Sustainable building data - 2050 Materials

Welcome to episode 61 of the green & healthy places podcast in which we explore the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hospitality.

Phanos Hadjikyriakou is co-founder and Ceo of 2050 materials, an online database of sustainable building products and intelligent tools that help architects and designers in their efforts to create low-carbon, circular buildings and interiors.

In this podcast we discuss the genesis of the company, the unmet need it addresses in real estate and the sustainability problems it tries to solve, such as toxic building materials and those that are especially damaging to the environment when viewed from a Life Cycle perspective, considering its extraction, use phase and disposal options at its end of life.

We also cover some of the many sustainable building material certification systems as well as how Artificial Intelligence could start to leverage this type of database to propose sustainable, healthy solutions to architects and designers in the not too distant future.

Check out 2050-materials.com while you’re listening along!

https://app.2050-materials.com/

FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI - EXCUSE TYPOS!

Matt Morley

First of all, thank you for making the time to join us today on the podcast. Pleasure to have you here.

Why don’t we talk about the genesis of the business? So how did 2050 materials start as an idea? And what’s that journey been like, from the initial concept through to where you’re at today?

Data on Real Estate Supply Chains

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, great. So I guess that goes back a little bit to my background. I’m an engineer by training. And I would say I’m pretty much a data person in my brain, I was working basically in the financial sector, helping investors align their portfolios with different climate strategies, and essentially giving them different kinds of data on climate change risk.

2025 Materials Principle

The whole idea behind 2050 Materials started when I was working with a few very large real estate investors who started talking about supply chains and supply chain emissions and embodied carbon in the portfolios and in the buildings they owned. I come from a family of architects and people working in materials distribution.

So that sparked my interest, what I figured out very quickly is that what investors were starting to ask for and talk about, everything related to supply chain and material impact, is something that the people on the ground, the designers, the contractors, the building materials suppliers, simply did not have the right data to deliver on sustainability performance.

So I thought that, first of all it’s a big problem, secondly, it’s a big opportunity to fill that gap with a solution. I generally have an affinity for innovation within the material sector. I just think it’s very cool when you see a new material that you can actually touch and feel. And there’s a story behind where it comes from and what it’s been made of. And also if you can add the impact data to it. And that, for me makes it very interesting.

Much More than a Sustainable Building Materials listing Site

Matt Morley

So let’s look at that. Because obviously, on one level, what you’ve developed is, if you like a database of materials, that for someone like me, who’s involved in real estate, primarily interiors, less the construction side, there’s a constant search for new innovative materials that not only look good and fit into a particular space that we’re trying to propose to a developer, but also that are doing some good or and certainly doing less harm to the environment.

Then there’s another level to all of this, from what I can see, it’s a bit more than just becoming an online collection of materials, right, there’s more depth to it that I think is really where it starts getting interesting. Can you talk to us about those calculations and about that extra level of detail that you’re able to get into around the body carbon and the impact of the materials? The platform provides simplified metrics to help designers quickly assess the impact of materials.

Moving to a Low Carbon Construction Industry

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Well, let’s start from the assumption that we need to transition to a low carbon economy and to Climate Neutral economy. And the construction sector, whether you’re an interior designer, or an architect, or just work in the built environment, the impact your work has is actually massive. And our thesis is that data is the key to getting to a stage where we are designing and eventually building buildings in line with the climate emergency.

Now, the interesting thing about this space is that there’s an abundance of data that shows impacts of specific products and materials in the sector. The problem is that that kind of data is all around the internet, usually in PDFs, and usually in a format that’s very technical. So it’s usually what’s called the lifecycle assessment or an environmental product declaration that states these kinds of values.

Unfortunately, the assessment and the output of these reports are meant to be read by a specialist in the sector. And what the reality is, you need designers and architects who are not specialists in the sectors to still be able to access and understand that data.

So something that’s often, let’s say, misconception of a lot of people when they land on our platform, is that we do a lot of assessment of existing product. In fact, all we do at this point is gather existing data from different sites, we digitize it so that it’s actually accessible on the platform. And you don’t have to look through 1000s of PDF files to extract the information you need.

And then finally, we, and probably most importantly, we actually simplified to the extent that it keeps its accuracy, but it’s actually understandable by a non specialists. So what that means is that we filter out the detail that is probably unnecessary to most designers and architects, so that we quickly give them the numbers they need in order to make an assessment. And we put that at the forefront of the platform, providing easy to consume data on the sustainability performance of building products.

3rd Party Certifications for Sustainable Materials

Matt Morley

Just as a note, I would say I’m totally on board with that approach. I think there’s absolutely no issues in relying on established third party certification systems, whether it’s an environmental product declaration, or a healthy product declaration, or something like that, declare a red list to the cradle the cradle, for example, those are the gold standards, and when you have a little bit of knowledge about this space, then I think you can leverage that, you’re standing on their shoulders.

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what we always say is that we are trying to democratize these kinds of sustainability assessments, and that exactly pointing to the fact that yes, we do have Sustainability Consultants and specialists using the platform. But what we are building the platform for, or the person, or the stakeholder we’re building the platform for is actually the average designer, architect, contractor, who is having conversations with a customer or with a colleague around sustainability.

They need to start understanding this kind of data without going back to university and getting a degree in this. The platform is built for designers and architects to use data during the design and specification phases, simplifying metrics for easy understanding and use in this context.

The Evolution of Sustainability Data on Sustainable Building Materials

Matt Morley

It's interesting, if you tried to do this, five years ago, 10 years ago, you probably wouldn't have had quite so many materials, right? So it's a sign of where the industry is at now that you're able to have such a wide collection, I think it's, it's the right time, because it is now becoming the choices quite expensive. And it's becoming actually sometimes harder to filter through that. But why don't we take a step back?

I understand that perhaps not everyone may not understand the context, which is that there are unhealthy versions or unsustainable materials going into our built environment, both from the construction and then the interior fit out.

So from your perspective on the inside of this industry, like what are the main dangers there? And what are what are we? What are you battling against presenting these more sustainable healthy materials? And what's the problem here with the unhealthy buildings?

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

That's an interesting question. So I would say, let's look at human health. First, when it comes to coming into contact with harmful substances and pollutants, we actually come into contact with those in our daily lives more frequently than we realize. So that might be from building insulation that's, that's packed with flame retardants, to chemicals in our food packaging, in might be wet paint that's emitting VOCs, volatile organic compounds.

So all of these things actually contribute or can contribute negatively to human health and cause things like asthma and a bunch of other health issues. There's definitely there's definitely, let's say, a very imminent health issue that is fixed when you start looking at more sustainable products. But I would say that a big driver of health is also just global health and looking at climate climate issues.

I would say that, yes, in the short term, we want to avoid, for example, vocs emissions in our buildings, because we, we don't want to have respiratory diseases in the long term. And it's not even that long term. If we don't stop emitting as much carbon from the construction industry, then we all of our lives, I believe will be impacted from climate impact. I would split the two things into let's say, direct human health today and then long term health for us. For our kids for, for basically everyone who is living.

Matt Morley

Well “green and healthy places” is the name of the podcast. I think that connection between green as in good for the planet, and healthy, good for us, or in this case, good for the people spending time in a space, then the yin and the yang interact, I think is fundamental.

Do you think there's, is there an element of perhaps sustainability being more applicable to the building materials themselves? Just in terms of the quantities involved for concrete and steel, for example, versus say the interior fit out? Where perhaps it's more to do with health? Or is that is that dichotomy to generalist?

Environmental Impact of a Building Over its Whole Lifespan

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

I think traditionally, you know, I think concrete and steel is obviously the two materials that kind of get the spotlight, especially when we're talking about carbon emissions. And that's because the industry as a whole is producing a lot of carbon emissions. So if you look at a building, it's an interesting case study, actually, because if you look at the buildings materials, you would see that yes, most of the carbon emissions of a new building is in the foundation and the frame. So usually carbon, usually concrete, and steel and aluminium.

Unfortunately, if you actually look at a specific time span, let's say 50 years of a commercial building that hosts officers, say in central London, the reality is that the fit out the change of fitouts. And the frequency of change of fitouts, actually can cause up to four times the emissions of the of the envelope of the building.

So if you take, for example, an office in central London that has new desks, new chairs, new cabinets, new flooring every, let's say, two to six years, which is the average time of fatal change, then all of those emissions related to the products and the materials that go into the, the interiors are actually much larger than the building itself. And of course, all of this has, has a certain assumption. So if we were to reuse a lot of those products, then of course, we would reduce the impact.

But as it stands today, where most of those things are either thrown in the landfill, or let's say down cycled over big extent, fitouts are massively important. So I know it's not an extremely helpful answer, because it might, it would be nicer if we could focus on a couple of a couple of sectors.

But I think what this kind of research is starting to show is, truly, if you work in the built environment, whether you are doing fitouts, or interior design or residential project, or you're a structural engineer, or anything else, your work really matters, like it really matters to be able to have access to this kind of information and to do your part in reducing emissions.

Value and Purpose in Prioritizing Sustainable Building Materials

Matt Morley

I find at some point, it becomes more about your values, or the values of your business and what you're trying to do in your work that pushes one designer or someone working in this space to consider both equally. And sometimes there are decisions to be made. And you know, what materials are better for the planet and not quite so good for their human health or vice versa? It can often be quite complicated.

I think that's why platforms and software such as what you've developed is, is important so that at the next level of detail, then when we're actually on the website looking into some of these materials, doing our research, how are you helping users to kind of make some calculations beyond just Oh, that's a green certified material, but then in terms of its actual impact once it's applied, in terms of the quantities and the scale, and where it's coming from.

So in terms of those details, is there a way you're able to help your users to factor those into the into the equation?

Circular Economy Design Metrics in Building Materials

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, absolutely. And your question comes at a good timing, because we’ve launched the tool to do a lot of the things you just mentioned very recently, and users can trial it and try it out for free to start with, essentially what this tool allows you to do is get anything that you would find on the library and make a list of it.

And this can be done at any stage of the design process or it can be done really early stage where you’re not really thinking yet about designs and quantities and you just want to understand more or less what it means, what are the forecasted footprint of my building with me.

Once you have a bill of quantities and you really have a data list of everything you’re about to procure. What we are doing is we collect the data of the products that are on the library within this tool once you’ve selected it as a user.

We show, of course, the total carbon footprint, as well as some numbers, like the embodied carbon per meter squared of gross internal area and do some comparisons of that number to industry benchmark as well as some of the recommended numbers in the industry, we actually go a step beyond just focusing on carbon, we calculate currently a couple of circularity metrics, like the weight of the recycled content in the products that you’re selecting.

And the recyclable contents are kind of how much of the products and the materials that you’re specifying may actually be possible to recycle or reuse at the end of life. And I guess, one thing that that became important when we’re developing this tool, with a few large offices is we we initially were thinking that designers will use this tool solely based on actual products that are available in the market.

So meaning, you know, x brick by this kind of supplier or this kind of manufacturer, what we’ve developed now is we’ve developed an extra layer where it’s generic data for a specific type of product or type of material.

So something that says, for example, a clay brick from the UK without necessarily specifying who the manufacturer is. So that kind of gives a workflow that allows you to, if you’re starting by just considering materials in the beginning, you can choose your materials. And then once you get into the specification process, or if you want to see whether there is an applicable product in your area, to actually go into the product selection process during the specification phases.

Yeah, and one thing I did not mention, but you did actually in your question is, of course, the impacts that we show, you know, they show the manufacturing emissions of the product. So what’s in lifecycle assessment terms is called the A 123 lifecycle stages. But the interesting thing about setting a platform like the one we have is, we have the project location.

And we have the manufacturing location of each of those products in the library, which means that we can quite accurately calculate what the estimated carbon emissions are of transporting those materials.

So one of the things that you can do in the tool is you can pick a bunch of products from the, from the platform that are, let’s say, from China, or a London project, and you’ll see in the breakdown of emissions per category, that the transportation emissions exceed everything else, versus selecting local materials.

And I think there’s an interesting opportunity there to see, you know, what kind of products maybe does make sense to ship from a little bit further away, even though they might not be available locally versus other ones, which, of course, would outweigh the benefits.

Matt Morley

For anyone who’s done a project before with a sustainability or a healthy materials component to it. The reality is this type of detailed conversation, almost every material and it becomes a major headache pretty quickly, you’re constantly evaluating or trying to get to this type of information about not just where materials from how it was produced the impact of extracting it, and its raw format, then in terms of the manufacturing, production, then the transport, and its end of life, as well as it’s in use phase.

And combining all of that is really complicated, because it’s just, you’re trying to move fast, you’ve got climate pressure. And so I think for anyone who’s perhaps, you know, feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by this amount of information in its platforms like this, like your library that help ease that pain, and I think that’s what I what I see here, which is, it’s very easy to be drowned in the information.

We need to make decisions as quickly as possible once the project starts, there’s just no, there’s no time to lose. And I think you’re helping to smooth out that process. That’s really where I see that the sort of main benefit in terms of using this. So once you’re, once you’re building into the library, like what process are you using to screen or to filter materials?

What are you looking for as a sort of, oh, that’s suitable or that’s not suitable? Have you got your own internal benchmarks in terms of where you do or don’t accept the material?

Sustainability Standards for Materials on the Platform

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

That's a really interesting question. So first of all, I guess we live in a constant state of research within 2050. So we are always on the lookout for new new products, new materials, especially when they come from smaller companies that are just popping up whether it's a startup or a company that's been operating for a few years and we just have not seen it before.

But having said that, there is a very important point to be made about how we work. So we do not police what kind of product or manufacturer makes it on the platform, we actually want to have as many products as possible appearing there and we don't have a specific requirements for products to get on the platform, what we enforce as a library is that there needs to be some level of documentation that provides transparency on the impact of the product.

