That can be a barrier, with manufacturers not always wanting to share information about their products, whether it be for fear of a competitor gaining proprietary information or for other reasons.

Eden Brukman, Senior Green Building Coordinator, San Francisco Department of the Environment, is a pioneer in the space after her work with the Health Product Declaration Collaborative. Brukman said it’s important to remember the manufacturer of the product certainly knows more about what the product does and what it’s made up of than regulators or advocates do; however, if they’re willing (or required through a declare certification) to share some information, it gives everyone a strong starting point.

“Transparency really is that first step. It’s not the be-all, end-all for the reformulation of the product necessarily but at least it provides some information and some indication of where we are,” Brukman said. “Whether that is for that first-tier supplier or for that manufacturer or the consumer, it provides information. Once you have that information you have a place to go from there, a way to determine where are our priorities? Where can we make changes? What is most critical for us for change?

“At the end of the day, the goal isn’t necessarily transparency. It’s a product that is safe.”

Because of work from people like Brukman, there are more weapons in the arsenal of architects as they look to gather the necessary information and for manufacturers who can point to certifications they’ve achieved. Yet, that still isn’t the final step of the process but rather one element that can help things along.

“Keep in mind, these are tools. They’re not end-points,” she said. “They’re ways to help communicate a message, a need, an understanding, a mutual communication path. I feel like often times these tools can get misunderstood or misused.”

Prior to working with Armstrong, Amy managed the Air, Noise and Energy Section of the Virginia Department of Transportation, where she found strategies for minimizing impact on air quality through roadway design. Amy talked about how that experience with outdoor environmental sustainability informed her view of building sustainability, and how it can’t just be thought of in terms of the structure. “When you build a building, people have to get to the building,” she said while talking about bridging the gap between the building environment and the transportation sector.

According to Amy, Armstrong Flooring is particularly dedicated to resiliency. Their flooring is made to have a long lifespan, which is in contrast, she said, to modern society’s focus on the short term impact of things. “We shouldn’t be a throw-away society,” Amy said. Daniel then talked about new Canadian legislation that will mandate building teams to articulate long-term durability in structures when submitting design documents.

Amy talked about how Armstrong Flooring is taking big steps to increase effiency, including a pledge to reduce manufacturing energy, water, and waste by 25% over the 2014 baseline by 2024. “The commercial market always wants to focus on the certifications and that type of thing, but to me it’s so important what’s actually occurring in your manufacturing plants,” said Amy. 

On the topic of wellness, Amy and Daniel spoke about how greater transparency from manufacturers is leading to greater understanding amongst the public and moving things in a positive direction. “It’s hard to argue with wellness,” said Amy.

Berlien and Huard discussed building techniques and strategies that are tailored to geography as well as minimizing environmental impact. Berlien elaborated on how different locations are prone to particular natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, and flooding, and how buildings can be designed to be resilient to these dangers. He further commented on the progress in building techniques to minimize carbon footprint, reprocess water, and reduce energy consumption.

The transition in building codes was another key topic of their discussion. “Codes are constantly changing and what the building departs are holding us accountable for are ever changing”, Berlien said. “Commissioning is definitely critical.”

The pair also took a look at materials transparency in MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), and the strides being taken to streamline and improve material selection with regards to embodied carbon and sustainability.

Lastly, the two examined building design with regards to wellness. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought this topic to the forefront as personal health and wellbeing are taking center stage in building design. Berlien touched on readiness and return to work surveys, air particle testing, and how the HVAC systems distribute air and its effects on the spread of infectious diseases.

Sustainability is a buzzword in architecture, but what does it really mean right now? Rohde shared, “Sustainability isn’t a single attribute. It’s integrated together. Being in healthcare, I see this more prominently, the unintended consequences of not looking at performance.”

Alongside sustainability comes resiliency, which describes the ability of a building to prevent and recover from damage. “Resiliency now really ties into emergency preparedness. Looking at nursing homes hit hard by COVID or how hospitals on the Texas coast prepared for Hurricane Harvey. If design intention and operation intention are considered together, it’s a much better outcome,” Rohde commented. 

