human health

Healing Hospitals

2016 May-June, human health, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="22100" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] By Mary Grauerholz [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] HDR Inc. designs an Army Medical Center with sustainability and wellness in mind. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_column_text] The global architectural firm HDR Inc. was in the middle of designing a new military hospital in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in 2007 when news broke about substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The news that some of the U.S. Army’s wounded veterans were being treated in a moldering, dilapidated setting launched an investigation and a directive from Congress that both hospitals be transformed into “world-class medical facilities.” “We were right in the middle of the design process with the Department of Defense on Fort Belvoir. It was quite a firestorm, a tumultuous time,” says Jeff Getty, RA, LEED AP, an architect in HDR’s Arlington, Virginia, office. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="22099" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]When combined with environmental and financial benefits, the SROI net present value of HEPA filtration and hydrogen peroxide vapor cleaning increases the total benefits to roughly $38 million and $121 million, respectively.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_bottom="15" padding_top="15"][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_single_image image="22104" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_single_image image="22105" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self"...

Sustainable Energy

2016 March-April, human health, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="21751" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] By Jeff Harder [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Clif Bar’s headquarters promotes sustainability and wellness for its employees. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_column_text] Step into Clif Bar and Company’s headquarters, look up, and the bikes and kayaks dangling from the ceiling are among the quirky clues that suggest the leading energy bar maker is not content to leave the outdoors outside. Daylight beams through floor-to-ceiling walls of windows and changing colors fall onto workers spread across the open floor plan. A quartet of open-air atrium gardens offers a genuine slice of nature inside the building’s 115,000-sq-ft footprint. Step into one of the conference rooms built from reclaimed wood and the atmosphere feels a little like you have arrived at a trailhead. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21753" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]As the leaders of a family- and employee-owned company, Gary Erickson, along with his wife, Kit Crawford, developed an innovative business model that integrates social and environmental responsibility into every area of the business.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_bottom="25" padding_top="15"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]Clif Bar’s offices on 66th Street in Emeryville, California, are more than a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum testament...

Living Well

2016 January-February, human health, LEED impact

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-gXfBZCpiE"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="21359" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] By Mary Grauerholz [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Tampa becomes the first city in the world to introduce a WELL Certified district. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="20"][vc_column_text] When green building began to sweep the country in the 1970s, it came with a red alert: Construction with toxic components was harmful to the environment. A correlation between the effects of traditional construction and human health increased the urgency. Now, a group of stakeholders is breaking new, higher ground by establishing the world’s first WELL Certified city district in Tampa, Florida. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="21363" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text]Paul Scialla helped launch the International WELL Building Institute. He oversees the work to ensure it will meet WELL Certification. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_bottom="25" padding_top="25"][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] The project will be the first district-wide application of the WELL Building Standard, the world’s first building standard focused exclusively on human health and wellness. WELL fulfills a 2012 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action to improve the way people live indoors, and this new commitment builds on WELL and tackles the even greater challenge of creating...

Vibrant Community

2015 September-October, human health

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="20540" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text] BY MARY GRAUERHOLZ [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_column_text] Raising the living standards in one Denver housing development. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="20544" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="left" padding_top="25"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text] For more than 50 years, the South Lincoln Homes development, operated by the Denver Housing Authority (DHA), had the lifeless look that was so rampant in mid-20th century public housing: nondescript low-slung red brick buildings with cookie-cutter windows and thin strips of parched-looking grass in front, intersected by concrete sidewalks. The units served a vital purpose—housing the city’s low-income residents. But the buildings did very little to inspire residents or anyone else who walked down the West 10th Avenue area. In those times, designing safe, healthy, beautiful community spaces was as absent from planners’ minds as renewable energy, low-water living, or sustainable architecture. Around 2010, the light switched on and everything changed. Today the drab buildings have been replaced by vibrant structures with eye-catching architecture and thoughtful lighting. The reconstructed development, with renewable energy systems and facilities that draw residents together in community, is winning awards for innovation and forward-thinking leadership, and earning LEED Gold and Platinum certifications. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1443039359978{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}"] A community garden and...

Reducing Impact

2015 July-August, human health

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="20133" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text] By Mary Grauerholz [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] [caption id="attachment_20134" align="alignright" width="650"] Ramé Hemstreet, Kaiser Permanente’s chief energy officer. Photo: Emily Hagopian[/caption] Kaiser Permanente turns to renewable energy to create a healthier environment. To witness the profound effects of climate change, look no further than California’s Central Valley, where a record drought has left an eerily parched, dust-blown landscape. Scientists in California, the home state of healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente, are sounding dire warnings that unless greenhouse gases are vastly reduced, conditions are expected to worsen. The effects of climate change, such as those found in the Central Valley, have the potential for great harm to human health, both directly and indirectly. Kaiser Permanente, headquartered in Oakland, California, has a long history of linking the environment to human health. Now the healthcare provider and not-for-profit health plan, already a leader in green energy, will take another major step forward and purchase enough renewable energy to meet half of its electricity consumption in California. Between two separate deals with NextEra Energy Resources and NRG Energy, solar and wind power will replace much of Kaiser Permanente’s need for fossil fuels, significantly reducing greenhouse gases, a known...

Powerful Brains, Peaceful Minds

2015 March-April, human health

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][vc_single_image image="18059" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_single_image image="19181" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_separator type="transparent" position="center" up="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text] By Calvin Hennick At Harvard University—an institution synonymous with supercharged intellects—employees are learning to ease stress and feel more productive through mindfulness meditation. Leave it to Harvard University to make meditation more efficient. “To listen to a three-minute body-focused guided meditation, press 2,” a soothing female voice instructs callers to the school’s guided meditation hotline. “To listen to a four-minute breath-focused guided meditation, press 3.” Callers who choose the second option are told to imagine their breath flowing gently in and out of their bodies. “When thoughts arise,” the voice says, “notice them without judging them or following them, and then gently escort your mind back to your breath.” The hotline is one of several ways the university supports its mindfulness meditation program, which in turn is just one of many programs designed to promote employee health and well-being—one of the pillars of the school’s sustainability plan, which was released last year. The plan calls for a reduction[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" css=".vc_custom_1424103118408{margin-top: 15px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;}"][vc_single_image image="19184" border_color="grey" img_link_target="_self" img_size="full"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1428347123566{margin-top: 10px !important;}"]Nancy Costikyan Harvard’s director of Work/Life and Jeanne Mahon director of the university’s Center for Wellness began a...

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