So, if you go to a library, you can look up concrete and you will find very heavily emitting concrete products and concrete manufacturers, we want to have these products, we understand the sector, at least for now still needs a lot of these products, what we ensure is we essentially put transparency over some some abstract assessment of what is a sustainable material or not, because there are no sustainable materials, in my opinion, there are materials that are suitable and can generate the Sustainable Design and there are materials that are non suitable, and the specific data related to each material does not necessarily give the answer to that.

So in short, anything can land on the platform, what we ensure when we onboard the product is that there is some level of transparency related to the impact of the material or the product is causing.

Matt Morley

Sounds like a very pragmatic and practical approach. So some degree of thinking on the part of the user is still recommended, you know, we're still going through that mental process of, of evaluating and arbitrage right, trying to decide which which one is the best in this case, and it may not be the most sustainable, as you said.

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, I guess that's, that's one of the things that initially, you know, you start and you are very ambitious, that you will give the perfect answer to everyone and point them to exactly the one thing and they don't have to spend any time thinking. Quite honestly, we very early this very early on, we decided, you know, the specialists are the designers, they are the architects, they know how to do the research to find the right kind of product or material.

So we are not trying to replace their their specialization and the work they know how to do, what we're trying to do is replace a process that would currently take something close to three or four or five hours to compare a few products to something they can do with essentially 10 clicks within two minutes.

Matt Morley

What is the business model going forward? Is it going to eventually be some kind of a paywall so that you pay for access to the materials or the materials suppliers, manufacturers paying to be listed? How do you how do you set things up from a commercial perspective?

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, so from a commercial perspective, we essentially list the way that we list products is is an important point as well. So we partner with essentially every certification body that is out there that certifies building material products, and furniture and all of that. And we on board the basic data that the certification bodies have.

So out of so we populate the platform, even without charging anyone really. So it's free for designers, it's free for suppliers. We currently do charge and work with suppliers when they want to have access to those pages, to enhance them to add data sheets to add better pictures to add more technical information that would help a designer actually finalize a specification or a procurement decision.

So that's currently how we work. On the project side of things, as I mentioned the beginning, there's a couple of projects that you can create as a user for free now, but that's going forward something that we would like to charge on a per project basis, obviously, as clients or regulators demand these kind of reports.

Evolving the Sustainable Materials Industry in Future

Matt Morley

That makes sense. Okay, and looking forward them to the next, say, five to 10 years. Where are you seeing this industry around healthy and sustainable materials evolving? Like what are the main sort of trends that you can see taking place that you expect to continue over the next five years or so?

A Data Driven Approach to a Climate Neutral Construction Industry

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, so I've said this a couple of times. I think, for us, you know, the key to moving towards the direction of Climate Neutral construction sector and design sector is the data. And that's why we've had so much focus on the data. I mean, moving forward, I think what's really interesting about data is we are starting to have some pretty amazing stuff that's happening on on the AI front and on the generative design front.

I think that more and more, we're starting to see solutions that can make suggestions and generate designs for architects and for interior designers that would allow them to meet certain goals. And again, I don't think we'll, we I, I don't see a scenario where architects are no longer needed or anything like that. I think this kind of doomsday thinking is really not something I agree with.

What I see is similar to all of the hype that's happening right now with Chat GPT, where you ask it questions, and you can have it give you a lot of suggestions, an architect can have very specific tools where they say, I'm trying to achieve a net zero building in central London for this kind of client, and it needs these XYZ specifications. And then a tool would be able to give you five different scenarios of designs, material products, that would actually allow you to get there.

Then again, it's up to you as a designer, or as a specialist to kind of do the next step and, and move from there. So I personally think that data alongside the whole AI revolution that's happening right now is going to open, amazing doors and something that to the mission that we have as 2050 of democratizing these kinds of assessments and understanding very much contributes to

Matt Morley

Yeah, that's a big idea. I like that one. And in terms of how the business evolves over the next 12 months, 24 months, like, what's the as an additional functionality expanding the, the depth and breadth of the library materials? And what are you working on this next year?

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, so we have, we are constantly working on onboarding more products. So currently, we are testing a very big push, which will expand your database to include almost every product that has an EPD globally. So that kind of does a big jump from around 4000 products to something like 50,000 products. So from a library perspective, we expect to have something in the next couple of months that is much more complete and uncover actually a lot more markets and the UK, which we've been focusing on.

On the product development side, we have some really exciting features and product pipeline around the projects tool. So currently, you're able to select you know, individual materials and make a list of your, of your materials that make up your projects. We're very much moving towards the direction of allowing, allowing people to create assemblies and see within a specific assembly what is best, and then allow them also to have some functionality of of saving their own assemblies.

Because a lot of designers architects, they reuse a lot of the designs they've done.

So our goal is to move towards a direction where you can actually start building your internal library of systems and assemblies that you're able to very quickly build projects with and also get quick assessments.

Matt Morley

Fascinating. sounds really interesting. Well, I'll be I'll be very happy to watch as you evolve over the next year, and hopefully, five or 10 years is growing the business. So listen, thanks so much for your time. Where can people find out more about the business where you what social media you engaging with at the moment?

Phanos Hadjikyriakou

Yeah, I think thanks a lot. Also for the time, people can just search for 20 Quickly materials on Google on LinkedIn. We're very active on LinkedIn, with content and educational articles and all of that stuff. And then the platform is is easily accessible and free on https://app.2050-materials.com/

Best Examples of Biophilic Buildings in Commercial Real Estate — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

Best Examples of Biophilic commercial developments

Examples of biophilic design in architecture are gaining prominence in high-profile commercial buildings around the world, here we examine the best concepts that combine elements of nature, wellbeing and sustainability

• LaMercedes, Barcelona / Developers: Conren Tramway / Architects: BatlleRoig

• Roots In The Sky, London / Developers: Fabrix / Concept Architects: Studio RHE / Project Architects: Sheppard Robson

• CapitaSpring building, Singapore / Developers: CapitaSpring / Architects: BIG

• Yorkville - The Ring, Hong Kong / Developers: Hong Kong Land / Architects: PHA

• NION, Frankfurt / Developers: Groß & Partners / Architects: Unstudio

• Holbein Gardens / Developer: Grosvenor Property UK / Architects: Barr Gazetas

Incorporating natural elements into biophilic design is essential for supporting sustainability and enhancing wellbeing.

LaMercedes Barcelona - a biophilic mixed-use development

LaMercedes, Barcelona by Conren Tramway (architects Batlleiroig)

LaMercedes, Barcelona by Conren Tramway (architects Batlleiroig)

Conren Tramway are a Spanish investor, developer group based in Barcelona and Madrid with an expansive portfolio covering office, residential and mixed-use development and investment projects.

In addition to the iconic Three Towers, ‘Les Tres Xemeneies del Parallel’, in Barcelona and various mixed-use developments in the new business distric @22 in Poblenou, this group have taken on what is perhaps their most ambitious urban regeneration project yet - LaMercedes, set to the first ‘eco-district’ in Spain integrating a variety of sustainable green building concepts, healthy building wellbeing strategies real estate ESG criteria.

What was once a car factory in an industrial area of the city is to be transformed by local architects Batlleiroig into an 185,000 sqm development that is “carbon and car-free”, a “sustainable island’“ in the city. Public services will include a museum, community center and an educational facility.

The project aims to mimic natural environments to improve the health and wellbeing of its occupants, as well as to optimize sustainability and environmental performance.

A total of 15,000m2 of retail space and 1300 residential units combined with 46,000m2 of creative offices and a ‘talent campus’ for 2000 students will make this a truly unique new addition to Barcelona’s urban landscape.

Another key feature of this ‘eco-illa’ will be the intelligent mobility system that pushes the infrastructure underground including a traffic system to leave the ground floor vehicle-free, meaning a pedestrianized and cycle-friendly experience for residents and visitors.

Expect to see an abundance of green space in the built environment, plenty of outdoor space to enhance wellbeing, an architectural design that integrates biophilic design principles and natural materials for human connection with the outside world.

https://lamercedes.barcelona/

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Roots in the Sky, London - biophilic design and natural light in office real estate

Roots in the Sky by Fabrix

Already attracting attention for its headline-grabbing 1.4-acre urban forest rooftop accessible by the local community, Roots in the Sky is a statement of intent by the developers Fabrix, showing their focus on - biodiversity and sustainability in real estate.

What was once a 1960s era building housing Blackfriars Crown Court will undergo an urban regeneration facelift into an all-electric 385,000 sq ft mixed-use development containing offices, community spaces and retail.

Based around a hybrid steel and CLT (cross laminate timber) frame that reduces embodied carbon content, the concept architects are Studio RHE led by Richard Hywel Evans and project architects are Sheppard Robson with environmental consulting support by Atelier Ten.

A passive ventilation strategy, operable windows for natural ventilation on warmer days, a feature atrium for waste heat extraction, and 1300 tonnes of soil on the roof to attract nature back into the city while protecting against the risk of flash flooding, all make this one of the most sustainable real estate developments to take shape in London in recent years, and there has been no shortage of them due to the increasingly strict planning regulations coming into place via the Mayor’s office.

That rooftop will accommodate a restaurant, landscaping by Harris Bugg, an estimated 10,000 plants and a passive water capture system for irrigation on-site reducing the building’s water demands.

This is an example of how to enhance well being in office buildings through a combination of natural light, natural landscapes and green walls as key biophilic design principles.

https://www.fabrix.london/project-item/blackfriars-se1/   

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CapitaSpring, Singapore - biophilic architecture in mixed-use real estate

CapitaSpring office building

Combine BIG Architects, a ‘city in a garden location’ and the backing of a giant developer and out comes this 51-floor, 280m high building of Grade A office space, serviced apartments and a four-story garden dubbed the ‘green oasis’.

Transforming the site of a former car park complex built in the 1980s this new example of biophilic design in architecture aims for icon status with its eye-catching exterior facade complete with vertical elements that appear to be prized apart to reveal flashes of nature emerging through the cracks, at a giant scale.

This interplay between building and nature is more common at an interiors scale but doing it here takes the concept in a completely new direction.

This is also, as we would expect, a ‘smart building’ full of IOT tech and sensors to facilitate customization of the building occupant experience.

Eight floors of serviced residences with a long list of lifestyle amenities such as a mini indoor jogging track, pool, gym, residents lounge and BBQ pits are topped by offices and the open-air garden space large enough for work breaks, lunchtime walks and more.

Natural features such as biophilic design in the interior environment, show how the developer, architects and interior designers have integrated natural systems and organic materials, natural forms and consideration for mental health, creating a seamless connection with natural environments.

To create spaces like this in modern society takes a bold vision of the health benefits of introducing an element of natural habitat back into dense urban areas.

https://capitaspringoffice.com/

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hongkong land's yorkville the ring - botanical architecture in real estate

hong kong land’s yorkville the ring

Located in Chongqing, China this 420,000m2 mixed-use retail-led development called Yorkville - The Ring is split between 170,000m2 of retail mall, 110,000m2 of offices and… wait for it, 70,000m2 of indoor botanical garden.

PHA Architects are behind the masterplan and design of this new lifestyle destination that has an enclosed landscaped commercial street embraced by two office towers.

This opens up the possibility of visual dialogue between the verdant, stepped terrace balconies of the towers above and the indoor botanical garden space.

In an attempt to blend a highly urban retail concept with a nature-centric, or biophilic design approach, the retail circulation spaces have been interwoven with the indoor botanical garden at various levels, inviting visitors to engage with the botanical experience as they navigate from one retail store to another, incorporating natural elements into the built environment.

Parametric modeling of the building facade allowed for a modular design, combining curved ceramic tiles with aluminium panels and LED lighting for an understated yet elegant aesthetic perfectly pitched for the expectations of both the local clientele and the all-important retail brand tenants.

Biophilic design principles such as respect for the natural environment in the interior space as well as natural ventilation, a strong visual connection with the natural world in respect of human evolution, even natural geometries evoking nature. There is so much goodness for human health in this building!

https://www.ph-alpha.com/project-detail.php?id=20&lang=en

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NION by Unstudio Frankfurt am Main - biophilic design in real estate

Unstudio NION office building

Designed with the deliberate intention to become one of Frankfurt’s if not Germany’s most sustainable office building, NION is located in the city’s Europaviertel West district where big things are happening in urban regeneration over the past two decades.

Unstudio have integrated ESG criteria and resource-efficient tech to deliver a sustainable building that considers its environmental impact as well as a social angle via the wellbeing of its regular occupants and of the community around it.

Abundant landscaping is nothing new nowadays in real estate developments such as this yet when combined with a low-carbon, modular and circular economy principles it takes on renewed meaning, becoming almost like the external signal of what is going on inside the building’s facade and daily operational energy use.

A green wall is one such biophilic design intervention that can be implemented to improve views and connect people with the natural environment within a built space.

When biophilia and greenery are purely superficial, this chain link falls apart; for us it a fundamental component of a biophilic design concept to combine elements of sustainability and wellbeing as in this example.

The planting serves to encourage biodiversity, contributing to an emerging urban green corridor in the district and giving insects, birds and wildlife an opportunity to return to this corner of the city.

Rainwater management systems improve water efficiency, geothermal heating and cooling reduce energy demands, smart building management ensure daily operations are fine tuned with the demand-based air conditioning (especially relevant now in the post-Covid, remote work era when areas of an office may be in greater or lesser demand at certain days or times of day).

Biophilic design focuses on well being for occupants while respecting the environment, so often there is a need for landscape architects to create multi sensory interactions via water features, naturalistic shapes, organic forms in the landscaping and so on.

