Using Germicidal UV light in a healthy building plan

What is Indoor Air Quality?

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has become an increasing focus in building design over the past decade but especially with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic that threw the topic into the global limelight. Developing an enhanced IAQ plan for an entire building or indeed an interior space such as a spa, office, apartment or gym is likely going to combine a number of key components, including:

• high-grade in-duct filtration

• adequate ventilation rates

• healthy non-toxic building materials

• air purifying plants

• green cleaning policies

• air quality monitors

• IAQ certification

what is UV-C light and UV Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) in healthy buildings?

UV-C light and UV Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) can be used to disinfect air, water, and surfaces, thereby lowering the spread of viral infections and bacteria in building interiors. 

UV light is a relatively new but well established technology that can be leveraged as part of a healthy building and interiors plan to improve indoor environmental quality, especially in the post-Covid era.

UV-C lighting can be used on scales as small as individual cabinets to sterilize cellphones or in personal water bottles, all the way up to its incorporation into a building’s HVAC system for a more building level, systematic approach.

Surfaces, air, and water can all benefit from UV-C light technology, although installation and safety should be considered, especially when put in place at the building scale. 

Ultraviolet (UV) light in healthy building cleaning protocols - HML publication

The Parsons Healthy Material Lab (HML) and MFA Lighting Design programs published a doc showing their research and testing of the impacts of Ultraviolet (UV) light on viral spread.

In the wake of the global pandemic, there has been a mindset shift recognizing the importance of a healthy building interior. However, traditional disinfectants commonly contain antimicrobials and other toxins that cause a variety of negative health impacts. ‘Antimicrobial’ does not in fact mean ‘healthy’.

Since the start of the pandemic, aerosol disinfectant spray sales have gone up by 385%, which has the potential to increase health issues of building occupants in other ways.

Parsons concentrated their study on applying UVGI light safely and affordably, focusing most closely on air quality in shared spaces for this very reason.

What is Indoor Viral Transmission in buildings?

Viral spread indoors is a hot topic in the COVID-19 age but is not a new concept per se. Viruses can spread both through the air in the form of small, suspended droplets, or fall to the ground and rest on interior surfaces, as many of us have come to understand in the past few years.

In the air, these droplets are known as aerosols and the virus can be transmitted through inhalation. When the droplets make their way to surfaces, the virus spreads through tactile means. 

How does UV light disinfect building interiors?

An important distinction to make early on is the difference between disinfection and cleansing. Disinfection can be done by UVGI, meaning it kills germs in the air and on surfaces, but doesn’t remove the bacteria and dirt itself.

When combined with cleansing, aka the physical removal of impurities, UVGI implementation is a healthier, safer alternative to traditional aerosol-based disinfectant strategies. 

UVGI specifically refers to a light with the wavelength of 254 nm, which is the application of UV-C radiation for germicidal purposes.

The UVGI system essentially inactivates viruses and bacteria after they are exposed to doses of the light source. The light does this by changing the structure of the DNA and RNA within the microorganism, making it unable to grow and replicate in an infectious manner. 

In interiors, air is carried up from the occupied area to the UVGI element through fans and ventilation. When the air reaches the fixtures, it is then sterilized and can be returned to the occupied area in a healthier, safer condition.

Safety & Installation Considerations of UV-C light

Direct exposure to UV-C light is unsafe for humans, as the radiation can cause a burning sensation similar to a sunburn in the eyes. In addition, material health can be compromised and impact human health if not considered in the design phase. 

Due to human sensitivity to the UVGI wavelength, the lights must be installed in a diffuse manner, avoiding any down-facing, direct light sources. Strategies such as installing UV lights within the HVAC system and upward facing fixtures far above human head height are safe options.

Although the inclusion of UVGI light is a safer alternative to traditionally used disinfectants, care must be taken in fixture type and placement. 

UV-C light can also degrade materials if the relationships are not considered beforehand. Generally, the UVGI wavelength will only superficially penetrate a material, which is nothing to be concerned about.

