a guide to real estate ESG management software

Real estate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting is becoming the norm for real estate developers and funds as societal pressure combines with investor pressure from above to nudge the industry towards a Triple Bottom Line position.

As real estate ESG consultants annual reporting is an obligatory piece of the puzzle, although it should be seen as a way to summarize and review the work done, rather than it becoming the focus of the work - a subtle but important difference!

Much of ESG is now about producing quality data and management of that data is fundamental, no longer can a spreadsheet do this job for us effectively, especially not for real estate portfolios with multiple, fully operational buildings. By setting up the necessary software early on in the ESG journey, a real estate developer sets themselves up for success in properly capturing, managing, and eventually disclosing ESG data.

ESG software helps us to track, visualize and monitor progress in real time throughout the year and then to transparently communicate to customers and investors the sustainability work delivered at the end of the year too. This process of collecting and analyzing data on an ongoing basis ensures alignment with the appropriate policies and ESG frameworks.

Depending on a real estate developer’s specific requirements, it can be difficult to find one single piece of ESG software that does everything we need, so here is a review of the major players right now.

Greenstone - ESG

Greenstone is a sustainability reporting software that enables organizations to more easily manage their ESG data and ESG reports. It’s primarily about data collection and data management, allowing the ESG team or external ESG Consultants to focus more on reporting, analysis and decision-making. Greenstone’s software and support services include modules concerning the environment, frameworks, and health and safety.

The Greenstone Environment module helps process environmental data, track consumption and carbon emissions, and manage and communicate this data.

The Greenstone Frameworks module ensures that clients meet the requirements of various reporting frameworks such as CDP, SASB, GRI Standards, TCFD, UNGC, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The Greenstone Health and Safety module helps organizations to collect and analyze  incident data and manage reporting (Greenstone). 

https://www.greenstoneplus.com/

Sustain.Life – Environment

Sustain.Life focuses specifically on ways to track, reduce, and manage carbon emissions and footprint. Additionally, the platform aligns this process with current certifications and standards to prepare for third-party assessments. The software aims to simplify the collection and management of data in one place, facilitating collaboration in the process.

Sustain.Life first aids in the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, then provides step-by-step guides for emission reduction strategies, and finally provides ways to offset unavoidable emissions. The carbon footprint is calculated through Sustain.Life’s carbon calculator using scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, meaning it considers all levels of a business’s emission behaviors.

Once the footprint is calculated, the software provides a sustainability plan based on the organizations budget, time, and climate impact. Finally, there are offset opportunities provided on the platform, allowing users to offset emissions from building users on an automatic monthly basis (“Sustainability”). 

https://www.sustain.life/

Brightest - Social 

Brightest, another big player in ESG, Social Impact and Sustainability software, aims to increase efficiency in collecting, managing, and reporting data. Its particular USP however is around the social impact component, at least for now.

Brightest helps organizations collect data on environmental accounting assets, supply chain, energy and resources, and employees, teams and departments through stakeholder surveys, utility and invoice analyses, and life cycle analyses.

Once collected, data can be transferred to the Brightest ESG and sustainability dashboard. There, emission targets are tracked, carbon accounting is regulated, social impact and community characteristics are noted, and action plans are recommended based on the available data. As data accumulates the software can then start to aid further with reporting and disclosure.

https://www.brightest.io/

Workiva - Governance

Workiva’s platform enables a simpler ESG reporting process through data management, the provision of reporting templates, and a single location for policy management. This software helps answer the ESG reporting questions of: who needs to be involved, what data should be included, and how can it be consolidated efficiently?

Workiva provides a platform to store data, create custom data sets and calculations, and format that data for reporting. Much of this process is automated. In addition, the platform allows for easier collaboration through simplified task management and progress tracking.

A master index of policies makes it easy to track and manage content for policies, standards, and other ESG guidelines. This allows ESG teams to keep all relevant ESG policies and documents in a single location.

https://www.workiva.com/solutions/esg-reporting

Measurabl – Real Estate ESG

Measurabl is arguably the most widely recognized ESG data management software in commercial real estate right now. The tool was designed specifically for real estate and is entirely data driven. It automates and consolidates much of the ESG processes, including ways to set targets, track performance, use benchmarks, and create reports. 

This platform helps measure data such as electricity, water, fuel, and waste usage as well as tracking sustainability targets. In addition, it helps users manage social and governance documents, and keep track of green building certifications and annual reporting frameworks.

https://www.measurabl.com/

Sources

Brightest. “Simplify Social Impact, Sustainability and ESG.” Brightest, https://www.brightest.io/  

“ESG Reporting.” Workiva, https://www.workiva.com/solutions/esg-reporting  

Greenstone. “Sustainability, Supply Chain and ESG Software Solutions.” Greenstone, https://www.greenstoneplus.com/

“Real Estate ESG.” Measurabl, 12 Apr. 2022, https://www.measurabl.com/

“Sustainability Management Software.” Sustain.Life – Sustainability Management Software, https://www.sustain.life/  

https://gresb.com/nl-en/

sound wellness biophilic soundscapes with brian d’souza

soundscapes / sound wellness / acoustic comfort / biophilic sounds

Welcome to episode 49 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing, sustainability and social impact in real estate today.

In this episode I’m in London talking to Brian D’Souza, a.k.a DJ Auntie Flo, founder of Open Ear Music and Swell sound wellness.

We discuss sound therapy’s mental health benefits, how music can be a window into our soul, urban noise levels and the role of nature sounds or ‘biophilic sounds’ in restoring a sense of calm amidst the chaos, how he creates sonic identities for hotels, restaurants and gyms, deep or active listening vs passive, and how to re-create the sonic experience of forest bathing.

Brian is erudite, dynamic and just the kind of guy you want on your team for a musical adventure one Saturday night I suspect.

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Sound wellness conversation highlights

Sound therapy was for me an exercise in trying to discover the inner workings of a soul.

Sound therapy is triggering different emotions, brainwaves and elements of the nervous system, to put people in a place of relaxation, where they can experience more mental clarity, calm and an objective perspective on life, away from the stresses of their day.

One thing that's going to come to bear post industrial revolution is the amount of noise that we as human beings have created, which takes us away from that natural environment and into this noisy urban environment. We lose touch with the sounds, the beauty and the essence of nature in cities and that's potentially problematic for our mental health. his latest initiative crafting biophilic sounds for interior spaces

If you're able to find time and space to consciously listen, then you will receive added health benefits in the same way that you might from meditation practice for example.

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https://openearmusic.com/soundwellness/

https://www.swellstudio.io/

https://www.ambientflo.com/

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Full transcription courtesy of Otter AI (excuse typos)

Brian, thanks for joining us on the podcast today. sound therapy is a hot topic, but it's also something that has an element of mystique around it. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on how music can affect us via our senses?

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, well, thanks for having me to join you in the podcast. I think you've touched on two distinct concepts there: music and you mentioned sound therapy.

music for wellbeing

Since as early as I can remember, I've been a fan of music, I think most of us know that music can affect us in many different ways, we've probably all had music as a soundtrack to our lives to some extent. We are all in essence expert listeners, we are listening to music, our worlds are filled with music, we're always receiving as our ears are always open.

music curation with technology

We're all DJs now in a sense, we can select music for our dinner party, or for our gym session or whatever with the new technologies we have greater access to all forms of music than we've ever had before. So music is at our fingertips, we innately know how to curate that music for different activities.

Health benefits of sound therapy

As far as sound therapy and its effects. For me, it was just trying to unpick what music is, the building blocks towards the soul, and how that song, or those frequencies, in essence would affect your brain and body in different ways.

So sound therapy was for me an exercise in trying to discover the inner workings of a soul.

Sound therapy works by using particular instruments, typically known as healing instruments, it doesn't always have to be made with those instruments, but those seem to be the most effective in terms of triggering a particular state of mind in the listener who, in effect receives those sounds normally lying down and going through some kind of a ritual, helping them to get to a place where they're open to receiving those sounds for full health benefit.

Sound and the nervous system

In fact, what it's doing is it's triggering different emotions and brainwaves, different elements of the nervous system, to put people hopefully in a place of relaxation, where they can experience more mental clarity, calm and an objective perspective on life, away from the stresses of their day. So, we've been able to bring people out of the present moment and put them into a safe space where they can delve deeper into different realms of consciousness, which I find really fascinating.

The distinction between sound and music

Matt Morley

You've made a an important distinction there between sound as a concept and music, which introduces the idea of sounds of nature that are, in some ways, the baseline from an evolutionary perspective, we were surrounded by that, as we evolved over hundreds of 1000s of years. So how do you see that relationship between, a connection to nature and our mood state? Perhaps even how our brain functions, cognitive performance or memory?

An evolutionary perspective on sound wellness

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, absolutely. I think the evolutionary perspective is important here. You know, from the earliest forms of man, music perhaps predates language, we're listening to music before we're even born in the womb, the rhythm of our mother's heartbeat, we're hearing the musicality of our mother's speech.

So inherently, we're open as human beings to receiving music and to understand the musicality within speech. When we're born, we immediately are immersed in a world of sound.

sounds of the natural environment and human health

From an evolutionary perspective, in terms of the natural environment, birds singing is a signal of safety - all is well, if they stopped singing, you know, perhaps as a predator lurking around the corner. Alternatively, they might change, you know, their types of calls to warn other birds of their species about a predator, or danger or whatever.

It starts to activate the sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight - that's something that has been with us since the earliest days of the universe, it's intrinsic to who we are as people.

the biophilia hypothesis

I think the natural environment is something that innately we feel an attachment to, you know, and I think that one thing that's going to come to bear, I guess, post industrial revolution is the amount of noise that we as human beings have created, which takes us away from that natural state and into this noisy urban environment. We lose touch with the sounds, the beauty and the essence of nature in cities and that's potentially problematic for our mental health.

Matt Morley

So we've introduced the third concept around noise, which I think has an inherently negative connotation. And if we bring it back to neutral, at least within the perspective of our evolutionary past, then you get to something close to what you're trying to do with the Ambient Flo project, so talk to us a little bit about that and how it connects with mental health and wellbeing.

soundscapes for mental health and wellbeing

Brian D'Souza

Ambient Flo began life as a live stream DJ set-up in my garden, it was the first days of lockdown, the sun was shining, we were entering into territory unknown. I think there's a lot of people, myself included, that were quite stressed at what the outcomes might be. Obviously, there was this real risk and danger to our health in terms of COVID-19. And a lot of people in my community of DJs and musicians were started to do live streams, trying to bring the club or the live experience into the home that way.

To me, that felt really alien, as a DJ I need to perform to a crowd and be there in the room with people. It's the interaction between myself, picking the tunes and the people dancing and responding to that really makes some sort of sense.

So what I decided to do instead was set up a live stream of ambient music where people could, in essence, receive the music early on a Saturday morning. So people were in essence just waking up. And with my very rudimentary technical setup on Instagram Live my phone would pick up the sounds of birdsong from my garden. And all of a sudden, the combination of music and birds in fact became the sonic experience that people were listening to.

I got so many comments from listeners saying this is brilliant, love the music, but actually really drawn to the birdsong and the natural environment. It made me think I'm very privileged to have a garden in London. And to be able to listen to birdsong. as frequently as I can do.

Studies showed the pandemic affected the noise levels in cities dropped because of less traffic. So the Birdsong, although it didn't actually get louder, the birds were perceived as singing louder due to a reduction in the ambient traffic noise.

Nature sounds and music combined for wellness

Anyway, the main takeaway was that the birdsong and the natural sounds were a precious feature for all the listenership. So when I eventually turned it into a radio station, I said, well, we need to try and recreate this.

So on the radio you have two channels, you have the music channel, and you have the birdsong recording channel, and it's your choice, you can just listen to music, or to Birdsong, or you can blend the two, which I think is a nice touch. We've now been running the station for a year and a half, and continually gets great feedback from people.

Anxiety-reducing sounds for calm mood states

Going back to your point around, you know, the health aspects of this. I wanted to put together a selection of songs, that really helped me lower my stress levels, and feel calm, and give myself this sort of safe space in amongst this terrible situation that the planet was enduring at that time.

At the same time, I was studying psychotherapy, learning about how sound can trigger different mood states, you know, bring yourself to that sense of relaxation. I thought, well, this music is, in my opinion, perfect for that. And it seems like the listenership agreed.

Matt Morley

I had it on for an hour yesterday, and definitely once I figured out that I could have both tracks playing at the same time, so that the ambient stuff and the birdsong that took it to the next level. So ambientflo.com

You mentioned ambient music, which I think may or may not appeal to everyone, but it does seem to have a very calming effect. There's that immediate sense of it bringing things down in tempo and encouraging a sense of rest and relaxation. But it is clearly distinct from muzak, which is just the poor quality background noise that we often end up hearing in commercial spaces.

Your Open Ear Music business is is all about counterbalancing that and taking a more conscious approach to the music that is associated with brands, particularly in physical spaces. So when you're thinking about creating an acoustic identity, or filling a space with sounds, and presumably music primarily, that connects with that brand, how do you go about that process?

Acoustic identities for brands

Brian D'Souza

It's trying to tell their story through a selection of songs. In essence, every song is a piece of communication, a piece of music is a fantastic thing it's packed with so much information. And that means that in actual fact, it can be quite complicated to think about, you know, what a song could lead to, you know, a listenership. And then when you take that song and put it in a context, that could be gyms or wherever, then you have that additional layer, where there's a certain expectation for the customer in terms of functionally what that space is set up to do if it's a gym space, if it's a restaurant or a bar. And then also their perception of of that brand, you know, what type of brand personality?

Pretty much every business plays music, the quality has gotten a lot better over the last 15 years, I think because people are slowly understanding the music they play is having an impact and can be a brand positive impact on the customer experience. And that's going to be a win win for everyone involved. It wasn't the case 15 years ago.

Music for productivity benefits

Muzak was interesting, because conceptually, it was designed around increasing productivity in factory spaces. And this was around the war time. And they would dictate quite a scientific approach with the music, it was a thing called stimulus progression.

So they didn't play music all throughout the day, they only played it in short bursts, at different times throughout the day. And that was really just as a motivational thing for the workforce, to be able to like, bring a bit of more energy, when they're kind of concentration levels kind of dwindled, or whatever.

There was this kind of inherent understanding that music had a functional purpose and benefit, unfortunately, what then it became was this kind of like, elevates, and literally kind of like wishy washy pastiche of what you know, music can be. And I think when open ears started, and certainly our mission today is to say, well, music is beautiful, we're filling our spaces, with music, it's having an impact. And again, it goes back to this paradigm of you know, is one man's music is another man's noise. Let's get it right, let's, if you get it right, it's going to be a positive is gonna be positive for the business, it's also gonna be a positive for customers, and they're gonna appreciate that.

In terms of the accessibility of music. Well, that's actually meant for the general kind of public. And the way that they listen is they're much more open minded to all forms of music, so a lot more a rich and diverse array of music. So actually, that gives brands and branded spaces a much more bigger chance to become creative with the music selections, you know, 15 years ago, it was the charts, and the classics, and not much else outside of that. No, you can really get into like the long tail of like all the independent, quite left field experiments or releases and really start to kind of tell this this story through the selection of songs functional, yes, but also like beautiful and inspiring at the same time.

Matt Morley

Let me dig into that, because I think you're absolutely right, what's happened is there's been a sense of democratization of, of music via these platforms, such as Spotify, and suddenly we're all able to dive in and out of country rock and an Afro Latino beats wherever else we want to go in the space of of an hour, right? So it's, in one sense, it's all too easy for a brand just to say, Well, okay, we're gonna follow these playlists, and that's more or less our mood, and Spotify will just keep spinning off that concept more or less. And then you know, we're good. We've got our we've got our soundscape. And I think all too often, we see that still where it's an improvement, for sure. But it's still not, there's not quite enough effort being made, and therefore, you know, this, it can still go wrong. So I think that leads you into the idea of more conscious listening, right? Because there are spaces where it's clearly background music, if it's so for example, a co working space, you don't want it to dominate, if it's a retail space, you don't want it to dominate.

When you're in a in a fitness environment, like a gym. It's a really central part and then to the Think of spinning studios, for example. I mean, it's like one of the main levers that they have to do it. But then, in a sense, like the ultimate peak of that then is this space where you're able to engage people in a conscious listening experience, right? And so how do you with the latest project with swell and the idea of a biophilic multi sensory experience, how have you integrated what we discussed previously about He sounds and that idea of really engaging with the music and what does that become in terms of this new brand that you've spun off from, from open air?

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, so Swell is a sister brand to Open Ear Music. And as we've just launched it, as you mentioned, I think open here, just back to the point around functional sound, I mean, yes, we fully understand the, you know, music for most people, in the spaces that we work with gyms, restaurants, bars, shops, etc, its periphery to, you know, the main activity. So yes, it has to be right, but you're not necessarily listening to it consciously. It might be, and this is, we do have lots of examples of this where one track, you know grab your attention, and you really want to know what that is. And that's a great thing for music discovery.

But, you know, most of the time, you're going to be just passively receiving the music, and you'll know when it's not, right. I mean, that is the thing, you know, if it doesn't feel right, you will take action by leaving that space, and tons of examples of that.

Active listening / deep listening / conscious listening

But in essence, if it fits the surroundings, and it makes some sort of sense, then you know, that's going to make you feel comfortable in that kind of space. On the other side, you have a different kind of listening, I guess, and there's different ways to describe it, you mentioned conscious listening, it can also be referred to active listening can also be referred to deep listening.

This is really based around an intention by the listener to be more conscious, or to be more active, if you were present, in terms of listening to the sounds, you know, we were very good at processing Sonic information. As well as performing an activity, whatever that might be, it's cooking, or driving or whatever, we're very good at that.

Before recorded music, we only did conscious listening, because you would go to a concert, or folk music, so recorded music really transformed music into this largely passive thing, I guess what we're seeing with Swell sound wellness is, we're trying to put forward that notion that consciousness thing is important, it's important for health.

If you're able to find time and space to consciously listen, then you will receive added health benefits in the same way that you might from meditation practice for example.

So, consciousness thing is, you know, is a way for us to just say, Look, if you were able to pay more attention to the sounds, and give yourself space to do that, then there's potential health benefits to be gained.

Biophilia and nature sounds

So the way that we deliver that, through the Swell wellness sounds project is this combination between Biophilia, nature sounds, with music through different frequencies and intervals, to be able to trigger different emotions, mental states, even feelings from the listener. Then the sound therapy part can potentially trigger an altered state of consciousness but at the least promotes a sense of deep relaxation.

Biofilico quiet room concept design for workplace wellbeing

Sound in workplace wellness and office recharge rooms

Matt Morley

So in workplace wellness we have a concept called a recharge room or a restorative space it's often an unused meeting room, we might get 30 - 50 square meters where you're given permission to rest and step away from the work that you're doing. Your Swell wellness sounds could certainly play a role in that.

What about the Soniferous Forest project you delivered recently in London’s high-end boutique Brown’s? Also a biophilic environment, can you try and paint that picture for people so they can get a sense of what what that looks like?

Brian D'Souza

Sure, absolutely, is a really good manifestation. And as one of the first projects we've done as Swell, it's a good example of, of what we're looking to do. And the potential of this type of work. The Soniferous Forest is firstly an installation. It's based in Brown’s, which is a fashion retail store in central London and Mayfair.

They have what they call the immersive room, where they have a small space that they do a range of different pop up and partnerships throughout the year. We've currently got the installation live, and it will run to the end of of April. So if anyone's in London, and want to go and check out it's absolutely free. It's a 15 minute experience. In essence, it's inspired by by two things.

Forest Bathing sounds

One was my experience going forest bathing. So getting out into nature. Shinrin Yoku is Japanese practice of forest bathing, and really just trying to like a kind of mindful approach to being in nature, paying attention to all senses. There's plenty of studies now that have been done around how forest bathing will reduce stress levels, anxiety, reducing cortisol balance and promoting your NK / natural killer cells, etc. So that was all very interesting.

Then I guess taking what we're talking about with the Ambient Flo idea where a lot of people don't have access to nature in a dense urban environment. This was like trying to bring nature to them, but in essence creating a forest experience within this retail store with bark on the walls and grass on the floor etc.

Soundscapes and noise

The other part of the inspiration is derived from a concept of soundscapes by R. Murray Schafer a Canadian ecologist who in fact passed away last year. He wrote a book called ‘Soundscape and the tuning of the world’. looking at the rising noise levels in cities, the potentially detrimental health impacts that that's having. And he really advocated for this cultivation of significance gardens in our urban environments, or, you know, across our different spaces that we create this recovery of what he calls positive silence. Give us back space for mental, spiritual, life's energies, etc.

So the forest garden is a safe space where people can go in and listen to field recordings from local forests around London via a headphone experience. It’s a spatial audio 15 minute composition, which in essence resembles a sort of sound therapy, sound bath or Gong bath that uses acoustic instruments, instead of the traditional instruments, the gong and the singing bowl.

The reason for that was we experimented using Gong recordings, etc. and the feedback that we got was very mixed at best because we felt like we needed the gong player in the room, you needed the instrument, the physical object to kind of have authentic association. Without it, it can be a very dark and ominous and almost scary kind of sound.

Nature sounds for sound masking benefits

Matt Morley

You’re involved in the forage sounds for a restaurant called Native in London too, also at Brown’s correct?

Brian D'Souza

Yes, two separate brands. And this is a coincidence, almost the two projects came about around about the same time. But yeah, Native, the challenge was they have this outside space, which is beautiful. But unfortunately, next door to them, they have a I think it's Claridges Hotel, they're doing lots of building works. So in the daytime is lots of noise. And it's really, really intrusive.

We were tasked with creating a soundscape that will try to mask some of the noise. And actually, you mentioned office spaces. This is another project we've done with, you know, some cool workspaces. We worked with The Office Group - very similar challenge, where the noise levels would be very distracting for people trying to work or in fact many people were very self conscious in quiet areas to have work conversations, meetings, etc.

By introducing music into a cool workspace in that case, and with Native restaurant introducing a nature sound biophilic soundscape, helped to mask these unwanted sounds and make the spaces a lot more pleasant and functional.

Matt Morley

Awesome, because I feel like we can carry on for quite a while, but I'm gonna cap it there. Be respectful of your time. Thank you so much.

Brian D'Souza

Great, well if anyone's interested, they can get in touch with me and I'd be delighted to chat.

https://openearmusic.com/soundwellness/

https://www.ambientflo.com/

real estate ESG frameworks

real estate esg / sustainability / sustainable real estate / green buildings

why does real estate esg matter?

The real estate industry is one of the largest in the world. Alone, it consumes around 40% of the world’s energy consumption, accounts for about a third of CO2 emissions, meaning a cohesive and coordinated approach to sustainability amongst developers is of urgent importance to the future of our planet’s health.  

esg data for real estate investors

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are increasingly being applied across the real estate sector to enhance the ethical and sustainable characteristics of companies. Real estate ESG data helps measure and benchmark the sustainability of a real estate development company, providing investors with a greater degree of transparency.

how to create a sustainable real estate plan

Initially it may be difficult to narrow down a company’s specific objectives as the ESG standards available offer a conspicuously broad range of guidance and suggestions, however not all elements apply to all companies operating in the real estate sector.

It is helpful to first outline what a real estate developer may already be doing in terms of sustainable real estate, taking stock of any inherent sustainability credentials baked into its business model for example, such as modular construction (green building), downtown regeneration (social impact) or wellness real estate (healthy buildings).

To help us break down and prioritize these goals while aligning with industry best standards, a range of established frameworks are available for real estate ESG consultants to build upon. 

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, created in 2015, serve as a useful backdrop towards achieving desired impacts within any sector, this is the big picture, the view from 10,000 feet up - we should all work towards at least some of these “SDGs”!

In addition, ESG standards and tools such as SASB, the Task Force on Climate Related Disclosures (TFCD), Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) all help guide real estate developers towards meeting their sustainable real estate goals, minimizing their environmental impact, maximizing their positive impact on human health and wellbeing, while also increasing transparency for investors. 

ESG Disclosure & Transparency Benefits

The desire for real estate sustainability transparency within companies has increased as investors consider long-term success factors such as green building certifications, ethical business practices and a concern for building occupant wellbeing, community and giving back.  

Firstly, sustainability disclosures can provide a better risk assessment and help to evaluate climate-related threats for the business in question, its suppliers and competitors. This can also provide insight to better evaluate risk over various timelines within the business (see “TCFD”). 

Secondly, transparency can provide valuable information for the company to track and benchmark progress, both for internal and competitive industry goals. If real estate ESG objectives are met successfully, disclosures can improve a company’s image and investor interest through positive performance ( see “CDP”).

These factors can aid clients and investors into making better informed decisions and increase a sense of trust between investors and the business in question. Including non-financial analyses and goals (Triple Bottom Line thinking) in a real estate development business today will not only improve ESG alignment today but ensure further opportunities in the future by not falling behind real estate industry best practices.

UN Sustainable Development Goals in real estate esg plans

There are seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals, together attempting to encompass and provide a guide to alleviate the greatest sustainability problems our world faces. These targets include a wide range—some being more relevant than others to ESG goals within the real estate industry.

For example, from an environmental standpoint, goals such as Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 15: Life on Land may all be applicable to the real estate sector. These goals encompass strategies such as making resilient and safe communities, encouraging sustainable consumption and production, combatting climate change, and protecting and restoring native habitats (“The 17 Goals”). 

Other goals can surely be applied within the ESG framework and can serve as a helpful guide and starting point for a business. For example, Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being can be heavily impacted by the real estate sector and could fall within the social aspect of ESG strategy. 

It can be difficult to imagine applying these overarching goals to a specific sector such real estate, or more so to an individual business, but they can be used as a guide. Due to the large impact of the real estate sector on global emissions and sustainability, there is a lot of room for impact. 

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

SASB in real estate esg strategy

SASB is a non-profit organization that provides standards to aid businesses in disclosing sustainability accounting information to its investors and the public.

Sustainability accounting evaluates a company’s performance through an ESG lens, meaning that it considers non-financial capital in addition to the financial, creating a more holistic view of a company’s achievements and future trajectories (SUSTAINABILITY).

SASB has developed ESG standards in eleven sectors, encompassing 77 different industries. The standards vary by sector based on the potential risks and sustainability opportunities (SASB). The topics are decided based on what is relevant for more than half of the industries within a sector and are suggestions for what information should be disclosed (SUSTAINABILITY).

Real Estate Owners, Developers and Investment Trusts has its own set of ESG recommendations within SASB. The identified material issues include energy and water management from an environmental perspective, and from a business and innovation lens, the management of the tenants’ sustainability impacts and climate change adaptation (SUSTAINABILITY).

Through the incorporation of SASB standards, companies can diverge from traditional financial reporting methods and provide a more holistic view of their ESG performance, helping them align more closely with ESG investor expectations. 

https://www.sasb.org

Task Force on Climate Related Disclosures (TCFD) in real estate esg strategy

Similar to SASB, the Task Force on Climate Related Disclosures (TCFD) aims to broaden traditional financial reporting, in this case to include climate-related information and financial risks.

The TCFD helps companies provide information about the risks and opportunities associated with their business as it relates to climate change, meaning investors can access a more comprehensive picture of a business, providing a more accurate disclosure of the company’s valuation and assets (“TCFD”).

As a voluntary process, the TCFD does not impose specific methodologies but rather provides recommendations for a company to follow. In this way, companies and investors can note climate related management approaches that are being used, and how they align with the TCFD’s suggested disclosures (“TCFD”).

The TCFD contains four core elements; governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets, which are supported by eleven recommended disclosures. These suggestions aim to increase investor and company understanding of how finances are affected by climate-related risks, which in the future will allow for more knowledgeable and beneficial investment and company growth (“TCFD”).

Within the real estate sector, the use of TCFD more than doubled in 2020 from the combined usage from 2017-2019 (https://www.wtwco.com/en-US/Insights/2021/01/tcfd-adoption-in-the-real-estate-sector ).

With the Covid-19 pandemic, greater scrutiny has been placed on the environmental impact of companies, especially within the real estate sector and its potential to help “build back better” (“TCFD”).

