How You Should See Sustainability Now

ESD (Environmental Systems Design) sustainability consultant Aliza Skolnik (here with fiancé Robbie Chung) says the discussion on sustainability is shifting to focus more on the building occupant, adding additional layers onto the environmental impact dialogue. Businesses and the design and construction industry are looking to the built environment to help address issues contributing towards global health trends. She’s seeing a surge in inquiries regarding WELL Building certification, which is a framework that focuses on the occupant’s health and well-being. For example, more discussions now include water and air quality instead of only water and energy efficiency. This is especially interesting for companies that have their business mission tied to employee talent acquisition and retention or health and wellness. There is also a developing intersection of personal health data and smart building technology. Personal sensors such as Fitbit and mobile device apps are measuring individuals' metabolic activity and location. Those same devices are being used for digital credentialing for security access, logging into hoteling workstations, and even changing one’s personal thermal environment. Sensors are already being used for measuring various elements in the air stream, such as particle count, carbon dioxide and ozone, in addition to other environmental metrics such as temperature, humidity, sound and light levels. Aligning technology of real-time individual personal health with intelligent building systems to not only react but also predict needs and influence behavior is the future of this movement. For more information on our Bisnow partner, click here.