Here we see a material connection between the indoor and outdoor environment by the seamless integration of biophilic principles thanks to the vision of UN Studio.

https://www.unstudio.com/en/page/16495/nion

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Holbein Gardens, London - biophilia in real estate

Sitting prime real estate near London’s Sloane Square station this 26,524 sq ft development by Grosvenor Property UK and Barr Gazetas architects dials in the sustainable building credentials to create what will be a highly efficient, low-emission building set to be Net Zero by 2025.

Holbein Gardens by Grosvenor Property UK

Sitting prime real estate near London’s Sloane Square station this 26,524 sq ft development by Grosvenor Property UK and Barr Gazetas architects dials in the sustainable building credentials to create what will be a highly efficient, low-emission building set to be Net Zero by 2025.

Barr Gazetas retained the existing structure rather than opting for demolition (equivalent to 59 tonnes of concrete / a 39% embodied carbon saving), reusing 13.5 tonnes of steelworks to reduce embodied carbon emissions, used a CLT structure, used reclaimed brickwork with lime based mortar for improved disassembly (Circular Economy principle). In total, 99.95% of all strip out waste was successfully diverted from landfill.

This all-electric, eight-story block powered by 100% renewable energy procured from the UK grid combined with photovoltaic panels on the roof generating around 17% of the projected maximum demand. As such, it is scheduled to save 50% operational energy consumption compared to benchmarks in the London, according to the developer.

Improved fenestration allows for enhanced access to natural daylight, reducing the need for artificial lighting at certain times of day.

Rainwater capture and reuse on the rooftop reduces water demand while a 714 sq ft communal roof garden with outdoor kitchen provides both biodiversity opportunities (135% net biodiversity gain) and access to biophilia for building occupants during their work days. That is in addition to the four green walls on the exterior facade.

Active travel features include 79 cycle spaces, 68 lockers and nine showers for those using active transportation methods to get to or from work each day.

Such passive strategies have obvious psychological benefits while also ensuring some ecological attachment at the start and end of a work day for example.

Cognitive function is enhanced via a connection to nature which can be both through direct experience and representations of nature, public spaces with potted plants, natural colours and local timber, outdoor areas with biomorphic forms in the garden design, if all urban environments looked like Holbein Gardens we have no doubt the foot traffic would explode as we all have this inherent need for a strong connection to nature.

A total of four different green building certifications are targeted, namely: BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Enabled, Nabers 4.5 and EPC A rating.

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sustainable building rooftop activations

how can rooftop activations contribute to a sustainable green building plan? From apiaries to gardens, solar panels and more, here are some inspiring examples

CookFox offices Bee hive apiary, NYC, usa - sustainable building rooftop apiary

CookFox is one of the world's leading sustainable architecture and biophilic design specialists working at scale. Based out of New York City, they are on the cutting edge of environmentally responsible architecture and aim to design healthier urban landscapes.

Starting with their own rooftops, they have increasingly begun to introduce apiaries - bee hives - where conditions and space allow.

Bees are an example of what’s referred to as a ‘keystone species’ as they are massive pollinators providing an essential cog in local ecosystems, even in dense urban environments.

By dispersing pollen for plant reproduction they help to maintain biodiversity and counteract the risk of habitat fragmentation - as agriculture and urban planning tend towards the destruction of species rather than their protection.

As a way to lead by example, CookFox houses two large hives on the terrace of their corporate office. They also introduce apiaries to their development locations such as the Solaire residential apartment building located in New York City.

https://cookfox.com/projects/250-west-57th-street/

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La Pista500 rooftop garden, turin, italy - example of green building design

Fiat's former car factory located in Turin, Italy was recently crowned with a new rooftop garden designed by Camerana&Partners, completing tis transition from a historic car factory to a hub for the local community. Originally this was where Fiat cars would be tested on the rooftop track before being sent out to their customers.

Today, this 42-acre rooftop has a very different purpose as much of the asphalt track has been sowed with a meadow of 40 different local plant species. A smaller, less prominent car track still exists however, albeit for test driving electric cars only.

The space is occasionally used as an art installation space or venue for yoga classes, a perfect example of green buildings giving back to the local community through culture and wellness.

https://www.camerana.com/en/portfolio-items/la-pista-500/

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Thammasat University Urban Rooftop Farm (TURF), Thailand

Thammasat University in Thailand implemented a rooftop green building solution to improve their climate resiliency in the face of rising impacts of climate change. As urban sprawl consumes territory that previously played an active role in a complex local ecosystem, they are no longer able to absorb stormwater runoff for example.

This example (shown above) is the largest urban rooftop farm in Asia, with over 22,000 m2 of modern landscape architecture brilliantly combined with traditional agricultural knowledge. Combined, it becomes a green roof with elements of urban farming, solar panels for green energy and plenty of green public space for nature connection and an opportunity for biophilia.

Inspired by traditional rice terraces, we see a cascade of different levels to the rooftop that form a detention lawn to slow down, absorb and store rainwater while simultaneously putting it to good use as irrigation for plants that produce food.

Stormwater runoff is filtered through each layer of soil (removing harmful pollutants) and later saved up in four retention ponds, for rooftop irrigation and future use, meaning nothing goes to waste. This makes it up to 20 times more efficient than a normal concrete rooftop whilst also helping to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Finally,. solar energy is used to pump the irrigation system and additionally contribute to the building’s electricity needs.

The self-sufficient structure acts as a space for the public to enjoy nature, a food source, a water management system, an energy source, and an outdoor classroom.

https://tueng.tu.ac.th/

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Fifth & Tillery, Austin Texas - green rooftop architecture

This example by Gensler Architecture of using photovoltaic panels as a functional rooftop structure shows where green architecture can go in the future.

Owned by the CIM group, this three-story mass timber office development located on an ex-industrial estate required additional shade for the plaza below, by introducing a canopy of photovoltaic panels, the benefits were therefore two-fold - integrating a source of renewable energy and improving occupant wellbeing.

A tree-lined central courtyard "rain garden" is intended to resemble the "native ravine microhabitats of Central Texas" while louvres with integrated fans were positioned around the courtyard to improve airflow and ventilation in the outdoor spaces. Effectively, this begins to ‘turn the traditional office building inside out’.

The solar panels on stilts are a fundamental piece of the arrival experience above the entrance. This canopy combined with the additional panels on the building's rooftop can provide up to 600 kilowatt-hours (kW) of power for the sustainable building.

https://www.5thandtillery.com/

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Culpeper restaurant, London - green rooftop garden

Responding to the largely under-used rooftop spaces that populate the centre of London’s dense urban landscape, The Culpeper pub team decided to convert their space into one for food production as a way to contribute back to the local community.

Far from trying to replace the work of farmers in the rural areas around the capital, the 500 sq ft space is more about improving the quality of urban life, just a touch. Rooftop produce may appear in the form of a garnish, something in a pickle or as part of a dish, rather than dominating the ingredient list.

Typically it is smaller, younger plants such as herbs, salad leaves and vegetables growing in mushroom compost reused from mushroom farms mixed with horse manure and top soil. Kitchen leftovers are combined with soil in a wormary to keep the soil fertility alive.

Although the produce is not certified organic, the growing methodology follows organic standards, with no chemicals on the soil or plants.

This is an example of how a hotel, restaurant or pub can use a garden area to reduce organic waste, produce on-site ingredients (with a little extra effort) and provide guests with a direct connection to nature - biophilia.

https://www.theculpeper.com/rooftop/

Biophilic Architects: Architecture Studios for Biophilic Design — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

our overview of the leading architecture studios for biophilic architecture that bring the outside world in, combining sustainability and wellbeing in real estate.

• Batlleiroig, Spain

• Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Denmark

• CookFox, USA

• GG Loop, NL

• Heatherwick Studio, UK

• K Studio, Greece

• Kengo Kuma & Associates, Japan

• M Moser, China

• Nomadic Resorts, SA & NL

• Stefano Boeri Architetti, Italy

• United Network Studio, Netherlands

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Oficinas Lumen, Barcelona

Founded in 1981 by Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, the Barcelona-based architecture studio Batlleiroig is all about tackling the climate emergency through a synergistic fusion of city and nature in the built environment.

The practice combines urban planning, landscaping and architecture, with recent projects showing a clear tendency towards biophilic design, sustainable real estate and occupantwellbeing in particular, often through the lens of greater contact with nature.

With over 140 staff members, this is one of the most influential architecture studios in Barcelona, and indeed Spain. They caught our attention for their ambitious plans for the LaMercedes urban regeneration development by Conren Tramway as well as the Net Zero Emissions Entegra office building, both in our home city of Barcelona.

Going beyond merely ‘sustainable’, Batlleiroig design buildings and indeed precincts that incorporate natural elements and have a deep respect for the advantages of using nature in real estate, be that through materials, plants, aesthetics or environmental protection measures. They emphasize the use of natural materials like wood, bamboo, and stone, all of which adds up to a lightness of touch and an undeniable ‘joie de vivre’ in many of their projects.

https://www.batlleiroig.com

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Bjarke Ingels Group, Denmark - starchitects and biophilic designers

BIG hardly need any introduction nowadays thanks to their attention-grabbing, headline-worthy approach to architecture. Their recent completion in Singapore, the 280m tall biophilic CapitaSpring tower (see image above) that proposes a new type of vertical urbanism, is just one of countless such examples.

The studio completed its first hotel project in September 2022, the Hôtel des Horlogers for Audemars Piguet in the Swiss Vallée de Joux, the design here blurs the boundaries between the surrounding landscape and the contours of the building, creating spaces that seamlessly integrate the indoors and outdoors, a nod to biophilic architecture if ever there was one.

Their 49,000m2 Sluishuis project outskirts of Amsterdam, has been billed as a ‘floating’ neighborhood with public roofscapes and riverwalks that offers a residential vision of life over water, a form of ‘blue nature’ (as opposed to ‘green nature’ in forests and parks)

https://big.dk/#projects

CookFox StJohn’s Terminal, Google building

CookFox, USA - nature inspired architecture

CookFox are a giant in the world of “integrated, environmentally responsive architecture” as they call it. They are also world-class biophilic architects, leading the way in integrating biophilia into residences and workplaces.

From their base in New York they leverage two decades of experience and a 130+ strong workforce to deliver projects that aim to “elevate the human condition and urban environment through beautiful, innovative, and sustainable design”.

Calling cards include the 2.2 million sq ft One Bryant Park tower, the first skyscraper in the world to achieve platinum LEED certification, and the forthcoming 1.3 million sq ft Google office tower in Manhattan called the St. John’s Tower.

As a studio, they have also made a name for themselves designing offices for healthy building powerhouses such as the International WELL Building Institute headquarters and Skanska headquarters, both in New York.

https://cookfox.com/

GG Loop, Netherlands - creative biophilic designers

The architectural and design firm, GG-loop, is a biophilic design inspired creative team in the Netherlands. The team of about 20 has been together since the beginning of the practice in 2014 and rally around the cause of architecture deepening the connection between people and nature through biophilic design.

Recent large-scale projects include Echinoidea, a pavilion in Milan, and Freebooter, a residential development in Amsterdam.

The studio's vision is to raise awareness on the importance of biophilic architecture to both professionals and the general public to fight the current climate condition.

https://gg-loop.com/

Heatherwick Studio, UK - biophilic design experts in London

Thomas Heatherwick’s eponymous studio is an architectural design practice and workshop in London, UK.

Their key concepts are improving lives through the built environment, especially through slow living and a connection with nature in urban environments thanks to biophilic design.

The team of over 200 have a strong stance on sustainability, the integration of nature, and a sprinkle of magic dust aimed at sparking a reaction of delight.

Recent large scale projects include 1000 Trees in Shanghai, China and the Eden in Singapore as well as collaborations with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) on the Google Campus in London.

https://www.heatherwick.com/

K Studio, Greece - designers working with biophilia

Based in Central Athens, the K Studio is a practice of 60+ designers that has evolved a unique, nature-infused aesthetic that fits neatly into the category of biophilic design, without being defined or limited by it in any way.

From the bohemian chic of Scorpios on Mykonos island (see pic above) to more minimalist villas, and the Casa Cook resort properties around Greece, their range is impressive for a modestly sized studio.

Greek culture and a sense of place remain a constant in their architectural and design output, meaning they dial up materiality, keeping things pure and elemental whenever possible, yet always with a touch of nature.

Recent large-scale projects include the Marina Kaplankaya and the refurbishment of the Mykonos airport, suggesting they are on their way to becoming one of the country’s leading design studios with a bright future ahead.

https://www.k-studio.gr/projects/

Kengo Kuma architects, Japan - one of the world’s leading biophilic architects

Kengo Kuma & Architects (KKAA) have offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Paris. With over 170 staff and over 360 projects completed, today they are one of the most significant modern architects not just in Japan but on the global design stage.

The team explores the relationship between buildings, nature, humans and technology, and incorporates natural elements into their designs. This approach, combined with a strong emotional component and undeniable influences from Japan, aims to provoke a serene, harmonious state of mind in occupants and visitors.

Projects are currently underway in a plethora of different countries covering use categories as diverse as museums, restaurants, offices, education, exhibitions, residential, factories and hospitals. A few highlights include the biophilic mixed-use development Welcome Milano in Milan, Italy (shown above).

https://kkaa.co.jp/en/selected-projects/

M Moser & Associates, China - biophilic office design experts

M Moser & Associates is a global firm with over 1000 employees, they are workplace design specialists and maintain a number of ‘Living Labs’ where they experiment with new design solutions before introducing them into their projects for clients.

The team have a strong stance on sustainability, meaning they combine biophilic design in their architecture and interiors as a way to promote occupant wellbeing whilst also keeping one eye on reducing their impact in every way possible.

Recent projects of reference include Shui On WorkX, a biophilic office space in Shanghai, the Dyson Global HQ in Singapore, Nestle offices in Jakarta and the Diageo offices in Shanghai.

https://www.mmoser.com/about/

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Nomadic Resorts, eco architects in South Africa, mauritius and Netherlands

Nomadic Resorts defy most conventions and definitions. They span across a range of disciplines, from masterplanning of entire nature-inspired resorts, to architectural design with biophilic influences, botanical landscape design and interiors.