Disclosures related to climate are increasingly relevant within the ESG real estate realm due to its considerable impact on our climate.

https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/

CDP in real estate esg plans

CDP is a global non-profit that runs an environmental impact disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, and regions.

It was the first program created that used investor leverage to influence the rate of environmental disclosures from companies. Over time, CDP has formed a massive dataset from its users, creating a base for smart environmental decision making and a platform to track global progress (“CDP”).

Companies who disclose through CDP will find ways to mitigate their impacts on climate change and manage their environmental risks. In addition, this information will be made available to customers, investors, and the market, adding to CDP’s data and helping progress the real estate sector towards a more sustainable future (“CDP”).

After reporting and disclosing through CDP, each company is given a benchmark score based on the annual reporting trends. This score is used to incentivize companies to further improve their environmental impacts and increase disclosure.

In addition to general questions asked in the CDP questionnaire, there are sector specific inquiries that contribute to a company’s score. This scoring system allows companies within the same sector to be more easily compared and can provide important benchmarks (“CDP”).

As mentioned above, disclosure is the key first step towards increasing environmental awareness and improvement. CDP was the first standard created for corporate environmental reporting and is a helpful objective measure of how companies are performing environmentally, and therefore a useful tool to help align a real estate company with its ESG goals (“CDP”).

https://www.cdp.net/en

Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment in real estate esg plans

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment) is a more specific framework that aligns closely with the built environment and real estate sector in particular.

Born out of a collaboration between the World Green Building Council and GRESB, the Commitment encourages the decarbonization of the built environment, removes implementation barriers, and motivates execution by others. 

Compliance with this commitment requires that by 2030, existing buildings reduce their energy consumption and new developments are constructed to contain extreme efficiency (“The Net Zero”). 

The Commitment incorporates the whole life cycle of a building, including both embodied and operational carbon in its analyses. Due to this inclusive outlook (note - embodied carbon….), collaboration across sectors and a strategy that focuses on transparency and circularity is essential to make it work (“The Net Zero”).

The goal of this collaboration is to facilitate the formation of sector leadership and to accelerate the market towards a carbon-free future. Those that commit to the framework are required to measure, assess, and disclose performance annually and publicly, providing information on energy demand, operational and whole life carbon emissions, as well as portfolio data. With the disclosure of this information, transparency is increased, and the data can be used to inform improvements and benchmarking opportunities (“The Net Zero”).

According to the CEO of the World Green Building Council, “the Commitment provides a framework for real estate organizations to take action towards net zero carbon portfolios”, therefore providing a valuable pathway towards achieving a company’s ESG goals (“The Net Zero”).

https://www.worldgbc.org/thecommitment

GRI in real estate esg reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the leading global framework for sustainability reporting. Once a company’s goals are outlined and their impacts are quantified, the GRI Standards provide a guide and common language to report those impacts (“Setting the Agenda”).

Essentially, the GRI Standards provides a framework by which to structure a company’s sustainability and ESG reports, providing a high level of transparency, clarity, and comprehensiveness (“Reporting”).

The GRI standards include both the Universal Standards, which are applicable to all organizations, and the new Sector Standards, which can provide more sector-specific reporting guidelines.

In the case of real estate development companies, there is a specific ‘Construction and Real Estate Sector’ which lists topics and disclosures that are the most likely to be material within that sector.

The GRI standards require disclosures associated with depletion of natural resources, deterioration of natural ecosystems, waste, as well as impacts on social wellbeing and community impacts. 

Coupled with other available tools and standards, the GRI standards can provide a clear way for companies to report and understand their impacts on the environment and economy. This can help companies increase transparency and alignment with their ESG goals. 

https://www.globalreporting.org/

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Sources

“The 17 Goals | Sustainable Development.” United Nations, United Nations, https://sdgs.un.org/goals . 

 “TCFD for Real Assets Investors.” PRI, 27 Apr. 2021, https://www.unpri.org/infrastructure-and-other-real-assets/tcfd-for-real-assets-investors/7495.article . 

“CDP Homepage.” CDP, https://www.cdp.net/en  

GRI Reporting https://www.globalreporting.org/

“The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.” World Green Building Council, https://www.worldgbc.org/thecommitment . 

“Reporting.” Home, https://www.powercorporationcsr.com/en/responsible-management/reporting/ . 

SASB, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.sasb.org/ . 

“SDGs: Answering the Big Questions for the Real Estate Industry – What, Where, Why and How?” GRESB, https://gresb.com/nl-en/2020/01/24/sdgs-answering-the-big-questions-for-the-real-estate-industry-%E2%80%93-what-where-why-and-how/ . 

“Setting the Agenda for the Future.” GRI - Home, https://www.globalreporting.org/ . 

SUSTAINABILITY, Shubha Mohunta DIRECTOR OF. “SASB 101 for Real Estate Owners, Developers and Investment Trusts.” Verdani, Verdani-Partners, 1 Mar. 2018, https://www.verdani.com/single-post/sasb-101-for-real-estate-owners-developers-and-investment-trusts . 

“TCFD.” Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/ . 

Acoustic performance in WELL buildings

acoustic comfort / acoustic performance / sound design / WELL rating system / healthy building

WELL Certified / SOUND CONCEPT

acoustic performance with ethan bourdeau

Welcome to episode 48 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate.

I’m your host, Matt Morley of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and in this episode we’re in New York talking to Ethan Bourdeau, the Sound Concept Lead at the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) - the organization behind the WELL healthy building rating system. 

An architectural acoustician, Ethan also holds down a role as Executive Director of Standards and Built Environment for Quiet Parks International (QPI).

Ethan and I discuss the role of acoustics in creating a comfortable environment for building occupants; how pink noise can cover up unwanted background noise, sound zones and spatial layouts; the all important distinction between sound, silence, and noise; the role nature sounds can play in promoting wellness; and the main causes of noise in a building that need to be mitigated in a comprehensive healthy building acoustics plan in line with the WELL Sound concept he helped conceive.

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acoustic performance / conversation highlights

• Acoustics is just one element of a holistic platform of comfort metrics that are operating in synchronicity.

• In WELL we look at spatial layout, acoustic thresholds and criteria for optimal performance (pulled from the leading acoustical standards) and in some cases, include novel requirements for acoustical design and acoustical comfort that have yet to really hit the market outside of the WELL rating system.

• Not all sound is noise - sound is just sound until it annoys you, then it becomes noise!

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WELL acoustic performance conversation with Ethan Bourdeau, Sound Concept Lead, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)

full transcript courtesy of OTTER.AI (excuse any typos)

Matt Morley

Ethan, a pleasure to have you here. I'd like to start with some basics, if we may - what was your path into sound design and audio engineering? For people who are perhaps not entirely familiar with how that relates to real estate, perhaps you could give us a quick intro to that bridge between those worlds?

Ethan Bourdeau

Sure, thanks, Matt. It's great to be here. Happy to discuss this. So my background in acoustics and sound goes back to my days as a musician growing up. I've practiced and spent a lot of time performing on the folium, which is a low brass tube like instrument that carried me throughout a degree in Music Performance and Acoustical Engineering at the University of Hartford.

So, yeah, constantly listening to my own sound really led me to want to better understand the way that interior environments sounded and to what degree architects and designers have the ability to manipulate, shape and improve the sound of spaces that we spend our time in.

Nature sounds, quiet and wellbeing

Matt Morley

As context, the work you're doing with the Quiet Parks International (QPI) might give us a starting point of the best case scenario, as in a perfectly quiet, natural environment. Does nature provide a baseline of excellence in terms of sound and noise?

Ethan Bourdeau

My work with Quiet Parks International is my latest endeavor. It's been the result of a year's worth of collaboration with those folks, field recorders that have come together behind this one mission of preserving and recognizing quiet in the natural and built environments throughout the world.

Their expertise so far has brought them to places like Glacier National Park, Haleakala Crater on Hawaii, and various other urban and wilderness quiet parks throughout the world as potential candidates for meeting our criteria that denotes and best exemplifies what quiet really means to the surrounding or indeed visiting populations.

We have, over the past year, worked to define what that criteria looks like, how do we define quiet from a physical, a parametric and even a subjective standpoint.

To what degree do we assess using audio technology, sound level meters, audio recording devices, and even just anecdotal and colloquial evidence that we can get from people with boots on the ground in those areas to describe ‘quiet’.

Over time, we're planning to develop a better understanding of how quiet and the definition of silence and tranquility changes around the world. So we're actively recruiting and finding candidate spaces, including a site here in New York City, actually, that we're hoping can add more flavor to understanding and unraveling that narrative.

Nature sounds for wellness

Matt Morley

So these are areas where there's no obvious intervention of a built environment, you're effectively out in a completely isolated natural corner of the world, in which case ‘quiet’ is not necessarily ‘silence’ . It's the sounds of nature with no man-made interventions.

Ethan Bourdeau

It is, for the most part, we do find ourselves in instances where the term ‘silence’ could perhaps be the only classification in the case of some remote places like Haleakala crater, but you're right for the most part, we are entering places where the soundscape is defined by sources of sound that are not manmade, they are a part of the natural landscape, they could be geographical features, they could be animals, migratory birds, insects, etc.

Well Certified / SOUND CONCEPT

Acoustic comfort in buildings

Matt Morley

So if we then use that as a bridge into the discussion around interiors and buildings, the idea of acoustic comfort or acoustical comfort, do you see that as being a fundamentally objective measure? Or is it all to do with how each individual responds to noise and their personal reactions to whether it's too quiet or to silent or is it and then measures that you can use that would say, Well, this is the optimal acoustic comfort to perform a certain task.

Ethan Bourdeau

When we think about occupants within a space, we can learn a lot about where are those people are coming from if if they're entering a new office environment that's undergoing renovation, to what degree can their past and prior experiences with the acoustical quality or even just the indoor environmental quality of where they're originally used to, how does that inform the way that we as designers can approach facilitating better sounding spaces.

Acoustics is just one element of a holistic platform of comfort metrics that are operating in synchronicity.

Acoustics in the WELL Building Standard

I think one great example is how the WELL rating system has been able to break this down into the various concepts among which includes SOUND is a key feature.

In WELL we look at spatial layout, acoustic thresholds and criteria for optimal performance (pulled from the leading acoustical standards) and in some cases, include novel requirements for acoustical design and acoustical comfort that have yet to really hit the market outside of the WELL rating system.

It’s a huge opportunity, I think, for not just acousticians, but really architects, designers, folks who are consulting in the space of biophilic design to really ask those questions of what is it about the sonic environment that maybe even I don't quite fully understand or can convey to occupants in clients who are coming from those areas where that was a large concern and maybe an obstacle towards a better productive and more fulfilling workplace experience.

Possible sources of noise in a healthy building

Matt Morley

Okay, so what are the typical causes of unwanted noise in buildings be that an office, hotel, learning or residential environment? How does the WELL standard concept of sound mapping mitigate for those sources of noise?

Ethan Bourdeau

There are many different sources, for the purposes of an initial review of a building, we'll look at environmental impacts from exterior noise intrusion that can be sources such as traffic, aviation noise, pedestrian noise depending on where this place is located.

We also look at Interior mechanical systems design and the way that building services can potentially impact not just any one given space, but the building at large which introduces sound in a number of ways.

Sound can travel through air, it can can travel through vents in HVAC systems, even through structures. If you have large, rotating pieces of mechanical equipment that are delivering air throughout a building, or even filtration systems, the vibration of air and movement can enter the structure and then radiate throughout an entire building.

We can also talk about occupant generated noise in the office that can be as one of my friends likes to say, the person next to you with the Frito lays chip bag in the middle of the day making sounds while you're on one of your 100 Zoom calls for the week. Or it could just be any combination of activity that's happening again throughout the building.

So while sound travels through air it can also travel through structures and with the proliferation of fitness areas and CrossFit gyms, things like impact noise from weights can travel through an entire building as well. Those lead to distractions and other obstacles to productivity.

Sound mapping in a healthy building

Matt Morley

So the process of sound mapping then would be an attempt to prevent the construction of the eventual fit-out on a building project being completed before a plan is in place for acoustics.

So you're talking to the HVAC engineers, the architects, quite a few people around that table to try and get a sense of what the acoustic environment will be like in a space especially on a on a new build construction?

Ethan Bourdeau

So when it comes to acoustics, there's something that's generating the sound to the source, which can be controlled or maintained, in some instances, it gets a little difficult when we talk about occupants, for instance, but for mechanical noise or exterior noise intrusion, there's ways to investigate noise control at the source.

There's the path so what is between that source and the receiver with HVAC, we mentioned ductwork there's also structural components - are we reducing vibration caused by circular mechanical equipment.

In the case of occupant noise, what's blocking you from not just the line of sound or the the path of the sound, but also even the line of sight with you and another person that plays a role in what we call psycho acoustics or the role that acoustics plays in our own mental and cognitive, health and wellbeing within the built environment.

Then there's the receiver. And so that's us the listeners, the final crux in the acoustic comfort equation of - who is receiving this sound? How are they responding to it and then how can we qualitatively assess the subjective outcomes of such sound.

Not all sound is noise, sound is just sound until it annoys you, then that becomes noise!

Biophilic design and acoustic comfort

Matt Morley

That brings to mind a project that I was involved in, in Switzerland, it was a round shaped, concrete and glass corporate headquarter building for a natural food business. We were called in to assist both on the biophilic design side, but also trying to fix the incredible noise issues.

They had a lot of hard surfaces, double-height central atriums that were allowing sounds to bounce around from the ground level reception up to almost the second floor of the building. We looked at options for introducing acoustic materials and everything from acoustic paint on the walls to sound absorbing plant walls.

Noise control and sound absorbing solutions

I'd love to hear how you think about what the tools are available to a consultant in that type of environment, as a specialist really, in that type of thing, you're going into a space, they have a problem with noise, and it's already happening. What's in your toolbox?

Ethan Bourdeau

Well, the biggest question that I would ask at the start is the one that I hoped the project team would have asked before creating a space like this, it's what is it the intent of this space? Why are people congregating here? What exactly are the activities and the experiences that have happen happen in this particular environment, then from there we can define criteria.

We’d work with the team to say, unless you do this, you will not be able to achieve XYZ. So you know, in the case of this building that you're describing, it sounds like there could be issues with speech intelligibility, or potentially even issues with too much speech intelligibility, where there are areas where you want to hear someone speak, and you simply can't.

Then when you're working at your desk, you might be hearing more conversations than you would may like to, and so that's where we pull out the really specific solutions based examples for acoustic and interior design and noise control. So in these cases, we would look at how do we reduce the sound in that path equation that we were talking about and source path and receiver?

Speech intelligibility for acoustic comfort

How do we bolster speech reinforcement, if someone is giving a presentation if they're giving a lecture, or even if they're talking on a simple zoom call, we're now starting to add tools to our toolkit that address this.

This in this hybrid workplace lifestyle, where we can communicate with others around the world like you and I are right now and not necessarily need to be in a studio that has acoustic panels like mine, you can be in a place that considers speech intelligibility without really breaking the bank and creating something that's a studio quality space.

There's no one element of acoustic comfort that should be focused for every single project, every single project is different.

WELL Rating Standard on sound in open plan offices

Matt Morley

So the WELL rating standard is especially strong on mixed-use buildings, and particularly commercial office buildings. Imagine then an open plan, office space for a creative team, the intent was originally to foster collaboration but there has been kickback on that over recent years around productivity taking a hit rather than a boost. Do you think there's still space for open plan offices like that with certain acoustical interventions?

Ethan Bourdeau

So a hot topic in the acoustics industry, right now, I'm fortunate to sit on a few Working Group committees for ISO and other standards groups that are specifically looking at Interior acoustics in the open work plan environment. And these conversations get very complicated very quickly, because the culture of Open Office acoustics and open office use in general changes so much as you go into different regions throughout Europe, and especially between North America, Europe and the rest of the world.

Acoustics in a workplace wellness strategy

Where we pull this criteria from to develop, and design, better acoustics and open offices changes quite a bit. So what I like to do, again, is really take it back to some fundamental steps. And on a lot of these working group discussions, I bring up what I feel the WELL rating system has done so well in breaking down into the fundamentals of what types of zones could you potentially think about, and what are the lowest common denominators for acoustical comfort when thinking about spatial layout, from a workplace strategy perspective in an open office.

Acoustic zones in a healthy building plan

So we have a few categories in this WELL feature. So one, we break it down into quiet zones, where focused work is the priority, or that could also include places like bedrooms, for instance, what is an area that you want to protect in terms of acoustic comfort and make entry as a sensitive space, we then have mixed zones, which could be a combination of any of those things and include collaboration, not all collaboration necessarily has to be boisterous and loud and, and people shouting over a desk of a floor plans, or, or whatever, it could also just be, hey, we're going to meet together as a team in this open environment and discuss XYZ amongst ourselves at appropriate levels.

Then we have loud zones. And so these could be any combination of areas where you have noisy mechanical equipment that just needs its own isolated, dedicated space to be moved away from any other sensitive environments, are these gonna be places where you have amplified speech, you have maybe a very active teleconference room that uses amplification. So these are areas that you really need to keep separate from your quiet zones.

In the precondition, this is required for every single project in the sound concept. Now, we have found that when people approach from this lens they have a better idea of WELL, I know now what I should probably be pursuing with our subsequent optimizations in the wall rating system.

Spatial layouts in the WELL SOUND concept

Based on the spatial layout that we were required to do. I know that speech reinforcement is going to be important. I know that speech privacy in my Open Office is going to be important. So what do I need to do to then show up and make sure I'm meeting those needs for my occupants? And those conversations become very fruitful, we learn a lot more about acoustics than we would if we were just meeting criteria. If we were just submitting documentation, saying, from an acoustician, you pass, here's the checkmark. Here's the check in that box of acoustic comfort.

So I would encourage folks who are in that position of rethinking the Open Office, from an acoustic perspective to really focus on the lowest common denominator, how many spaces do you intend to have there where focused quiet work is a key function of the holistic open office design, and start from there, because if collaboration is the leading draw to creating an open collaborative space, the folks who rely on quiet zones to complete their work aren't being there. The folks that are relying on quiet zones to achieve their work, have needs that aren't being met by the design team and the organization who put collaboration first, when in reality, people want a healthy balance of both.

Sound masking systems in a healthy building

Matt Morley

And we also mentioned the idea of sound masking systems - the idea of there being a level of white noise that can be pumped into the background to create a baseline that can help cover some of the mechanical systems. How does that work? Is that about the frequency? Is that about the the intensity of the sound? And would some nature sounds fit into that category?

Ethan Bourdeau

Yes, so sound masking is a very tried and true technology that as a consultant, I've been able to deploy quite a bit in open office settings with great success. And what it really focuses on is delivering a Pink Noise signal, which is somewhat calmer than white noise, which, if you were able to compare the two on YouTube I guarantee you will have a preference over over pink noise to over white.

Why we choose pink noise is because you can you can also go into the sound source itself and adjust the contour of the equalization curve, so that it can really match and really perform in accordance with preferred occupant acoustic comfort parameters. Now that's that's more of the technical side of how you would deploy a system like this.

A sound masking system is a network of loudspeakers that are directly mounted hung from or otherwise located throughout a ceiling, plane or even plenum, they can be directly exposed or be behind an acoustic ceiling tile. So it's a very useful tool when we try to address speech privacy from a signal to noise perspective.

Sound masking for productivity in an office

Signal to Noise - meaning you have a ‘signal’, which could be another person talking, their voice carries throughout an office that you don't necessarily need to hear. And then ‘noise’ being what is the background sound level that allows you to discern that signal or the sound of another person's voice.

So as we raise that background sound, the difference between the ambient level and the signal is then reduced. And so that helps with reducing the total impact of hearing another person's voice encroaching on your ability to focus and be better productive in a in a workplace.

Natural soundscapes in the built environment

Now to your other question about natural sounds as a sound source, I'm, as a designer and in working with folks who are field recordists and who are architectural designers. I'm actively trying to indicate that introducing natural soundscapes into the built environment is a new format of introduced sound. Sound masking is a form of introducing sound that focuses specifically on speech privacy.

Natural soundscapes have a number of potential benefits to them as well being immersed in and hearing soundscapes of birds, wind, waves, etc. In a spatially uniform environment that can elicit emotional response in ways that addressing speech privacy, for instance, isn't necessarily going to do.

There's some really tremendous examples of new technology that's emerging that focuses on this. There's actually a company there's a couple companies one is MoodSonic, who actually sits on our advisory board for the sound concept that focuses on delivering soundscapes from a natural sound source perspective.

There's a new company that I've heard about called spatial, who I'm trying to learn more about in the coming weeks that is providing a similar solution and has worked with some hospitals and then North America to create spaces for respite for nurses and people who need a moment of Zen or peace or tranquility to to continue their daily work.

Biophilic sounds for wellbeing

Matt Morley

Yeah, I've certainly used it in an intimate nature space in the central business district of London called Canary Wharf. We did a month-long biophilic design research study.

Sound was definitely part of what he called a multi-sensory wellbeing design strategy along with aromatherapy, and smart lights and various other things. But I found it was all too easy to just accept that, you know, a Spotify playlist of English bird songs, as we were in England, would be sufficient, I felt that there was more to be done in terms of perhaps matching place, season and the situation or the desired emotional response. And so I could see how those type of services could perhaps add that extra layer of detail, right?

Ethan Bourdeau

In reality, the ear is not dumb. The ear knows when it's in an office and crickets are playing from a Sonos speaker in the corner. The brain understands that when it is truly immersed in an environment, only then can it naturally respond and react to it the way that we would if we were there in reality.

I am an aspiring audio engineer and more of an architectural acoustician. But audio engineers are really looking at this from the perspective of, of how do sounds really travel in the sound field? And how can multiple loudspeakers and an array of loudspeakers help to create and elicit those environments.

I've seen examples where in software, they can create sound sources and an XYZ grid and just have them move around. And you know, not too dissimilar to going to the theater and listening to a Dolby system where you can pinpoint exactly where the sound is in the given cinema. So we're seeing that enter places like workplaces, hospitals and public public areas where sound installations can better interact with humans and vice versa.

WELL Rating System on SOUND

Matt Morley

In terms of how the WELL rating system positions the sound concept, the ultimate aim here, when you get all of this right, is primarily a boost in comfort and productivity, worker happiness? What are your desired outcomes in terms of a healthy building strategy and the acoustic component in particular?

Ethan Bourdeau

It changes per project type. So in a typical workplace, yes, we would talk about workplace satisfaction, we've talked about productivity, we would talk about ability to collaborate, if if there are more spaces, if there are more areas throughout a given office floor plate, where a person can interact with different types of acoustic environments to better support their work, there is a sense of fulfillment that we can we can draw from that and indices indicating surveys that are indicating that noise is a top concern.

Or pointing to that the lack of choice and the inability to be in a place where you can speak when you need to without worrying about other people hearing you or vice versa.

That is the primary focus that is that is something in the workplace environment that that is a key outcome. Absolutely. And especially now when we think about how do we return to that type of environment where you you are looking someone directly in the eye from across a table and your voice doesn't have to go through a series of digital signal processing through Whatever you can describe the software for this hybrid environment, I think there is a real learning that we will have to undertake when it comes to thinking about how we communicate in the workplace, for instance, and then that will ultimately describe the way that we address acoustics from the onset and design.

Acoustics for improved sleep in residential and healthcare

Now, with places like healthcare and residential, we see noise as a concern as it relates to sleep. And with acoustics being a top contributor to sleep disturbance, it's important that we can see the key outcomes in things like fitness trackers, and other types of technology that can measure and better assess our quality of sleep.

This is very important with healthcare where patient surveys that are administered, especially here in North America, indicate the performance of a hospital based on a patient's ability to sleep and spend their time recovering in some instances.

The links between acoustic comfort and patient recovery are many, it's actually where a lot of the research in acoustics and health and wellbeing derives from.

So over time, as we see places like hospitals, Senior Living outpatient facilities, adopting more of these health and wellbeing metrics into their design, the more we're going to see these uptakes in patient satisfaction surveys.

Matt Morley

In summary then, the WELL rating standard for me is a such a helpful marker it has given me at least a minimal level of understanding in sound and acoustics planning. So congratulations on everything you've done so far. How can people reach out to connect with you?

Ethan Bourdeau

You can find me on LinkedIn of all places. I'm usually posting the latest updates with all of the outfits that I'm involved with there.

mental health & wellbeing in healthy buildings

The WELL Standard MIND concept

Urbanization and the shift away from nature towards a lifestyle dominated by the built environment has led to a plethora of human health issues, some obvious, others less so. Many of us now spend 90% of our time indoors, making the spaces around us of surprising relevance for mental wellness.

mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Strategies such as biophilic design, mental health programs, the encouragement of an active lifestyle and the provision of restorative spaces can all be used to increase mental wellbeing for building occupants.

In addition, it is helpful to have a designated mental health champion within a workspace, school, or other community to encourage building occupants to engage with mental health issues openly.

For our take on the specific components that make up a healthy building see our dedicated article here.

Biophilic Design for mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Biophilic design aims to connect people to nature through interior design, reinstating the increasingly distant relationship between us as human beings and the natural environment. Our ancestral affinity with nature ensures exposure to nature, even in indoor environments, provides a range of restorative mental health benefits.

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) states that spending time in nature helps to reduce mental fatigue, increasing focus and restoring optimal cognitive function (Kaplan/Jimenez).

The Stress Reduction Theory (SRT), on the other hand, focuses on how our stress or anxiety levels can be lowered via immersion in a natural environment, whether ‘living’ or, implicitly, indoors thanks to biophilic design interiors that bring the outside world in (Ulrich/Jimenez).

Strategies such as introducing botanical motifs, organic materials, air-purifying plants, wabi-sabi finishes, living walls, Circadian lighting systems, biophilic sounds and forest aromatherapy are all possible examples of biophilic design for improved building occupant mental health. 

nature, Greenery & green spaces for mental wellbeing

Plants are one of the most important biophilic design elements as they provide a plethora of health benefits. Air-purifying plants are especially relevant in this sense, as are rooftop gardens, moss art on walls, hanging Japanese kokedamas and so on.

Besides the obvious characteristic of natural beauty, such botanical greenery in interior spaces increases the human connection to nature as part of a healthy building experience, and also improves indoor air quality.

In addition, a visual connection to such indoor vegetation has been found to reduce stress and anxiety, and even increase healing rates for hospital patients in one often cited study (Bratman).

Also, memory and creativity are augmented with the implementation of green space, especially notable in children as these factors are important for brain development. 

Overall, greenery increases our ability to concentrate and facilitates workers being able to find a quiet space for recharging during the work day.

Daylight for mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Daylight is an essential building block of health buildings and wellbeing interior design.  In addition to reducing a building’s energy consumption, natural light has been found to improve mood, synchronize us with our circadian rhythms, and increase alertness and concentration (Determan). 

Natural light can be used to align us with our circadian rhythms, also known as our natural 24-hour internal clock. When our bodies follow the natural daylight cycles of the day, our health is positively affected through improved sleep by night and cognitive function by day.  

In addition, natural light increases the prevalence of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which improves mood (Kaltenegger ch 13). Due to these positive influences of daylight on our health, daylight has led to lower levels of absenteeism and lower dropout rates in schools, according to one study (Kellert). 

Additional healthy building considerations such as the quality of any external views via external windows (out onto blue or green nature?) and whether the building’s windows are operable are important to factor in. Operable windows can provide the co-benefits of natural ventilation and the potential to increase thermal comfort, while nature views provide additional biophilic benefits, all proven to improve human wellness. 

Mental Health Programs in workplace wellness

Mental health programming is an increasingly relevant workplace provision. To name a few, offerings such as mental health educational programs, stress management and support group programs, encouragement of healthy nutrition and fitness, and childcare support are all viable solutions.

Workplace wellness programs are good for employee health and for the business’s bottom line too - studies have shown that employees perform better when they are less stressed. 

Mindfulness and stress management

Strategies such as mindfulness programs and stress management courses can reduce employee anxiety levels. Mindfulness workshops can be achieved through digital or in person means, for example using employer-designated digital applications, or through in person meetings and exercises.