However, materials such as plastics and polymers are more easily damaged and can off-gas toxic chemicals and carcinogens when in contact with UV light.

Source:

https://healthymaterialslab.org/projects/improving-occupant-health-with-germicidal-uv-light

Benefits of Listening to Nature Sounds: Mental Health and Biophilic Wellness Design Consultants

Health Benefits of listening to Pre Recorded Nature Sounds vs. Music

All of the body’s senses can be used one way or another in order to alter a person’s physical and mental wellbeing but hearing is a primary sense often targeted first because of the bang for buck - multiple benefits from minimal intervention.

This is the foundation of the acoustic comfort concept present in healthy building standards such as WELL (acoustic comfort chapter here), partly as a way to balance any negative aspects of distracting noise present in an indoor environment that can in turn create a negative mood state.

A practice that is on the rise in the world of acoustic comfort in healthy buildings and wellness design is a sub-segment of the sound wellness trend focused specifically on natural soundscapes and biophilic sounds - acoustic environments that taken directly from or inspired by natural environments.

Such biophilic sounds and natural soundscapes are being deployed in apps / software programs such as SWELL by Open Ear Music. These apps often use pre-recorded nature sounds to enhance relaxation and well-being.

the science behind biophilic sounds and mental wellbeing benefits

Even though the science behind listening to nature sounds does not necessarily have concrete benefits, there have been many studies conducted and theories created as to why listening to these types of sounds work, and work they do!

What is meant by the notion that a sound is “working” can be seen through physiological and behavioral changes. For example, listening to sounds of nature has been proven to increase mood, improve focus, promote sleep, help relaxation, and overall ensure a boost in mental wellbeing. Additionally, exposure to natural soundscapes can lead to enhanced cognitive function, improving cognitive performance, alertness, memory, and problem-solving skills.

The theory behind why nature sounds work well has to do with the biological appeal that being exposed to nature, provides. Natural sounds can alter the brain connections that trigger fight or flight response and therefore calm our systems down when we don’t perceive a threat.

The mellow birdsongs or serene waves tell the body that things are fine and there is no immediate threat which, in turn, reduces stress and the cognitive load that is associated with a heightened alertness. Nature sounds also have an immediate calming effect, providing a respite from the distractions of modern life and contributing to mental and physical wellbeing.

This high-level of stress has also been seen through listening to artificial sounds by causing an increase in inward thinking that is associated with ruminating, and over-thinking which lead to depressive and anxiety disorders.

Even though there are different types of nature sounds that range from rustling of trees to crashing of waves, the nature (no pun intended) of the sounds does not seem to matter but rather varies from person to person based on familiarity.

For instance, rustling trees may cause more benefits for someone who grew up surrounded by trees than they would for someone who grew up by the ocean.

There appears to be a level of familiarity or nostalgia that goes into the effectiveness of certain sounds. So even though places such as Quiet Parks are popping up and showing improvements in people’s moods conversely, beaches and other settings will be just as effective for the right individual.

Going back to the idea of Quiet Parks brings up an important piece of the puzzle which is, how connected do you feel to nature?

Nature sounds and circadian rhythm

An equally important notion is how submerged in the environment you feel. Studies have shown that the more variety in nature sounds, at once, the more a person can feel immersed in the environment and trigger bodily patterns such as circadian rhythm.

Nature sounds act as a powerful sleep aid by creating a tranquil environment that masks disruptive noises and promotes restorative sleep.

This biological clock helps us to get better acclimated to our surroundings and fall into a comfortable routine. The more biodiversity in a soundscape, the more likely an individual is to really believe they are there and better be able to connect with the natural processes required to sustain a happy, comfortable state of mind.

Another useful aspect of sound wellness is the role music can have, specifically with therapeutic processes. Music therapy is a newer practice that has also shown promising health and wellness benefits. The key difference between the two practices being the applications.

Sound wellness is usually a means to treat the symptoms of a bad mood and music therapy is primarily seen in hospitals and other treatment facilitates to aid in reversing or correcting some undesirable behavior.