Via offices in the Netherlands, South Africa and Mauritius they deliver projects with a sustainable edge, each inspired by their location, landscape and natural context.

Their expertise covers bamboo construction as well as treetop living, tented camps and avant-garde resort concepts that push the boundaries of how far sustainable resorts can push the concept of environmentally friendly hospitality. They are committed to sustainable development and fulfilling the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

By incorporating concepts such as low carbon engineering, regenerative landscaping and permaculture, they bridge the worlds of eco tourism, green building sustainable design. Their client list includes giants such as Six Senses Resorts and Spas; Soneva Group; Banyan Tree and &Beyond.

https://nomadicresorts.com/

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Stefano Boeri Architetti - designers of the bosco verticale vertical forest

Defining this architecture studio as the designers behind the Bosco Vertical vertical forest building in Milan, Italy is to put this multi-faceted team in a box that they outgrew many moons ago. In fact they are an international operation with offices in Milan, Shanghai and Tirana (Albania) from where they deliver research and practice in urbaism and architecture.

With over 20 years of experience, the infamous tower did at least help solidify their reputation as leading thinkers on urban sustainability and biodiversity, as well as social housing, urban development and regeneration projects.

Their multi-disciplinary approach engages with landscape architects, engineers, social scientists and agronomists showing that biophilic design can and should engage a wide variety of experts in order to succeed at scale in urban regeneration for example.

Present in the PRC since 2014 their office in Shanghai has delivered projects such as the renovation of the former Shanghai Stock Exchange and with the Nanjing Vertical Forest - the first Vertical Forest in China - current in construction.

Their Tirana office meanwhile is responsible for developing the General Local Plan and the strategic vision of the city, known as “Tirana 2030”.

Other assignments include the masterplan of Doha’s New Port and the development of the “triangle of Maspero”, a complex of towers and public facilities along the Nile waterfront, in downtown Cairo.

https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/

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UNStudio - architects and urbanists big on sustainability

With offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne totaling over 300 employees, UNStudio is now a full-service architecture and design powerhouse.

Founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, they now deliver architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and infrastructural projects around the world.

UNStudio see themselves as having to anticipate the future, in particular in terms of sustainability and their environmental impact. They consider social and ecological sustainability upfront while aiming for what they call ‘attainable design’ - projects that are both financially and socially feasible. Their commitment to sustainable architecture is evident in their projects, which incorporate innovative design features and sustainable practices.

Major projects of note include the Erasmus Bridge, Arnhem Central Station, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the Doha Metro Network, Raffles City Hangzhou and the Hanwha HQ Remodelling.

https://www.unstudio.com/

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Sustainable Rooftop: A Key Element in Green Healthy Building Design — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

Why Green & Healthy building Rooftops?

Roofs can take up to 15-35% of the total land area of a city, making them a vital surface in urban settings (“Urban”). This often underutilized area of a building envelope can provide smart, healthy, and environmentally friendly design options that are increasingly being executed across cities.

The implementation of green roofs within a sustainable building strategy, for example, can provide benefits such as:

• a reduction of Urban Heat Islands

• increased energy efficiency

• improved rainwater management

• improved biodiversity

• the provision of amenity spaces

Compared to conventional roofs, green roofs have lower burning heat load and lower temperatures. They also include materials not found on conventional roofs, which contribute to their environmental benefits. Additionally, the installation of green roofs requires experienced roofing contractors to ensure proper setup and maintenance.

Green roofs are the most holistic and multifaceted design strategy for these surfaces, but other considerations such as cool roofs, the incorporation of rooftop gyms or exercise areas, and solar panels are a few examples of smart rooftop design that contribute to a healthy building or sustainable building strategy.

Sustainable building rooftops Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect

One of the most important influences that rooftops can have is a reduction of Urban Heat Islands (UHI). This phenomenon describes the prevalence of higher temperatures that arise in dense, urban regions, due to the presence of man-made surfaces with higher heat retaining properties than those in natural environments.

Out of the entire building envelope, roofs are subject to the highest amount of solar irradiance, making their albedo properties the most important to curb the effects of UHI (Costanzo).

With the rise of temperatures across the globe comes the rise of heat related deaths. Increased respiratory disease, heat stress, reduced productivity, discomfort, and mental health challenges can all also occur due to increased warming (Swain).

With UHI compounded with the rising temperatures, the physical health and wellness of those residing in cities becomes more dire—making it an essential problem to address.

The most common strategies to reduce UHI on roofs is to implement cool or green roof strategies. Cool roofs use highly reflective coating such as white paint to reduce heat absorption, while green roofs implement plants and other vegetation, which acts as insulation and a cooling mechanism for the building and surrounding microclimate.

Additionally, green roofs and cool roofs can reduce the energy demand for air conditioning by keeping the interior temperature cooler and lowering energy bills.

Increase Energy Efficiency via green roofs

The implementation of smart roof design has the potential to greatly increase building energy efficiency. For one, green roofs can reduce building cooling loads and therefore increase HVAC efficiency. Also, Solar panels can be implemented on roofs to grow renewable energy use.

When used in tandem, green roofs and solar panels can be implemented on the same roof and provide dual benefits. Reducing energy consumption through green roofs can also help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Generally, roofs are dark, heat absorbing surfaces that have the potential to raise building temperatures and increase cooling demands. Plants and greenery naturally reduce the temperature of roofs and add an insulation layer, diminishing the amount of hot and cold air affecting the building’s temperature, further regulating it.

In addition, the cooler microclimate created by rooftop greenery can increase the efficiency of rooftop HVAC systems (“Green Roof Benefits”).

In addition, solar panels can be placed on rooftops to act as a renewable energy source for a building. Although usually thought of separately, if a green roof and solar panels are used together, known as a biosolar roof, the benefits increase.

Like rooftop HVAC systems, solar panels work more efficiently in cooler climates, making the combination of vegetative cooling and solar panel energy creation a beneficial, symbiotic relationship (“Green Roofs-Solar”).

Improve Rainwater Management on green rooftops

Rainwater management and collection is a commonly mentioned concept in many building certification and rating systems, and can be improved through the implementation of green roofs. Impervious surfaces and hardscapes cause excess water runoff, which can disrupt natural hydrology and ecosystems, as well as contaminating water bodies with pollutants.

Green roofs reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and delay the time at which runoff occurs, resulting in decreased stress on sewer systems at peak flow periods. Pervious surfaces that allow for water absorption, capture, and reuse can be implemented through green roofs and through the incorporation of surfaces such as porous pavement or grid pavers.

Green roofs can capture the water as it falls, and filter out its pollutants naturally, reducing the burden on sewer systems and avoiding flooding, as well as preventing toxins from entering water bodies. It has been found that green roofs can hold 70-90% of the rain that falls on them in the summer, and 25-40% in the winter (“About”).

Once captured, this water can be redistributed throughout the building such as in irrigation, toilets, and other non-potable uses.

The use of green roofs and pervious landscaping can greatly impact rainwater management and reduce water demand within buildings.

One study done by researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that green roofs retain around 80% of fallen water, while traditional roofs captured closer to 24% of rainfall (“Green Roof Benefits”). However, when designing roofs for rainwater capture and reuse, it is essential that loads are calculated, and proper sealing of the building envelope is executed to avoid any leaks.

Improve Biodiversity with a green rooftop

Cities are barren compared to the natural world, and therefore provide fewer habitats for flora and fauna. Implementing green roofs within urban regions is a way to use often underutilized spaces to increase the presence and diversity of species within the built environment. Green roofs contribute to creating green space in urban areas, supporting biodiversity and improving the urban environment.

Increasing biodiversity in cities can not only improve the health of those ecosystems themselves, but also the systems that function around them–such as the hydrological or nutrient cycles. In addition, from a mental health standpoint, the visual presence and interaction with a diversity of species can be positive for human well-being (“About”).

Plants, especially native species promote the livelihood of birds, insects, and butterflies and restore the ecological cycles that are often disrupted in cities. In addition to providing an immediate habitat for animals, green pockets can provide places of respite for animals and provide more closely connected habitats for migrating birds and other species that would otherwise be fragmented by cities (“About”).

In addition to greenery, when solar panels are implemented as well on biosolar roofs, they can provide additional landscape diversity. The panels provide shade and protection, as well as a place for water runoff, creating a wetter side and a drier side. The implementation of PV can therefore cause a “habitat mosaic”, attracting a wider variety of flora and fauna and further increasing biodiversity (“Green Roofs-Solar”).

nike rooftop activation barcelona

Provide Amenity Spaces with a healthy building rooftop

In addition to the ecological benefits of green rooftops, they can also provide social and mental health benefits for building users. Strategies such as rooftop gyms and community gathering spaces can provide further benefits. Green walls can also contribute to urban greening by providing additional green infrastructure and improving air quality.

Outdoor exercise has been proven to have additional benefits when compared with traditional exercise, such as greater mood improvements, decreases in anxiety and increases in the desire to be active. Due to the mental and physical health benefits from both nature exposure and exercise, the combination of the two provides even greater gains (Loureiro).

Implementing exercise spaces and gyms on rooftops is an impactful way to improve the health and wellness of building users, while avoiding building footprint increases. Rooftop gardens can provide amenity spaces and enhance the sustainability of urban areas.

In addition, publicly accessible rooftops can provide places of respite and locations to gather as a community. Community gardens can be placed to encourage building users to spend time outside in nature, provide educational opportunities, improve nutrition and food awareness, and reduce the local community’s food footprint (“About”).

Finally, aesthetic roofs with various amenities can encourage occupants to utilize the space for events and social gatherings, further promoting community, connection to the outdoors, and overall wellness.

Sources

“About Green Roofs.” Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, https://greenroofs.org/about-green-roofs

Costanzo, V., et al. “Energy Savings in Buildings or UHI Mitigation? Comparison between Green Roofs and Cool Roofs.” Energy and Buildings, Elsevier, 12 May 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778815003527.

“Green Roof Benefits.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/tps/sustainability/new-technology/green-roofs/benefits.htm.

“Green Roofs and Solar Power – Biosolar Roofs Are Smart Green Infrastructure.” Livingroofs, 29 Oct. 2019, https://livingroofs.org/green-roofs-solar-power/.

Loureiro, Ana, and Susana Veloso. “Green Exercise, Health and Well-Being.” ResearchGate, Springer, Aug. 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308099577_Green_Exercise_Health_and_Well-Being

Swain, Sunanda SwainSunanda. “Urban Heat Island Effect: Causes, Impacts and Mitigation.” Blogging Hub, 4 June 2019, www.cleantechloops.com/urban-heat- island-effect/.

“Urban Roofscapes: Using ‘Wasted’ Rooftop Real Estate to an Ecological Advantage.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 25 July 2008, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/urban-roofscapes-ecofriendly-rooftops/.

LEED Location and Transportation: Sustainable Buildings and Wellness Design Consultants

Globally, transportation accounts for 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions, making it an essential sector in which to implement reductions. LEED certification, particularly the Location and Transportation category, provides a comprehensive approach to sustainable building design and operation, encouraging environmentally responsible practices and promoting healthier, more efficient buildings. As green building consultants, a number of strategies are available in this regard, all part of a sustainable real estate development or sustainable refurbishment project.

Early decisions such as the site selection and location, or implementing a local procurement strategy will have tangible emission impacts from Day One in a sustainable real estate development, as will integrating Active Travel facilities, providing green parking facilities and tracking commuter emissions in the operational phase.

As sustainable building consultants, below we address each of these points in turn in order to provide the reader with a concise overview of the role transportation plays in the green building sector.

Choosing a Sustainable Building Location with Sensitive Land Protection

Sustainable site selection is arguably the most important decision in relation to transportation emission reductions and indeed opportunities for active travel. It also involves protecting sensitive areas such as endangered species habitats.

Although this choice is often made very early in the real estate development process, whenever possible, consideration for transportation and connectivity should at least play a part in that decision making process from a sustainable building perspective. Additionally, avoiding development on prime farmland is crucial for preserving valuable agricultural resources. Selecting a high priority site can bring both economic and environmental benefits to the surrounding community.

As outlined in the USGBC’s LEED standard / Location & Transportation category, there are several characteristics to be considered. Reusing existing infrastructure is crucial in sustainable site selection as it minimizes the need for new infrastructure and reduces environmental strain.

Primarily, consider the surrounding density and prioritise locations with diverse uses nearby, such as food retail, community centers, and other services. Building on previously developed land can offer benefits like existing infrastructure and points within the LEED criteria.

This allows people spending time in the building to have access to a variety of services nearby, within walking distance to encourage active travel instead of car use, while reducing the need for longer distance car travel.

Secondly, ‘access to quality transit’ - locating the project in a high-density area, close to multi-modal transportation options such as train, bus and bike share stations. making commuter times shorter on average, and commonly increasing public transportation uptake.

Local Sourcing & Procurement in Sustainable Buildings

Another strategy that comes early in the design process is selecting healthy building materials, products, and or machinery from local, nearby sources. Promoting more compact development can conserve land and reduce transportation emissions.

From a real estate sustainability perspective, the key is to understand the supply chain transparency of the most prominent selected materials (such as steel and concrete for buildings; or flooring, ceiling panels and wall finishes in interiors), utilize low-emission vehicles in the delivery process, and plan timely construction deliveries.

Local sourcing greatly reduces transportation emissions and should be considered early on in materiality sourcing and procurement decisions.

Healthy and sustainable building materials should therefore be selected based on those within a low-carbon system and within a close radius of the project.

Low-carbon systems can include the whole life cycle of a material and all transportation steps— as well as the incorporation of low-carbon shipping options.