Educational courses focused on stress management can support employees and encourage them to take breaks and reset as needed throughout the workday. 

As with any benefits program, it is important that the resources are not only available but are being used by building occupants so the benefits can be reaped. Learning materials should be accessible 24/7 to help avoid any lingering stigmas around engaging in mental health issues.

a mental health champion in a healthy building plan

In addition, the designation of a mental health champion within the company can increase awareness and ultimately engagement. These mental wellness advocates can lead informal meetings, facilitate outside speakers and ensure that any mental health issues that emerge are directed to an appropriate expert - a mental wellbeing champion is not expected to be a psychologist, far from it, they just need to know the right person to call, discretely, when needed.

a Biofilico concept design for a nature inspired office recharge room for peace and quiet

recharge rooms in healthy buildings

The provision of restorative spaces in the built environment is extremely important to maintain appropriate mental health levels for building occupants. Especially in work and school environments when long hours of concentration are required, places of refuge are essential to allow students to recharge and reset throughout the day. These rooms can include spaces such as a nap pod, meditation room, or a restorative space for quiet time.  

Many restorative spaces utilize biophilia in their design, due to the proven mental health benefits that come with nature connection. Recharge rooms have been proven to promote feelings of vitality and reduce stress and anxiety, promoting rejuvenation through respite. 

WELL building standard on restorative spaces

According to the WELL Building Standard’s Mind concept, “restorative spaces should include natural elements and have thoughtful lighting, sound, thermal and material choices. In addition, an element of privacy and the inclusion of calming colors, textures and forms is beneficial for recharging and refocusing.” See our own example of this above.

In addition to designing these spaces in buildings, concern must be taken to facilitate their use, creating a company culture that is accepting of their benefits and therefore time spent in a recharge room by staff members - rather than it being stigmatized.

active design and fitness spaces in healthy buildings

Boosting healthy habits such as physical activity and nutrition can be encouraged through building design and have the potential to improve mental health and wellness. Workplaces and schools in particular can benefit from finding ways to promote healthy habits through interior design, active furniture choices more tactical, promotional strategies such as signage prompts. 

physical activity for mental wellbeing in a healthy building plan

Physical activity provides not just physical health benefits but a mental boost of positive mood, enhanced energy and self-esteem, as well as camaraderie if performed in a group setting. Studies show that exercise helps maintain a healthy sleep cycle at night, ensuring deep rest and recovery. 

Strategies such as incorporating fitness facilities or gym rooms in buildings, as well as places to change and shower on site (as part of an active design plan) can all encourage physical activity.

In addition, offering fitness classes, encouraging the formation of community running or biking groups, or employee fitness related challenges can boost activity levels of building occupants.

Finally, more indirect strategies such as promoting stair use through thoughtful design or smart signage can increase activity and physical and mental health. 

nutrition for mental wellbeing in a healthy building plan

Nutrition is also a very important aspect of physical health that has been shown to be linked to mental health. Studies show that mindful eating is correlated to better wellbeing, which can be encouraged through designated eating areas.

Other strategies such as providing access to healthy snacks, providing cooking or nutrition classes, and encouraging communal eating through designated lunch times have all been shown to increase nutritional health (WELL), this in turn helps foster happy, healthy students or staff. 

---

Sources

Bratman, Gregory, and Gretchen Daily. The Benefits of Nature Experience: Improved Affect and Cognition. Tech. Vol. 138. Stanford: n.p., 2015. Landscape and Urban Planning. Stanford University Libraries. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Determan, Jim, et al. “THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIC LEARNING SPACES ON STUDENT SUCCESS.” Oct. 2019. 

Jimenez, Marcia P. et al. “Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.9 (2021): 4790. Crossref. Web.

• **Note**: this source was used for ART/SRT info (although original theory names given credit above)

Kaltenegger, Ingrid. "Integration of Mother Nature into Smart Buildings." Integration of Nature and Technology for Smart Cities. By Helen Santiago Fink. Switzerland: Springer International, 2016. ch. 13,18. Print. 

Kellert, Stephen R., and Bill Finnegan. "Biophilic Design-The Architecture of Life Viewing Guide." (n.d.): n. pag. Biophilic Design. Tamarack Media and Stephen Kellert. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.

https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/v/mind

9 Foundations of a Healthy Building: Thermal Comfort Strategy — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

Introduction

The concept of a healthy building has gained significant attention in recent years, as research has shown that the built environment can have a profound impact on human health and well-being. A healthy building is designed to promote the physical and mental health of its occupants, while also minimizing its impact on the environment. In this article, we will explore the foundations of a healthy building and provide guidance on how to create a healthy indoor environment.

What is a Healthy Building?

A healthy building is a structure that is designed and constructed to promote the health and well-being of its occupants. This includes not only the physical health of the occupants but also their mental health and productivity. A healthy building is one that provides a safe, comfortable, and healthy indoor environment, while also minimizing its impact on the environment.

Foundations of a Healthy Building

The foundations of a healthy building are based on scientific research and public health principles. They are designed to be simple and easy to understand, making them accessible to building owners, managers, and occupants. The nine foundations of a healthy building are:

Air Quality and Ventilation

Air quality and ventilation are critical components of a healthy building. Good air quality is essential for a healthy building, as most people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. To achieve good air quality, building owners and managers should opt for building materials, supplies, and furnishings with low chemical emissions. They should also check for legacy pollutants like lead, PCBs, and asbestos during building renovations. Additionally, they should limit vapor intrusion by using a vapor barrier and maintaining humidity levels between 30-60%. Conducting annual air quality tests and responding to occupant concerns can also help ensure good air quality.

Ventilation is also essential for a healthy building. Building owners and managers should meet or exceed local outdoor air ventilation rate guidelines to control indoor sources of odors, chemicals, and carbon dioxide. They should also filter outdoor and recirculated air with a minimum removal efficiency of 75% for all particle size fractions. Avoiding outdoor air intakes at street level or near other outdoor sources of pollutants can also help improve air quality.

Thermal Health and Comfort

Thermal health and comfort are critical components of a healthy building. Building owners and managers should ensure that buildings meet minimum thermal comfort standards for temperature and humidity. They should also provide individual level thermal control, where possible, to allow occupants to adjust temperature and humidity to their liking. Regularly surveying the space and occupants to identify zones that underperform can also help improve thermal comfort. Responding to and evaluating occupant concerns about thermal comfort can also help ensure that the building is comfortable and healthy.

Moisture and Water Quality

Moisture and water quality are critical components of a healthy building. Building owners and managers should conduct regular inspections of roofing, plumbing, ceilings, and HVAC equipment to identify sources of moisture and potential condensation spots. When moisture or mold is found, they should immediately address the moisture source and dry or replace contaminated materials. Identifying and remediating underlying sources of moisture issues can also help prevent mold growth and water damage. Regular moisture inspections can help prevent moisture-related issues.

In addition to moisture control, building owners and managers should also ensure that the building meets the U.S. National Drinking Water Standards at point-of-use. They should test water quality regularly and install water purification systems if necessary. Ensuring residual disinfectant levels are sufficient to control microbes, but not in excess, can also help improve water quality. Preventing water stagnation in pipes can also help prevent bacterial growth.

By following these foundations of a healthy building, building owners and managers can create a healthy indoor environment that promotes the physical and mental health of its occupants, while also minimizing its impact on the environment.

Healthy buildings / thermal comfort / wellness real estate / well building standard

What is thermal comfort in a healthy building?

Heating and cooling tend to account for around half of a building’s energy consumption, making thermal comfort a key consideration for a green building‘s overall energy use. In addition, thermal comfort is considered one of the leading factors in occupant satisfaction within the built environment, making it a vital component of a healthy building strategy too.

Spaces that are perceived as being too humid or warm have been shown to lead to decreased productivity, increased sick building symptoms (such as cognitive impairment and sleepiness) as well as negative mood states (ref: WELL Building Standard). To enhance these environments, it is also crucial to design spaces that minimize background noise, achieving sound levels of 35db and controlling reverberation time. Additionally, controlling outdoor noises such as traffic and construction is important to maintain a conducive indoor environment.

As a result, a comprehensive thermal performance plan which includes strategies such as thermal zoning, individual thermal control, and monitoring thermal characteristics within the building is now firmly part of the green & healthy building consultant’s toolkit.

Thermal Performance in Real Estate

To achieve acceptable thermal comfort within an interior space, healthy building standards such as WELL designate that 80% of occupants must consider a space to be comfortable - a qualitative (subjective) response. As thermal comfort is determined by the level of perceived comfort from building occupants, it is impossible in this case to lay out a plan based specifically on pre-agreed numbers.

Adhering to fire safety and carbon monoxide monitoring standards is also crucial as part of comprehensive safety and security measures in buildings.

The healthy building standards therefore predict what will cause comfort in spaces through a range of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, outdoor temperature, occupant density and activity, air movement and more. However, even with all these data points in front of us, getting it right for everyone can be challenge, especially in a workplace environment with both men and women sharing the area.

This is due to varying occupant perceptions of comfort, so even more specific zoning strategies by space type / activity for example as well as providing individual thermal comfort control provide opportunities for further refining a thermal comfort plan. When building occupants are comfortable with their thermal environment, productivity increases and levels of fatigue are reduced (WELL).

Thermal Zoning and Minimum Thermal Comfort Standards in a Healthy Building

When considering the thermal characteristics of a space, the type of activity taking place in that interior area matters greatly. For example, a hotel gym where guests are exercising and emitting body heat will need not just higher ventilation rates to remove the CO2 but also a lower temperature.

A study space such as a school library will be very different in that sense, although again there are considerations around optimal temperatures for cognitive performance and concentration. Breaking a building down into a number of such activity zones can help ensure suitable thermal conditions, leading to enhanced occupant satisfaction.

Using high efficiency filter vacuums can also help maintain clean surfaces and reduce dust, which is crucial for enhancing indoor air quality and preventing pest problems.

Temperature can therefore be influenced by a variety of factors such as human activity, building location and orientation, as well as the type of ventilation strategy - be that natural, mechanical or a combination of the two (WELL). When designating different zones, it is important to consider these various factors in order to regulate the thermal properties of each area in advance of building occupants using the space.

Generally, HVAC ventilation systems are responsible for maintaining thermal conditions, and therefore can be used to create different thermal zones within a building, with the level of zoning precision depending on the HVAC set-up. When natural ventilation options are in use, it is operable windows that are used to regulate temperature and thermal comfort.

Towards Individual Level Thermal Control in a Healthy Building

Individual thermal controls can be used to further delineate zones and create smaller, more personalized areas even within rooms. Strategies such as individually accessible thermostats, fans, flexible dress codes, or easily accessible operable windows can all help contribute to giving individuals a sense of control over their thermal experience indoors.

Clean surfaces regularly as part of a broader strategy to limit dust and pest accumulation in buildings. Using high-efficiency filter vacuums and integrating preventative measures can maintain a healthy environment, thereby reducing the potential for exposure to allergens and chemicals.

No one space will please everyone, especially if there is a mix of ages, genders, and so on. It is clear that women tend to be a few degrees colder than men, and tend to be more sensitive to changes in temperatures (Allen), they also are less likely to be in a full trouser suit every day in formal work environments, as men are (in certain industries) no matter what the season.

In addition to individually manageable thermal controls, the provision of outdoor space such as courtyards or rooftops can provide places of respite to allow building occupants to adjust their comfort levels. Access to the outdoors not only provides space to increase thermal comfort, but also can provide other benefits such as biophilia, which improves mental health and can restore focus.

Monitoring & Displaying Thermal Characteristics in a Healthy Building

Sensors that monitor and regulate indoor air temperatures should be placed intentionally to gauge if any unexpected deviations occur. As with other smart building systems, thermal comfort should also be monitored to provide feedback to building managers and inform potential changes. 

Generally, the same sensors can be used to regulate various thermal factors such as temperature and humidity, as well as other interior environmental characteristics such as air quality, for example. Regular commissioning and maintenance of building systems is also imperative to promptly respond to any thermal problems that occur (Allen).  

When coupled with occupant preferences and surveys, the combination of thermal data and occupant satisfaction can be applied to provide optimal thermal comfort. Building occupants should be surveyed regularly to maintain desired thermal levels and to gauge comfort. 

As thermal preferences vary greatly from person to person and are harder to measure numerically, information from post-occupancy surveys is especially important, giving us perceived comfort feedback as well as hard thermal data to work with.

Allen, Joseph. “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.” For Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, https://forhealth.org/9_Foundations_of_a_Healthy_Building.February_2017.pdf

WELL Standard v2

Sustainable real estate in urban regeneration with Jonny Friedman

urban regeneration / south africa / city opportunity fund / jonny friedman / healthy buildings / esg / sustainable real estate / social equity / green & healthy places podcast

Sustainable real estate south africa

A conversation with Jonny Friedman, Executive Chairman of the newly launched City Opportunity Fund. 

In the 1980s and ‘90s Jonny invested in over 100 buildings in the Brighton area in the UK and another 20 buildings in Hoxton and Shoreditch in London, playing an instrumental role in the urban regeneration of both places. 

Today he leads a team of over 120 people under the Urban Lime developments name focused primarily on Cape Town and Durban in South Africa. He has over R2 billion invested in real estate in Cape Town and Durban so far.

We discuss topics such as activations in the public realm, tactical urbanism, apartheid’s influence on urban geography in downtown areas in South Africa, what he calls ‘catalytic developments’ and the incremental gains from creating momentum in placemaking strategies, public-private partnerships in changing the identity of entire urban districts, as well as ESG and sustainability in the South African context.

conversation highlights:

Where I've seen successful urban regeneration projects work extremely well is when you take a deep understanding of that original space and the people within it and use that as your starting point to build upon. That is going to be completely unique in every single situation - no two separate buildings, areas, districts or neighborhoods are the same.

So you can in fact be catalysts for change by making small changes - tactical urbanism is a lot about that type of strategy where you make a series of minor changes here and there. These quickly add up to a lot more than the sum of their parts and make districts quite exciting.

Apartheid was all about creating safe spaces by massive walls, dividing up areas physically in terms of distance, but also in terms of the way in which they were built.

https://urbanlime.co.za/

https://fourthspace.co.za

https://www.cityopportunity.co.za/

Matt Morley: Johnny, one of the concepts that really leaps out from the work you've done in the past has been around this idea of creating democratic spaces that have been re-energized and given new relevance within a city context, how do you see the key drivers of success for you?

Jonny Friedman

Hi, Matt. Look, I think the first thing to say is that a very important part of this is thinking deeply and widely about who's already there, what's there already, in terms of community, neighborhood, and the various parties living / working there, and also what the history is, what the culture is, and how to really take what is there and build upon that. How to make that relevant and better and repurposed in such a way that it works for the people that are there ready, so that it starts to develop interest and excitement for others to come and join in.

Creating momentum in real estate placemaking strategies

This then creates a sort of momentum around itself. But it's not a sense of gentrification or total change, where you from top down impose change upon a particular area or district or city. It's really about working with what's unique and special about that already. How to work with that as your starting point. And I think in a way, that's a sort of bottom up approach, as opposed to a top down approach.

Where I've seen successful urban regeneration projects work extremely well is when you take a deep understanding of that original space and the people within it and use that as your starting point to build upon. That is going to be completely unique in every single situation - no two separate buildings, areas, districts or neighborhoods are the same.

There's not a cut and paste approach that works, what you do in one city won't work in another city, what you do in one area where work in another area, you have to understand the uniqueness of it in, in every sense culturally, historically, and really get underneath it. And when one's able to do that, then it is organic.

It's not something again, which is imposed, I'm not really into master planning, in the sense of really planning out every single building every single aspect of a particular area, what I like to do is set frameworks and have a direction of travel, that allow it to happen organically.

Matt Morley

In the past, you've done both buying up smaller units, for example, at the top end of Bree Street in Cape Town, but you've also done far larger buildings, in terms of how what you've just described relates to piecing individual elements together versus going in with with one large building that can almost be an individual catalyst. How do you see the opportunities and challenges there in terms of scale? Like how does that connect with that concept of democratizing spaces within the city?

The role of scale in district-level placemaking

Jonny Friedman

Scale is important. But it's not the only thing that counts. Look, where it gets very exciting is when you can work at scale, when you can see whole areas, and you're buying buildings, you're looking very carefully at the relationship between the buildings, both private space and public space, and you start integrating that together.

The ‘democratization’ that you're talking about in terms of what I bought, is the opening up of the space so that it's usable and available and doesn't have barriers to entry and people can appreciate and use it at different levels. I think the best spaces are like that, where they they can be appreciated in multiple different ways and barriers to entry are cut down. There's an opening up for us between the private and the public.

Where you're using individual buildings as a catalyst for change for whole areas. I think that can happen. And we've had successful examples of that happening. But I think it needs to be in the context of thinking about spaces more generally, and how the public spaces again interact with that building. And again, making it appropriate.

Tactical urbanism in real estate development

So you can in fact be catalysts for change by making small changes - tactical urbanism is a lot about that type of strategy where you make a series of minor changes here and there. These quickly add up to a lot more than the sum of their parts and make districts quite exciting.

A lot of mistakes are in town planning space and made by the idea that activations and development needs to be very substantial to make change but a lot of substantial and meaningful changes can be made in small ways, clever ways, ways that don't involve huge budgets.

Individual buildings, as long as there is a sense of where the area is, where it's come from, who's there, who are the stakeholders, and it's done in an appropriate way, I think it can make a big impact, it's like you’re putting a huge dollop of confidence when area, you're putting something that really sparks up an area, it can become a catalyst, to attract other, different and interesting things.

Activation of the public realm

Matt Morley

I think perhaps the term that we've been skirting around is activation of the public realm, isn't it about creating valuable, useful, accessible public spaces that everyone can use. You did that in the UK, then at some point, you really doubled down on developing in South Africa, particularly in Cape Town and Durban. So you have two perspectives, in a way the UK and later in your career, with SA in terms of public realm, and also more generally, in terms of where the priorities lie locally. What are the particularities of SA when you're looking at urban regeneration projects?

Urban regeneration in the UK vs South Africa

Jonny Friedman

Well, I think they are, of course, because they're, you know, the histories of the of the two countries are so, so very different. And the architecture and the geo geographical layout of South Africa, has been so influenced by its unique history.

Going back a couple of 100 years, but, you know, in particular, of course, the the history around apartheid and separation of areas by you know, identifying records and the, the geographical implications of apartheid were huge. And, of course, also the fear that was surrounding apartheid, both during it and after it. And the way in which that influenced architecture and and town planning and urban design was massive.

Apartheid was all about creating safe spaces by massive walls, dividing up areas physically in terms of distance, but also in terms of the way in which they were built.

Creating office parks, which you had massive security around and residential, gated communities in suburban areas, again, where the walls were the key issue.

So it was a tremendous amount about, about keeping people out and not using public spaces. So a lot about what we've done it at urban life and our philosophies about breaking those walls down about opening up private spaces with public spaces, about inviting people in and creating spaces which which are saved by the fact they're used, that they're, they're vibrant, they're exciting and, and breaking down those perceptions around security around cities being fearful space with the street as a fearful space, and breaking those types of perceptions down and opening up the city as an exciting vibrant and, and, as you say, democratic space.

So huge differences between between two were of course, you know living in London and growing up in London and walking the streets and being part of that city and the excitement of being able to enjoy public spaces. Then in South Africa, it's very much you know, you get in your car, you go from point A to point B you know exactly where you're heading and you you park your car at point B, you do whatever you're doing at point B and then you go back to back in your car and back to point A and very often that those points are home and shopping center or home and office.

Developing destinations in real estate development

Where we found we can really make a huge difference in this country is about turning that around and turning areas into destinations in themselves. So we're not just going to this restaurant or this office and parking, we're actually saying we're going to this area and we're going to walk I mean these things for obviously for Londoners you know that's it's almost obvious but here in South Africa there are so few high streets where there's so few public urban spaces to enjoy and walk and see and be, you know, and have the surprise of what's around the corner and have multiple things to, to look at and interact with and do all in sort of one area, something which has not really happened outside of very controlled areas, like shopping center environments.

So that's where we try to make a difference and try to introduce South Africans. So the excitement about what's you know, urban centers can feel like what what the street feels like, how does the coffee shop and enjoy the hustle bustle of city life, which has been so missing, both during the apartheid era and and posted around the particular history of South Africa.

So I think there's a lot of opportunity here, just kind of letting people experience what we're so used to in Europe, we take it for granted that you can walk around the city and enjoy the streets and enjoy street life and be constantly surprised by what might be available or what the only shops opened up or coffee shops available.

What are all of those types of things, which we sort of take almost for granted, is not available here, or was it was only just becoming available in multiple different ways or so even where they've done good sort of urban regeneration projects, what South African developers at a lockdown usually done is they've created sort of like a little oasis, and they put a wall around it.

That what they've called urban regeneration, because that mindset, the mentality is all about safety, security, and keeping restricting people coming into spaces. In fact, the opposite of what you're talking about in terms of democratization of spaces, it's almost even though the urban regeneration ideas and spaces, they don't get quite get this concept of opening them up and making them exciting and, and spaces in their own right, where people can move freely between public and private spaces and between different private spaces. So it's actually very exciting developing here, because a you can do it at scale. And scale is important as previously discussed. But I think it's almost like introducing a new way of living, and excitement around what the city equals and what it can be.

Democratized urban spaces for social equity

And that's what I found very, very fulfilling. And when people find it, they love it. And in fact, particularly young people, I think, you know, creating great urban democratized type of spaces, is extremely, it's something that young people almost kind of need. And if you don't provide it within a city, they'll go elsewhere. And they'll go to cities, which do provide it.

So it's been very exciting working here, because we've been able to do it at scale. And we've also been able to sort of bring a different mindset to it, and started to introduce people to what in Europe, we sort of take almost for granted that what what has been very much prohibited here, either, you know, actually, or in terms of perception being people can see the CD spaces too, as too dangerous somehow.

And I feel like over the last 20 years, I've been working here, we've moved the mindset on that in a lot of areas. You mentioned a few, but we've worked in probably 25 Different areas across the country. And all of the areas One of the things that they have in common is that they're about opening up, they're about connecting public private spaces, they're about the feeling of being able to be in a space and be able to engage with excitement of what city life, let's say like at its best can be.

Matt Morley

And to achieve that, are you finding free consider say that, say a district level or a cluster based strategy where in a sense, you start to spread out and create, as you mentioned, sort of a street level neighborhood. That's really something quite innovative for sa but perhaps something we might take almost for granted in in Europe, does that require greater public private collaboration? Or is it something that a private developers such as urban lime can pretty much roll out themselves how much how much partnership is involved in that with the city planning?

Public - private partnerships in real estate development

Jonny Friedman

The more partnership there is, the better. Where the schemes work best is where the public and private work hand in hand together. And almost by their nature, they have to have a good symbiotic relationship with the with the cities and with the owners of the public spaces.

So what can also happen is that as a private developer, you can sort of be the catalyst for that as well. So even if you haven't got a willing pond to start with, you can start showing them how the public and private realm can start interact.

And what's interesting is that we've had such you know, public of engagements, where, when the cities and when neighborhoods and when you know, the the stakeholders start to see change, we found that they got more and more engaged, and that it goes beyond talking actually into reality. And when they start to see it, there's a momentum builds.

In fact, momentum in what we do is extremely important, getting things done, and doing stuff, we were talking earlier about small interventions. Small interventions are hugely important because they develop confidence, they develop confidence, and then people see are starting to see change, it's time to feel change.

So actually just making smaller small interventions, where people are starting to experience the sort of things that we were talking about earlier, the excitement of city life, the interact with other people, the best of what cities and districts neighborhoods can be, once they start to feel that, then it has it starts to grow momentum itself.

And then of course, others start coming in as well. It's not just due to i, we never look to be the the only private. In fact, if we were the only people developing privately, we've kind of not hit, we've missed the target in a way.

Becoming a catalyst for change via real estate

But we want to be as a catalyst for change, once people start seeing it happening, it gets to a sort of a tipping point, where you know, we could actually do nothing more and come back in five years time, and the area would be very substantially better than it is now. Because it's come to a sort of a tipping point where all the owners of the buildings start seeing potential, they want to spend money on maintenance, they want to think about the right 10s Instead of just, you know, any tenant, and it becomes a positive becomes a positive catalytic spiral.

And very much the municipalities and the local councils and other stakeholders get on board that enthusiasm, if you create it, once I see one of our roles is as kind of momentum builders. So it's a it's yes, you can do catalytic developments. But also, you can do a lot of small interventions here and there. And out of that comes a momentum, and it starts developing a life of itself. And then all stakeholders very much obviously key stakeholders are the municipalities, but other stakeholders as well get involved and projects take on a life of their own.

City Opportunity Fund - ESG real estate

Matt Morley

Fascinating and in a way that leads into then, where you look to be changing gear, in a sense with the launch of the city Opportunity Fund, upcoming in June of this year, clearly different scale, but still, in a way, tapping into that same level of detailed insight and the knowledge that you have that have particularly in a city, Cape Town and Durban. So what is your what's the aim there? What's the big goal with that new fund that looks to be? Yeah, in a sense, taking urban regeneration to another level in SA right.

Jonny Friedman

The City Opportunity Fund is actually taking the skill sets and our experience that we've developed, you know, in the three cities that we've worked in on on two continents. And really distilling that and I would say one does still that one comes down to the real skills that we have is how do we take areas or buildings that have become inappropriate in terms of us have gone out of fashion that no longer had relevance in some way. And we've adapted them in an organic way which is, which doesn't feel like it's a top down approach, which is a bottom up approach, which we talked about which is organic, which is incremental, but at the same time radically transforms areas and buildings and at the moment, those that skill set couldn't be more relevant because in the postcode environment, you know, through changes in technology, but which have now been enhanced heavily by the experience we've all been through over the last couple of years.

The impact of COVID on mixed-use real estate development

It's left a huge amount of real estate, not only in the in the city centres, but throughout the whole of South Africa. And in fact, globally. It's made its left a huge amount of commercial real estate, in some ways irrelevant under purpose or needs to be repurposed reinvented resort through for this post COVID modern world, people essentially are not working from offices in the way that they that they used to.

And people are essentially not buying from shops in the way that they used to. And whilst this this trend has been in place for quite a while in terms of flexible working, and in terms of online retail, these are trends which are already well established before COVID. They've been hugely accelerated by COVID. And you know the way in which we work and the way in which we which we shop and the way in which we live and the way in which we socialize and the way in which we think about our homes.

And the way we we think of ourselves and each other has radically transformed. And what it's done is it's had a tremendous impact on the way in which we use buildings, the way which we think about buildings. The how we're going to be using buildings going forward, there's a massive shift, which needs to be taken to account from there, because there's a huge blend up between the virtual world and the real world. And how does one integrate the virtual experience with the bricks and mortar experience?

So it's in that slot in the slot in this lot of how does one repurpose rethink reinvent real estate, given these massive social technology, massive changes that are that have been happening and are happening and are accelerating at a tremendous pace? And how it's impacting really every aspect of our lives?

And where does real estate fit into that? And what is and how does one adapt these types of buildings, headquarters, office buildings, for instance, shopping centers, high streets, business, travel has totally changed.

Almost every aspect of the commercial, real estate and leisure businesses have changed very fundamentally. And it's the reinvention and the rethinking of how does one adapt those two buildings which are, which are relevant, and that's what the city Opportunity Fund has at the very heart of it.

And the proposition is, is that we come up with a set of sort of broad solutions in multiple different categories, as to how we can in, in general terms deal with some of these fundamental issues that have that have changed, and a lot of real estate will never be the same again, because things are fundamentally changed.

