In a word, EVERYONE should be your high-performance building partner!

If you have been involved in any aspect of creating or remodeling buildings in a way that improves the health of building occupants, you know that there are a lot of entities involved. And every single one can push a building closer to or further away from improving occupants’ health.

In some ways, it depends on the specific type of project you’re doing, e.g. residential vs. office space or retail. But there are more commonalities than there are differences. Let’s start with the obvious – those responsible for the design of the building or the rehab project:

• Architectural and design team
• Site selection team
• Landscape architects
• Interior design consultants

Their decisions determine where the building is located, how it is oriented to the rest of the community and the street and pedestrian access points. Location plays a huge role in how accessible it is by public transit or bicycle, or, alternately, how auto-focused it is. And unless the building includes sufficient grounds for its own walking trails and other outdoor active features, building occupants will rely on what is close by to access parks, nature trails, and other pedestrian/bicycle activities.  The walkability score of the neighborhood can be a pretty accurate predictor of the amount of exercise, intentional or accidental, that building occupants ultimately get.

And then, once you’re in the building, the architectural team has the greatest influence over the entire layout. How prominent the stairwells are, what kind of opportunities there are for social gatherings, window placements that provide interesting views, fresh air and natural light. The interior designers augment this backdrop with access to greenery, water, colors and artwork that create a mood, furnishings that support the users’ best health, and encourage socialization where appropriate.

Next, you have the construction folks.

• General contractor
• Subcontractors
• Numerous materials suppliers and equipment vendors
• Materials and waste disposal and recycling vendors

The physical materials and the way they are installed should meet stringent particulate and off-gassing restrictions if they are to be considered healthy, rather than just non-hazardous. In a rehab project that remains active during rehab, removal and replacement activities must be performed in such a way as to not threaten the health of anyone using the building during rehab.

Then you have equipment vendors, maintenance staff, contractors and any on-site program entities. Whether there is an on-site cafeteria or just snack food, access to a variety of fresh and wholesome foods is the gold standard. Physical amenities such as an exercise room and lactation room, and programs that promote physical exercise all contribute to the health of building occupants.

And of course, the property or facilities management team is responsible for ongoing upkeep and meeting tenant expectations. If the management team isn’t committed to prioritizing the care of the healthy infrastructure originally put in place, that initial investment will quickly become money wasted. And building occupants will become disgruntled if they feel they were sold a bill of goods when they thought they were getting a building that promoted good health.

Each of these points of intersection – from site selection to ongoing management and maintenance – can add to or detract from the overall health and productivity outcomes in a workplace or residential building.

So be selective when putting together your team of healthy design partners. With the right partners on your side, the investment in healthier buildings will produce the desired outcomes for many years and result in a high-performance building in your real estate portfolio.