In addition, within the construction phase, the just-in-time delivery method can be used, meaning the materials arrive on site when needed, not before - this helps avoid the loss or damage of resources.

A reduction in excess material use and therefore less waste production, in turn reduces the number of transportation trips needed to get materials on and off site.

Commuter Emission Regulation in sustainable buildings

During the in-use phase of a sustainable building, commuter emissions are the largest contributor to building-related transportation emissions. Choosing a neighborhood development location can significantly reduce these emissions by promoting walkability and access to public transit. The main goal is to reduce the number of people traveling to and from the building individually in petrol / diesel powered vehicles.

This can be done through the use of public transport, carpooling, or the use of electric vehicles. Promoting walkability and transport efficiency within the surrounding community is also crucial. In order to regulate and eventually reduce commuter emissions, strategies such as commuter surveys and greenhouse gas tracking are essential steps.

Commuter surveys can be implemented to better understand how employees, residents, or other building users travel to and from the site. This is the first step to understanding the impact of transportation emissions and what the largest decision-making factors are for commuter travel.

This information on transportation related greenhouse gas emissions can not only provide valuable data for real estate ESG reporting but also help guide future building site adjustments to reduce transport emissions, such as parking changes or active travel incentives.

Active Travel and Bicycle Network in Sustainable Buildings

From the transportation side of active travel, it is directly connected to the location of the building site and its connectivity, as well as business culture. The sustainable sites category in LEED encourages such practices to promote environmental and public health benefits. Neighborhood development can promote walkability and sustainable land use practices. The general goal of active travel is to increase the health and fitness level of building occupants, but it can also have impacts on transportation emissions.

If the building is located nearby various amenities, commuters and building occupants can walk or bike if they would like to go to the grocery store or get a haircut, for example. This not only increases occupant health, but also reduces transportation related carbon emissions.

In addition, active travel can be fulfilled through commuting to the site by bike or foot. In addition to location, building sites can encourage active travel through the incorporation of bike storage facilities, bike maintenance programs, and showers on-site for commuters heading to work.

Finally, company or building-wide active travel incentives, such a company-wide bike to work month competition can increase active travel participation. The culture of a company can have a large impact on commuter patterns, and active travel should be encouraged socially whenever possible.

The USGBC LEED green building standard ‘Bicycle Facilities’ credit rewards projects that promote bicycle use through locating the site entrance within 180m of a bicycle network, as well as providing short- / long-term bicycle storage and shower rooms on site.

Reduced Parking Footprint in Sustainable Buildings

To help reduce commuter-related transportation emissions, parking can be adjusted on site. Sensitive land protection is crucial in responsible land use practices, ensuring the preservation of biodiversity and ecological sites. Strategies can include limits on available parking, designated preferred parking spaces, and EV or alternative fueling stations installed on site.

Limiting parking overall will encourage different travel methods purely due to the inconvenience. In addition, parking that is available should contain designated spots for carpooling and green vehicles to further encourage reductions in commuter emissions.

In addition, parking lots should include EV charging stations to make the use of these vehicles more accessible. Also, when possible, alternative gas fueling stations can be installed on site to further discourage traditional, emission-heavy travel methods.

The Reduced Parking Footprint credit in USGBC LEED’s green building standard rewards real estate projects that deliberately limit their parking footprint, or eliminate it completely, to promote alternative transportation options. This integrates with the Electric Vehicle credit that rewards parking for EVs with dedicated charging stations.

sustainable green building water efficiency — biofilico wellness interiors

green building / sustainability / water efficiency / leed / living building challenge / breeam

Water efficiency and use reduction in green buildings

Outdoors, more indirect green building strategies such as smart landscaping (or xeriscaping - using plants that require no additional irrigation other than the expected annual rainfall in each location) can have large impacts on building site water use.

Indoors, green building water use reduction strategies such as the installation of efficient fixtures and appliances and low flow plumbing fixtures are crucial.

A significant portion of water usage in buildings is dedicated to flushing toilets, making it crucial to implement water-saving technologies in these areas.

For bathrooms, green building technologies include ultra-low flow water closets and urinals, which use pressure-assisted flushes and dual-flush water closets, which distinguish between liquid and solid flush options. In addition, waterless fixtures can be implemented, such as waterless urinals or composting toilets (LEED).

More generally, low-flow aerators can be installed at minimal cost, essentially a water flow constrictor that reduces water output from faucets. In outdoor contexts, strategies such as drip irrigation and landscape irrigation can be implemented, which is a more efficient strategy that delivers water directly to plant roots (LEED).

Implementing water-saving technologies such as low-flow plumbing fixtures and greywater systems can significantly reduce water consumption in green buildings.

When considering which types of green building appliances to install, benchmarking tools can a green building consultant’s best friend as a way to cut through any potential greenwashing and guarantee maximum impact in water reduction terms.

For example, the WaterSense label, a partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), provides invaluable guidance on water efficient fixtures. Green building products with the WaterSense label are designated to be at least 20% more efficient that other appliances in that category.

In outdoor irrigation contexts, broader strategies that include location and site characteristics can be implemented. Rainfall and climate vary greatly based on location, so outdoor water use strategies will shift based on these factors.

Native and locally adapted species can be implemented in landscaping plans to reduce the need for irrigation and, as a bonus to provide wildlife habitats, promoting biodiversity. In addition, xeriscaping uses a combination of soil improvements, native plants, and efficient irrigation to reduce water use (LEED).

Alternative water sources in a green building concept

Within the United States alone, buildings account for 14% of potable water use (LEED). The Living Building Challenge’s Water Petal section suggests that no potable water should be used when it is not needed, ie, besides in the case of drinking water, potable water use in a green building should be avoided for water conservation.

Rather, water reclamation systems such as greywater and rainwater recycling should be used to provide alternative water sources. Rainwater harvesting is an effective method to collect and utilize rainwater for various purposes, reducing the strain on local water resources.

As mentioned, understanding the relationship between site location and climate has a large role to play in any green building plan. In the cases where ample rainwater is available, rainwater capture systems can be an investment that pays off handsomely in the medium-term, especially in locations with limited water availability and local water resources. Rainwater can be collected passively or actively then used for irrigation, process water, or flush fixtures.

Passive strategies such as rain gardens or dry ponds redirect water to planted areas and provide irrigation assistance. Active rainwater management systems capture, store, and transport water to a desired application. Active systems can be helpful as rain is weather dependent, providing greater flexibility to when and where the water can be applied (LEED).

Graywater recycling is another alternative water resource that allows for reuse of otherwise discarded water. This process involves the collection, treatment, and storage of water discharged from kitchens, showers and other sources and can provide non-potable reuse applications (BREEAM). Most commonly, this water can be reused in flush fixtures and helps reduce water demand in buildings.

The use of alternative water sources in tandem with more efficient appliances and water reduction strategies can greatly reduce building site water usage.

Monitoring water performance in a green building

As with many sustainable building trends and air quality, monitoring and regulating performance is vital to ensuring success. Ensuring water efficiency is crucial for the well-being of future generations, as it helps preserve water resources and promotes sustainability. Devices should be implemented to monitor water usage trends and identify any potential problems, as recommended by the green building council.

Sub-meters are devices that monitor water leaks, measure usage, and provide the potential to make building improvements with the provision of this data (LEED). Being part of a green building initiative, such as those promoted by the Green Building Council, can provide valuable resources and support for implementing water-saving measures. Leak detection systems are very important in the case of major leaks, which for obvious reasons could affect building water use and water consumption efficiency (BREEAM).

It is vital that this water data is tracked and regulated by those who oversee the operations and maintenance of the building. In addition, if select information such as water use is displayed to building occupants, additional benefits from behavioral changes can be achieved. Displaying real-time water information can encourage water-saving behaviors among building occupants, leading to reduced water consumption.

A concept known as the Prius Effect states that when presented with information, people tend to have a greater incentive to reduce consumption. The concept was derived from the Prius car, which encouraged drivers to further reduce gas consumption when efficiency information was made available. In the case of water usage, real-time water information can be displayed in places where people use water to encourage further reductions from a behavioral standpoint.

The monitoring of water performance can feed back into the other strategies of water reduction, water efficiency, and alternative water resources. As design decisions are made, the reality of those decisions can be tracked in real time to provide further guidance on the most effective efficiency measures.

RESET Healthy Buildings (podcast interview)

Green & Healthy Places podcast 019:

RESET healthy buildings standard

Regenerative buildings monitored for health: the RESET standard

The ‘Green & Healthy Places’ podcast series takes a deep-dive into the role of sustainability, wellbeing and community in real estate and hospitality.

Green & Healthy Places with Matt Morley

Welcome to episode 19 of the green and healthy places podcast in which we explore wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hospitality.

In this episode we talk to Stanton Wong in China, President of RESET, a data-driven business that harnesses technology to monitor buildings from a health perspective.

We discuss the differences between the concepts of ‘green buildings’ in the West and ‘healthy buildings’ in Asia, the surge in interest in air quality post-pandemic, how the materials used in building construction and fit-outs connect with indoor air quality, how to create biomimetic indoor spaces that behave more like an outdoor spaces and the importance of high-quality data collection around Air, Water, Energy and Waste use in benchmarking healthy buildings.

Stanton is a seriously bright guy with a background in computer science and he’s now at the helm of an organization that just seems to be in the right place at the right time. So there is a lot of solid content in this conversation!

GUEST / Stanton Wong, President, RESET

• RESET main site

• RESET AIR standard

See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.

HOST / Matt Morley

• Founder of BioBlu sustainable yachting

• Founder of Biofilico wellness real estate & interiors

• Founder of Biofit Health & Fitness

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FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI - excuse typos!

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Matt Morley

Stanton awesome to be with you here today. Let's jump into it. Why don't you give us a quick intro to your personal background and your career path to becoming president of reset.

stanton wong

Hi, Matt, thank you very much for having me. I'm My name is Stanton. I'm currently the president of reset. In terms of career paths, it's been a little bit windy, but I think it makes perfect sense on why I'm here right now, I am a computer science major. So I have a tech background. My first jobs are all computer science and software development related. I was visiting Shanghai, which is where one of our offices are in. That's where my mother's from. So I was visiting Shanghai I met Ray for and then I really liked what they were trying to do, they were essentially trying to look at how technology can affect and figure out how to monitor and learn about building behaviors. So I joined in from the technology side, and then tried to help build the product around it. And gradually, I took on more responsibility until I'm now the president.

Matt Morley

I've been going through this process myself, as I mentioned to you, of you know, studying your RESET AIR professional qualification and it's one of the things that's really come through is that data driven approach. But you know, another thing that's been immediately stood out for me was was some of the content with the study materials around the difference between green and healthy.

So you kind of have this dichotomy in the market at the moment, there's green buildings, and there's healthy buildings but in some of the pieces that you've published online you mention how with China's 5000 year history of Regenerative Medicine, perhaps, you know, sort of a different terminology or different way of thinking about that?

stanton wong

Yes, s we came from a Western background, our company, our initial thinking was around provided a service for green buildings, that's traditionally what we've talked about. When we were pushing the idea in China, it was not very strongly received because traditionally, the environment, the concept of ‘green’ just wasn't part of the consideration whereas health and wellbeing in general was.

So once we started talking more about what a healthy building is, for occupants inside, there was a lot more interest in understanding what that meant. So when we started doing a few more talks and presentations, we realized that at least in China, the concept of health is a much stronger sell in terms of a concept then, then it is green.

Matt Morley

And you've also introduced the idea of this wonderful word biomimetic. So you describe the RESRT approach has been biomimetic which is essentially if I've understood correctly inspired by natural evolution?

stanton wong

Yeah. So this word really started when we were exploring how we wanted to approach air, I want to give a bit of a background First, we didn't actually start with air quality, per se, we were starting with healthy building materials. And when we were doing research into materials and just the data behind it, we were building calculators that would basically look at the TVOC data from certifications of materials and try to calculate how much TVOC off gassing would occur within a certain space. At depending on materials we used, we realized that no matter how many versions of calculator we went through, they were never accurate. And then at the exact same time, we were discovering that there were air quality monitor manufacturers that were developing monitors that were within a price range that felt very reasonable.

And so we transitioned to looking at what would air look like, if we were just wanting air quality? Will we get better data? So that's, that's how it started.

Then the biomimetic part is from a concept that our founder Rafer Wallace introduced - he grew up in an area that was next to a lake and in a forest. We were thinking - we spend so much time indoors, how can we create an indoor space that felt more like an outdoor space?

Outdoor spaces are constantly changing, depending on what's happening around, right, so trees are constantly sensing the temperature, the humidity, the birds are sensing everything, you hear the birds, depending on what's happening with the weather, you're getting a lot of feedback. But in an interior space, typically it feels a lot more dead because your mechanical systems aren't automated. Mostly it’s someone clicking a button to make the ventilation start or stop. That's kind of what the traditional indoor spaces like.

“We asked ourselves, how can we create an interior space that felt more like an outdoor space by getting data that’s collected to mimic or automate certain aspects of interior spaces to be more similar to outdoor spaces?”

— stanton wong

Matt Morley

Which then kind of connects you with my favorite subject of biophilic design? Which is exactly the same concepts. How can you do that through the physical space and the materials and perhaps the sounds or the senses that you're, you're playing with in that room?

As I understand it, then you've got this air quality situation in Shanghai, that's obviously one of the worst in the world. And that's clearly a huge background piece to all of this that's going on. Right. So you're then from materials, you switch into air and start focusing more on that and create what is effectively a data standard and certification piece around air quality, which is your first step forward into this into this world still, would that be fair to say? Okay, but then like, what comes next like beyond that? How are you then? Because materials are coming back round? That seems to be like your next product or service coming to the market?

stanton wong

Yeah, so So I think what we've discovered for ourselves in the past couple years is that the direction we want to take is data driven and performance driven. So we want to look at what can data give us to help empower better solutions.