So the city Opportunity Fund is a fund where we're injecting close to 2 billion rands of our own assets into the fund. But we're also working with major partners who are going to be injecting real estate, which fits into that category, which are buildings which, or groups of buildings, which need rethinking, repurposing, reinventing which which are no longer relevant they currently are. And, of course, the solutions. To what to that problem? How does one deal with real estate in the postcode environment, it's not cookie cutter,

there's not a cut and paste solution to it. And again, the solutions will have to be crafted on a bespoke basis. And and that is where that is where our sweet spot is. And that that is what the city Opportunity Fund is about is it comes out of a team that's got 30 years experience in, in looking at areas that have gone out of fashion that at buildings, which no longer fit for purpose, and being able to adapt them and change them and get underneath the pot with underneath the issue, finding the most relevant and most appropriate solution for a particular area building district or city. And it's that which will be encapsulated within the city Opportunity Fund.

Student housing and affordable housing

Matt Morley

Within that context, then the student housing and affordable housing sector, so what is the opportunity there? So if you've got a 1960s building that's really sort of past its its sell by date, but yet has potential? How can a student housing concept or how would you adapt the student housing concept to fit into that space? Because there's there's surely opportunities there and that sector, right?

Jonny Friedman

Well, there are a lot of buildings that fit into that category in the industry. Some of them are more appropriate for retrofit into student social housing and others. And of course, it depends upon exactly where the demand is. But in both the sectors that you that you brought up there they they are, you know that one of the solutions, in effect, or student housing and social housing are two of the solutions that we are looking very carefully at in terms of a much wider and much wider issue.

But they certainly in South Africa are areas where there's a large amount of demand, there's government backing for him. And there's a real opportunity in retrofitting old office buildings, certain old office buildings into spaces of that nature. And again, we would look at a project like that, like we look at any and we think, Well, what is the very best, the very, very best in asset class here?

How can we do this in the very best way? And we would work off a wish list and look and think well, what is it what does the ultimate student student housing look like? And we would literally run through and think about that. And the same with social housing and create best in best in class types of buildings and areas.

Again, I like in that space linking buildings, I like thinking about the public spaces. I like thinking about how it feels to be not only in public space, but how it feels to be within the building. I think a lot of the issues around the way in which buildings are used healthy spaces, creating green spaces, spaces, which are, which are feel good to be and we almost was everything we we do we look at we take a sort of a living room approach.

How does it How does it feel to be in the space? We think about you know, if we're actually in that space? How does it feel to be in there feel like, like a vibrant, healthy democratic space, something's inviting, we would look at student housing exactly that way as, as in a in our class. So best in class is critical.

Defining a concept for mixed-use real estate development

How does it feel how to build it interact? How to public speak, how does the public space work? What we don't like is huge concourses whose huge concrete concourse is, which are kind of almost made for architects rather than for people, you know, they kind of make the building look good, and make the building look grand or whatever. But we're interested in is how does it feel? How does it feel to be in the space?

How do we get a best best in class feeling? What's most appropriate? What's there? How do we think about modern technology? And how do we integrate that? How do we use the changes in the way in which we're living so radically?

And how do we integrate those into these buildings to make them make not only relevant now, but also relevant in 10 years time? So we thinking very hard about that the interaction between technology and real estate, the interaction between the virtual world and real world? And, and going back to basic principles? How does it feel? How does it feel to be in a space? What do you need?

So what are the needs of the people who inhabit that spaces? It's this type of thinking, we that I think sort of sets us apart. And within the city Opportunity Fund, it's we're going to be saved, we're going to be having those types of conversations and those that type of thinking, going through everything we do.

So whether it's a high street, or whether it's a social housing project, or whether it's a student city we're looking at, or whether we're looking at a neighborhood scheme, or whether we're looking at how does one reinvent the office space, the modern world what's required? Now? The thinking is starts there, who's there to start with?

How do we build on that? What's the most efficient, most exciting way to use the building? How does it feel to be in it? How do we interact with the technologies that are available? How do we blend the experience between the version the real, it's, it's this is the approach we're sort of taking, it's not a traditional development. And you can give you probably, I think, throughout the chat we've had we've not actually used the word developer, we don't really consider ourselves developers sort of a more around placemaking, more around reinvention, almost inventors or re inventors of space, not developers of space.

So it's a different it's a different approach. It's a different way of thinking. And it's very people centered used word democratization, so very people centered, how does it feel? Very critical. How does it feel? What's the use? How does it interact with, with the with everything else we do? How does it fit in?

Real estate ESG - Environmental, Social, Governance

Matt Morley

You touched on a couple of things there the idea of there being a component of health and well being and also to some extent, considering green themes and sustainability. We've spoken a lot about the social side. So the big hot topic at the moment clearly is ESG real estate.

So environmental, social, and governance within the sort of the macro perspective that you have from your position today. Do you see sa as being perhaps ahead or behind in any of those three is ESG real estate having that kind of impact on the real estate development market? In sa that it is having in the US and in Europe? Or do you think there's a little lag between the two in that sense, and therefore perhaps an opportunity for the fund to do something different?

Jonny Friedman

Definitely, definitely an opportunity. Look in IT environment where there's a tremendous amount of poverty in South Africa, there's a huge unemployment rate, especially in youth unemployment rate is at epidemic proportions. There's so in that environment in that context, yes, in various different areas that you're talking about has been somewhat left behind. And, and it mustn't be and we're where we look at buildings.

Health and wellness in real estate

We would take the best in class we would be looking at following best standards and looking at the way they're doing it abroad trying wherever possible to emulate it. And integrating wellness and healthy building type strategies, both in terms of the internal inside the buildings, but also externally and how to bring the two together, set right up at our, you know, high up on our list of priorities. And I think wellness generally, is a key growth area.

Wellness, in terms of the way in which we use buildings to wellness is kind of wellness as a sort of general concept is integrated into almost all of our projects in one form or another. Obviously, it's come out of COVID COVID has given us all a time of reflection around these issues, what's important to us wellness in the in the more general form as has been right up there with the conversation of the last couple of years.

How and the importance of taking care of oneself living in health environments, and so on and so forth is is critical for for South Africa as it is for for all other countries. Where it's not left behind is obviously around in terms of poverty and social needs, which are which really different level to many first world countries.

Matt Morley

It's incredibly valuable insight that you share with us today. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. If people want to learn more about urban life and about the new fund that you're launching this summer how can they connect and follow along?

Jonny Friedman

Well, they can go onto our website, the urban lime, urban lime.co dot set A or on to the city Opportunity Fund website, which is also up so contact us or or get in touch. Anyway, it's been a pleasure to talk to you about.

https://urbanlime.co.za/ 

https://fourthspace.co.za

https://www.cityopportunity.co.za/

Operating Smart, green & Healthy Buildings

air quality / water metering / energy metering / waste management / cleaning / biophilia / thermal comfort

As the shift towards green and healthy buildings continues and sign-ups for building certifications such as LEED and WELL rises, it is equally important for real estate developers with an eye on ESG to dive deeper into building performance during the operations phase. For those holding onto and managing an asset in the medium to long-term, the journey does not stop once construction and fit-out are complete, quite the opposite.

As there is often a considerable gap between intended building performance and actual, ongoing building performance, a ‘commissioning process’ upon completion followed by an enhanced healthy buildings facilities management plan are the solution.

Smart building monitoring, which includes strategies such as air quality management, energy and water metering, and thermal comfort monitoring is a key factor in facilities management of a healthy building or a healthy co-working office for example.

With the latest real time sensors (e.g. Kaiterra and Awair) providing high quality, 24/7 quantitative data for analysis in the cloud combined with qualitative occupant feedback through regular surveys and pattern analysis of registered complaints, building efficiency and occupant comfort can increase. 

In addition, signage and educational prompts (a.k.a ‘healthy nudges’), enhanced green cleaning protocols, landscaping and greenery maintenance, as well as wellness programs for building occupants covering both physical activity and mental wellbeing are important factors to maintain in a smart, healthy building. This article explores the above in more detail so let’s jump in!

Air Quality Management in healthy buildings

Enhanced indoor air quality is vital to optimal occupant health, and an air quality plan needs to be implemented in both the pre-occupancy and occupancy phases of the building. Subsequently, as both indoor and outdoor air quality can fluctuate, live monitoring and tracking is necessary to ensure healthy indoor air quality levels and catch any issues as and when they arise. 

In the construction phase, an excess of dust and particles have the potential to accumulate indoors and compromise air quality in the later occupancy phase if not properly managed. It is essential to have an air quality management plan for the construction phase such as sealing air ducts, storing absorptive interior materials separate from the construction area, using temporary barriers to isolate working environments, and replacing filters before occupancy. 

In the occupancy phase, when the building is complete and occupants are using the interior spaces, air quality management combine with real time sensor monitoring becomes essential for occupant comfort.

Sensors should be placed strategically around the building at approximately head height to measure temperature, humidity, CO, CO2, PM2.5, PM10 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). For more detail on. this see the RESET AIR standard in particular. For more on this see our article on RESET AIR here.

In addition, hazards such as mold and indoor smoking have to be tightly controlled to avoid additional negative influences on air quality. 

Water Metering in Smart, Green & Healthy Buildings

Both energy and water use should be tracked to ensure that the building is operating at the optimal level. Monitoring green building water use can not only provide information about how much water is being used in a green building but also guide improvements or highlight potential problems. 

Water monitoring should include both regulating and tracking the amount used, as well as maintaining proper drinking water quality to ensure building occupant health.

Permanent water meters should be installed to measure total water use and should be available in monthly and annual blocks to provide more specific information and monitor efficiency. In addition, leak detection systems should be installed and regularly checked to avoid potential problems and water overuse.

Finally, water should be regularly checked for contaminants, and drinking water quality factors such as pH, turbidity, and chlorine levels should be regulated to ensure safe consumption for occupants. 

Energy Metering in Smart, Green & Healthy Buildings

Green building energy efficiency should also be tracked within the building, a very important operational building factor that can vary greatly if not monitored.

Sub-meters should be installed to track energy on both the building level and system levels to identify opportunities for energy savings. For the most effective data, the systems should report hourly, daily, monthly, and annual energy use separated by energy type and source. In addition, the information should be readily available to facilities management teams so that changes can be made if needed, and any abnormal activity can be quickly detected. 

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) and Automatic Reading Systems (AMR) are examples of common energy monitoring and management systems. With the incorporation of energy tracking systems, the data can be used to make improvements in the future and provide insight into building performance. 

waste management in healthy buildings

In line with US Green Building Council LEED Operations + Maintenance guidelines, we recommend integrating into a workplace floor plan upfront a storage location for recyclable materials such as mixed paper, glass, plastics and metals, with safe storage areas for batteries.

Monitoring for Thermal Comfort in Healthy Buildings

Thermal comfort tends to be the factor with the highest number of complaints from building occupants as it is an immediate, visceral and in many ways subjective matter.

Numerous studies have proven correlation between building temperature and employee wellness and comfort, making thermal comfort a vital building characteristic to monitor, not least because of enduring sexism in how building temperatures are set - men in suits and ties and always going to have a different opinion on indoor temperature than any female not in a full trouser suit.

The way forward in smart building terms is, eventually, to offer greater autonomy over thermal controls within the building to its occupants. Factors such as outdoor temperature, ventilation rates, and indoor occupancy density all have the potential to affect perceived thermal comfort. 

As with other smart building systems, sensors should be placed intentionally to regulate indoor air temperatures and gauge if any unexpected deviations occur. These sensors can provide feedback to building managers and inform changes when necessary. 

The sensors provide little insight on their own however, only when coupled with occupant preferences and surveys, the power of information and data can be applied to provide optimal thermal comfort. On this basis, facilities management teams need to see complaints not as problems but as valuable data!

Currently, standards designate that 80% of building occupants should be considered comfortable to achieve acceptable thermal comfort levels (WELL). In order to reach and maintain this goal, building occupants should be regularly surveyed to gauge comfort levels. 

With information collected through post-occupancy surveys, perceived occupant comfort can be utilized with temperature data to inform the most effective next steps. As with air quality, temperature can be variable and should be regularly monitored to ensure optimal conditions and increase occupant wellness and comfort. 

Signage in Healthy Buildings

As healthy building consultants we advise on signage systems, wayfinding and their role in creating a healthy building. Signage can be used to promote a variety of health and efficiency-related concepts, with the potential to improve occupant wellness and building performance. 

Signage can be used to improve health through physical activity encouragement for example. Motivational point-of-decision wayfinding signs next to lift doors can promote greater stair use and increase physical activity levels, the WELL and FITWEL certifications encourage this policy.

Especially if stairs are not clearly visible, signs and wayfinding prompts can encourage use—both increasing physical activity and decreasing elevator energy use. 

In addition, building entrance signage can publicize a tobacco-free zone - a requirement of most green building certifications. There is no acceptable exposure level to cigarette smoke, so signage must be implemented clearly to indicate the ban.

Signage can also be used to indicate the health impacts and hazards of smoking, hopefully further discouraging tobacco use and encouraging healthier habits for building occupants. 

Educational signage is also very impactful. Promoting hand-washing has never been more important, a simple visual reminder that helps prevent the spread of infection in the new Covid-19 era. In addition, nutritional messaging can be used in and around dining areas to encourage healthy eating habits. 

On the other end, signage can be used to encourage people to adopt sustainable habits such as reminders to turn off task lights when leaving in the evening, (again) using the stairs instead of the elevator, and turning water faucets off when not in use - just a few obvious reminders that can encourage occupants to reduce energy and water use.

Building signage can on occasion be given to the architects or interior designers, at least the more visually exposed elements such as the reception / entrance lobby but much of the above mentioned signs are just as likely to land on the desk of facilities management.

Enhanced Cleaning Protocols in Green Healthy Buildings

Without proper cleaning protocols, health factors such as interior air quality, pollutant levels and surface cleanliness can be compromised. The cleaning products themselves should not contain any harmful ingredients, and surfaces should be cleaned regularly to avoid excess accumulation of dust or other unhealthy substances.

Many cleaning products contain hazardous ingredients that when applied to surfaces can emit ingredients that degrade indoor air quality, and therefore impact human health. Products should be selected carefully to eliminate any potential hazards and reduce detrimental health effects.

There are several third-party certification systems, such as an ISO 14024-compliant (Type 1) Ecolabel, which designates green cleaning products and can be used to guide healthy selections.

In addition to smart selection of the products themselves, a plan should be created that designates the extent and frequency of cleaning, where to access cleaning products, and the roles of cleaning staff and building occupants, when applicable, to the cleaning process.

Surfaces encounter countless microorganisms throughout the day, and can host pathogens from sick individuals, which if not properly cleaned can spread to other building occupants. Especially in the COVID-19 era, frequent and thorough cleaning practices should be embedded in building operations.

Dust and dirt from the outdoors readily accumulate in building interiors through windows, entrances, and other indoor-outdoor building connections. In fact, studies have shown that 65% of inhalation of outdoor air particles occurs indoors.

Entrance walk-off mats are used to reduce this transfer of dirt and other pollutants from the outdoors, and their maintenance and cleanliness is essential to keep up this role. Building entryways should be regularly wet cleaned and vacuumed to minimize the amount of outdoor pollutants entering interior spaces. 

Cleaning processes and habits are entirely reliant on cleaning staff and building occupants. Because of this, proper training and easily accessible green cleaning supplies should be implemented to ensure the promotion of healthy interiors.

Biophilia landscaping maintenance

Green and healthy buildings often contain vegetation in around buildings, providing countless human and environmental health benefits. However, they also require maintenance. Proper landscaping and greenery upkeep will not only benefit the health of the plants themselves, but also the building occupants and surrounding environment. 

In building interiors, features such as living walls must be maintained and watered properly to ensure their health. Living walls enhance biophilia, filter air pollutants, and provide cooling capabilities, making their health essential for promoting additional building operation benefits. 

On the exterior, landscaping maintenance encourage plant health and biodiversity. A landscape management plan implemented by the grounds maintenance staff protects the flora and fauna while minimizing wildlife disturbance. Petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides should be avoided whenever possible, and efficient irrigation techniques such as xeriscaping prioritized.

Workplace Wellness Programs 

Mental health and wellness programs are an important part of a healthy office workplace that places employee health at its centre. Provisions such as stress management and mental health support groups and programs, educational programs, childcare and family leave support, as well as fitness and nutrition services are all beneficial to workplace wellness.

Studies have shown that when employees are less stressed and anxious, they perform better an are more productive, making workplace wellness programs a smart business decision in addition to the clear occupant health benefits. 

Through the use of strategies such as mindfulness programs and restorative spaces, employee stress levels can be reduced. Mindfulness programs can be achieved through in person meetings and exercises, or through employer-designated digital applications, such as Headspace, for example.

Restorative spaces in healthy buildings

Restorative spaces should be maintained, and employees should be encouraged to take breaks when needed and use them to relax and reset throughout the workday. 

It is important that the resources are available, but more importantly that occupants are made aware that they exist. Educational materials should be readily accessible to inform employees of the resources, encourage their use, and reduce any stigmas against mental health and wellness issues. 

In addition to mental health wellness programs, physical health is equally as important, including both nutrition and fitness services. Nutrition or cooking classes, healthy recipe sharing, and nutritious snack offerings in the office are examples beneficial nutrition programs.

Gyms, exercise and mental wellbeing in healthy buildings

Access to fitness rooms, gyms and fitness equipment can all be complemented by programs such as exercise classes, running clubs, or a bike-to-work week or contest are all potential implementations to encourage active travel and health. 

If occupant participation is consistently low, additional incentives may nee to be implemented to encourage resource use and highlight the importance of wellness in the workplace.

Often, it is helpful to have a designated employee as a ‘wellbeing champion’ who promotes health programs within a company, and this person or group can host health promotion meetings and communicate digitally with employees to further encourage participation. 

The role of sleep in healthy buildings & workplaces

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charlie morley / sleep / healthy sleep / healthy buildings / workplace wellness / cognitive performance

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Welcome to episode 46 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate. 

I’m your host, Matt Morley of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and in this episode I’m talking to none other than Charlie Morley, a bestselling author and teacher of mindfulness, lucid dreaming and all round sleep expert whose latest book deals with resolving trauma affected sleep through a set of practices called ‘Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep’.

Charlie, who is as you may have guessed my brother, was “authorised to teach” within the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism by Lama Yeshe Rinpoche in 2008. Since then he has written four books, delivered retreats in more than 20 countries, spoken at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as well as the Ministry of Defence Mindfulness Symposium and The Houses of Parliament. 

Our conversation explores the connections between my world of healthy buildings and interiors, and Charlie’s world of healthy sleep. We discuss sleep hygiene, the physiological impact of sleep on our bodies not to mention our brains, pre-industrial age sleeping habits vs todays, the power nap as a productivity tool, how to create restorative spaces or sleep pods in an office or educational environment that people will actually use, and the role of meditation and restorative deep relaxation practices in improving rest.  

https://www.charliemorley.com/ 

Charlie Morley instagram

Full transcript courtesy of Otter.ai

“Unless you are part of the ‘sleepless elite’, which is less than one percentile of the world’s population, who can do very well on five hours or less sleep, almost everybody in the world, needs seven to nine hours per 24 hour period - this is still the golden standard of sleep. ”

— charlie morley

Matt Morley

When thinking about sleep the building blocks of creating a healthy night's sleep in terms of how much we need, the risks of poor sleep hygiene and what you've described as the ‘sleep delusion’, how does one evaluate and measure a good night's sleep?

Charlie Morley

So the measure of sleep is inherently subjective. How do I feel upon awakening? What are my energy levels the next day? What is my cognitive ability the next day, so we can look at it like that.

They've done some interesting tests where people who are very high achievers are only getting kind of six, or five or six hours sleep, great social lives etc who say, this is all I need, I work perfectly well on six hours sleep, but then you put them into a brain scanner, or you give them cognitive ability tests. And although they say they feel optimal performance, their brain shows significant sub optimal neurological performance.

Now, that's one of the scariest pieces of research I came across, because it shows that even if you think you feel fine, in fact, a state of sleep deprivation has been so normalized by ourselves and by society that are natural, I feel fine state is actually one of suboptimal neurological functioning.

Sleep and cognitive performance in the workplace

So what's the next step, you force these people into position where they have to have one extra hour of sleep per day, it can be a nap during the day or an extra half an hour at night, but you get one extra hour per 24 hour period. Their cognitive performance went through the roof, the descriptions they have is like it feels like have access to a superpower. They're social lives, become more vibrant, their interpersonal relationships get better, or their performance at work gets better, just through one extra hour. So yes, it is subjective. But also there are very objective measures that show seven to nine hours for most people is 17 hours will allow us to function optimally. And crucially, just one extra hour per night can do massive, massive benefit to everyone.

Matt Morley

And how do you see then in terms of integrating an element of tech so that you're able to literally see the sleep quality over the course of the evening that otherwise we're over the course of the night that otherwise you might not? You might have a sense of how you slept, but you don't really no? Are you buying into this? Do you think there's there's real value in it, or were we being sold product and service that frankly, we've managed pretty well without all these years. And we're, in a sense trying to create a desire that, that we don't necessarily need to own these things.

Sleep trackers for health metrics

Charlie Morley

So at the moment, one of the higher end sleep trackers called the AURA ring, who sponsored a sleep science study that was part of even the aura ring, which is really the top end of the market is still only 60 to 70% accurate, which means is a crucial 30 to 40% of the time where it's just getting it wrong. And that's that worrying, let alone most people have a much cheaper version, the kind of, you know, the wrist based ones that hook up to your iPhone and stuff like that.

So if sleep trackers are benefiting your sleep, if they are making you feel more refreshed, if they are leading to more healthy relationships with sleep, then continue to use them. For a lot of people, they lead to a real neurosis around sleep. So take them with a big pinch of salt. I mean, in my new book, The first chapter is about becoming your own sleep tracker. So in the morning, taking most of how do I feel upon awakening? What are my energy levels throughout the day? Yes, what time do I go to bed?

What time do I wake up any dreams, I can remember, becoming your own sleep tracker to create a baseline is far better than that than the level of tech we've got at the moment. However, there is something on the market that we use when we do this sleep science studies called the Zed max or the Z max. Now that's about $600. And that's like a mini EEG machine. That's very, very accurate. So give the technology five years when we can get the technology of the XEmacs into an aura ring or into the to the app on your phone. And then sleep tracker data will be very, very accurate. But at the moment, we're just a little bit behind. So yeah, I wouldn't take don't take it too seriously.

Matt Morley

So if we then jump into establishing exactly what's going on during a night's sleep, you have what you've described as light, light sleep, the dream phase, and then deep sleep. So sort of the top line concepts for each of those three, and how is the sleep connecting with our health during the rest of the day? Like what are the processes going on? Sure. So there's

Charlie Morley

Actually two there's the gateway in and out either side to the hypnopompic and hit sorry hypnogogic hypnopompic. So stage one of sleep is called the hypnagogic state and is experienced by most people. Less is asleep stage proper, more a state of drowsiness. So you can still hear the sounds of the room, you can still feel your body in the bed. brain goes into deep alpha and theater, the brain looks almost indistinguishable to a brain that is in hypnosis.

So every time you fall asleep, the gateway into sleep, whether in a nap in the middle of the day or at night, you go through this natural state of hypnosis. And it's actually in that state that we can do a lot of really beneficial stuff for asleep because it's in the hypnagogic state that we can practice ns a nonslip, deep rest to us, humans term, or yoga nidra practices or my term hypnogogic mindfulness, which are the states of deep relaxation that happened just before we enter asleep.

So we have the hypnagogic state, really good for you, deeply relaxing, but a state in which people who have stressed out sleep will spend a lot of the night you know, you're kind of tired enough to be in that drowsy state, you can't quite pass the threshold. Eventually, though, with normalized sleep patterns, you'll move from hypnogogic into light sleep, light sleep is named for the quite untechnical reason that it's just quite easy to wake people from, you know, back in the early days asleep science, they would register the depth of sleep just by poking someone and saying their name.

So light sleep as it sounds, you're easy to be woken from it, you are now blacked out, you can't hear the sounds in the room. Unless they're loud enough, you can't feel your body in the bed. But you're yet to be dreaming. Light sleep is really good for procedural memory integration. So sleep is all about memory. That's why there's a direct link, as we know, with our with our mum, between sleep and Alzheimer's, and sleep and memory. So let's say you're learning to drive a car, it's light sleep, that you'll be processing the memory of how to do this, the stick in this and the the gears and all of that, and the pedal in the gas and everything that will be happening in light sleep procedural memory, whereas if you were in a car crash, that would be processing dreaming sleep.

So dreaming sleep is about processing emotional memory, memory reconsolidation, especially traumatic or stressful memories too. So we have the hypnagogic state stage one, then light sleep for procedural memory and learning, then we move into deep sleep. Deep Sleep is very, very interesting. This is where the brain is almost entirely switched off. So your brains never fully switched off. But if you look at the brainwaves of the waking state, they're very close together ticket ticket ticket ticket, if you look at the brain wave of someone in deep sleep, this will delta wave is dominant brainwave, and are very far apart.

I know people can't see me, but I'm making slow deep waves, signals with my hand. So in deep sleep, the brains almost entirely switched off, very unlikely to be dreaming very little happening in the brain. Apparently, but actually, if you look at the neuroscience of what's happening, loads is happening. Deep Sleep is when cerebral spinal fluid is flushed up into the brain. And it actually removes toxins from the brain a bit like imagine he had a fruit smoothie, and he drank all the fruit smoothie, but there's still kind of the remnants of the fruit smoothie in the bottle. And then if you put a bit of water in that bottle and shook it up, you could get all the remnants of the fruit smoothie out, right.

That's what's happening in deep sleep, the cerebral spinal fluid is flushing through the brain. And the blood capillaries go big, small, big, small, big small, which creates this kind of flushing motion. And that directly flushes out amyloid plaques, which are what cause Alzheimer's and many other forms of dementia.

So also a human growth hormone is released. So I know you're really into your fitness. If you have like a big workout during the day, like you're you're kind of working out you're lifting weights in the gym. Unless that night you get enough deep sleep, your muscles will not grow, there'll be massive reduction in muscle gains. And the same goes for losing weight.

So if you spent your whole day dieting, but then at night, you don't get enough deep sleep, you will lose weight based on the calorific deficit of not eating that much. But you won't actually make changes to your metabolism that leads to long term weight loss. So deep sleep so so important for memory for toxins flushed out for changing the body in any way we want.

We have that period of deep sleep, and then we'll move into dream. So dream actually comes at the end of the cycle, we think of dream as being a very active sleep state. And it is but by the time you get the dream, you've been knocked out for at least 6070 minutes. And if you put those together that makes up the 90 Minute sleep cycle, the cycle continues throughout the night. What changes is the amount of time you spend in each one until you get to the last two hours or you're almost in full dream for like two hours.

sleep for human performance

Matt Morley

Okay, so I think that's really given us the kind of foundations between these connections between sleep like what's happening at night and how are we performing? How are we feeling, how we cognitively how we functioning during the day so effectively that is the basis of sleep as a form of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Charlie Morley

“Yeah, there is no biological process that is not adversely affected by insufficient sleep - anything less than seven hours per 24 hour period, yet we don’t teach kids about this in school, we have a sense of almost pride that we can get by off of a lack of sleep. It’s crazy. ”

— charlie morley

Certain parts of America lost an hour because the daylight saving. So like 1.6 billion people do this every year different times, but based on your countries, but on that day where people lose one hour of sleep, the next day, American Studies have shown as a 22% increase in cardiac arrest the next day, just by robbing people of one hour asleep. That's 10s of 1000s more death, because of one hour lost sleep. There's also a massive increase in traffic accidents the next day, when you take one hour of sleep.

Conversely, when the clocks change, and you gain an extra hour of sleep, there's a 22% decrease in heart attacks the next day, and a 15% drop in traffic accidents. Now, when you roll that out in 26 countries around the world that have these daylight savings, that is millions of people live longer, or live shorter lives based on robbing or giving them one extra hour of sleep.

Sleep health in a historical perspective

Matt Morley

Yeah, that's powerful stuff. If if we can take a step back to a slightly sort of, let's say, a historical perspective, just to understand the connection between pre Industrial Age sleep cycles, modern sleep cycles, and the potential benefits in accepting and embracing the idea of a nap, a siesta, or sleeping again, after the amount, number of hours you managed to get during the night. So when do you draw the line between how things were before the Industrial Age? And how things are now? And is that necessarily have the optimal version of our sleep pattern?

