Star Level, which is then summarized on a label.
- WeLL Building Standard—WELL is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. WELL is grounded in a body of medical research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend more than 90 percent of our time and the health and wellness impacts on us as occupants. WELL Certified spaces can help create a built environment that improves the nutrition, fitness, mood, sleep patterns and performance of its occupants.