We haven't focused on solutions, what we want to do in the future is highlight more of the different solutions that are being implemented. Our focus is to standardize the data collection aspect, so that projects can be compared against each other, we can leverage larger sets of data to understand how different projects performed compared to others.

Basically, we want to do a lot of benchmarking. So air quality is where we started, we're going to go into materials.

But from a continuous monitoring perspective, we want to go into water, energy and waste. So with water and energy, I think it's relatively simple. It's really just continuous monitoring, instead of having a monthly paper trail of how much energy or water was used, we want to have a continuous data collection and the reason behind that is because we actually had clients asking about how does our air quality and A track system compare against our energy usage. And once you have that data layered on top of each other, you can start comparing and seeing how can we potentially save energy while maintaining good air quality.

“good air quality doesn’t mean you have to clean the air 100% all the time, it’s about maintaining a certain level of air quality. ”

— stanton wong

stanton wong

So for example, if you have an empty office space, you don't need to have fresh air systems on 24/7, you only need to turn that on when there are people in the space and the CO2 levels are getting higher. Same for Particulate Matter (PM2.5 / PM10) filtration - it only needs to kick in when higher levels of PM are detected.

So for energy or waste or water, there's probably something that can be compared. So we're interested in setting a standard for collecting the data initially. And then we will do research into how we can cross reference it some more.

Matt Morley

So and then sort of basic terms, obviously, you've got the type of the HVAC system, which is the middleman between the indoor air that we're breathing in a building and the type of outdoor air that's coming in. So we touched on it briefly at the beginning, but I did just want to ask about location - how much of a role is that playing?

If you're in central Shanghai, and you've got another one of these dark clouds floating around? Surely there's got to be so much more work to do to ensure good quality baseline indoor air quality? Or is it just something that these h HVAC systems can handle As long as they're fully equipped and specced for that type of work?

stanton wong

Yeah, so this is a really good question. What we've discovered is that traditional HVAC systems, the online ones, they're not a very good fit for this kind of situation. So I'll give an example. One of the reasons we started separating Core & Shell from Commercial Interiors is because there is two different roles. One is the central hvac system. Core & shell is the property owner controlling the central HVAC system that includes fresh air systems. And then commercial interiors is typically tailored to the actual tenant or occupant space. The in the occupant space, you want the air to be clean no matter what but you don't actually have control over the central HVAC.

Typically you ask the landlord need more fresh air or something, they'll help you figure something out. But it's not instantaneous, they have to configure something, it's not automatic. So what we've discovered is at least for Pm 2.5, there's now a lot of single units that you would install in your occupant space, like in the ceiling.

Matt Morley

where the recirculation ones right with Yeah, having the portable ones you don't want the like the portable carry around once you want them installed in the ceiling.

stanton wong

Correct. Because we want it to be automated, we don't want it to be something where people are pressing to turn it on and off, it should be more natural. And when it's installed in the ceiling, you can have the tubing have the intake be on one side and the outtakeon the other side so that there's actually more circular motion, air motion. So it cleans the air better than a unit that's sitting on the ground and just trying to clean the air around it.

Matt Morley

Which is what we're seeing, almost this kind of like this sort of knee jerk reaction to? Yeah, I'm seeing it in crazy places, right, you know, go to the physiotherapist. And clearly they haven't got enough ventilation in there, you can see that the H vac systems really just not doing what it needs to be doing. And they've got like one solitary floor fan, if you want to call it that trying to do the work of the system.

“The pandemic has generated a lot more interest in air quality. Previously, air quality was invisible, aside from temperature and humidity. Nobody says ‘oh the CO2 levels are high in here’ - you might feel dizzy or sleepy, even if you don’t have any numbers to back it up. Air monitors help you understand more about the air you breathe. ”

— stanton wong

stanton wong

So obviously, if you optimize it perfectly, it doesn't prevent file transmission 100%. Because if one person comes in with the virus, and they cough on somebody, the building can't do anything about that. But at least you're maintaining a system that lowers the chance of virus virus survivability, and improves immune system like human immune system so that you're at the strongest to defend against it. So, so that's something that we've been playing with, and we're trying to figure out how to make that more available. But um, generally, I think, with the pandemic, a lot more people are aware of the importance of air quality, and are looking into how they have how they can have more control over it.

Matt Morley

What would be the other possible sources beyond outdoor air and airborne viruses within an indoor environment that could cause pollution, or that might be damaging, or lowering the quality of the air in, let's say, an office building?

stanton wong

Yeah, I think the most common is the building material choice. So where we started was materials. And materials is not where you would generate PM2.5 but rather VOCs, that’s the big issue. So a lot of offices have a period where they're flushing out the air, right. And the assumption is that most materials will off-gas all their VOCs within a week or two, and then you're done. The unfortunate thing is, it depends on the material. And it depends on the temperature in the space.

So for example, if certain adhesives if they're not high quality, it's possible for them to off-gas for a long, long time, or certain varnishes as well. At the same time, if, for example, it's a really hot day, it's 40 degrees in door, when the sun is shining, and before the air conditioning turns on, that can affect how stable the varnish is, and lead to off gassing. Even a year or two afterwards.

“If you don’t make good interior material choices, it’s very possible that you’re in a space that’s relatively toxic, especially if there’s not enough fresh air coming in to dilute those VOC’s in the air”

— stanton wong

Matt Morley

And so we're talking about varnishes, glues, paints, possibly the carpet, fabrics used, or even the stuffing inside furniture such as sofas and things. These are all potential sources of volatile organic compounds, right, which is correct, we mustn't be just like, distracted by the organic word. These are negatives, not all of them are harmful, but some of them are. And if those levels rise too high, then the impact of that on us is or will be some of the symptoms then of a typical, like sick building that we might recognize, but not have known the sources of.

stanton wong

If you're getting headaches, or you're feeling like your throat is uncomfortable and itchy. Those are very simple and basic symptoms of breathing air, that's not great. So, yeah, those are those are probably the most obvious ones. With a lot of vo C's you're going to smell it as well. So a lot of when you're entering a newly referred, newly furnished space, you're going to smell something a lot of like, in China, at least pregnant women. Once they smell that they're immediately telling them they're their company that they're not working in the office. So because they know that that can have actually long term detriment to their baby as well. It's possible and it's not a risk they want to take so is a lot of these effects from air quality is much more longer term and it's not obvious right away.

Matt Morley

So if we were, let's say if you if you were to take a project that was in a rural location, then or say you're in the middle of the sea, you might think that the indoor air or the Yeah, the outdoor air quality coming into the building passing through the the air conditioning system would be well, what could be better, right? But then materials. If you've if you've stuffed that, that indoor space, whether it's a residential building or commercial building with materials that are bringing in off gases, or that are producing off gases, then you're, you're potentially creating a situation whereby the indoor, the outdoor air quality is really quite good. It's fresh air, there's there's no industrial use nearby, etc. But you've got a reduced quality of indoor air because of the off gases being produced by your furniture, glues and paints and vanishes.

stanton wong

Indoor air is almost always worse than outdoor air because of the way we've built our world. The indoor air issue didn’t exist for our ancestors because we didn't have such enclosed indoor spaces.

Even for example, in China, most families are very used to the fact of opening windows every day, they want to bring in the fresh air, obviously, now we have the Pm 2.5 issue. But previously, the idea was you want to dilute the air, you want to bring in the fresh air, right? Because indoor, there's an indoor buildup of potentially chemicals or other things if you don't know what's going on. So the the most simple way is just opening windows bringing in fresh air diluting everything. VOC's are not a problem outdoors. Because it's been completely diluted.

Matt Morley

And I know you guys are really big on on the quality of the monitors in place. In fact, a lot of going going through this process of becoming the sort of accredited professional, a lot of it is like how good is your is the monitor? And what grade is it and how is it deployed? And where is it deployed? And I found that going so deep into that was fascinating. But it then raises the questions like there's just this hit, there's been this huge surge in, let's call them consumer grade monitors, right. And I'm standing here with one of these, these these Dyson, air cooled fans that constantly sends me readouts that don't seem to make much sense, and I can never quite work out what's going on. So let's let's cut through all the marketing talk, right? Like realistically, these these consumer grade monitors and fans that we have on our desks or in our bedrooms? Is there any merit in that? Is there? Is there value in it? Are they is it really just a marketing ploy? Or how do you see it from an insider perspective? Hmm,

stanton wong

I think there's two different things to consider. One is the accuracy of the monitors. And then the second thing is, it really is about where it's playing. So for example, the Dyson one, right, and a lot of filters, like filtration, air filtration units, they have a monitor on it. The issue with that is it's only like the way air filtration works as it cleans the air around it first. And if the fan is not blowing hard enough, it's still only going to clean, you know, the closest air around it. So when I'm recommending my friends to a solution for air quality at home, I asked I tell them to buy a separate air quality monitor, put it on the opposite end of the room from the filter. And so that's how you determine whether or not the air quality in the room is actually clean. If you're using the monitor, if you put the monitor right next to the filter, most of the room is actually not at the level that you're expecting.

So that's one thing. The other thing is consumer models are actually very good at giving a basic trend of understanding what's happening, the thing that they're not very good at is the accuracy between the units. So what we've seen a lot is if you buy five consumer units and you place them all next to each other, it's very possible that two of them are reading a little bit or quite a bit off from the other three. So it's not balanced in that way. But all of their trends are probably going to be very similar. So they're going to all peak at around the same time. They're on a dip at around the same time. But their numbers are not going to be quite that similar. That's that's something that we've seen.

So if you're in an office space where you're trying to illustrate that you are leveraging air quality for either automation or you're trying to show that you have high quality data, you want to use something that is more consistent with numbers of reports. So that's why we've been doing testing - our tests are really just asking manufacturers to give us five different monitors have the same make. And we tested over three weeks to a month and see how they perform in different situations. And even even Grade B ones that we've tested multiples of them have failed the first test, and we have to send them back with a report telling them what's wrong. And then they have to fix the factory calibration process. So before it gets shipped, if it's not properly calibrated, properly stored before shipping, then it's very possible that the numbers will just get wacky, because sensors are not, they're not completely stable yet.

Matt Morley

So something we haven't mentioned thus far is just is that the approach that the researcher takes is very much more about it seems to me the destination than the journey, you're non prescriptive, you're not saying you must do X, Y, and Z in order to secure air quality, you're really focused on the quality of the monitors how they're deployed, how they're maintained, how they're installed, where they're located. And then really, it's all goes into a cloud based data storage system where you're constantly monitoring the quality of the air in the space. And your focus is very much on that, right? Rather than saying, well, you must use only natural materials in your space where you must use this type of ventilation system, you've chosen to focus very much more on the data outputs, right? That's kind of your key differentiator.

stanton wong

You're completely correct. So we're based in China, And so in China, we have to take into consideration Pm 2.5, that's of a common issue. If you're in certain parts of Europe, if you're in a more rural area, that might not be a that might not be something you need to care about. So you don't need as many recirculation units that are filtering the air instead. Well, and the other thing to think about is also like co2 levels, there's no way to prescribe exactly what a space needs, because the density of different offices are different. So if you're in a space, like if you're in an area where land is relatively cheap, you're going to have an office space that's significantly larger than a city center. So the way that you design, your H, exosomes might be completely different.

stanton wong

So instead of saying that you have to have a certain type of solution, we recommend that you have the data to figure out what is the most optimal solution for your kind of space, because it doesn't make sense to spend so much money to have something that doesn't really make a difference. I'll give an example, in in China, because of COVID, they had a rule where all h vac systems had to run a, I think it was 100% fresh air capacity. That means bringing in so much fresh air that there's not enough time to heat it in the winter, or like to cool in the summer, it's just so the indoor spaces feel very uncomfortable. But you got all the fresh air right. And so that's not a proper solution for a situation like that. Instead, if you had co2 monitors, you would understand how much fresh air to bring in. So you can maintain a system that is more energy efficient, and produces all the effects that you need. So that that's just an example. But um, our concept is if you have the data, you know how to create a solution for the project.

Matt Morley

So that might suggest then that you would so let's look at the process then of going through the reset err certification, because that might not necessarily involve an MEP consultant, for example, if your data coming out within those three months is immediately good, right? So if everything's working fine, but so what point might you expect? What's the team? What's the resource going on? Like? How does that process go from from a project, making a request to become part of the of the standard and take the certification and like, who might they need on that team to make that happen?

stanton wong

So our recommendation is almost always start just by monitoring, just one monitor in your space is better than having nothing because it gives you it first brings awareness to the air quality data, because that's never been that's not something that's talked about. In in the US, for example, ASHRAE doesn't have very much content around continuous monitoring. It's all spot testing one time test. And then what do you do with that data? That's the information they have.

So continuous monitoring, using this data to figure out what to do is still relatively new. Even if you bring in MEP experts, a lot of them don't know how to approach this. That's really the big biggest issue that we're encountering right. Now it's that, yes, you can get the data you can monitor. But what do you do after that, if you have a good space, and the air quality is already good, it's it's not very complicated, you just get certified. You install the monitors, you go through the process, which includes three stages.

The documentation, which is you demonstrate, you show where you're going to install your monitors the site audit, which is we verify that they're installed properly, in the right place. And then the data audit, which is a is a continuous audit of the space forever, you get the certification after three months, but we need to continue tracking the project. Because if you stop, then we assume that something has happened, and you lose the certification. So we're not one of those. We're not a one time sort of certification, it's more of an operate operational certification where we're tracking the whole time.

