By The Materially Better Team
🔊 Listen to thIS story
5 min. 47 sec.
In Materially Better’s pursuit of supporting the proliferation of healthier, environmentally friendly spaces, the selection of healthy building materials stands as a cornerstone in both new construction and renovation. Partnering with our consultants enables you to assume a leadership role in this pivotal movement. As an architect, you have a distinctive opportunity to spearhead initiatives for the materials movement and demonstrate how effortlessly the AIA Materials Pledge can be transformed from mere words into meaningful actions.
Human Health and Financial Costs Intersect
In 1983 the World Health Organization defined Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) as a situation in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to the time spent in a building. Occupants are known to develop symptoms of non-specific illness such as headache; eye, nose, or throat irritation; dry cough; dermatological conditions; dizziness; nausea; concentration difficulties; fatigue; and general malaise. The symptoms typically subside completely when people leave the building. Fast forward 40 years, and we now recognize that certain categories of building materials contain carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and bioaccumulative toxins. These substances can result in diagnosable—and often devastating—illnesses that can’t be resolved simply by vacating a building. Adding to the complexity of the effects caused by these harmful ingredients in building materials is the fact that, according to the EPA, we spend approximately 90% of our time indoors. Clear CEO, Gil Blutrich, states in Clearing the Way for a Healthier Future: Solving the Challenge of Sick Building Syndrome (May 14, 2023) that “sick buildings cost the U.S. economy up to $100 billion per year in health care expenses, decreased productivity, and absenteeism.”
Healthy Buildings Promote Long-Term Value
From Fortune 500 companies, real estate and finance firms to hospitality, entertainment, education and healthcare institutions, a focus on buildings that prioritize the health and safety of occupants is being amplified as it is understood to be financially advantageous—strengthening tenant retention, maximizing real estate values, and optimizing human and social capital performance for businesses. In turn, architects, engineers, and construction (AEC) professionals are facing a burgeoning demand to design and realize healthier buildings that alleviate the personal and financial effects of SBS and long-term illnesses while mitigating potential future remediation costs for building owners and stakeholders. Using healthier building materials reflects your commitment to social and environmental responsibility and promotes a positive brand image—amplifying your firm’s reputation and appealing to business savvy, environmentally aware clients.
The Materially Better Advantage™
As materials specialists with over a decade of experience, we leverage our unique combination of consulting, technology, and data capabilities to ensure that you are able to meet all your critical materials goals. We take an holistic approach to understanding your needs, and construct solutions that ensure your specific built environment goals are achieved.
As is appropriate to your project, our process can include:
- goals and strategy assessment
- design support
- construction support
- certification/audit support
- overall portfolio assessment
- continuous improvement planning efforts
Materially Better’s Red2Green product library offers robust, up to date product data that supports the healthy materials movement and tracks embodied carbon in building products. Our APIs with HPDC and Declare ensure transparent ingredient disclosure, while EPDs provide the latest embodied carbon information for building products.
Combining these valuable data integrations with a large, curated and AI-augmented dataset and our industry knowledge, we are able to read your specifications and submittals documents to find and eliminate products containing carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and bioaccumulative toxins. Comparing your efforts to our data reveals the areas where the most significant improvements in materials can be made—enabling your firm to create environments that are not only safer and more comfortable for occupants, but also beneficial to the environment and economically advantageous for stakeholders. Partnering with Materially Better consulting services empowers you to transform the AIA Materials Pledge from words into actions.
Conclusion
Our expert consulting services are supported by a comprehensive products dataset that enables you to minimize the risk of Sick Building Syndrome and other significant health concerns right from the start. By collaborating with Materially Better consultants, you gain the ability to select the healthiest choices among the most impactful product categories in your project, allowing you to make informed decisions—resulting in better outcomes for occupants and stakeholders alike. That’s the Materially Better Advantage™.
Materially Better provides client-focused, high-value green building consulting and services, including sustainable and regenerative building design, renovation and construction.