Another critical subject is material transparency. To be fully transparent is difficult for manufacturers and supply chains. It’s not just what the product is; it’s where it’s from and the conditions of that area.

“With material transparency, there are bigger questions that we don’t have answers to, regarding social responsibility. But the conversations are happening. What’s critical is not to look at it from a single attribute perspective. The better way may be from an exposure and risk perspective,” Rohde stated.

Huard posed the questions, “Why is this rating important? Why does it matter now?” and took a deeper dive into this IWBI release to address these questions and provide more details around the recently developed health-safety rating.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for improving the safety of buildings, where interpersonal interactions are concentrated and the potential for the spread of infectious diseases is elevated. The WELL Health-Safety Rating addresses the emergent need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as prepare building management procedures and best practices for future health and safety concerns.

A collaboration of public health experts, virologists, government officials, academics, business leaders, real estate professionals, and many others came together to form the IWBI Task Force to understand what causes the spread of pathogens within buildings, how to best mitigate the health and safety risk to people, and formulate recommended practices for an effective response to pandemic situations as well as the prevention of future outbreaks. The IWBI Health-Safety Rating addresses 5 key themes.

1. Cleaning and sanitation procedures
2. Emergency preparedness programs
3. Health services resources
4. Air and water quality management
5. Stakeholder engagement and communication

Tune in to listen to Daniel Huard discuss the evidence-based, third party verified, and newly released WELL Health-Safety Rating!

As usual, Huard and Gardiner focused in on Huard’s four pillars of green building — sustainability, resiliency, transparency of materials, and wellness.

“What strikes me about your pillars is that they’re so interconnected,” Gardiner said. “While they stand alone, and you can look at any one of them … What’s unique about the work that we get to do is finding the interconnectedness of them and finding the things that make sense and cross over.”

As the conversation turned to mentors and educating the industry on how best to approach these interconnected pillars of green building, Gardiner outlined the core aspects of mentorship relationships she’s found most beneficial in her own career.

“When people ask me about who I mentor or who is in a mentor relationship with me, I tell them that the best mentoring relationships I’ve had are with people where it’s been a give and take,” she said. “I act as a mentor, and they act as my mentor, whether they’re 10 years younger than me or 20 years older than me.”

Huard and Gardiner also touched on advancing the conversation surrounding green building and finding ways to help the conversation around sustainability resonate with everyone undertaking a new project or renovation, adopting an attitude of making room for everyone under the “umbrella” of sustainability, and more.

Verdical Group is a Los Angeles-based green building consulting firm specializing in certification project management, net zero, commissioning, energy modeling and program management, and Shula joined Build for Impact to further the show’s mission of providing inspiring conversations around the trends in sustainable building.

In particular, the duo touched on “living buildings,” or buildings that harvest the energy they consume from renewable resources like the sun and the wind, are constructed from sustainable materials, and serve occupants by providing a healthier environment.

These buildings, and Verdical Group’s mission, support the cornerstones of green building – sustainability, resiliency, transparency of materials, and wellness.

Shula and Huard used this episode of Build for Impact to dive into:

• September’s Net Zero Conference, which will go virtual for the first time in 2020.
• Scaling the idea of net zero buildings, which aim for net zero energy, water, waste, transit and carbon.
• How net zero efforts fit into the overall picture of sustainability and green building.

On the inaugural episode of Build For Impact, LEED architect Huard provides us with his four pillars for the green building world: sustainability, transparency, wellness and resiliency, explaining how he plans to tackle these topics in depth in future episodes.

Upcoming guests include:

• James Connely, Vice President of Product and Stategic Growth, International Living Future Institute
• Eric Corey Freed, Director of Sustainability, CannonDesign
• Elizabeth Heider, Chief Sustainability Officer, Skanska USA Inc.

Huard will be analyzing research from top institutions, such as Harvard, and explain to listeners how they can incorporate those ideas into projects to help lessen the impact of building on the environment and leave a cleaner future for the next generation.