Matt Morley

Yeah. And then you get into and then you can imagine, it might provide peace of mind. It might provide transparency for, let's say, a commercial building, owner, landlord who, through their facilities, management wants to communicate their tenants that look, we're doing everything, everything's good, you've got good indoor air quality, is we have nothing to hide equally, it can raise an alarm, right. And at that point, you can imagine the project then whether it's MEP, or it might be that they have a materials issue, or there might be off gases going in. And so your data will be able to give some sense of where the problem is right, based on whether it's co2, whether it's m PM, 2.5, PM, 10, or some other point that's creating issues, right. So you'll be able to get pretty close to get sniffing out where the problem is.

stanton wong

Yeah, our best case studies are best stories are all around how quickly people found out what the issue was. So I'll give to one is a commercial interiors case like story. There is a project that was that has that was passing every month, right, they've already got certified everything. And all of a sudden, one month they failed. They looked at the data and saw that on, I think the 16th or 17th of a certain of a month, all of a sudden the tvoc numbers went up and it stayed up.

So to see if it spikes and drops, not a big issue because perfumes alcohol, all that stuff can affect today's TVOC sensors. So Friday afternoons, typically, a lot of offices will have a high spike of TVOC, because it's happy hour. But if TVOC goes up and it stays up, that means something just got installed, that is permanently off gassing, like a significant amount of TVOC. So we looked in the data we told we helped, we asked the tenant, what do they install or add to the space on that day, and they found out that they installed the whiteboard. And the glue used for the whiteboard was off gassing TVOC heavily. So they removed it, they scraped off all the glue, and then the TVOC went back normal. So that's an example of like having the data to figure out what went wrong.

Another example that was really was, um, TVOC You know, office building can affect other tenants, because a lot of the eight fax systems are all connected. So there is a there was a newer building in Shanghai, and they only allowed construction teams to come in at night to work because some of the other spaces already occupied. They noticed that on an on a certain afternoon that TVOC and pm two and five were spiking on one of the floors, they had monitors in the H vac systems. And so they sent a security guard over and they found two workers trying to catch up on some of the work that they had to do. And then obviously, they kicked them out. But they did this within half an hour of seeing the data spike. So it's just it's little things like this, it's if you first of all, their team is starting to leverage the data, which is something that they probably wouldn't have done before, if they didn't have the data. And with the data, you can make really quick response time. So you can solve a lot of issues.

Matt Morley

It's an important point to mention also the idea of no you actively promote the communication of that data, right? you encourage like maybe having a display screen in reception, or by the elevator. So as people come in, they get some sense of where we're at on the day, right? So if you really, the data isn't managed and stored in your cloud and it stays there. It's very much kind of this positive feedback loop right where it's constantly coming back through to each project that then communicates that to the the occupants themselves. I think that's key because they're There is often that sense of things taking place at some strategic level, but then the occupants maybe not engaging with it or worse, you know, having an air more air quality monitor on their desk and taking, trying to take ownership of it. But it's poor data. And it's, you know, it's just not it's not reliable, right. So you're trying to put, like a building level system in place.

stanton wong

Yeah. Speaking of the monitor on the desk, one of the impetus for starting the standard, or making the standard official was also a legal case where somebody said that they brought a monitor into the office and said, the air quality in this office is crap, right. But then the office obviously had nothing in place to fight back, they had no data, they had nothing that they could show, right, so they had to settle. But um, that's by making it official, you're showcasing that you've installed monitors in the right places, they're not installed in some closet, which is still things that we see where the data is faked. And having a third party verify just means that everything is legit and aboveboard.

Matt Morley

I love it. I'm a real fan, I really encourage people to check out the cert and honest piece of info is that it's very reasonably priced. It's not a prohibitive cost, whereas some of the other certs can can really come with quite a heavy price tag. And, you know, I love the fact that you've, you've priced yours to make it much more accessible to a wider audience. I think that's I think that's key. And in a sense that it invites a longer term relationship, which, which I think is also fundamental. So it raises the question like, what's next, like what's coming in your, in your pipeline over the next one to two years? What are you working on for the future?

stanton wong

Yeah, so the first thing that we're trying to do right now is to flesh out our suite of standards. So we I mentioned that we're already doing air, I mentioned that we're going to be doing water, energy and waste waste is interesting, because it hasn't been done before with continuous monitoring. What we're imagining is to have IoT scales that will monitor how much weight gets put into a trash bin. And then once that trash bin is lifted, and the weight is removed, that gets stored into a system. So you're tracking how much waste is being generated every day from a weight perspective. Obviously, it's not a panacea, it doesn't give you all the right information. But it gives you a starting point to understand how much is being how much waste is getting created. And if you want to take it a step further, it would be separating the bins and tracking each bin separately.

So for example, a bin would be for recyclables. And another bin might be for organics, every every region has their own kind of separation strategy. So we're not going to set one in stone. But we're going to make it available that people can select different strata, like different organizations try structures for this. And hopefully making this data visible make it so that there's more awareness to how much waste is being generated. So that's the initial concept. For all four of these, the long term goal is to create a benchmarking system that allows you to compare projects between projects. So we're, in the long term, we're not looking at setting specific standards globally.

In terms of thresholds for what the data level should be, it's gonna be probably something that's collaborative, with a local group, because for example, let's just say air quality, temperature and humidity is different for every region, right? If you're in the tropics, versus if you're in a colder area, the numbers are gonna be very different. So what you're targeting might be very different as well. You might not like the optimal humidity and temperature might not be exactly the same for different areas. So we want to work with the local region to set the thresholds for that.

Our focus will only be on making sure that you're collecting the right data or the most accurate data. And so we're our focus for our standards will always be around that. The other standards that we're going to be doing as materials and again, our our mo our focus is going to be on collecting data. So for materials, every project has a list of materials that is actually installed in the space. We want for every project in the future to have that list. And we start scoring that list based on how much information in regards to health or carbon or safety of each material is collected.

So we're the scoring system is not necessarily going to be initially based on how good the material is because once you see it you'll you'll realize whether or not it's good, because that's the stuff you're installing to your space in We want you to do the research of the materials that you're aware of what you're actually putting into your space. So the scoring system is based on how much do you understand what's actually going in? Are you actually collecting that information? Do the materials that you select actually have any of the information that you're looking for, and materials that are actively trying to collect more information for these aspects will be will be more noticed. So we want to incentivize materials to really care about the health aspect, the carbon aspect, that kind of stuff.

Matt Morley

Yes, we were very much part of a wider infrastructure, which includes product health certificates, or healthy environmental product declarations, things like that, right. So that, yeah, there's then that middleman that's sourcing the materials that have already been through that that rigorous process of securing certifications for the for that individual product that then gets installed within a wider fit out with a green procurement policy that then secures the right kind of standards for materials and indeed, knock on effect, air quality. So it's really this sort of Tetris puzzle, right, then you're sort of encouraging that, that network of players to come together to do the work to collaborate and then measure and monitor those results over time?

I think it's, it's great. And it's exactly what we needed for the industry. I think you've got to, yeah, some amazing, amazing growth years ahead of you. So Best of luck. Congratulations with that, where can people find you what's the best way to reach out and follow along for the work that we set are doing.

stanton wong

So we're constantly updating our website. The website is reset dot build, r e s e t dot v UI LD, there's no.com dot build is the end of it. And that's probably the best way to follow us. We also have a newsletter. So if you scroll down to the very bottom of the homepage of the webpage, there'll be a link, there'll be a link to follow our newsletter. And if you have any questions, info at reset dot build is the go to email. And if you want to email me directly, it's Stanton at reset dot build.

building wellness & sustainability with evalore spain

Talking green buildings & healthy buildings with Pablo Munoz, CEO of Evalore, Building Wellness & Sustainability

The ‘Green & Healthy Places’ podcast series takes a deep-dive into the role of sustainability, wellbeing and community in real estate, offices, hotels and educational facilities.

evalore building wellness & sustainability

In this episode we talk to Pablo Munoz, Co-Founder and CEO of Evalore, Building Wellness & Sustainability with offices in Barcelona and Madrid. Founded three years ago, it’s a team of engineers, architects and energy modelers with an entrepreneurial spirit that immediately caught my attention.

indoor air quality, wellness villas ands more

We discuss air quality strategies for indoor environments such as corporate offices, the integration of both green building and healthy building strategies in each project, their first timber office building in Spain called WittyWood that is currently under construction, active design strategies to promote movement in an office building, their healthy home strategies for a WELL Villa at PGA Catalunya residential golf resort in Spain, their own in-house Air First air purification certification and their Evalore Method intended to push the green & healthy building movement forward with a focus on Spain and accessible price points.

healthy & well become commoditized

We also look ahead to the next 12 months in our industry and Pablo highlights the risks of well-washing, whereby an increasing array of products and services are branded as being ‘healthy’, meaning a dose of skepticism is going to become increasingly important for those on the inside of the healthy building movement in order to protect its reputation.

air first rating system

One of the topics we touch on in the podcast is Evalore’s Air First air quality management system that sets out to offer a more accessible alternative to the more extensive and capital intensive certifications such as WELL and LEED.

For me, this looks like the first in what may be an entire new generation of such accreditation systems that adapt what works for corporate America to a more local context, in this case Spain and its commercial real estate sector.

The protocols cover Purification, Disinfection, Monitoring & Training tin protocols to enhance Indoor Air Quality.

GUEST / PABLO MUNOZ

• https://evalore.es/

• https://airfirst.es/

• https://www.facebook.com/EspaciosEvalore/

• https://twitter.com/Evalorewell

• https://www.linkedin.com/company/espaciosevalore/

In this episode we talk to Pablo Munoz, Co-Founder and CEO of Evalore, Building Wellness & Sustainability with offices in Barcelona and Madrid. Founded three years ago, it's a team of engineers, architects and energy modelers with an entrepreneurial spirit that immediately caught my attention.

Full transcript below…

===============

Matt Morley 0:14

Pablo, to get things going perhaps you could just give us a really quick introduction to who you are, and also to the business Evalore that you're CEO of here in Spain?

Pablo Munoz 3:05

Hi, Matt and thank you so much. It is a pleasure for me to be here with you today. My name is Paolo Munoz. I'm an architect. I was licensed here in Spain but I have worked for most of my career abroad. I first worked in London for a couple years where I worked for a small architecture company then I went in Europe for a Masters of Science in Sustainability in the urban environment. I worked for a pretty big consultancy firm in sustainability then at some point I had the opportunity to come back to Spain. I founded Evalore with two co-founders And this has been going on for three and a half years almost now.

Matt Morley 4:02

You've been up and running now with the business for about three years, as you mentioned, what does your team look like today? And I guess I have to ask this one - how how has your team had to adapt with your offices over the last 10 or 11 months during the COVID-19 crisis?

Pablo Munoz 4:36

Yes, we have a team made out of consultants, architects, engineers, and also energy modelers. For the type of services that we provide, we need to have to have a pretty diverse backgrounds for our company and for sure COVID has been a challenge for us, as well as for everyone. And we are right now working remotely for most of the time. But we also come to the office, there's a part of our work that's difficult to conduct when we are not connected. There's a piece of commitment that is renovated every time we see each other and we talk about our projects, so even though we're trying our best to not be at the office, there is part of our work that has to be conducted in person.

Matt Morley 5:57

Thinking about the indoor environment within the Office. Are you monitoring air quality For example? Have you had to install plastic privacy panels or desk dividers to break up your office space? What kind of changes have you applied using your knowledge of, for example, the WELL building standard and applying it to your own home office environment or your own corporate office environment?

Pablo Munoz 6:22

Right, so the first thing was the protocols. We had to set the way we use the office, and how often we go to the office, we try to not be all at the same time at the office. How's the schedule, and when people use the office, that was the first thing that we had to think about. But independently from that, we also adapted the office so that when we are using it, we are safe. The first part was ventilation. And this is all related to the importance of the air quality in the office. It is funny, we've been talking about it now for three or four years. That was the that that's sort of how about already started. And we started talking about the importance of taking care of the built environment we live in and the importance of the indoor spaces. And so one of the things that we do at the office is we measure the quality of the air we're breathing. So we try to ventilate and we have a system that ventilation is connected to sensors, we can make sure that ventilation is high, we also have space so that desks have separation from each other. The same thing happens in the main meeting room where we have physical barriers to separate from each other.

Matt Morley 8:34

Are your air purifiers integrated into the air conditioning HVAC system or are they standalone domestic air purifiers, like a Dyson system?

Pablo Munoz 8:49

So in our case, we have purifiers standalone on the floor, because the system we use for the air ventilation air system or a heating system did not allow for incorporating those systems.

Matt Morley 9:13

You mentioned the idea of there being more awareness now and if there is any positive change to come from what we've all been through over the last year it is an increasing awareness amongst a wider portion of the population about what indoor Environmental Quality is. Where are you seeing the growth or increase in interest for your products and services coming from?

Pablo Munoz 9:51

We have certainly seen growth in consultancy, we're seeing that people are finally more aware and more interested in the impact that spending time in buildings has, right, like, over the last year, we spent so many days, stuck in our apartments or in our homes, we all finally realized that it had an impact on our physical and emotional well being. And I think that's working in our favor in the way that finally not only clients that are people who want to buy a house or want to build their home for themselves, but also companies are integrating this thinking their projects. But also, I think we cannot forget that this is, at the end of the day, this is a sustainability crisis. In a way it is an environmental crisis. It's not very clear what the origin of the virus is. But most experts agree that it has to do with pushing too far the limit of where humans meet nature and getting to areas where we were not supposed to be. And so I think in a way, this is also helping us realize that we need to do something, we need to build in a better way, when it comes to my sector to architecture, okay, we need to be building a more efficient way for in a better way for the type for the environment.

