A new website released on March 30 examines the healthy building practices in more than 20 residential building certifications. The site, BuildingHealthy.org, focuses on healthy building practices that have a direct impact on occupants and that are considered permanent features of the building.
The statement issued with a Washington DC dateline says the website includes numerous healthy building practices such as environmental site assessments, smoke-free policies, air filtration, indoor air quality testing, ventilation best practices, water quality best practices and testing, and materials free of the most harmful substances—among more.
“The goal is to incentivize a broader consideration of healthy building practices among building professionals, such as developers, owners, architects, engineers, contractors, and more,” said Michael Miranda, Outreach Manager for Building Clean. “The lack of health-related mandates in building certifications creates a barrier in fully integrating health considerations into the built environment. We’re working to eliminate the barriers and support current and future efforts that incentivize comprehensive building standards.”
The site supplements the growing movement to incentivize green and energy-efficient building within different sectors and at different levels of the government.
“Buildings that are healthy for the environment and are healthy for occupants will benefit every community and the availability of a tool allowing homeowners and tenants, architects, engineers, builders, and building managers to discuss and integrate these principles into their projects is instrumental in fulfilling BuildingClean’s vision,” said Miranda.
The website is a project of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation and is part of the organization’s BuildingClean program.