Charlie Morley

Sure. So I'm sure many of your listeners have heard about this. heard this before. That before the Industrial Revolution, so about 200 250 years ago, most people in Western Europe slept very differently. They didn't sleep all in one, they would obviously this depends on seasonal fluctuations. And a lot of research was done in England, actually, especially the British Isles, where it can get dark as early as 4pm in the nighttime, in the wintertime, so people get asleep within about two hours of sundown.

So because candles are really expensive. They're made of whale oil, only the wealthiest people could have these candles and kerosene was difficult to come across, or whatever they use back then. So people get asleep within about two hours of sundown. So it could be 6pm 8pm. But like early, right asleep for about two, three hours. And then they would wake up again, like fully awake, pubs would reopen.

People would have these like tobacco circles, you kind of sit around and smoke, people would go into the field and milk their cows, they believe the quality of the milk. If you milk them at this time was better people would have sex they felt you're more fertile. That actually true. There is a fertility booster at that time. There are hundreds of these records is oh, there's even a 15th century prayer manual from Portugal, full of prayers especially to do in the second sleep. Sorry, between the first and the second sleep.

So you get this reference the first and second sleep. The way it actually came about was a crime researcher was looking at records in courts and other crimes were committed after the first sleep basically the middle of the night, you'd get your three hours sleep you got Rob someone's house and then go back to bed again. It was like perfect crime. Right. S

o this is how it first came into, into public awareness. Now is that the best way Oh, sorry. And then you would go back to sleep after two hours until sunrise. seasonal fluctuations. So you'll still be averaging about like 678 hours sleep but Krushi with a two hour gap in the middle. Fast forward to the modern day, the most common form of insomnia. In western societies, the most prevalent form is not sleep onset insomnia, which is where you just can't get to sleep. It's actually sleep maintenance insomnia.

Now, here's a description of sleep maintenance, insomnia, the ability of the subject to fall asleep upon first awakening. Within two to three hours, the subject awakens again, feeling fully awake and conscious for up to two hours. The subject is then able to fall asleep again till morning. That is flippin exactly the same description as the pre industrial sleep cycle.

So could it be that there are millions of misdiagnosed insomniacs, who aren't actually insomniacs, they are showing from an anthropological point of view a much more natural sleep cycle than the rest of us who are trying to blackout for eight hours. Does it mean that blackout of eight hours is not the way to do it and we should all be having that nighttime waking No, not at all, perhaps is a chronotype thing perhaps type thing. But it is important for people to know, if they do have that sleep pattern, you're probably not insomniac.

And actually just knowing that it's okay to be awake in the middle of the night moves us out of the fight or flight sympathetic response that keeps us awake and allows us to fall asleep. And secondly, there are a lot of people who have that sleep pattern, but they don't know that there's a second period of sleep waiting for them in the wings. So they don't stay awake for two hours, they just get up and Assad do there is another four hour sleep waiting for you.

But you have to allow yourself to slip back into it. Interestingly, the term insomnia was first produced in print as a, as a kind of a coined term in the New York Times in 1901. It was called the new fangled malaise of insomnia, within 30 to 40 years of us changing the way we sleep, we suddenly have this term insomnia cropping up. So very, very interesting. So no, I wouldn't say we should be sleeping like that. But if you are sleeping like that, it may not be such a bad idea. It may be just the way your body is, is working. And the main thing to know is there's nothing wrong with it. You know, nighttime wakefulness is not a pathology. For some people. It's just the way they're built.

Matt Morley

We introduced the idea of bi-phasal sleeping or perhaps sleeping for X number of hours during the night, and then catching up at another stage during the day. And interestingly, that's one of the connections between your work in healthy buildings / workplace wellness and you work, right. So when I'm looking at, say, healthy building concept of trying to create spaces within a building that are designed to foster wellness, and wellbeing for people spending eight to 12 hours of their days or nights, if it's a residential context, or if it's an office environment, then it's a place where they go to work and to be productive.

With the leading healthy building standard, that's called the WELL Standard, they have an entire concept around MIND. And one of the features there is the idea of restorative opportunities and, and nap policy.

So we're starting to see the way sort of trickle down effect from the top whereby the certification systems that are becoming increasingly common now in the world of real estate are encouraging and completely accepting the concept of a nap being a healthy part of a workday, it might sound confusing for some people, but it's out there.

But for sure, it's already happening. It's already coming. Now, once you have that policy as a as an employer, you then need to offer some kind of a space where that happens. So yeah, that might be an area where I'd say okay, well, I'm going to try and introduce some, some natural elements, biophilic design, I'm going to think about light, I'm going to think about the thermal qualities of the temperature in there and think about the acoustic isolation.

When you think about what I know you've turned sleep hygiene. And so the restorative environment in which one goes to sleep like what are your your key touch points there? Like what are the essential elements that we need to think about when we're creating an environment, whether it's at home, or in a potentially office space, where it's congenial to having a 20 or 30 minute nap during the day?

Restorative spaces in the WELL standard

Charlie Morley

First of all, before I answer that, I just like to say, that's so good to hear that that's part of, you know, you building regulation and part of what businesses are thinking about.

“Apart from any kind of philanthropic aim that the business might have, your employees will be 30% better at anything they do after 60 to 90 minute nap. That’s the science. That’s a fact. ”

— charlie morley

It's like if you want to make more money, give your employees a nap because they will make better deasl. They make better trades, they'll have better interpersonal relationships. It is very good for your employees. Yes. And also you will make more money. It seems crazy. They aren't implementing this. I did a thing at Deutsche Bank at Deloitte. I was telling them you will make more money if you do this, and hasn't been implemented. Not that I know. But really anyone listening?

The science is there. This isn't hippie dippie stuff, your employees will be better at whatever they do after a 60 to 90 minute nap. So rant over next bit. I would say when you people sleeping in public is a really vulnerable thing to do. So actually, your question is not so much about the bedroom at home, but actually sleeping in public, which is very different sleeping and public. I would save for Start, you need something that's lockable, if possible, something that's lockable.

So I know the are these great sleep pods in I believe it's Munich Airport, you can rent them for like an hour, a pop, and these little kind of micro pod beds, but they're lockable. And it's really important that that it's not just quiet and dark and all the sleep hygiene II stuff. But they're lockable. And a lot of the traumatized populations I work with, like veterans and people with C PTSD. simply placing a lock on your bedroom door can increase sleep quality by up to half an hour, an hour a night. Because there's something about humans, we need to no one's going to come in, we're in this deeply vulnerable state of rest.

So I would say they need to be not only private and a correct temperature for sleep, and yes, dark and quiet if you can, but also lockable. There was one rest port I went in, and there is a difference in arrest port and asleep port, where my legs were exposed, there was kind of a big bubble thing over most of my body in my head, but my legs were exposed, very difficult to fall asleep. And one of those, you know, my feet, people could brush by they could do something to them, I wasn't able to fully sleep.

So yes, it would be enclosed, it would be lockable, it would be private. Just to say that those rest pods, you know, there is a difference between NSDI non sleep deep rest and napping. Non sleep deep breath has loads of benefits, too. So even if you can't provide a full private, lockable, even just a space for rest and mindfulness like they have in the Google offices in London are really, really good.

Recharge rooms in tech offices

Matt Morley

Yeah, it is often the tech companies that are approaching the and saying, Well look, we want to create a space in a sense, in your terms, clearly that they will then actually be breathing a multifunctional space where there can be some of that depressed slash napping going on. It can also be a space where it's congenial to restorative practices, whatever that might be taking some time out of your day, perhaps to meditate perhaps to do your prayers, or just simply take some time by yourself.

And in fact, there's often the term the quiet room, or a restorative space where the idea is really just to take some time away from your key tasks to recharge, to go back. And then I think within that there's perhaps a subgroup too, which is the the nap pods or sleeping pod? The issue there with my sort of design head on is okay, you got to think about hygiene.

Now, post COVID, you got to think about ventilation. If it's lockable, and it's an enclosed space, then the best thing to have their own fans and and suddenly, you know, the prices do go up. But I think there's there's real value in that. So we've established you mentioned temperature just to dig into it. So thermal comfort typically is actually cooler than we think, isn't it in terms of the ideal sleeping temperature.

Thermal comfort during sleep

Charlie Morley

I can't remember the exact temperature ideal to seven temperature. First of all, they differ from men and women. I remember a brilliant chapter in a book called The The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry. And the title chapter was air conditioning is sexist. Now you see that the title chapter anyway, I'll come on straight to that chapter. He's absolutely right, the average the default setting of air conditioners across the world are set to the male preferred temperature at room temperature. And women need it about up to one to two degrees warmer. So actually, air conditioning is sexist.

So the first thing your points would need to be would you need to adjust it because women would want a slightly different to men. Basically, if you're in bed, and you can stick your foot out from the blankets or out of the duvet, and it's warm enough to keep it outside your rooms too hot. Your bedroom should be pretty cool, but not cold. But if you stick your foot out, it should feel cool. And your nose should be cool. You know this is cooler, the better many people with sleep problems, they just have the room too hot, it becomes the Princess and the Pea.

You know they pile up loads of blankets and and they get really really hot and you can't you know sleeps about thermo regulation. Remember the we used to we now know actually that human beings used to even hibernate for long periods of time where the deep sleep state would go for a massive percentage. And you could actually move into these almost hibernation states for days or weeks. And of course, what's hibernation about thermo regulation? So yeah, temperatures, pretty important.

Matt Morley

There is a there's a really interesting book was published recently by the Harvard Chan School for public health by Dr. Joseph Allen, in which he discusses exactly that point around the sexual or sort of the differences between the two sexes in terms of body temperature and therefore thermal comfort within a space and it seems that a lot of the regulations that were still in place or to have guidelines in the US and in fact, even in older buildings how the HVAC aircon systems have been programmed, referring to some data that was plucked from sort of 1980s office buildings were so slick as well. What was happening in 1980s, it was male dominated, they were probably wearing a suit.

And there's now just much more sexual, let's say equality. And therefore, as the man in the three piece suit or in a shirt, a tie, and a jacket is completely different to me sending in a normal summer dress. So some of the solutions around that seem to be around, ultimately creating almost sort of microclimates within or having clusters or microclimates where it's adjustable, if they're getting there with the HVAC and aircon systems, it's sort of within the next five to 10 years, it seems like that would be in a really smart building. So like sort of high performing building where they're able to adjust and allow each individual occupant to have some say over the temperature in their space, just by you know, the kind of airflow that's going on within that.

So yeah, another crossover between Your world and mine. Let's talk about mindfulness. Again, it is something that's part of the healthy building concept, the idea that a allowing time within the day and allowing a space within an office environment, for example, where meditation or mindfulness practice and perhaps breathwork, and can take place is positive, again for productivity, but also for worker well being. So how do you integrate mindfulness and meditation with sleep?

Because obviously, once once we're asleep? There's, in theory, for most of us, at least, there's no active meditation or mindfulness going on, right until you get to like next level, Tibetan Buddhist practice of dreaming. Yeah. But before that, yeah, how what's the connection between mindfulness and improve sleep quality, so that if someone's perhaps practicing or finding time during the day, they're also able to have a positive impact on the sleep at night, which is, I think your another gain, isn't it?

breath work and deep relaxation for rest and sleep

Charlie Morley

Yeah. So mindfulness has a whole wealth of benefits. As far as sleep goes, actually more than mindfulness, it's about regulation of the autonomic nervous system through the breath, and through deep relaxation. Those are the two things that you really find affecting sleep. And it's all based on this thing called parasympathetic drive.

So there's a system within the autonomic nervous system called parasympathetic drive, which is, think of it like a battery, which is charged up every time you do anything relaxing during the day, you charge up this parasympathetic drive battery. Now the reason most people tend to sleep slightly better on holiday than in their working day is unless you're screaming kids and stuff, on holidays, you're probably doing more relaxing things. So every time you do anything relaxing the day zap, you get a little charge to the parasympathetic drive. If you spend at least half an hour a day doing something really, really relaxing, that moves you into a deep parasympathetic emphasis, such as yoga nidra, slow, deep breathing, coherent breathing, other forms of non sleep deep breaths, you're spending 30 minutes charging up that parasympathetic drive.

Now what happens is then when you go to sleep at night, even if you charge it at 11 o'clock in the morning, or 10 o'clock in the morning, that battery will store the drive until you choose to go to sleep at night. So when you fall asleep at night, the brain kind of downloads that battery power from parasympathetic drive, allowing you to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer.

This means we need to completely reconfigure the way we view sleep. Sleep is not about oh, it's half an hour before bedtime quick put on some sleep hygiene tips like not looking at my phone, going wearing my fancy red sunglasses, all this kind of stuff. It's like That's too late dude. Like if you if you've got high levels of stress or trauma, but again, who hasn't got high levels of stress off last two and a half years we've been through as a global society. Sleep good sleep begins during the day.

How much time can you spend charging up that parasympathetic drive battery, and that's where periods of mindfulness but especially slow deep breathing, and NSDI, non sleep, deep breaths, kind of the hypnogogic, mindfulness practice, those really, really work to regulate the nervous system and help you sleep well at night. So that's the link mindfulness is good, because it can help create a habit of mind that sees not getting perfect sleep as more okay, but as mindfulness creates, fosters an attitude of okayness with myself and compassionate acceptance if it's taught in the right way. But the link between just standard mindfulness and sleep is quite tenuous. The link between non sleep deep rest and slow deep breathing and sleep is very, very direct, because it's based on this parasympathetic drive.

Sleep quality for productivity in the workplace

Matt Morley

So then you you see that there is effectively a short term benefit. That is, if you like he's reaping those benefits. Well, first of all, the person in question so the worker the occupant, and indirectly, the, the employer, that's more than that. So the people who are then that they're producing for once they go back into their work environment and are just sort of recharged and fresher and able to do more or get through the rest of the day without hitting X number of coffees.

But then that same building Brunt that same worker gets their own slightly more medium term benefits later on in the day, that's an entirely private matter once they end up trying to get to sleep that also suggests, you mentioned sort of the three hours, I think there's often, you know, there's practical considerations, of course, around when you work out an exercise, right. But when I see people exercising at 9pm, and the best hours of sleep seem to be between about sort of like 11 and 1am, right. There's just it's a crunch between the late workout, getting to bed and getting good quality night's sleep. So it's that would then suggest if, if at all possible exercise should happen lunchtime slash middle of the day.

Charlie Morley

It depends what the exercise is. So for it again, this is about the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. So for example, lifting heavy weights, like you're doing a big weight session actually can lead to such a parasympathetic hit off with this deep tiredness that comes out was it could be reasonably beneficial or at least neutral to do in the evening. However, as we both do a lot of martial arts like Thai boxing, kickboxing, something really fight or flight II like Krav Maga at 10pm, you want to go to bed at midnight? Yeah, you're going to be while you're going to be in that state.

So it's not so much the exercise, but the type of exercise the effect that has on your body, and you can feel it after your workout. Do you feel deeply relaxed? Do you feel that sense of calm? Or do you feel it's kind of jittery? You know, you've still got your pre workout shake in your system or something like that. So it's kind of subjective and personal. But generally, exercise is really good for sleep. But yeah, if you can do it within like three hours of your preferred bedtime, that's best. Sorry, I would do it not, not over three hours before your preferred bedtime. That's best.

Matt Morley

Cool. Plus, I think we can carry on for a while yet, but we're gonna wrap it up there. So if people want to follow along, see more of your work, or reach out with any questions or buy the books like where is that all happening online?

Charlie Morley

Yeah, my website, Charliemorley.com

I'm also on Instagram So check it out.

Smart buildings for improved air quality, energy saving, carbon capture - Sally R

air quality / smart buildings / healthy buildings / energy efficiency / green building / hvac / indoor farming

Welcome to episode 45 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate today.

In this episode I’m in Sweden talking to Fredrik Tunberg, CEO of Sally R, a cloud-based intelligent ventilation solution that uses algorithms to optimize indoor air quality while reducing overall energy consumption related to the HVAC system.

We discuss how buildings have traditionally had to make guesstimates about how much ventilation they will need, and then applies a blanket approach throughout the day, throughout the building, whereas the latest technology, sensors and IOT enabled software completely changes the game, opening up opportunities for far more tailored, efficient and cost effective solutions. Which is essentially what Sally R do.

As Fredrik points out, high quality indoor air does not need to cost more, quite the opposite in fact, once you can see the air in a building and map that against usage data, and feedback from a network of air quality monitors, it’s a complete game changer that also saves on energy use in the process.

Finally, they are also getting into Carbon capture in indoor farms, but I’ll Fredrik explain that part. 

• Sally R website

• Sally R indoor farming

• Sally R on LinkedIn

Talking indoor air quality in healthy buildings and energy efficient green buildings with Fredrik Tunberg of SALLY R

Let's start with the basics. So, when you're describing SALLY R, what's the problem that you're solving here around HVAC and mechanical ventilation system optimization in healthy buildings?

Fredrik Tunberg

As part of the increasing energy prices, of course, across Europe across the world, as well as the pandemic, that we're hopefully seeing the end of. I believe that real estate and especially commercial real estate and public buildings starting to open up will create some very important questions for the real estate owners, as well as sales managers, and how to tackle these two issues - energy efficiency and indoor air quality. That's where Sally R can really make a difference.

Matt Morley

So there's two pieces that you mentioned, effectively, the building energy cost, the energy implications of running a mechanical ventilation system in a building, and also how that mechanical ventilation system relates to airborne diseases, such as COVID. So let's look at the first one. So the energy costs I get, how do you how to get involved or integrate into that, start measuring it and make improvements?

Indoor air quality and energy efficiency

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, and in our case, those two different pieces are very intertwined into each other. So overall, we're trying to really prove to people that well, an increase, and more secure indoor air quality, actually doesn't mean that you have to spend that the consumer energy is rather the opposite. 

“It’s a contradiction that clean air costs more, it’s actually the other way around. So an optimized indoor air quality in a healthy building will actually provide you with substantial green building energy savings. ”

— fredrik tunberg

smart buildings and hvac systems

“You have to bear in mind that the traditional way of controlling HVAC has been the same for many years. With the help of technology breakthroughs, such as big data, connectivity, and wireless sensors, we can manage that data to control very complex systems within buildings. ”

— fredrik tunberg, ceo , sally r

Matt Morley

So for someone who's perhaps not familiar with traditional building management systems, or facilities management, you said it's a bit of a dinosaur, and it hasn't really upgraded. So what does that look like for someone who's not familiar with it, obviously, you know, natural ventilation is where we came from. And then at some point, we started creating pressurized, mechanically ventilated buildings with HVAC air conditioning systems. And over the last, say, 20 years or so, or more, how has that? What's that look like?

building management systems in healthy buildings

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, this is different, depending on what kind of building you're talking about. And obviously, also what kind of country you're in, from our experience from, from Sweden, Scandinavia, and Europe, is that evolved buildings, once they were built, they were are the someone from the BMS system provider or their partners, they were in the building and programming a unique solution for that building. And that was obviously based on a lot of assumptions. And these assumptions goes hand in hand with what like the building would be intended, intended views, and all different kinds of things.

So one practical example would be one, one building that we implemented our solution and very recently, where they 2025 years ago, when the when the building was built, the HR system was programmed. And it was programmed based on the assumption like, Alright, let's do 40% return here. And it was just an assumption that that would work out and that that was a good level. It is not based on any kind of facts and figures, because and to be honest, like 25 years ago, you couldn't do that. And what we can do now is that we can, we can allow the building to choose his own level of returner, depending on how it is being used. What is happening on the outside of the building, and, and taking into a lot of different factors concerning the indoor air quality into account in order to calculate optimal performance for the system.

Matt Morley

So then that links in with the idea of the big data, right? Because you're then using global benchmarks to understand how it should be done comparing that with what's actually happening and trying to find gaps discrepancies between the two and then making the adjustments to how the air ventilation system is operating. Is that right? Yeah,

energy efficiency in a smart building

Fredrik Tunberg

Absolutely, absolutely. So that's one way to look at it. And then there's other other types of buildings like we're optimizing a large shopping mall in Stockholm, it's the largest one is going to need for more mall of Scandinavia. So it's, it has a good name. And that building was built in a was I believe it was finished, like in 2015, or 2016. So it's very, it's very new, it was a huge investment, obviously, for the real estate company. And so it's very sophisticated, everything that is within the building. And still, we managed to save around 40-42% of the energy being used with HVAC system, simply because we were more reactive to whatever was going on. And this was especially so during the pandemic, of course, when the building had a lot lower people occupants passing through. And again, was based on assumptions on how how it would be used the building. And, yeah, so there's a lot to be done.

automated hvac in a smart building

Matt Morley

So if I can create an analogy, would it be basically like someone going in to a building, turning on all the lights at a certain point on the dinner and saying, Well, that's it. That's how we operate the light system between nine o'clock and five o'clock? And you're saying, well, actually, you might need certain different intensities during the day. And you might need perhaps a little bit on a on a weekend, or you might need some later in the evening? Because that's actually how the building's being used. Would that be a fair analogy to draw, you're trying to connect the the usage by the occupants in the building with the amount of air ventilation and circulation that they need is that, yeah, absolutely

Fredrik Tunberg

That's definitely a huge part of it. And then we also have different ways of like, analyzing the building, as well. So we are measuring and we're constantly calculating the loads within the building and not not just the heating load, but are also like the load concerning co2, we can calculate any kind of boat, we can calculate and monitor VOC load process. And by doing it that way, we can predict what will happen a lot better than then what would normally be the case, as well. So there's a lot of different things, but those definitely a good analogy as well.

Matt Morley

“VOCs, volatile organic compounds, basically, the nasty chemicals that are off gassing from things like adhesives, glues, carpets, furniture in an office. ”

— matt morley

So for the listeners who perhaps aren't aware that toxic chemicals can be found in office furniture, the reality is they often can, especially in fabrics, textiles, foams, paints, and cheap ceiling panels and what have you. So the importance of what you've just described, is, is really, I think, critical for for improved indoor air quality.

So if we look at the hardware and the software involved in making that happen, like what's, what's going on in terms of bringing pieces of kit into the building? Or is it a completely software based solution? Like how do you integrate into the building management system into the BMS?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, there's, different ways to do that, of course, and we do a lot of different types of integration and implementations. But Sally R is in essence a software company. So we don't have our own hardware concerning this particular service. Rather, we would prefer to collaborate with with a partner and primarily, that would be the BMS company and the BMS provider, but it can also obviously be an IOT platform, for instance, or it can be a sensor, sensor company, providing sensors.

But we have also done integrations and implementations where we made use of a kind of a simple kind of each unit each gateway, but that is simply just because we want to cut corners. And this is primarily we do that primarily for older systems, older buildings, where they sometimes they don't even have an internet. It's not connected to the internet.

Matt Morley

So it strikes me as an example of smart building systems, right, but we're trying to connect the bill Seeing via your software with the daily realities of what's happening inside the building. So it's reactive rather than being passive. Do you? Do you just make a distinction between the air purification that's going on in the building and the air quality?

So like, is the software looking at purification rates that are happening? Do we need to consider that there's not enough purification beyond just the ventilation rates in the building, do you normally recommend that there is a complimentary strategy in terms of improving the indoor air quality beyond just ventilation or is that typically enough to remove the VOCs? Remove the co2?

indoor air quality and sally r software

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, and obviously, definitely depends on where in the world you are, and what kind of room but we will obviously like we, we see a lot of data we can see. And we can analyze that for the customer. But then it's obviously up to the customer to take actions based on that data. But it's not that uncommon, obviously, that we get questions like how do we how can we improve this further?

How, what measures do we need to take it apart from the software, and stuff like that, and then we like to be really, really frank about, we're not a consultancy in that way, there are others who are way much better than than us that providing advice on that. But any way we can to help is, obviously a bit.

“we are not actually in this to to save energy, it might sound strange, but our standpoint is we want to secure indoor air quality, the energy saving is an extra benefit!”

— Fredrik Tunberg, CEO, SaLLY R

Matt Morley

So then you'd imagine there being say, a network of head height air quality monitors throughout the building that there's the building management team are getting one source of data coming in, you then got what Sally are producing in terms of data, and you can start to see how the management team is building up a picture, right? of exactly what's what's going on. So how does that how does that take place?

For someone who's not familiar with that process? Yeah, so like you said that there, you're creating the data. And you're is it is the is the software making decisions on behalf of the building management team or the building management team having to take to sort of interpret the data that you're creating, and then manually create, implement changes, or is it automatically linked, now is

Fredrik Tunberg

“Our software automates improvements in indoor air quality 100% based on whatever parameters, you as the building owner, or manager, want to achieve in the building in terms of indoor air quality.”

— fredrik tunberg, ceo , sally r

And usually, there is a minimum value and a maximum value, and never to exceed the maximum value of course. And then the system the software would optimize within that can range and it will do that automatically. But it would also obviously pick up on any like discrepancies in in that performance as well. And for instance, we can easily analyze a abnormal high energy consumption within any kind of like fans or anything like that, that we can track back to, for instance, that filter change being needed.

So we can optimize that and we can we can optimize for other types of filters as well. So you can introduce more filtration, for instance, concerning knowledge, but then who are starting to talk more and more about TM one for instance. So we can we can definitely there's definitely room to improve more on the filtration side with an optimization.

Particulate Matter in indoor air quality

Matt Morley

So PM1 - we typically talk about PM10, which would be dust level particles, then PM 2.5, which is much smaller. Things like mold, VOCs and tiny little things, but PM1 would be airborne disease level?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, exactly. I mean, noncredit to me, according to the WHO.

indoor farms and carbon capture

Matt Morley

Yeah. Okay. And and so you then have this other piece, right, you have this other element, which I think is a really interesting complement to, to what we've just been talking about around the the HVAC Building Management and this carbon capture and indoor farms. So where did that come from? What's that product about?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, absolutely. So we will need to go back five or six years basically, because Sally R - our name to begin with is a tribute to Sally Right, the first female astronaut, US astronaut. So we basically turned to space in the beginning to find solutions to how our buildings can rely less on the outside air. Because we see problems with the outside air becoming more and more polluted. And a lot of energy consumption comes from the process of changing outside air into heated or cooled indoor air.

So when starting to look at ISS, and how they're solving the indoor air quality on the space station, we came across some some very like crucial, crucial things that need to solve. And one of them obviously, being the optimization of the whole service. And that's, that's our software today. Another part of it is being able to capture co2 from an HR system or from an indoor environment. So for the last three or four years, we've basically been digging into that and evaluating different technologies out there, and then coming up with our own technology in order to capture carbon efficiently from indoor environments. And then, obviously, like looking looking for for different solutions in how to offset that carbon.

But once you want to calculate what what would you do with the co2. And we saw this, this kind of new industry, it's not new, but it's, it's definitely on most people's radar these times. And it's concerning vertical farming and locally grown verbs that urban farming and container farming, there's a lot of buzz going on there. And one crucial part of sustainable indoor farming is being able to enrich the farming area with co2. And the the only solution that we've seen so far is to bring in like shoo, some tanks with co2 that quite often comes from natural gas. And that's not very sustainable. So we see a possibility here to kind of make one industry more sustainable by giving them the co2 and one industry, the real estate industry, both safe, safer and more energy efficient by capturing. So yeah, that was a long explanation, a monologue.

Matt Morley

So if that was say, just to understand, because I know some images on your website, they depict maybe like a rooftop indoor farm that could be on a could be on a an office building, for example, where they decided to go into that with a kind of, like a Yeah, a bubble, right? So you create this this glass house area where it's a protected environment? Would it have to work would only work in those that context? Or could it be, say, a vertical farm set up in the reception of a big building, for example? Or do you need an enclosed space? How is it? What are the applications? Like what do you need from your side?

Fredrik Tunberg

Well, we need an enclosed space in some way, in order to really have an effect on the co2 levels. So the so that you actually get an increase in yield on the crops. So they grow more and more co2 have a certain extent, of course. So that that is what you need. But we're also looking into different applications preferring more like traditional indoor farming, like traditional greenhouses, and particular than commercial greenhouses. And then we would actually capture the carbon from from ambient air instead, that would be more like direct air capture for it for a specific purpose. That's another another kind of application.

