Sustainability Enthusiast

April 22, 2015

Can We Identify “Healthy” Products?

What’s hot in green building right now? No, global warming isn’t hot, despite growing alarm about extreme weather events. What’s hot is health. Specifically anything related to the potential health impacts of building products. The rise of the WELL Building Standard and the addition of a day-long Materials and Human Health Summit to Greenbuild provide…

April 17, 2015

Sunlight and Nature: Positive Medication in Healthcare Spaces

It is almost impossible to discuss biophilic design in healthcare without mentioning this 1981 seminal study on recovery times during post operative care after gall bladder surgery by professor Roger Ulrich of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. This fascinating study investigates whether a view out to nature from their room had any effect on…

March 27, 2015

Biophilia: Sustainability Meets Health & Well-Being

Places we naturally love turn out to be good for us! We can now scientifically verify the physiological viability of our designs, by measuring pulse rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), electro-dermal response, hormonal & adrenal response, brain wave activity, eye movements & muscle tension. Biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology & neuroscience have begun…

March 17, 2015

The Bullitt Center: Raising the Bar with the Living Building Challenge

Known for his high risk efforts in advancing an eco-friendly mission for decades, Denis Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation, has fueled the ever-growing environmental movement in America since he organized the first Earth Day in conjunction with then-Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. Thanks to his efforts as a leader on environmental issues, sustainable…

February 5, 2015

Embracing Natural Wisdom in a Volatile World

The transformational times in our midst demand that organisations redesign for resilience in order to flourish in the volatile times ahead. The most important challenge facing leaders, strategists and operational managers is a shift in logic from the out-dated mind-set of command-and-control thinking to a logic inspired by and in harmony with nature that allows…

January 15, 2015

The Biophilic Approach to Building Communities

Over the last six decades we have added so many regulations in an effort to organize the chaos of rapid sprawl. Today, these regulations and surrounding social perceptions that govern the development of our built environment sit in silos. This leads to a basic lack of understanding among governing sectors and the public about the…