Matt Morley 11:58

That relationship with nature can be positive, it can bring health benefits But clearly, as you say it can also bring huge risks if not treating or not respecting nature in the right way. Or we're taking it for granted that it will only bring good because clearly, you know there are certain situations such as certain animals and certain markets in China or wherever, where Yeah, we can put ourselves at risk. But to get into that the idea of of reconnecting with nature in in urban environments... I know that you'd be working on a timber built construction project in Barcelona, that's been getting quite a lot of press attention recently. Can you talk us through what that looks like and describe that project?

Pablo Munoz 12:53

Yes, for sure. This will be the Wittlewood building and it will be the first timber building of offices in Spain, a five storey building in the district of Poblenou where most new offices have been built. And it is a very cool project. We're very, very excited as it is not only going for LEED certification. )LEED is one of the most renowned green building standards in the world together with BREEAM the UK version, and USGBC is the US version). It looks into all aspects of sustainability and not only does it look into making sure that the building doesn't consume too much energy, we are using a district heating system And of course, solar panels for photovoltaic production will be available in the building. The building envelope is very sophisticated so that we can decrease the energy demand of the building for both the winter and the summer. We're looking at using sustainable materials. We're looking at using materials that do not come from very far away, and that are produced in a sustainable manner. And often we're looking into making sure that they are using the circular economy system for production. One of the really cool thing about this project is that there will be a water collection system, the water will be used for both irrigation and also for, for bathroom use. WELL is the most, in this case, the equivalent of LEED but in the health and wellness area, it is based on six years of medical and scientific research. And so the strategies that were proposed are not random, they are based on very, very specific parameters that have been proven to improve the health of the people that spend time in those buildings. And in this case, we're talking about the quality of the lighting, or making sure that the lighting doesn't interfere with the circadian needs of the people that spend time in the building. Once we've looked at in a very holistic way it also has to do with acoustic comfort, with thermal comfort, with biophilia, which is the strategy of integrating nature into the interior side of the building.

Matt Morley 16:57

How did you address the nutrition and fitness components of the WELL certification? There just might not be space for a fitness room or a gym facility or there might not be an on site restaurant facility, how have you have you addressed those chapters of the WELL certification process?

Pablo Munoz 17:23

That's, that's a challenge very often. But it is interesting, because people sometimes think that fitness has also has only to do with being able to integrate a gym facility into building, but sometimes it has to do with the way we move, for example, if we place the staircase, in an area where it can be seen then we are promoting the use of it, instead of using the elevators. Something that's appealing to people, let's say, with art pieces, or music, or with coral reefs, or even nature, we're helping people to be more active. And so that's one of the strategies that WELL addresses. Then the nutrition part is a little more challenging here as well, because there is no restaurant in this building. And in this case, one of the things that we are looking at is the vending machines, we're making sure that the food offered in the vending machine is only healthy food.

Matt Morley 18:59

Then when you're focusing on something like a single family home clearly there are even more restrictions there. However, you do both the commercial and the residential side. So if you when you're applying those WELL building philosophy or design concepts to a residential project that's maybe just made for a family such as the one you did, at the PGA Catalunya resort, what does the process of transferring that same knowledge to a completely different context where it's really more about one one family living together rather than lots of co workers spending eight hours in an office each day.

Pablo Munoz 19:49

Right, I mean the principles are the same. We need to take care of the people who work for us and that makes them more productive. And that's pretty much the main reason companies are integrating WELL into their daily lives, because they know it is profitable for them. But when it comes to us making decisions on where we decide to live, don't we want the same thing for our health? We want our family to live in a place that cannot really compromise their health. And so the same principles have been implemented in a pilot study that was the first time in the PGA Catalunya that the WELL standard was applied to a single family home. We need to make sure that the air quality is optimal, with air monitors, sensors, ventilation, high performance filters , optimal quality water We also looked at all the materials being used in the project and we were very careful to use materials that didn't have any ingredients that could be harmful for human health. People listening to us might be surprised like, oh, are there products that are allowed in our homes or in our interior that are bad for our health? Yes! I could talk for hours about that.

Matt Morley 22:45

One of the really interesting things about what you're doing is not just providing consultancy services, as architects and as experts in LEED and WELL but you seem to be taking quite an entrepreneurial approach to this whole scene. And in a way I think, genuinely making your own contribution to that. I was really interested to read about your Air First air purification certification, which seems to be inspired by the bigger players in the market, but perhaps adapting it for Spanish or local requirements. Where did you come up with that initial idea? And what was the the objective in presumably not just creating something to compete with existing certification systems, but perhaps something better adapted to the local market?

Pablo Munoz 23:51

Yes, we actually realized that there was a hidden demand that was not being satisfied. We know that there's a big demand for big health and wellness projects in Spain, in Europe in general, especially in the office building sector, but what about those smaller projects that cannot really implement those measures, because simply don't have the budget to do so? We thought, okay, how can we make it available to them too? How can we make it more simple for those smaller projects? Why can't we choose those strategies that make the most difference? And that's how Air First came about, it is a certification that looks at one of the things that nowadays is probably the most important topic - air quality. So yes it is based on WELL but while it's an open standard, that said, it has been proven to work. So let's make sure that those authorities are available to everyone right, it is a way to democratize those standards for everyone.

Matt Morley 26:08

So then a separate piece of intellectual property compared to what you describe, is your Evalore Method, is that just your process? Or is there more to it?

Pablo Munoz 26:31

It is a way of working, we have set a very clear way of first communicating with a client, making sure of understanding what would they need and what are the goals of the project. And then working together through the process to make sure they they reach those goals through the strategies that we propose. And then helping them communicate those strategies that they have implemented at the end of project, that's the method or first would sort of be one of the forms that the Evalore method can take. Imagine that could be an office project, or it could be a building project for for a residential project or it could be a school and also a co-working has been one of our projects.

Matt Morley 28:45

It really looks to be about democratizing that knowledge and the scientific backing behind this whole approach to creating healthy buildings. But in a sense, it's almost like the next generation coming through now where the parents will be LEED and WELL, now there's the new generation, taking that knowledge and moving it forward and adapting it to new markets and new demands. I know you mentioned before we started talking today that you're also working on a modular homes project, perhaps you could is that is that also a healthy home concept that you're developing?

Pablo Munoz 29:45

Yes, yes. What you said about the parents being LEED and Well, all those standards in fact, what we've seen over the last few years is that codes created by the administration are little by little catching up and getting closer to our standards. And the main purpose, in my opinion, the main value of those standards, is to set a very high standard for those codes to catch up to, and so this is very, very interesting to me. And those standards are not a goal in itself, they are a tool to take buildings to the next level. And so that's the way we like to work, we don't make projects just to reach those standards, we make projects to reach certain levels of excellence. Right?

Unknown Speaker 31:00

So what about the modular homes project?

Pablo Munoz 31:15

Yes, this is a new project we're working on at the moment, we're working with a partner that create modular homes made out of silver concrete, which is a very, very interesting product, because it has really high benefits, it is a high performance material, because it can be used as a structural material, but same time, it has very high insulation benefits, both on the acoustic side and also on the thermal side. And it allows us to work in a modular way. So this is sort of like a research project we have started recently, but it is one of the new things that we have started to work on and together with this company that usually builds concrete homes, we are integrating all those health and wellness and sustainability measures. We are very excited to see that come to light.

Matt Morley 32:48

It feels like there's just so many different small niche corners of the real estate market that have yet to be touched by this kind of sustainable and healthy building approach. Right? There's just still so much to do. It sounds like you guys are really innovating and pushing the boundaries and hustling hard, which is great to see. If you were to look a year down the line into the future, what do you see as being the key trends?

Pablo Munoz 33:36

Well, I think one of the main trends is that wellness in general is going to be much more integrated in projects all over the world. It happened with sustainability and green building. Actually we reached a point of greenwashing in which everyone and everything and every product was 'green'. And then that was when the standards took on greater importance. I think a similar thing is going to happen with wellness and we need to be careful not everything is going to be labelled 'healthy' in the future. Every product is not going to take care of your health, it's not going to kill Corona.

Matt Morley 34:27

Amazing. Well, best of luck with the next year and I'm sure you have a very bright future with the business! Where can people find you online?

Pablo Munoz 36:02

Well, they can find us in our website, which is Evalore.es and also on social media and on Twitter and LinkedIn. So thank you very much for the time Matt it's been a pleasure for me to be here with you.

Bio Building: Biophilic Buildings - The Eco-Friendly Concept of the Future — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

The concept of sustainable, eco-friendly, green, and now - biophilic buildings has been around for the past 20 years, helped along by organizations such as the Green Building Council that have dutifully guided developers, architects and corporations with their star certification system and LEED recognition.

The concept of biophilic architecture revolves around the principles associated with human healthcare, aiming to reconnect us with nature again. Biophilic buildings can also improve the general landscape, tipping the scale towards “greener”, more natural scenery, that ultimately benefit every part of our being. Constructing buildings using bio-based materials, such as timber, straw, and clay, offers sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives to petrochemical and mineral-based materials, further enhancing the eco-friendly nature of these structures.

Sustainability movement with suitable rating systems for sustainable construction

Born of the massive recent upswing in urbanization and the resulting high-density cities that then put added strain on our planet, the green, biophilic building movement within the construction industry pushes an earth-friendly agenda onto our built environment by emphasizing sustainable practices and materials.

With over 92,000 projects using LEED in over 165 countries around the world and more than 2.2 million sq ft of built environment certified every single day, this is by far the most prominent rating system out there today.

LEED’s key tenets include energy, water, waste, location & transportation, sustainability of a site’s location and indoor environmental quality.

Moving beyond this green, eco philosophy though, more recently we have seen two concurrent trends that take the sustainability movement in a new direction.

Biophilic buildings & biophilic design in architecture using bio based materials

Like we said, there are a few trends that are currently directing the sustainability movement, including the use of bio based materials.

Firstly there is biophilic, nature-inspired design that adopts a similarly planet-oriented mindset yet zeroes in on how organic and evolution-friendly design principles can have a positive psychological and physiological health impact on humans. Plant based materials, such as timber, straw, reed, hemp, and engineered timber, play a crucial role in this by offering practical and sustainable options for construction. Engineered timber, in particular, stands out for its structural properties and sustainability, making it a key component in bio-based building technologies.

This planet + people mindset instantly gives biophilic design in architecture a more commercial edge, cutting through the externally oriented benefits of doing no harm to the planet with a more human-centric view of the built environment while also opening the door to overtly aesthetic choices that prioritize natural beauty.

When picturing or creating biophilic buildings in your mind - think vertical garden walls; air purifying plants; circadian lighting that follows the body’s daily rhythm; natural colors, patterns, textures and materials, all of which are designed to bring the outside world in, re-uniting city and countryside to create uplifting, restorative green spaces as closely aligned with our deep past as feasibly possible.

A holistic standard that advocates a healthy interrelationship with nature

Living Future is a holistic standard that has so far logged over 330 projects and 14.1 million square feet of built environment since 2008. Key concepts that it addresses include:

• Place: restoring a healthy interrelationship with nature by maximizing the use of natural resources;

• Water: creating developments that operate within the water balance of a given place and climate;

• Energy: relying solely on current solar income;

• Health + Happiness: creating environments that optimize physical and psychological health and wellbeing;

• Materials: endorsing products that are safe for all species through time, including plant-based insulation materials like hemp and wood, which offer benefits such as moisture regulation and sustainability;

• Equity: supporting a just, equitable world;

• Beauty: celebrating design that uplifts the human spirit.

Introducing key proponents of human oriented buildings

The final segment, after eco/green/sustainable and bio/natural/organic comprises explicitly human or people-oriented buildings designed for human health, wellness and fitness, whilst also doing no harm to the planet through sustainable construction. Sustainable materials, such as timber, straw, hemp, and cork, offer numerous benefits in human-oriented building design, including reducing environmental impact, improving indoor air quality, and promoting resource efficiency. The use of local materials in bio-architectural residences further enhances sustainability by reducing transportation emissions and supporting local economies.

Key proponents of this approach are the WELL Building Standard and the US government-backed Centre For Active Design FITWEL standard.

WELL standard - environmentally oriented standard addressing global carbon emissions

WELL focuses on best practices when it comes to biophilic design in architecture and construction, backed by evidence-based medical and scientific research. To date, it has over 700 projects under its belt in 32 countries equating to 139 million sq ft of built environment. The standard covers eight key categories.

An evolution of green building standards such as LEED, the increasingly popular WELL Building Standard from Delos identifies 100 performance metrics, design strategies and policies that can be implemented across a building to have a positive impact on the health and wellness of its occupants, and transform it into something that can be described as a biophilic building. By incorporating bio-based materials, WELL also aims to improve indoor air quality, reducing the presence of harmful chemicals and VOCs, thus creating a healthier environment for the occupants.

WELL is complementary to other, more environmentally-oriented standards and in many instances directly overlaps as a nature-first approach is also inherently healthy for humans; the emphasis however is simply skewed towards the occupants rather than the environment. By using such materials, including plant-based and biocompatible options like plant fibers, timber, and straw, WELL promotes sustainable cultivation practices that integrate with forestry, agriculture, and conservation. The standard is happy to roam far and wide, from homes to offices, healthcare facilities, schools and restaurants.

FITWELL standard with a heavy data approach for indoor air quality

FITWEL, standing for Facility Innovations Toward Wellness Environment Leadership, was launched in March 2017 and has currently impacted over 250,000 building occupants with over 380 projects around the world. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a significant concern in indoor air quality, and reducing VOCs through the use of green building materials can create a healthier environment for building occupants. They too take a heavily data-focused approach with a database of over 3000 academic studies backing up their efforts to inspire healthier workplaces and residential communities specifically.

Biophilic architecture concept

Biophilic buildings are supposed to represent something more other than sheer connection with nature. Biophilic design in architecture is here to bring necessary transformation in the field that is responsible for the greatest negative environmental impact, including reducing carbon emissions.

If you wish to know more about healthy building or green building certifications, please email us here.