Circular Economy and green healthy buildings

Matt Morley

So you sort of have this circular economy concept, right? Where you're, we're trying to keep everything in the loop rather than and in this case, the co2 is kind of like the waste product that we want to keep in the loop to reuse to get more value from it.

Fredrik Tunberg

Absolutely. That is what we really want to achieve and we also want to kind of like waste from the general awareness but you can actually do this if faced with co2, and co2 is natural, it's in our air, he says that we have a bit too much of it these days. So we need to like we need to make something useful with it. And why not actually do or try to increase the production of healthy food, and especially locally grown healthy food? Because there's loads and loads of benefits with vertical farming, indoor farming, and being really, we can help one.

Matt Morley

So where do you go from here? In terms of building the business? bringing in new clients developing new products and services? Like how do you see this evolving over the next three to five years?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, no, it's very exciting time here - the plan for this year is internationalization where we are at scaling up business as we're getting to new markets. obviously started out in Sweden and Scandinavia, but we're looking to expand into UK and further into Canada as well this year, concerning the carbon capture where we are now way more like a pre mature stage, but we're commercializing right now. We're getting our first first couple of clients, and we will continue to evaluate the performance on that technology. And so yeah, it will be a little bit divided. But we're, we'll have different places that we have our hands full.

Healthy buildings integrating Sally R software

Matt Morley

So let's take a potential building in central London. And there are certain parameters within which you can work or are there certain requirements in terms of going in? Does it need to be a certain genre or type of building or something that's built after a certain year in terms of its HVAC? Like, are there? Are there areas where you can't help? Are there areas where you can have more impact and more more positive results?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, essentially, we don't, our software works for any kind of building anywhere. Basically, as long as you have mechanical ventilation, we can optimize that. But it's more of a matter of where we put our focus, as of today. So we focused deliberately on offices and retail primarily, but also on on more sensitive buildings, like schools and hospitals, elevate the health health sector. But we make the most difference in obviously, large buildings, obviously, less complex buildings. So open spaces, versus open spaces. And we can really make a difference where you have a lot of people coming in and changing the the occupancy, because then we can be casting a huge difference on the interview.

What is the cost of healthy building software?

Matt Morley

So it's a question that I'm nearly always asked when I'm proposing these kind of concepts and services to clients that I work with. So I'll map Okay, but what are the cost implications? And how much more is this gonna cost me? And often, my responses will look, there might be a little bit more upfront in terms of your capex, but then how long will it take you to pay that off in terms of operating costs once you open the building, and actually, it can often be within a space of two to three years.

But then the owner, if they're holding the property for that long, if they're redeveloping or constructing, building and then selling, then it's slightly different story I find, but when they're holding the building for at least a few years, there's often a discussion around well, what are your management and operational costs over the next three years? And how much can we save you on those? Is it a similar argument in terms of selling in a salary or service to a developer or landlord?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, no, absolutely. And obviously, with the twist that we sell our service as a service, so So you would basically pay a monthly fee that is way lower than your energy savings. So I mean, from our perspective, there's actually no investments that basically like saving money or making money from day one, basically. But obviously, like in the in the startup phase, there can be certain investments that we need to do. And that could be relating, like investing in more sensors, for instance.

But the way that we figure is that well, you want sensors anyway, even if you're not going with that those are not selling your specific sensors. So whether or not whether or not you like it or not, you need the sensors. And then you can subscribe to our service and start saving entity as well as be comfortable with that it's actually locked in with security and oil quality, no matter what happens in the building or outside.

Matt Morley

So sensors you mean ventilation rates as in in inside the HVAC system or in terms of the air that's circulating in the occupied spaces?

Fredrik Tunberg

90% I would say that the sensors inside the HV system that is already in place, is a very rarely that we need to compliment those sensors. But what we want, it all depends on what type of building obviously, but in an in an office building, with a more traditional office building, with a lot of different roofs and stuff like that, we would need some more reference, measuring measurements in in the different groups so that we can securely control the indoor air quality. But as sensor costs, as the cost for sensors comes down even more, it's not a huge investment and maintain away. I would say, yeah, it's minimal compared to what other types of investment can do for themselves.

Matt Morley

That's a much easier sell than than solar panels on a roof. I can tell you from experience. Very good. So how can people learn more? How can they connect? How can they reach out and follow what you're doing?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, w obviously have a website, which is fairly good. It's, it's getting more and more content on it. But we're also trying to stay as active as we possibly can on primarily LinkedIn. That's our channel of choice. And you're always happy to schedule a meeting with me or one of my colleagues to learn more as well. So we're always always eager to

Energy efficiency in green buildings to reduce energy waste

what is energy efficient architecture? Read on to discover these green building approaches examples

Energy consumption in green buildings and energy solutions to reduce energy consumption

Improve energy performance for a more sustainable future

Buildings and the real estate industry in general contribute around 30% of total global energy consumption, making them a vital consideration in the push for a green energy transition away from fossil fuel dependency.

Energy efficient buildings are, like electric and eventually hydrogen-powered cars, a necessary step for the future of our planet, not least due to the ongoing process of urbanization which will see an estimated 70% of the world’s population living in cities by 2050 (Bratman). 

Green buildings new construction

Key factors to consider in building energy efficiency include building orientation and its footprint but there we step into the realm of site planning and selection, architecture and engineering. Beyond new construction then, how can we as green building consultants help in the refurbishment of our existing buildings - a fundamentally more energy efficient and sustainable approach? 

Green buildings refurbishment

Overarching strategies in a refurb project include reducing energy demand, increasing source efficiency, and tracking the live energy use of the building. Together these provide the building blocks of energy efficient refurbished buildings. The ideal goal of course being net zero or net positive buildings.

Specifically, demand can be reduced through strategies such as passive design and green roofs. Energy source efficiency can involve implementing energy efficient lighting, efficient HVAC (air con ventilation) and elevator systems, as well as renewable energy production on site via solar panels on the roof, for example. 

energy efficient building solutions

With the incorporation of some or all of these energy reducing green building strategies, there is then a requirement for ongoing tracking and monitoring of progress in energy efficiency so that facilities management have a real time picture of the energy consumption patterns in the building.

Demand Reduction in green buildings

Demand reduction in sustainable green buildings involves strategies that reduce the upfront energy needs, lowering the amount of energy consumed and paving the way towards greater energy efficiency overall. Passive design as well as the implementation of green and cool roofs are several strategies to reduce energy demand. 

Passive Design in sustainable buildings - energy saving in construction

Passive design is a concept in which the sustainable building design works with local climate conditions to reduce the need for energy use.  Passive design includes strategies such as daylighting, natural ventilation, and passive heating, which all can reduce energy demand. This is all done in the building modeling phase of a new construction project.

The use of daylighting through windows, skylights and other openings can reduce the need for electrical lights. In addition, in hotter months, the use of daylighting can reduce cooling loads, as on average it produces less heat per unit of illumination than electric lights.

Natural ventilation utilizes outdoor air and winds to bring fresh air into a building. This can help regulate indoor air quality and appease the need for mechanical ventilation, as well as increasing thermal comfort through passive cooling. Most commonly, natural ventilation can be incorporated through the installation of operable windows. This strategy is dependent on the quality of the outdoor air available in the site in question, a factor that can vary by hour, day and season.

energy efficient buildings examples

In addition, solar energy can be used to reduce the need of heating, for example, direct solar gain - which provides places where the sun can enter a space directly - can help to heat a living area.

If paired with thermal mass structures, the sun can heat a mass such as a wall throughout the day and release this heat throughout the evening - a common strategy in traditional buildings in the Middle-East for example.

Green Roofs & Cool Roofs in Sustainable Buildings

Roofs are often an untapped resource in buildings, when in reality they have a lot of potential for energy demand reduction. Roofs are subject to the highest amount of solar irradiance across the entire building envelope (Costanzo).

Cool roofs utilize highly reflective coating such as white paint to increase reflectivity, while green roofs use vegetation as a cover to increase cooling capabilities of a building (Costanzo). 

Although there are pros and cons to green roofs and cool roofs, both reduce building cooling demand (Costanzo). Cool roofs have been found to lower the temperatures of roofs more than green roofs, but green roofs provide some insulation in cooler seasons. 

Green roofs provide additional benefits such as air purification and biophilia benefits if made accessible to building occupants. However, due to the maintenance factor of greenery, cool roofs are an easier practice to implement in terms of initial investment. 

Energy Efficiency Lighting  in Sustainable Buildings

A low hanging fruit of energy efficiency is to incorporate energy efficient lights such as LED bulbs. Generally, this is a very cheap intervention that can provide considerable energy savings. 

Such bulbs consume more than three times less than the energy used by fluorescents and less than a seventh of the energy used by incandescent bulbs. In addition, LEDs provide a higher lumen output, which increases safety and sight, they also have a much longer life span (Taddonio)

In addition to lighting replacements, other strategies such as motion sensors, dimmers and timers can be used to reduce energy and maintenance costs. Hallway lighting can be adjusted based on the time of day and natural light presence.

Desk and office lighting can be adjusted based on hours worked in office and dimmed or turned off when not necessary (“Managing”). These strategies can be very effective at reducing energy consumption, especially when combined.  

Efficient Machinery

Once demand reduction strategies have been implemented, the next step is to make sure that the appliances and machinery that are functioning within the building are as efficient as possible and are consuming less energy. For example, the HVAC systems, elevators, and other machinery within the building. 

HVAC systems generally run on a clock depending on the building use type. For example, an apartment building may need to be run on a 24-hour cycle, while an office building HVAC system can be shut off at night when no one is in the workplace to avoid excess energy use.

energy efficiency solutions

In addition, the systems themselves should be chosen based on those that are designed to consume less energy when in use. Various space types align better with different HVAC systems, so proper planning is required to make the most informed decisions. 

In addition to HVAC systems, other machinery such as elevators tend to be large energy consumers in buildings. It is important to install energy efficient lifts and elevators to avoid excess energy use. 

To aid with the decision-making process, there are various standards and resources. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program designates energy-efficient appliances that contain more high performing systems (“The Science”).

Renewable Energy Production in Green Buildings

In addition to incorporating energy efficient appliances and fixtures, the use of renewable energy and the potential to produce it onsite is a very effective green building strategy. Solar is the most common and easily applied renewable energy source on a building site. 

Panels are commonly placed on roofs and should be angled to best receive the sun, which varies depending on location and building orientation. However, newer technologies are providing ways that solar technology can be incorporated into facades, for example. 

When making sustainable solar energy decisions, it is important to consider location and feasibility of potential solar gain, as well as if there is enough area to install enough panels to provide an ample energy source - at the very least, a green building project team should consider wiring in the cables for future installation of solar panels on the roof during the refurb or construction process, even if funds are not immediately available to purchase them. 

Benchmarking, Tracking and Monitoring green building energy

Once a green building energy efficiency plan has been implemented, there is a need for building energy use monitors to track ongoing performance. Several third-party organizations such as ASHRAE, ANSI, and IESNA provide baselines; for example, ASHRAE 90.1-2010 is the energy efficiency standard. 

After a baseline is set and goals are made, a process known as commissioning is implemented. This process, as described in the LEED green building standard is the “process of verifying and documenting that a building/all of its systems are planned, designed, operated and maintained to meet the owners project requirements” (LEED).

This concept encourages projects to continue to operate according to the initial goals and monitor energy consumption to maintain desired efficiency levels.

The installation of sub-meters and automated building controls allow building operation managers to track energy costs and usage by area, as well as aiding the control of building wide energy use.

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) are common systems that are used for monitoring and controlling building energy use.

Net + Energy in Green Buildings as a way to go beyond merely saving energy

The ultimate goal for us as sustainability consultants in real estate is to create Net Positive Energy buildings, meaning that more energy is created on site from renewable sources than is consumed by the building—therefore giving back rather than taking from energy sources.

In other words, going further than efforts to merely save energy or improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption in residential buildings, for example. Here we look to go much further than that.

Net Zero Energy buildings, a relatively more attainable yet nonetheless challenging goal, produce the same amount of energy on site as they consume, avoiding energy resource depletion with energy efficient equipment and so on.

To achieve that requires systems thinking, looking at a building in a joined-up manner, exploring how distinct elements of the system can work together to make a more efficient whole.

Sustainable Building, energy conservation and carbon emissions Sources used in this article

Bratman, Gregory, and Gretchen Daily. The Benefits of Nature Experience: Improved Affect and Cognition. Tech. Vol. 138. Stanford: n.p., 2015. Landscape and Urban Planning. Stanford University Libraries. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. 

“Building Energy Management Systems Bems.” Building Energy Management Systems BEMS - Designing Buildings, 27 Oct. 2021, https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Building_energy_management_systems_BEMS. 

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. 

 “Managing Energy Costs in Hospitals.” 2010.

O’Malley, Christopher, et al. “Urban Heat Island (UHI) Mitigating Strategies: A Case- Based Comparative Analysis.” Sustainable Cities and Society, Elsevier, 14 June 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670715000657. 

Taddonio, Kristen. “Energy-Efficient Hospital Lighting Strategies Pay Off Quickly.” BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES PROGRAM, July 2011, commercialbuildings.energy.gov/hospital. 

“THE SCIENCE BEHIND HEALTHY HOMES: 25 FACTORS THAT IMPACT YOUR HOME.” Delos, 2020. 

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Further Reading

• The Secrets Of A Healthy Building

• Sustainable Green Building Water Use

• The Best New Green & Healthy Office Buildings In Barcelona, Spain

• The Role Of Rooftops In Healthy Sustainable Building Designs

• Sustainable Office Space - Make Your Office More Eco-Friendly

• Organic Building Materials And Their Benefits

• Introducing The World Green Building Council Health & Wellbeing Framework

• the secrets of a healthy building: ‍9 essential principles for optimal wellness and sustainability

• What Is Circular Economy In Regenerative Real Estate?

• Top Five Real Estate Developers Using Biophilia For Sustainability & Wellbeing

ESG Social Equity in Real Estate Development South Africa

social equity / urban regeneration / student accommodation / real estate development / ESG / our future cities

Welcome to episode 44 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we explore the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate. This time around we have more of an ESG social equity focus as we're talking to Rashiq Fataar, the Founding Director of Our Future Cities in South Africa. 

Rashiq works across disciplines, engaging with city planners, designers, researchers and anthropologists in the quest for promoting more sustainable and inclusive cities not just in South Africa where they are based, but increasingly around the African continent as a whole.

Our conversation covers the weight of South Africa's history of top-down oppression and how that impacted urban development during apartheid, the kind of tactical urban intervention that can turn a handful of parking bays into a parklet, the challenges of developing enough affordable housing, how concerns over safety can be baked into new precinct development plans from the start, examples of successful downtown regeneration in Durban by developers Urban Lime, and the student accommodation opportunity in neglected 1960s era buildings in central Cape Town and Durban in particular.

Social equity is one of the key components of a real estate ESG strategy covering Environmental, Social and Governance.

Rashiq is erudite, determined and fighting on the front line of city development so here he is.

Conversation highlights

we are only 25-26 years into a democratic society here in SA, which is very young, in terms of having these basic rights and freedoms, what we've inherited is an urban project which stems from economic, social and cultural injustice

if you took an aerial view of Cape Town city center, you took an aerial view of Johannesburg, Durban, they're not dense enough in terms of residential population to to be 24/7, walkable, vibrant spaces where restaurants, cafes, schools, and other services start to respond to that demand.

‘walkability’ - not just about having pavements But about sufficient levels of activity, enough destinations and of course decent lighting to make it safe - even the most well landscaped route won’t be used here at night if it's not safe.

Contact info

• Our Future Cities

• Rashiq Fataar / LinkedIn

• Urban Lime SA

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Citylift Foreshore Freeways, Cape Town, Our Future Cities

Full transcription follows:

MM: Rashiq, thanks for being with us on the show today. Great to you have great to have you as a guest.

I thought we could start with an initial introduction to the context in which you're working there in South Africa and the government's policy of black economic empowerment and how that's influencing the work you do around urban regeneration and development.

RF: Thanks, Matt. Great to be here. That's a very large question. But I suppose I'll start by giving some context.

I think in most parts of the world, they've obviously been difficult histories, whether it's Colombia or, or in the years, but Africa is a very particular history where I would say that, over about two to 300 years, there's been top down planning and oppression based on race, in particular, what we call persons of color, or black, African or colored in the South African context.

And so, whereas many cities and towns have developed gradually, and, you know, despite inequality or despite racism in South Africa, it is quite a scientific planning approach, so that all parts of urban life and City Living for the longest time was based on the ideal that the white population deserve space and ownership of land, and a good quality of life. And that everyone else needed to be far away, have less rights and have their movement and and who they marry where they live managed.

Introducing ESG social equity in real estate post-apartheid

According to the sort of ideal of separate development called apartheid, but ultimately that seeped into every aspect of life from the bus you used to the museums you could access to whether your culture could be expressed, or you could even protest.

And so I think that's the point to start with that we are only 25-26 years into a democratic society here in SA, which is very young, in terms of having these basic rights and freedoms, what we've inherited is an urban project which stems from economic, social and cultural injustice, on so many levels of people's psyche, and urban environment.

MM: Thank you for that intro. It's such an interesting topic. And so crucial, I think, for those of us working in this space, where, perhaps, certainly in Europe, that such things are almost taken for granted, that that shouldn't be the case. And yet, there are clearly examples for say, in the south of the US, for example, where similar things happening not that long ago.

And so today, in terms of a positive promotion as a way to rebalance that status quo as a way to empower and provide greater sense of social equity, like, how can your role, how can our future cities, as a business contribute to that and up to now, how have you been going about contributing to that that sort of generational transformation whereby cities are able to find a greater form of social equity for all groups, no matter what race they are coming from?

RF: Yeah, I think we've, we've always taken a quite a sort of pragmatic approach. The first is, you know, collaboration and cooperation with all sectors, so government, businesses, nonprofits, communities, individuals, which is quite difficult to suppose. I think there's the perception that to be on the side of, of people and communities and, and their prosperity, you have to be against government, and you have to be against business. And there are times that we are and we do advocate very clearly, and as an independent group, we do so. That's the first thing, I think it's sort of creative, but messy, tumultuous, and sometimes productive relationships, which are not perfect processes.

And then second, I think is just small steps to a better future. What can we do in the next year or two? Whether it's that's a tactical urbanism, can we take two parking bays away, provide free Wi Fi and a place to sit for those who can't afford coffee shops on high streets? Or can we study the culture in a particular neighborhood of migrants so that the public spaces start to reflect how they trade, how they live, and how they move around spaces? And in that particular case in the in the Bellville Town Center, which is about 20 kilometers from the Centre of Cape Town. Its priority people from across across the African diaspora, so Somalia, Ethiopia and so forth living there safely and in societies that are evolving.

So I think those two are quite key - finding ways to cooperate and taking small steps, be it policy or physical spaces, or getting conversations going, for example, in the affordable housing space.

inclusionary housing model, Our Future Cities, Cape Town

Affordable housing and ESG social equity in real estate

One of the biggest challenges we found, when we joined that field, through a conference we hosted was that developers had never sat in a room with nonprofits and government working in the affordable housing space.

So if you think of London, which has quite an established set of rules and guidelines around affordable housing, in South Africa, despite having some of the highest income inequality in the world, if not the highest in Cape Town and Johannesburg, they haven't sat around a table really to say, how do we make this policy work? What are the requirements and what is possible? So it's in its various sort of layers, I suppose that we do our work.

ESG Social equity in the public realm

MM: Okay, so I pick up on a couple of things, let's just dip back into the public realm discussion, because I think that's a really interesting piece there around how you, in a sense, give even a small slice of the city. And I presume we're talking about sort of downtown urban centers, back to those who perhaps as you say, I'm not in a position to spend the equivalent of 10 US dollars on a milky sweet coffee in a Starbucks equivalent, right. And so you're trying to create these small interventions now is that is that about bringing greenery back into the to the city is that about? Public furniture and safety are one of the main concerns and the drivers, when you're looking at an intervention like that?

RF: I think there's the ambition of the dream. And that is, you know, large amounts of affordable housing for lots of different incomes and groups, in or near the city center, you know, so lots of supply of housing, which, takes a long time, and it's been particularly slow in African inner cities, I think, for political reasons for lack of expertise.

That's the prize, the densities of Spain or elsewhere are based on lots of people living close together, and having quality spaces. So that's the prize. But I think the second, what you touched on was, is how do we provide a positive lived experience based on how somebody occupied space or how, or their sort of mobility needs, and the way we think about it is, as much as possible to have empathy and to understand the lived experience of that person.

So while somebody working close to where I am today, close to Parliament, or the original government buildings in Cape Town, might need community park, of course, where they live, they're probably traveling an hour and a half in the morning, if not more to their place of work, spending about eight to 9 hours, and then traveling another hour and a half, two hours. So for us, safety needs to be incorporated into all aspects.So you know, it's really important that public transport interchanges with our public spaces are clean, well managed wallets, you know, have free Wi Fi, it's really important that we understand that when somebody arrives in the center, it might be the norm for people in London to walk the last two miles of Africa, it's required you're not going to pay for another trip to go you know, two or three kilometers further.

So, safety of streets safe crossings. For example, outside our central train station, you know, some of the crossings which I think a traffic lanes are about sort of maximum 45 seconds. So we do advocate for long crossing times for for people walk walking around or doing the sort of last mile or two trip and then of course when they're at work apart from their work environment which which is somewhat out of our hands in some cases, the plazas, the squares, the gardens, the parks, that could probably encapsulate somebody's entire public space experience for the day.

It might be possible for myself to go to Sea Point which is just near the ocean and go for a walk or run off to work but for somebody else's traveling two hours back home, and and do two Politics and other reasons possibly living in a dangerous neighborhood, it's unlikely that at 7pm, at night in the dark, they're going to go to a local park to enjoy this sort of public space experience. So our city centers do matter. And where people are for the majority of the time influences their health, from safety, to shaded areas of respite.

Church Square, Urban Lime, Our Future Cities, Cape Town

Nature and wellbeing in urban downtowns

MM: You're essentially integrating elements of nature, nature exposure, bringing nature back into the city of social equity, and a wellbeing aspect, I think with with what you're describing there. So it makes complete sense, the affordable housing piece, just to give us the context on that in terms of how that relates to geography. Or do you see an opportunity in terms of downtown regeneration in terms of bringing affordable housing, in collaboration with developers back into say, the downtown of Joburg or Durban? Or is it essentially a project that's inevitably going to be limited to the peripheries of the city? And therefore that mobility question is locked in place for the foreseeable future? Or is it a combination of both?

Urban development policies and ESG social equity

RF: It's certainly a combination of both. Unfortunately, some of the the policies of the early 90s of the Mandela era government meant that where land was cheap cities built housing, and they were often poor quality, and quite far away. So we've actually had a perpetuation of apartheid style planning, because land was, you know, further away with cheaper, large open pieces, governments generally delivering substandard housing.

I think there are a few myths about in a, in a city center or city center housing. And the first is that there's no financial case, when in reality, there is a massive demand from various income groups. And we're not talking about free housing or housing, that is for those of no income we're talking about. I think, in the UK, it's called essential service workers, key workers.

So we're looking at sort of full spectrum of people whose lives could gain time and gain so much more by living in or closer to their place of work. And then secondly, you know, some of these centers at night are quite dead, you know, so they don't have the residential density. So if you took an aerial view of Cape Town city center, you took an aerial view of Johannesburg, Durban, they're not dense enough in terms of residential population to to be 24/7, walkable, vibrant spaces where restaurants, cafes, schools, and other services start to respond to that demand.

Student accommodation and ESG social equity

I think there's, there's a financial case, but there's also just a social case for bringing back people into the center. And I think we've started to see that, especially with the student population, there are that almost sort of these overnight conversions of inner city office buildings. I think there are four or five and Cape Town currently underway of converting buildings to accommodate students and students are one group of the affordable housing group who need accommodation at certain prices, which the market couldn't, couldn't provide. So I think everything from baristas, to nurses to police, men and women, there's a massive demand the financial case, and and again, it reduces the carbon emissions of people's travel and of course, just, you know, sort of pure spatial justice in terms of people being excluded from the past. Yeah.

Sustainable precincts and ESG social equity

MM: Let's loop back round onto the student accommodation piece, because there's more in that… But it seems like in a sense, what we're talking about is the creation of of sustainable precincts, right? Because you're saying it can't just be a residential piece that comes in because then if there isn't also the public space, the public realm interventions, and there are also ground level retail and street lighting and the sense of community etc. So other examples that you're seeing in SA at the moment around developments of precinct level where a developer in a public private partnership perhaps is able to come in and almost take over a small area of the city rather than just one building? Is that a viable solution? And is it happening yet? And if not, then, what's the workaround?

The role of precincts in urban regeneration

RF: Yes, precincts and districts are the way to go. I think you need a focus area of change and you need to demonstrate change. I think. I was recently again near the The Civic Center of government building in Cape Town and it's a very windy part of the city and it's got a bus station and the the Civic Center, which is where the city's local government is housed. And just across the road is a private development with a massive open restaurants landscaped garden. That is Sheltered is wind and it was amazing to me how two different blocks one delivered entirely by the private sector. And one, the government volume by the public sector had completely different experiences. The one was harsh, windy, modernist, unprotected and sheltered and had no retail. The other had all of these things had spaces for people to sit to to buy lunch, or, or people who brought their lunch, it was sheltered when protected. It had embedded sort of principles of good landscaping and using rainwater.

Precincts are important because it essentially is private sector needing to drive change. And to do so often you need scale, from a financial perspective, from a viability perspective. And you sort of hope the public sector comes along, because I think there's this idea, at least in South Africa, that public sector must alone drive the change. And I think that example, you know, with two buildings, really adjacent to each other shows you how you could treat people correctly and provide them with open welcoming spaces. Without it officially being a public led project. And this, these, both these spaces are you know, within the sort of biggest transport interchange and in the city within, you know, two minute walk. And, and so I think our precincts are great to demonstrate change to stitch buildings together.

Crime rates and urban development

And look for Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, I think it's important to think about each and every block, how do you make it safer for women and girls to move through a particular background to move from one block to the next. And I think having two or three vibrance precincts with with, you know, active street frontages, and then having nothing for two blocks is quite, we call them crocodile zones. So you really want precincts to work at scale, so that there is enough enough activity over large parts of the city.

Walkability and ESG social equity

That was linked into the way that we've defined ‘walkability’ - not just about having pavements But about sufficient levels of activity, enough destinations and of course decent lighting to make it safe - even the most well landscaped route won’t be used here at night if it's not safe. So precincts are essential. And I think it's that mesh of public private that people are uncomfortable with. But it really is the sort of the driving factor, we can start to see change, which actually includes the majority of people.

Student accommodation as social housing

So you mentioned the student accommodation piece, and it's a sector that's currently going through a process of what can only be described reinvention, at least in the US and Europe. I mean, there's there's so much to use an overused term disruption in the market going on. But I'm seeing a lot of innovation. And I wanted to just ask whether in terms of those mixed use developers going into previously less desirable districts in downtown areas, for example, like, Are they are they leading with student accommodation? are they leading with affordable housing and building in retail and street level activities? Is that typically the mix? Who's what are the what's the first entry point into that urban regeneration process?

RF: I think it's different I think, because Africa and cities located on Durban and Johannesburg don't have proper affordable housing, affordable accommodation, affordable housing policies, which require a certain percentage, it's unlikely that in the short term, that's going to be what's leading. And that's very unfortunate, because we've lost, let's say, 25 years of that, of any sort of privately delivered units in that space.

Urban regeneration in Durban, South Africa

What we're seeing is I suppose if we look at the work of Urban Lime and the city of Durban for example, what they found was that there was massive demand from small and micro businesses, but no inner city buildings, which provided for this smaller space needs.

So in one building, I think it's called Pioneer Place, empty for years. Each floor was compartmentalized into into sort of smaller units for musicians and tailors and seamstresses, and the entire building within a year was was fully occupied. And I think the same, you know, in parts of Cape Town where we see be in secret office buildings, you know, with Windows and views of the harbour and the ocean and, and the mountain are, again, almost within a year or two being converted into student accommodation just because of the massive demand.

So I think they'll always be, they'll always be response based on what people need and what the demand is. And I think in Durban, you could only really rent a massive floor plate in an office building. And so but there was a demand for from businesses. And in Cape Town and other places, there's a huge demand for well located student housing, because of the proximity of academic institutions and colleges.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of policy, we've seen that in areas that need regeneration, often it's, it's, there's either a lack of response or lack of investment, or there's a lack of incentive to develop students or affordable housing, or in cases where there is development, it's really speaking to the upper middle income micro units, when bid units. And again, that's just because that's the market that can afford that project without any subsidies or support from the government.

So we're, we're also seeing in some cases, industrial areas slightly changing, they're sort of more slightly more design and art firms moving in. But I think like various parts of the world, you know, the East End of London, that's generally how it happens, and quite slowly until the sort of glass tower start arriving. So I think it's in this case, it's really up to the public sector to, to earmark land available for social and affordable housing, to get those sites off the ground.

And to have, you know, a broader sector of the population benefit from the change, I think, as much as we don't like change, there are so many case studies around the world with the edges of cities, the semi industrial areas, the areas within five to 10 minutes of the center of the city changing, you know, the industrial areas are no longer needed in particular places, I think you will see even now, for example, you know, offices are no longer needed in particular places. So there's always going to be an evolution, it just about whether a public benefit is embedded into that. And whether it's, you know, topologies, and councils can be proactive, and in making sure that as that change happens, the public benefits over two or three decades.

Urban planning in social equity

MM: So at the city planning and legislation level, are there currently, incentives or even enough pressure being placed on on the private developers to incorporate elements of either an enhanced public realm or some element of social housing, which is something that we see a lot of in, in Europe, for example, you might expect to find that in South Africa, but sounds like perhaps at the moment that perhaps isn't happening or isn't happening at a at a sort of uniform level across the board?

No, it's not happening. I think firstly, as I mentioned earlier, the word cooperation, I think, in a, in a maturing or a young democracy, I suppose like, if you could think of the US or more developed societies, cooperation, lobbying, negotiating, it's, it's pretty much part of the culture, you know that you'll come to the table with 10 items, but you'll probably both only agree on six is Africa, we haven't quite gotten there, it seems to be all or nothing. And then, of course, with the absence of policy or incentives, the market simply won't respond. And I think we've, we've we've missed the we've missed the mark when it comes to public infrastructure as well.

So if a building can't include or meet all the requirements, then there could be alternative so I think it's called Section 16, or section 16 policy in the UK, where you need to or require to contribute to build the the nearest subway station, or to provide the station or to maintain a park and I think with those sort of new relationships, you simply have to start and and and I think given the pressure on local government budgets here, unfortunately, there'll be forced into that space, which will require that deals be made to ensure that let's say a new developer maintains a park over 20 years or develops spaces above the transport hub, but operates and maintains the transport have over 20 years.

So these these relationships now might seem complicated or outside of policy, but I think like we've seen with the water crisis in Cape Town with pandemic, the future often arrives. And we only seem to be responding because I can show you that the the current model of local governments here, which relies on property taxes, as a main revenue source, it's not really a viable approach. So I think, I think for the best, they'll be forced into partnerships, like the ones you've mentioned.

Challenges and opportunity in real estate social equity

MM: It strikes me that there is, as so often with, with South Africa, this complex mix of historical ties and the weight of past events on the present, and the struggle to liberate society in some way from that, and to sort of reinvent, but at the same time, on the flip side, there's just amazing opportunities. And every time I'm back there, you can see glimmers of hope of, of just fantastic work being done by visionary developers, perhaps not at the scale that you might like, but I think it's worth pointing that out, right?

I mean, it's like, I know, there's a lot that isn't working, but at the same time, as you go down there with with the right vision, and you can see what's going on, in some corners, and they might be, you know, the exceptions to the rule, rather than the standard of the norm. There are still there's just so much that can be done, I think we need to balance the two, right, because it must be so frustrating to be doing what you're doing and to be facing an uphill struggle. But at the same time that there is surely this sense of amazing opportunity, right and and ways to really have a tangible impact, not just on individual lives, but effectively on the future. Layout and, and livability of the cities that you're you're working in, right.

RF: Absolutely, I think the base of our work is also which I might have failed to mention is that, you know, if we get this right in, let's say, Cape Town, or Durban, it's really an exceptional quality of life. For the for the, for the majority, the weather is great. First of all, if you think of a city, like Durban, between their World Cup Stadium and the center, there are huge plots of land publicly owned, which would essentially give, you know, 1020 50,000 people, social housing, within five minutes walk on the beach fund, you know, sort of 345 Kilometer promenade, so we're not talking about simply giving people that access, we're talking about probably one of the highest qualities of life that could be delivered.

If you think about Cape Town, if we can improve people's travel time by just 3040 minutes, they'd have to go to bed at time to walk on the beach to go for a hike. So I think that's really the opportunity is that if you can start to provide a city for everyone, both in terms of housing and transport, they will have better access more time to be in some of the best places in the world, really. And I think that's why it's important to to frame the opportunity that way.

The cost of living is reasonable. The the amount of immunities that are available at no cost are numerous. The amount of parks and nature reserves that you could use without you know, without buying anything is incredible. So I think this is why we pushing so hard for these changes is just the I would say it's you know, it's if you give people more time and of course, a better way of living and improve their economic situation, they arguably are living in one of the best places they could.

MM: What have you got going on at the moment? What is the next 12 months or so look like for for your team and our future cities?

RF: At the moment, we are we are actually looking into the student accommodation space. We're looking into, into forming better connections across Africa. So expanding the kinds of work and projects we're having in the next few months looking more than a sort of Pan African level. And then yeah, we're continuing a lot of our research on, you know, we were inspired, for example, one tiny project were inspired by London's colorful crossings, you know, how do you raise awareness around community safety, and I think London delivered about 18 of those art inspired pedestrian crossings.

So we're trying to sort of ramp up that project and get through the red Tech with the city on that. And, and the yellow is something that is closer to my arches. We're looking at a 2014 horizon, infrastructure and spaces and what the city might need in the longer term, but Yeah, watch the space and they're always at any one point. 10 or 15 projects, and I should probably organize my thoughts better to to sort of, to present the punchier ones.

MM: Good on you that it's meaningful work that you're doing. I think that's that's the key message. So it's an if people want to reach out to you follow along, see what projects you do have coming over the next few months, and what's the best way for them to connect?

Yeah, so they could follow our future cities on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and then they could even just connect with me on my personal LinkedIn as well.

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.

Acoustic Comfort in Buildings: Healthy Building Interior Acoustics — Wellness Design Consultants

Risks of Structure Borne Noise in Buildings & Interiors

Risks of Structure Borne Noise in Buildings & Interiors

Human exposure to unfavorable noises and improperly regulated acoustics has been found to cause negative health and wellness impacts.

Factors such as a lack of acoustical privacy, speech intelligibility, and audio distractions can all impact occupant comfort, leading to acoustic discomfort. Excessive noise can lead to irritation, disturbed sleep, and long-term health issues such as cardiovascular disease and psychological problems. These issues can stem from both interior and external noise sources.

Acoustic comfort in healthy buildings

As such, acoustics and a well-designed sound environment are important considerations in healthy buildings, healthy indoor environments, and workplace wellness plans.

While every space is different, the primary risks of poor acoustics are diminished attention, productivity (due to inability to concentrate for long periods), and memory retention.

Those apply most directly to a learning or work environment while in a residential context there is also the risk of negatively impacting sleep quality.

Causes of Acoustic Discomfort in Buildings & Interiors

Design oversights such as loud HVAC equipment, improperly insulated spaces, and airborne noise can all contribute to poor acoustic comfort. The sound pressure level of these noises can significantly impact the acoustic comfort of a space. Structure borne noise, such as vibrations from pipe-related noise, can also contribute to acoustical discomfort. A general lack of acoustical privacy in zones that require deep work, or the dominance of hard interior surfaces that cause sound to literally bounce around an interior, can further exacerbate the issue.

Acoustical solutions in healthy buildings

To combat these issues, strategies such as planned and isolated HVAC systems, noise barriers, and the inclusion of suitably sound absorbing acoustic materials can all be relevant. Effective sound control measures are essential to ensure the wellbeing, comfort, and productivity of building occupants. With due attention paid upfront to an interior’s acoustics and sound insulation, as healthy building consultants we can help ensure the wellbeing, comfort, and productivity of building occupants once the fit-out is complete.

For details of healthy co-working offices specifically, see here.

Challenges of Sound Absorption in Open Plan Floor Plans

A recent shift to open-plan office layouts was intended to promote greater connectivity and interaction. The results have, most would agree, been mixed at best.

One of the primarily drawbacks by stripping back partitions from an office environment has been a corresponding rise in acoustical issues, noise problems, distractions and low level anxiety. Sound waves like nothing more than to bounce around a large space until they hit some kind of a sound barrier. In addition to internal noise sources, traffic noise can also contribute to acoustic discomfort in open-plan layouts.

If offices and learning spaces want to facilitate the highest levels of occupant productivity and focus, open-plan layouts require, upfront, an acoustics plan to compensate these issues.

Reducing sources of noise in advance, introducing a range of strategically positioned sound absorbing materials, offering spaces with complete acoustical privacy for certain tasks (such as sound booths - see photo above), and possibly introducing thoughtful background noise can, collectively, help to ensure a productive work or study environment.

Sources of Noise Distractions in Buildings & Interiors

Both indoor and outdoor noises can affect the quality of interior acoustics. However, interior noise sources can of course be more easily regulated within a design plan as an engineer, architect or facilities management has some sway over their location and operation.

For example, sound can emanate from sources such as HVAC systems, voices, footfall and occupants moving through a space (think of two female colleagues chatting animatedly while wearing heels, walking down a corridor with hardwood flooring), as well as from other mechanical equipment and electronics such as computers.

Impacts of Acoustic Distractions in Building Interiors

If not properly managed, sound can cause surprising effects on worker productivity, focus, motivation, and stress (Acoustics). One study showed that on average, workers lose eighty-six minutes of work a day due to noise-based distractions (Franklin).

In addition, it has been found that after an acoustic distraction, it can take around twenty-five minutes for someone to return to their task, and an additional eight to reach the original level of focus (Ecophon).

With sound in mind, research shows that a positive acoustic environment can reduce adrenaline by 30%, increase concentration performance by up to 50%, and improve motivation by 66% (Ecophon).

With impacts such as these, acoustic design should be a priority for businesses, creating comfortable, healthy spaces that increase worker productivity, focus and wellness.

Implementing Healthy Building Acoustic Strategies

Now that the problems associated with inadequate acoustic design are clear, what can we do to alleviate these impacts and promote healthy working environments? Proper planning, the inclusion of sound absorbing materials and dividers, as well as soundscapes are all beneficial strategies that can improve acoustic quality. Here we address each of these three in turn.

Acoustics Planning in a Healthy Building Strategy

The size and type of a space, demographics of people in that space, and the type of activities that will occur in that space all affect its acoustic priorities. It is important to first identify the potential sources of noise such as machinery and HVAC systems, both of which could affect interior noise levels.

When possible, the location and insolation requirements of these spaces should be considered early on to avoid unnecessary leaching of excess noise into workspaces.

In addition, in larger multi-use spaces, it is likely that different acoustical zones are required—such as louder common spaces for social activity and casual meetings, as well as quiet more private spaces for more focused work or study.

Although each space is different, there are strategies that can be commonly applied for all healthy indoor environments—with this type of acoustics planning being the first and most important strategy, acting as a guide for all other potential interventions.

Sound Absorbing Materials in Healthy Indoor Environments

When possible, sound absorbing materials should be implemented into the design strategy to reduce noise transmission. Use of acoustic sound absorbing materials on the floors, walls, ceilings, and desks or dividers in an office or study space are all options to reduce reverberation and increase comfort.

Suspended acoustical ceiling panels are often an effective starting point as they provide considerable sound absorption over the whole sound frequency spectrum. In addition, dividing walls and screens can be added to any space to provide privacy and extra sound absorption. There are then acoustic flooring underlay options as well as acoustic paints, wallpapers and decorative wall panels.

Different spaces require different responses clearly. So for example, in a place such as a restaurant or bar, you may want increased privacy between tables, intelligibility between tables a negative, while in a large boardroom or auditorium we absolutely want to facilitate speech from one end of the room to another.

Soundscapes in Wellbeing Interiors

The use of active acoustic treatments and what is known as ‘sound masking’ can be used to encourage consistent noise levels and increase sound privacy, decreasing acoustical distractions within a space by layering on top a variety of subtle sound interventions.

Such sounds can be interspersed throughout a space via speakers almost imperceptibly if needed. In one study, it was found that the installation of an active acoustical system decreased wasted time by 55%, providing huge potential to improve workspace performance (Browning).

Although background noise can be created in a variety of ways nature sounds to do so may provide additional benefits. Leveraging the concept of biophilia, nature sounds can provide a connection to the outside world. Specifically, it has been found that water sounds are especially effective at improving cognitive performance and creativity through sound masking (Browning).Sources

“Acoustics in Open Office Situations .” Ceilings & Interior Systems Construction Association, Jan. 2016.

Browning, William, and Dakota Walker. “AN EAR FOR NATURE: PSYCHOACOUSTIC STRATEGIES FOR WORKPLACE DISTRACTIONS & THE BOTTOM LINE.” Terrapin Bright Green, Terrapin Bright Green, 2018.

“Ecophon Office Guide: Welcome to the Sound of Nature.” Ecophon.

Franklin, Sydney. “Quiet, Please: How to Design Acoustics for an Open Plan Office - Architizer Journal.” Journal, 4 Nov. 2021, https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/acoustics-open-office-plan/.

WELL v2 Sound Concept

https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/wellv2/sound

Healthy building design strategies for nutrition & hydration

Healthy Building Interiors That Promote Nutrition & Hydration 

Just like adequate sleep and regular movement, nutrition and hydration play a key role in human health, meaning healthy building consultants need to consider how these elements of the building occupant experience will be affected by architectural, engineering and facilities management decisions made during the construction or refurbishment process.

While there are of course any number of external socio-cultural and psychological influences at play in occupant health, a building’s interiors can indeed should play a positive role in promoting healthy habits and behaviors. The leading healthy building standard ‘WELL’ even has an entire section devoted to the subject.

So how can healthy building consultants positively impact nutrition and hydration in particular for residents, office workers and students? The design of a healthy building should seamlessly integrate design strategies, policies and practices to encourage positive behavioral change.

The availability of healthy food choices and adequate numbers of filtered water stations on each floor can go a long way in this sense but we can go well beyond that into the layout of eating spaces, what is known as ‘strategic dining design’, educational signage and promotional messaging, the specification of rooftop gardens and vegetable boxes, even policies that specify the local sourcing of ingredients used in canteens, or healthy snack options in vending machines, for example.

Mindful Eating Spaces and Strategic Dining Design in Healthy Buildings

The design and layout of eating spaces in a healthy building as well as access to specific types of food and beverage options can have a tangible impact on occupant dietary choices over the long-term.

For example, communal eating spaces help to encourage a more mindful approach to eating, as well as social engagement, as opposed to eating alone in front of the TV say.

The WELL building standard is particularly committed to this idea of designated places for food intake as a key driver of overall occupant mental health and wellbeing.

Design of eating areas in healthy buildings

In addition, the WELL standard encourages designating eating times to increase the likelihood that people will eat in groups and reap the full benefits of a shared, collective experience one or more times each day (see WELL Nutrition section). 

Within healthy buildings, several other wellness interior design strategies can be put in place to promote nutrition and hydration further.

For example, eating away from home in an office or educational environment is often associated with poorer dietary habits, so including basic kitchen fixtures such as chopping boards, colanders and food prep knives, a microwave and generously sized refrigerators for storing food can all help make small, incremental improvements to occupant diets (see WELL Nutrition). 

Food display strategies in healthy buildings

In addition, in the case that food or drink is provided by a workplace or school cafeteria, for example, the display of this food can impact consumption habits.

In the context of a healthy building plan, an increase in the visibility of healthy food options makes such options convenient and top-of-mind. This can be done through strategies such as providing easily reachable fruits and vegetables in the line of site for each diner, by placing clearly visible drinking water access points, or even through a “healthy convenience” rapid checkout line. All of this helps reduce tendencies for sugary drinks, junk food options and sweet snacks.

Finally, the ambiance of the healthy interior space itself can impact how people interact with their food. For example, glaring lights and loud noises can cause frustration or low level anxiety, leading to reduced eating times, and overeating as a result (by not allowing the body time to recognize it has reached a point of satiety), both detrimental to nutrition, digestion and weight management (Anthes). 

Nutrition – promoting dining strategies for healthy interiors:

• Designated eating spaces

• Adequate food preparation and storage areas

• Priority given to healthy food in terms of visibility and convenience

• A comfortable, stress-free ambiance to encourage slow, mindful eating

Use of Signage Prompts and Labeling in healthy design interiors

The use of food-related signage and promotional messaging has been shown to impact our nutritional choices. Strategies such as including nutritional information, deliberately promoting healthy products, or using signage to guide consumers towards healthy products are all useful interventions that leverage environmental psychology principles. 

Including nutritional information and health warnings on food can increase a healthy building occupant’s chances of making an informed food consumption decision. Whether that be allergy related, vitamin content, or calorie-based, the information can be subtly communicated without being overpowering or didactic.

In addition, food advertising has been shown to have direct and indirect impacts on consumers and nutrition. Children are especially susceptible to advertising, which may suggest that in places such as schools, promoting and marketing healthy options may have a positive impact over say, the extreme alternative of selling out to big brands pushing their sweetened products to children for example.

Healthy food advertising has been proven to increase the selection of healthy food choices. Although this concept is often applied to places like grocery stores, it can be used in cafeterias and workplace eating rooms to encourage healthy habits as well.

Along the vein of advertising, smart signage and visual guides can help nudge more nutritious food and drink choices. Visual aids can be used in and around eating areas to encourage the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and healthier drinking sources such as water.

Something as simple as an arrow guiding consumers towards healthier options can influence decisions. Educational signage can also be placed in locations outside of the eating areas—for example, colorful signs denoting the benefits of water consumption and healthy meals. 

Nutrition-promoting visuals and signage in healthy interiors: 

• Include nutritional information on and near food

• Advertise healthy options (rather than processed food products)

• Use signage and visual guides to promote nutrition

Local Sourcing of Food for healthy building occupants

Locally grown food not only increases access to healthy nutrition options for a healthy building occupant, it also provides social and environmental benefits. When possible, community or educational gardens should be integrated into wellness real estate projects, be they residential, workplace or learning environments.

It has been shown that people who are engaged in gardening have higher levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as improving other aspects of life—such as community connectivity, educational opportunities, and anxiety reduction (WELL). So a communal rooftop garden, no matter how small, can be a modest investment with tangible impacts for the overall healthy building strategy.

Gardens on a project site can provide opportunities for building occupants to connect with the land and the food they eat through learning, as well as acting as a local source of produce for cafeterias, if delivered at scale.

In the case of children, gardening can increase food knowledge and increase their willingness to try more vegetables, breaking down the barrier between the food on their plate and the natural cycle of growing / harvesting (Anthes). Eating habits are learned through our environmental cues—making gardening a very powerful tool to increase our knowledge and connection to nutrition, especially in students and children. 

Depending on density constraints, the inclusion of rooftop gardens is becoming more popular in healthy buildings as they can be used even in high-density urban locations, while also providing a wealth of environmental benefits such as cooling / reducing the urban heat island effect, increased biodiversity and direct access to the calming, restorative benefits of nature for the building occupants. 

Local Food Sourcing Strategies for Healthy Buildings: 

• Source food locally and provide healthy produce to cafeterias and building occupants

• Include gardening to connect occupants to food

• Use gardens as an educational and community fostering opportunity

Healthy Building Certification Systems on design for Nutrition and Hydration

Various healthy building certification systems provide a guide to nutrition-based health and design strategies. Most notably, WELL, Fitwel, and the Living Building Challenge offer insight and place varying levels of importance on nutrition and hydration. 

The WELL Building Standard contains an entire concept, ‘Nourishment’ that discusses the importance of healthy diets and how our environments can promote this goal.

This standard focuses on factors such as increasing access to fruits and vegetables, nutritional transparency, food advertising, production, and preparation, as well as the concept of mindful eating (WELL). More information on the nourishment concept within the WELL healthy building standard can be found here. 

Fitwel contains a ‘Food and Beverage’ Standard and a ‘Health Programming’ section that mention strategies to promote healthy eating.

This standard recommends certain types of on-site dining services and what food should be available, as well as implementing policies such as nutrition programs, healthy cooking classes or gardening workshops. More information on the Fitwel healthy building standard can be found here. 

Although the Living Building Challenge green building standard doesn’t have a section specifically focused on nutrition, it has an imperative that focuses on urban agriculture.

This section mentions the importance of dedicating a space for growing food on site, connecting people to locally grown healthy nourishment options. More about the Place Petal and urban agriculture imperative can be found here. 

Sources:

WELL v2 Wellness Real Esatte Standard

Fitwel healthy building standard

Living Building Challenge green building standard

Anthes, Emily. “3. STAIR MASTERS.” The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness, Scientific American/Picador, New York, 2021. 

How to use lighting in a healthy building plan

The Role of Light in a Healthy Building / Wellness Interior

Humans evolved over millions of years in outdoor environments, intimately in tune with nature and the regular cycle of sunlight and darkness. 

Today, many of us in urban environments seemingly spend the majority of our lives indoors, bringing with it the risk of a near total disconnection from this fundamental piece of evolutionary history. 

A healthy building strategy is designed to counter-balance this tendency, integrating concerns over energy-efficiency and occupant wellbeing as well as this biophilic (nature-inspired) lighting strategy. 

How does light in a health building impact wellbeing? Primarily the key data points are around productivity and concentration, energy levels, mood, and sleep quality. 

What lighting strategies does a healthy building consultant have at their disposal to positively impact the situation? 

In terms of space planning and interior architecture, we start with ensuring enhanced access to daylight not just around the perimeter of a floor plate but right through to its core. 

This is then combined with consideration for glare reduction to minimize the risk of daylight bouncing off screens and other surfaces, a visual distraction and source of low level anxiety. 

Thirdly, the implementation of circadian lighting and smart lighting systems in tune with the daily 24hr cycle help fill an interior with suitable tones of light according to the time of day, season and location. 

Finally, healthy building and wellness real estate certification systems such as WELL, LEED and BREEAM provide guidance via global benchmarks for wellbeing designers to use.

Healthy Lighting in Wellness Interiors

A carefully considered lighting plan is a fundamental concept for a healthy indoor environment nowadays - whether its purpose is for learning, working, healing, or sleeping.

Circadian lighting strategies and the incorporation of daylight both seek to align occupants to their natural rhythms, while considerations such as glare reduction are essential when designing more specific lighting needs. Lastly, and arguably most importantly, the formation of a lighting plan is key to consider all design possibilities and optimize positive health impacts. 

Connecting building occupants to their innate rhythms and environments, a trend within the world of biophilic design and its near cousin, healthy design has been shown to provide numerous health benefits, and can be achieved through the incorporation of healthy lighting design. 

As with many healthy building strategies, a holistic design approach that finds ways to incorporate nature-inspired principles to connect us with the natural world tend to bring the greatest rewards in wellbeing terms. 

How does a wellbeing designer leverage Daylight in a healthy building?

Natural daylight is one of the most important elements in green building interiors, an essential building block of health and wellness interior design”. 

In addition to synchronizing us with our circadian rhythms, natural light has been found to promote an improvement in mood, alertness, concentration, and faster cognitive processing (Determan).

For academic learning or professional work environments, natural light has been proven in numerous studies to reduce absenteeism, increase job satisfaction and productivity, and even increase student test scores (Kellert). 

Daylight has also been shown to increase patient recovery times, which from a healthcare perspective can provide a multitude of other indirect benefits (Taddonio). 

In addition, one study showed that indoor spaces with daylighting contained fewer bacteria than those without (WELL Building  Standard).

Daylight can be incorporated into a healthy building through strategies such as adequate windows, sidelights, and skylights, integrating illuminance and natural daily rhythms into a space. 

In addition to solely the volume and intensity of light being brought into a space, when incorporating windows, considerations such as the quality of external views also matter, and indeed whether the windows are operable. 

Natural landscapes or views onto internal gardens provide additional biophilic benefits, while operable windows can provide natural ventilation advantages.

How does wellness architecture reduce Glare Reduction in a healthy building?

Other light-based considerations in a healthy interior include the control of surface glare, which can increase the visual experience of occupants in a space.

Glare is essentially the excessive brightness of light, which can occur from the source directly, through reflection off other surfaces, or from extreme lighting contrasts in a space (WELL). 

In general, glare can cause visual discomfort such as headaches and eye fatigue, even leading to migraines if not properly monitored (WELL). 

The source of light, lighting control (such as dimming capabilities), surface reflectivity, and general lighting layout should be considered to reduce the negative impacts of glare. In addition, shading and overhangs can be used to offset some lighting contrasts. 

When natural light is incorporated into spaces, extreme illuminance contrasts can occur, so it is important for wellness architects to regulate the amount and location of light that enters a space to ensure the most harmonious lighting strategies.

What is Circadian Lighting in a healthy building?

The potential benefits of circadian lighting are considerable, making this type of lighting an increasingly common feature in wellness real estate and wellbeing interior design projects around the world. Circadian rhythm lighting systems are strategically designed to positively affect our health, alertness and productivity through the regulation of light tone and intensity during each 24hr cycle.

When our circadian rhythms are disrupted, most commonly from exposure to bright light after dark or insufficient illumination during the day, mental wellbeing issues such as sleep disruption and low levels of anxiety can easily arise (WELL).

Circadian lighting is an innovative new trend within the world of healthy design that follows the circadian rhythm - something like a 24-hour internal clock.

These lighting systems are designed to reflect nature’s daily light cycle, prompting periods of mental alertness in the morning and afternoon with light from the blue-white end of the spectrum, before slowly fading into amber hues in the evenings and again in the early mornings.

The idea is to reduce the disruptive effects from artificial light on our body’s natural rhythms through smart, multi-sensory lighting design. Factors such as the duration, timing, and hue of light exposure are important to achieve natural, circadian light quality and improve occupant wellbeing.

How to use a Lighting Plan in a healthy indoor environment project?

As alluded to previously, the various strategies of healthy lighting are inevitably intertwined, and therefore must be considered in one cohesive lighting strategy for wellbeing interiors and healthy buildings. 

For example, daylighting incorporation is essentially a “free” way to integrate circadian lighting in a space, yet without proper glare control it can cause visual discomfort for occupants. Because of scenarios such as these, it is important to incorporate a complete lighting plan to ensure harmony between the various strategies. This plan should incorporate occupant use of the space according to each zone, as well as the type of task in question.

The creation of a thoughtful operations schedule and lighting layout in the design stage is a necessary approach to consider all stakeholders and increase occupant health and comfort. 

When daylight, electric light, color, space use, and the characteristics of building users are considered together, we can maximize healthy building occupant wellbeing. As with any design strategy, an integrated cross-departmental approach is essential for success.

Healthy Building Certification benchmarks on lighting

Certification systems such as LEED and WELL provide detailed guidance on wellness lighting strategies. LEED has several credits on the topic, while WELL contains an entire “Light” concept that investigates more specific strategies. 

LEED contains an Interior Lighting credit, which focuses on glare and lighting control, and mentions factors such as color rendering and surface reflectivity (LEED). In addition, there is a credit focused on Daylight which mentions the importance of circadian rhythms, connection to the outdoors, and the energy reducing environmental benefits of daylight, as with most all LEED credits.

WELL contains a plethora of information on the subject of light, going in depth on all aspects of healthy lighting strategies. All categories mentioned above (circadian lighting, daylight, glare reduction, and lighting plan) are included in WELL credits, as well as several other more specific distinguishing factors.

See the WELL “Light” concept here for more information.

When considering how to incorporate healthy lighting into a space, LEED and WELL both provide research-based solutions that can act as a guide for lighting design. 

Sources

Determan, Jim, et al. “THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIC LEARNING SPACES ON STUDENT SUCCESS.” Oct. 2019. 

Taddonio. “Energy-Efficient Hospital Lighting Strategies Pay Off Quickly.” 2011.
LEED Credit Library: Indoor Environmental Quality

https://www.usgbc.org/credits?Category=%22Indoor+environmental+quality%22

WELL: Lighting Concept

https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/v2.1/light

Ventilation and healthy building design

indoor air quality / healthy building certification / ventilation rates / healthy indoor environment / consultants

kaiterra indoor air quality monitor

What is ventilation in a healthy building plan?

There has never been a more urgent time to consider an enhanced ventilation strategy as part of a healthy indoor environment. Why does this ventilation matter and what can landlords, developers and workplaces do about it?

‘Ventilation’ describes the cyclical process of supplying outdoor air and removing the existing indoor air through either natural or mechanical methods. 

Natural ventilation in a healthy building strategy aims to introduce outdoor air into a space thanks to operable windows, doorways and ceiling vents for example, without relying on electricity. This approach typically benefits from an accompanying CO2 monitor plan to ensure healthy indoor air at all times.

Mechanical ventilation for a healthy indoor environment meanwhile does the same albeit in a far more calculated and energy intensive manner via a powered system of vents, piping, filters and fans.

Mechanical systems should ideally be designed with the anticipated occupant numbers and type of activity in mind; for example a busy gym full of cardio machines will require a different ventilation rate than a boardroom used for occasional meetings.

A mixed or hybrid ventilation model would deploy a combination of both healthy building strategies but in all three cases the ultimate purpose remains the same - to increase occupant comfort and create a healthy indoor environment by removing dust and particulates, unpleasant odors, CO2 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that off-gas from toxic materials in furniture, fittings and adhesives.

Ventilation and indoor air quality for workplace wellness

From a workplace wellness perspective, adequate ventilation rates are fundamental to ensuring healthy indoor air that in turn plays a role in promoting cognitive function and reducing the transmission of viruses, amongst other things.  

Ventilation in healthy building certifications

It is also worth noting that ventilation rates are often designated by regional codes, as well as healthy building certifications such as the USGBC’s LEED, BREEAM and WELL. This means a healthy building consultant and/or MEP engineer can be a helpful resource when creating and implementing a comprehensive wellbeing interiors or workplace wellness strategy. 

Finally, for home upgrade to indoor air, there is also the option of a standalone air purifier such as those made by Dyson for smaller spaces (25m2-50m2 let’s say). These are limited in impact compared to a mechanical system but still represent a viable option in certain circumstances, for example in a bedroom for a sleeper with asthma or allergies.

Healthy indoor environments and air filtration

Filtration is a key aspect of ventilation, this is the process of removing potentially harmful particulates from the outside air intake before that air is sent into the building interiors. 

Air filtration is done via increasingly advanced filters in the ventilation system, meaning this is an area where we as healthy building consultants can make a tangible difference simply by encouraging an MEP Manager or consultant engineer to upgrade the filter, for example.

A High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter removes dust, mold, pollen and particulates. The Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) is a 1-20 scale that measures the effectiveness of these filters and is commonly mentioned in building certification systems as an indication of enhanced indoor air quality. 

A MERV 13 or above filter is now seen as the gold standard - with local equivalents applicable - the higher the number the greater the removal of small particles from the air. Note that all filters require regular maintenance and upkeep as part of an ongoing healthy building strategy delivered by facilities management.

In contemporary buildings, standard practice is to use mechanical ventilation with a filtration system but natural ventilation and other more advanced strategies can be used to reduce energy use in certain specific locations and with adequate planning by the engineers and architecture team. Simply opening a lot of windows and hoping for the best is not a healthy indoor air strategy!

UV light for enhanced indoor air quality

Anti-bacterial ultraviolet (UV) light systems can be incorporated into an indoor air management plan to reduce the risk of harmful organisms lingering in the indoor air. This system can be used in tandem with other ventilation systems or on its own, and uses UV light to kill airborne pathogens. 

Using UV light systems to enhance the indoor air quality is especially relevant in spaces with high occupant densities such as restaurants, in places where occupants are especially vulnerable such as hospitals, or in health clubs and gyms where optimizing the health of members is a priority.

RESET Air certification process

Healthy Building Certification System Benchmarks and Guidelines

There are several guidelines to help determine the ventilation rates for appropriate indoor air quality levels. ASHRAE Standard 62.1 designates “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” and is used as an industry benchmark as a minimum value, rather than a target to aim for. 

As is often the case when it comes to consulting for healthy buildings and healthy indoor environments, we are in fact looking to go beyond the bare minimums to achieve excellence, wherever possible.

In addition to the ASHRAE standard, certification systems such as LEED and WELL include numerous credits denoting indoor air quality and ventilation guidelines. 

In the LEED standard, for example, a MERV value of 13 or higher contributes to the “Enhanced Indoor Air Quality Strategies” credit. In the WELL standard ‘Air Filtration credit’, different MERV values are recommended based on the average outdoor air quality levels.

In addition, both the LEED and WELL standards denote the importance of maintaining proper air quality throughout the construction, pre-occupancy and occupancy phases. 

Strategies such as a full flush-out (the elimination of indoor air pollutants that were accumulated during the construction phase through the introduction of outdoor air), replacement of air filters pre-occupancy and ongoing indoor air quality testing are all recommended strategies to ensure enduring air quality levels.

The guidelines and recommendations for the LEED standard are present within the Indoor Environmental Quality credit category, while WELL’s reside within the Air concept.

The LEED and WELL standards focus on different things—LEED places emphasis on the environmental impacts of the built environment, while WELL focuses on the human health and wellbeing side of the built environment. 

Both standards overlap closely in the arena of indoor air quality, ventilation, and filtration however, reflecting the importance of this aspect for a healthy indoor environment and minimizing a building’s environmental impact.

Indoor Air Quality Monitors as part of a healthy building plan

In many green building certification systems, constant monitoring of indoor air quality is a key strategy. Indoor air quality can range greatly throughout the day depending on factors such as outdoor air quality and interior pollution sources, which can all affect what the optimal ventilation rates should be to maintain healthy conditions.

RESET Air advocates for commercial grade air quality monitors connected to the cloud as a way to monitor and assess indoor air quality factors such as airborne particles, temperature, humidity and CO2. Constant monitoring provides a level of transparency and insight that can in turn help to reduce wasted energy costs, not just make for a healthy indoor environment.

See Kaiterra here https://www.kaiterra.com/en/index/

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation

Proper ventilation and HVAC filtration systems are important components of a healthy indoor air quality plan however due consideration should also be given to additional factors, such as healthy materials, outdoor air quality, green cleaning policies, entryway systems (walk-off mats) and pest management protocols.

If consistently delivered, suitable ventilation rates and healthy indoor air quality supports occupant wellbeing, promotes concentration and productivity, helps improve attention and memory, and can in reduce the possible spreading of viruses indoors. 

A cohesive, joined-up indoor environmental quality plan is required that may well involve some combination of healthy building consultants, architects, interior designers, mechanical engineers and facilities management. 

Sources:

Allen, Joseph. “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.” For Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, https://forhealth.org/9_Foundations_of_a_Healthy_Building.February_2017.pdf. 

“Upper-Room Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation/uvgi.html. 

Benefits of Biophilic Design in Schools: From Nurseries to Universities — Wellness Design Consultants

Nurseries, schools and universities can leverage healthy building strategies to facilitate learning - here we cover the role of biophilic design, healthy materials, indoor air quality, light and restorative spaces

How can wellbeing design be used in schools?

The cultivation of a healthy learning environment goes well beyond curriculum, teaching staff, physical activity and the canteen menu - by implementing evidence-based design inspired by biophilia and healthybuildingprinciples, we can create educational spaces maximized for learning and happiness. Biophilic design can significantly improve emotional well-being by reducing stress levels and promoting overall mental health. Incorporating natural elements such as plants, water, and natural light into educational spaces is crucial for enhancing student performance and well-being.

How do we do this? By leveraging the latest thinking around healthy materials, indoor air quality, light and set pieces known as ‘restorative spaces‘.

Children are especially sensitive to **environment

Using Healthy Materials in educational environments

If no expertise on sustainable, non-toxic, and natural materials is delivered to a project team during the design phase, materials can find their way into an interior that will negatively impact the health of building occupants.

This happens primarily through off-gassing of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and the emission of toxic chemicals into the air through the processes of natural

sources of pollutants in nursery and school buildings

Unhealthy materials have the potential to increase indoor air pollutants, which have been found to decrease cognitive functioning and therefore diminish student productivity. The hotspots for such issues tend to be insulation materials, flooring, paints, adhesives and furniture.

We focus on the internal make-up of building materials and their health impacts, a research process facilitated by Health Product Declarations (HPDs) that provide a clear, concise overview of a product's ingredients.

Deploying a Healthy Materials strategy in a nursery, school or university can:

• Reduce negative health impacts from toxic chemicals

• Improve indoor air quality

• Reduce symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome

Paul Chevalier School, France - an example of a healthy learning environment using biophilic design

Enhanced Indoor Air Quality in nurseries, schools, universities

Indoor air quality has a tangible impact on human performance and if not properly established, maintained and monitored, can negatively impact learning and productivity

After steps have been taken to reduce pollutants coming from materials and surfaces in a space (see above), proper cleaning and ventilation practices should be incorporated to maintain good air quality.

Numerous studies have linked cognitive success, absenteeism rates and Sick Building Syndrome symptoms to indoor air quality and ventilation rates (see here).

Ventilation and indoor air quality

Higher ventilation rates are associated with lower rates of absenteeism and Sick Building Syndrome symptoms as well as improvements in test scores, while poor ventilation rates were found to decrease attention and increase school days missed.

One study showed that higher ventilation rates led to 1.6 fewer days missed, while another demonstrated that students had higher scores on math, reading and science tests when the classrooms were properly ventilated (Allen / see sources below). 

In summary, deploying an enhanced indoor air quality plan in a nursery, school or university can:

• Increase attention rates

• Reduce Sick Building Syndrome symptoms

• Decrease absenteeism

• Improve student test scores / cognitive function

The importance of lighting design in nursery, school and university settings

Consideration around natural light as well as electric lighting solutions is an important factor in creating a healthy indoor environment for learning, both for its biophilia benefits and added focus through details such as task lighting solutions. Incorporating ample natural light in educational settings enhances student performance, well-being, and productivity. Maximizing natural light can create a bright and inviting atmosphere, improve overall mental, physical, and emotional health, and contribute to energy efficiency and ecological sustainability.

Daylight and biophilia

Daylight connects students to the natural world, fostering a closer connection with nature. Natural light has a positive impact on students' mental health by reducing stress and promoting emotional balance.

In addition, enhance exposure to natural light as part of a biophilia plan synchronizes us with our body’s circadian rhythms, which when optimized has been shown to increase worker performance (Allen / see sources below).

Task lighting (e.g. smaller format table lamps) is another tool to boost learning environments for activities such as reading or writing, which rely heavily on visual performance.

It was found that a group of third graders who had access to focus lighting for a year had a 36% increase in oral reading fluency, while a group without focus lighting had only a 17% increase (Allen / see sources below).

Circadian lighting

In addition, the type of artificial light has been proven to have an impact - a study found that blue-enriched light causes higher levels of concentration, alertness, and cognitive performance, as well as higher test scores for students (Allen / see below). 

In summary, such lighting strategies as part of a biophilia plan can:

• Improve student mood

• Increase learner alertness and concentration

• Increase student cognitive processing speed and performance

• Improve learner test scores

Restorative Spaces in nursery, school, university settings

Classroom design and orientation can be just as important as the elements that function within the space. The incorporation of small restorative spaces that have been deliberately created using the biophilic design concept for example can help relieve stress and mental fatigue amongst students, providing a modest mental refresh. 

WELL Certification and restorative space design

There are many ways to designarestorative space, and the WELL Building Standard (see more on that here) aims to provide guidance on what can be most successful, using its evidence-based design approach. While the creative design work still needs to come from us, leveraging research data and scientific rigour is a key part of the process in order to deliver tangible results once the space is completed.

Integrating outdoor spaces into school design can provide students with access to natural landscapes and green roofs, fostering sensory interaction with the environment.

According to the WELL ‘Mind’ concept, restorative spaces should include natural elements**/ biophilic design** and have thoughtful lighting, sound, thermal and material choices. In addition, an element of privacy and the inclusion of calming colors, textures and forms is beneficial for recharging and refocusing. See our Biofilico design example image above for this.

Simply creating a place of quiet and calm can have an impact on student performance. For example, a French study found that test scores decreased by 5.5 points for each 10 dB increase in noise levels above the average noise level (~50 dB) (Allen / see sources below).

Biophilic design not only supports mental health but also contributes to the physical health of students by reducing stress and promoting overall well-being.

Schools and learning environments can, if not designed thoughtfully using healthy interior design principles, cause low level stress for students and even increase mental fatigue, so the incorporation of places or respite and restoration are key to providing kids and students with a nourishing place to perform their best.

In summary, the integration of biophilic design in restorative spaces can:

• Relieve mental fatigue and stress

• Recharge and rejuvenate

• Promote increased learning and academic success

• Provide a nature connection

Biophilic Design in learning environments such as nurseries and schools

Biophilic design has been shown to improve cognitive function through increased memory, concentration, creativity, and productivity—all key factors in learning environments. See more here.

A recent study looking at the impact of biophilic design on learning spaces found that the reduction in student stress was much greater in a biophilic classroom when compared with control. In addition, learning outcomes were greatly improved—math test score averages increased more than three times higher in the biophilic design classroom over a seven-month period.

Finally, 7.2% more of the students in the biophilic learning environment tested at grade level when compared with the control classroom (Determan). This study provides encouraging outcomes between biophilic design and improvements in student learning outcomes, wellbeing, and the potential for success.

In addition, the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) correlates increased nature exposure to a faster recovery from mental fatigue and stress (Jimenez).

The use of biophilic design to enhance learning environments connects to many of the strategies mentioned above—such as the incorporation of natural elements in restorative spaces or materials, and the use of daylighting to enhance learning capabilities. Occasionally these lines can blur but only because the biophilic design concept encompasses so many healthy design strategies within it.

In summary, biophilic design principles in learning environments can:

• Improve cognitive functioning and productivity

• Enhance creativity and memory

• Increase test scores and improve learning outcomes

• Reduce stress and provide restorative benefits

Overall, the atmosphere and personality of learning spaces has the potential to positively influence student performance. Healthy material choices, indoor air quality monitoring, lighting, and the incorporation of restorative spaces and biophilic design are tools available to us as healthy interior specialists, so we believe they can and should be deployed to full effect for this purpose!

SourcesAllen, Joseph G, and John D Macomber. Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity. Harvard University Press, 2020.

Barbiero, Giuseppe, et al. “Bracing Biophilia: When Biophilic Design Promotes Pupil’s Attentional Performance, Perceived Restorativeness and Affiliation with Nature.” Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2021,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01903-1

Determan, Jim, et al. “THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIC LEARNING SPACES ON STUDENT SUCCESS.” Oct. 2019.

Jimenez, Marcia P. et al. “Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.9 (2021): 4790. Crossref. Web.

mental Health benefits of biophilic indoor environment in virtual reality - harvard research study

A review of Harvard's research into the wellbeing benefits of a biophilic space experienced through virtual reality

Four virtual reality office layouts. Note: indoor green incorporates green plants, water, natural materials and biomorphic shapes into indoor space; outdoor view incorporates long-distance natural view and daylight into indoor space through windows; combination incorporates biophilic elements from indoor green and outdoor view.

Source: Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality. Harvard study.

Harvard has delivered two different studies on the wellbeing benefits of exposure to a biophilic space in an online world, the first in 2019 and a follow-up study in 2020, both of which explore the positive impact of biophilic interiors experienced through a virtual reality headset.

A biophilic design consultant perspective

Why is this of interest to us as biophilic design consultants? We already work with a combination of direct biophilia (live plants or a fish tank for example) and indirect biophilia (analogues such as botanical wallpaper or inspirational landscape photos) in our projects as biophilic designers and healthy building experts, utilizing biophilic principles to reconnect urban dwellers with nature. Yet as we enter the age of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse, it is surely pertinent to consider the potential of online, virtual reality worlds that incorporate biophilic design too.

benefits of biophilic design examples in online worlds

In summary, the Harvard studies show that biophilic elements in the online environments experienced by participants did increase physiological stress recovery by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety levels in respondents, demonstrating significant physical health benefits, as we might expect by inferring from real-world biophilic design studies.

The implications of this are profound, consider a fast-paced office environment where no natural light or nature views are available, no park or gardens nearby, and no budget available for a complete biophilic interior fit-out of the space but there is scope to create a virtual reality pod for stressed-out staff to relax in when they need a break.

By providing a biophilic virtual world for them to spend time in, we can now predict, thanks to this rigorous Harvard research, to have a tangible impact on stress recovery and anxiety levels.

Interestingly, the study also highlights how certain biophilic design examples were more effective than others for certain types of tasks. For example, window access provides stimulation for creativity but having no window may be better for tasks that require deep concentration.

harvard research into biophilic environments

In the Harvard 2019 VR study - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ina.12593 - the methods deployed were as follows:

• 4 types of rooms (3 biophilic, one non biophilia) each repeated in an open and enclosed environment, incorporating green spaces to enhance mental health, productivity, and community bonding

• Natural elements: “visual connection with nature” and “dynamic and diffuse light”

• Green plants, access to natural light and view

• Natural analogues: “biomorphic forms and patterns” and “material connection with nature”

• Products made/looked like natural materials, furniture w/biomorphic shapes

• Combined: combination of both

research results of virtual reality biophilic interior spaces

• Participants in open biophilic spaces had more physiological stress reduction than in enclosed biophilic spaces

• Participants in enclosed biophilic space had higher creativity score increase than in open biophilic spaces

• Increased green exposure = significant decreases in blood pressure

• Natural elements and combination had highest increase in RMSSD (stress relief)

• Biophilic environments increased creativity due to their calming influence

• Window access= better for creativity (more stimulation)

• No window = better for concentration tasks (more attention for task)

• Participants preferred to maximize natural light, having a view, and indoor plants over natural materials (wood) and biomorphic forms

• Participants spent most of their time looking at biophilic elements

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Fig. 2. Experimental procedure. Note: IEQ: indoor environmental quality; BP: blood pressure; STAI: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; HRV: heart rate variability; SCL: skin conductance level.

Source: Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality. Harvard.

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Review of the follow-up study into mental health benefits of biophilic environments online

In the Harvard 2020 virtual reality study into the positive impact of biophilic environments in a virtual reality context - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019336347 - the methods deployed were as follows:

• 4 rooms made up of a non biophilic space, an indoor green space, a space with an outdoor view onto a natural landscape, and a combination of biophilic interiors and views out onto nature

• Window vs. no window (big difference in office spaces)

• Outdoor view: long distance natural views of trees, grass, water, daylight (windows positioned same place as living walls in indoor green), intangible elements, natural light

• Biophilic tangible elements

• Indoor green: living walls, potted plants, water (fish tank), natural materials/biomorphic shapes, tangible elements

research results of exposure to biophilic environments in virtual reality

• RMSSD (stress relief)

• Non biophilic vs. Indoor green: 2.1% faster indoor green (sig. Better recovery in this environment)

• Heart Rate Levels : throughout recovery pd, biophilic settings caused faster recovery

• 70% of the time in Indoor green people had a complete recovery of heart rate

• 72% of the time in combination people had a complete recovery of heart rate

• General Trends

• Indoor green more physiological stress recovery in the built environment

• Improves participant blood pressure the most (along with all biophilic conditions)

• Outdoor view: more anxiety reduction

• Combination: between the two

• Improved both (2nd best for both)

• Baseline stress conditions were either met or went even lower under biophilic conditions

Design Principles

Biophilic design principles are the foundation of creating spaces that promote well-being and a connection to nature. These principles guide the incorporation of natural elements into interior spaces to create a harmonious and restorative environment. By integrating natural elements such as plants, water features, and natural materials, biophilic design aims to mimic the natural world, fostering a sense of tranquility and balance. These principles not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of a space but also contribute to the physical and mental health of its occupants, making them feel more connected to nature and improving their overall well-being.

Natural Light

Natural light is a fundamental element of biophilic design. It has a profound impact on human health and well-being, influencing our circadian rhythms, mood, and cognitive function. Maximizing natural light in interior spaces can be achieved through various design strategies, such as:

• Orienting buildings to optimize natural light exposure

• Using transparent and translucent materials to filter and diffuse natural light

• Incorporating skylights, clerestory windows, and solar tubes to bring natural light deep into buildings

• Minimizing obstructions and using reflective surfaces to bounce natural light throughout spaces

By prioritizing natural light, biophilic design not only enhances the visual appeal of a space but also supports human health and well-being, creating environments that are both beautiful and beneficial.

Natural Materials

Natural materials are essential in biophilic design, as they provide a tangible connection to the natural world. These materials can be used in various ways, such as:

• Wood: a natural, renewable resource that can be used for flooring, walls, and furniture

• Stone: a durable, natural material that can be used for flooring, walls, and countertops

• Plants: living, breathing organisms that can be used to purify the air, improve acoustics, and enhance aesthetics

• Natural fibers: such as wool, cotton, and hemp, which can be used for upholstery, carpets, and textiles

Incorporating natural materials into interior spaces not only enhances their aesthetic appeal but also promotes a sense of well-being and connection to the natural world.

What are the Benefits of Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design offers several key benefits, enhancing both your mental and physical well-being. By incorporating natural elements into your home, this approach can create a soothing and restful environment.

Now, let's explore how you can implement these benefits with specific design choices.

Improves our mind restoration and productivity

Biophilic design enhances cognitive function by fostering an environment that promotes mental restoration. By incorporating nature-inspired designs, you can create an atmosphere that supports higher levels of creativity, problem-solving, and productivity. This connection to nature not only boosts concentration but also contributes to a sense of calm, allowing for a more balanced and stress-free mindset.

Physical Health Benefits

Besides its effects on mental well-being biophilic designs also affect physical health. Accessing natural light and landscapes has helped patients improve sleeping and reduce symptoms in the treatment of seasonal afflictions. Integrated biophysical elements have become an increasingly prevalent trend in healthcare facilities.

Stress Reduction and Improved Cognitive Function

Biophilic design is capable of dramatically reducing stress levels and promoting mental health. Exposure to the natural world can lead to lower concentrations of cortisol which is a hormone released by stress. Integrated natural elements within an interior environment give individuals the opportunity to engage in visual, tactile or sensory experiences that create a soothing effect. Furthermore, biophilic design is associated with a better cognition and memory. The researchers say green-certified buildings score better on cognitive function tests than buildings with no certification in the U.S.

Connection to Nature in Urban Environments

The biophilicity of architecture has evolved as we move towards urban environments and the biosphere becomes vital in connecting urban and rural communities. Urban areas usually do not have direct access to natural features, however a thoughtful design intervention might bring the advantages of nature into city centres. Public spaces, including parks, rooftop gardens and facade greens, provide a way to experience nature's healing benefits. Urban planners and architects incorporate increasingly biophilic ideas within their designs for sustainable, healthy and attractive cities.

Implementing Biophilic Design

Implementing biophilic design principles requires a thoughtful and intentional approach. Here are some strategies for incorporating biophilic design into interior spaces:

• Conduct a site analysis to identify opportunities for natural light, ventilation, and views

• Incorporate natural materials and elements, such as wood, stone, and plants, into the design

• Use biophilic design elements, such as water features, green walls, and natural art, to create a sense of connection to nature

• Consider the psychological and emotional impact of design decisions on occupants

• Engage with stakeholders and occupants to ensure that the design meets their needs and promotes well-being

By thoughtfully integrating biophilic design principles, we can create interior spaces that not only look beautiful but also support the physical and mental health of their occupants.

The Role of Natural Elements in Biophilic Design

Natural elements play a crucial role in biophilic design, as they provide a tangible connection to the natural world. These elements can be used in various ways, such as:

• Visual connections: providing views of nature, such as windows, skylights, and green roofs

• Non-visual connections: incorporating natural elements, such as plants, water features, and natural materials, into the design

• Tactile connections: incorporating natural elements, such as wood, stone, and plants, into the design to provide a tactile experience

• Auditory connections: incorporating natural sounds, such as water features and birdsong, into the design to create a sense of connection to nature

By incorporating natural elements into interior spaces, biophilic design can promote well-being, reduce stress, and improve physical and mental health. These elements not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of a space but also create environments that are restorative and nurturing, fostering a deeper connection to the natural world.

8 Early Signs Of Addiction That You Might Be Ignoring

8 Early Signs Of Addiction That You Might Be Ignoring

The battle with addiction can last  a lifetime. For some people, it might start in the teens and twenties when they're still trying to figure out who they are and what life is going to be about for them specifically.

For others, this could happen later on in life when there's a huge change brought on by very difficult circumstances or an incredibly shocking event happens to leave a person feeling isolated and alone.

There's never a specific time when someone quits being a regular everyday human being and becomes an addict. It just sorts of works its way into their lives, much like alcoholism does for some people.

To better understand what early addiction might look like, let's take a look at some of the signs of early addiction:

1.  Loss of Interest in Former Hobbies

Alcoholics are famous for giving up their passions. They give up things like sports, hanging out with friends, spending time with family, and so on. There are important reasons for how this happens, but it remains the fact that alcoholics lose interest in doing anything outside of their addiction when they're deep into it.

Since everything they do is alcohol-centric, they become highly dependent on drugs for everything. It is only in the early few months of being sober after quitting drugs that they understand that those activities are very well achievable without drugs.  

2 . Hostility Towards Those Who Are Concerned

When someone is addicted to something, they begin to take criticism very personally because they feel as if you're attacking them personally. This is because their addiction begins to define who they are as a person, and they end up feeling threatened any time someone dares to question it.

3 . Developing Problems With Priorities

Addiction is very much about prioritizing one's own desires over everything else in life. In many cases, addicts don't see anything wrong with this behavior even when those close to them begin expressing concerns. As long as the addict gets what they want when they want it, they don't care how it affects others in the process or if there's a problem with their priorities in regards to where they're spending their time or energy.

4 . Lying Their Activities And Drug Use

When someone is developing a drug addiction, they might not be honest about their activities and their drug usage.  You might notice them lying about where they were or what they've been doing if their drug addiction has progressed enough. They might also lie about their drug use to hide the extent of it, which is a sign that there's even more reason to be concerned about their behavior.

5 . Putting Others Down Or Speaking Negatively

When someone puts others down, speaks negatively about people often, or seems to take pleasure in disparaging others; this can be signs of early addiction because the person might want to make themselves look better by putting others down. This behavior will become worse as their addiction progresses, which leads us to our next sign.

6. Isolating To Use Drugs

This one should be obvious since isolation is common among drug addicts.  When someone is withdrawing from friends and family and getting irritated when they're interrupted, it could be because they want time to use drugs. If they've been isolating more frequently or for longer periods than usual, then that's a definite warning sign that they're spiraling downwards into addiction.

7. Getting Angry Or Irritable At Normal Situations

Addicts tend to get irritable over seemingly normal situations, such as if the service is slow at a restaurant or there's unexpected weather at an airport; this can indicate an early addiction because it might be common behavior among addicts who are using again after attempting to clean up their act.

8. Money Troubles And Debts

Money is one of the most common problems addicts face, even when they're able to work again after treatment. If an addict is having issues with money that wasn't present before they started using drugs, then that can be a sign that addiction has set in. People who are just experimenting or recreationally using might not have issues with money while people who are already struggling will have issues with it.

If you or someone you know is showing these signs of early addiction, don't hesitate to seek treatment in time before it turns into a full-blown addiction!