Music therapy is usually used alongside other affirmative actions in order to touch upon one of five beneficial categories: emotional, physical, spiritual, social, or cognitive. The emotional benefits can help reduce anxiety and encourage self-expression.

The physical benefits are most seen in pain reduction through distraction, relaxation, improved motor development, etc. Physical benefits can also include motivational factors that reflect the task at hand by providing the energy needed in order to get things done and do them well.

Spiritual and social benefits can bring people together through shared interests or a common goal. Lastly, the cognitive aspect can advocate for better coping skills, increased sense of control, and better focused attention for the task at hand.

Whether a company or individual user wants to become better a task, improve their mood, or become more equip to deal with life’s challenges, sound wellness can apply in a multitude of different ways.

Both nature sounds and music can produce a wide range of results that show positive results so when asking the question of “how can I better help myself?” It all depends on context and desired results.

Additional research notes and links:

Nature sounds alter brain connections and reduce fight or flight reflex

• https://www.health.com/condition/stress/why-nature-sounds-are-relaxing –> brain scans, heart rate monitors, behavioral experiments

• Artificial sounds linked to more inward focus while nature sounds focused on outward focus

• Inward = worrying, over-thinking; linked to conditions such as depression/ anxiety disorders; slower reaction times (means less sustained focus)

• Natural sounds improve focus

• Familiarity makes a difference—dif. Nature sounds might help one but not other person

• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2013097118#:~:text=The%20results%20affirm%20that%20natural,sound%20and%20low%20anthropogenic%20sound

• Parks are key relaxation places less human-made noise and nature sounds together

• Improved health: decreased pain, lower stress, increased mood /cognitive performance

• anthropogenic sounds = especially in marine life, is noise pollution (high intensity; opposite of relaxing)

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479717307193 Acoustic environments matter: Synergistic benefits to humans and ecological communities

• Protected areas key for biodiversity, which provides a more realistic, immersive experience

• “Your Wellbeing Garden” by Alistair Griffiths, Matt Keightley, Annie Gatti, Zia Allaway- Birdsong; better to have multiple diff kinds

• Thought to be parallel btwn how birdsong develops, and humans speak that can account for why birdsong is more appealing

• https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/61/3/203/238162?login=true

• Nature sounds linked to environmental quality

• “no coherent theory regarding the ecological significance of all sounds emanating from a landscape exists”

• Soundscape ecology landscape and composition of sound

• Geographical context, recognizing anthropogenic/ biological processes, temporal/ spectral patterns and how a break in pattern can alter configuration of landscapes (lack of biodiversity creates less connection with nature) provide info about surroundings

• “The rhythms of nature;” ex. Singing of birds strongly correlates to sunrise and sunset

Music Therapy

• helpful distraction from painful procedures

• helps decrease sedative needed

• music modulates mood, if paired with action, release hormones that reduce perception of strain; good distraction

• https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/8817-music-therapy

• Listening, singing, playing or composing

• Enhanced communication/ social skills to manage thoughts

• Increased motivation

• Pain managing

• Behavior disorders

• Emotional benefits—self expression, anxiety reduction

• Physical benefits – changing heart rate/ lowering bp, improved motor development, pain management/ distraction, relaxation

• Spiritual benefits

• Cognitive—coping skills, increased sense of control

• Social—bring people together

• Sound therapy focuses on controlling symptoms and music therapy relatively new and primarily used in hospital type facilities

• https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-music-therapy-89829

• May not work on its own; more medically based than sound therapy

• Goal-oriented

• Accesses shared brain systems: cognitive, motor, speech centers

• https://www.biausa.org/public-affairs/media/neurologic-music-therapy-in-neurorehabilitation

• How music is processed/ perceived in the brain

• Being actively or passively engaged simulates multiple parts of the brain

• Neurologic Music Therapy

Improving Sleep Quality with Nature Sounds

Listening to nature sounds before bed can significantly improve sleep quality by creating a calming atmosphere. Research has shown that exposure to natural sounds, such as ocean waves or rain, can reduce stress and anxiety, making it easier to fall asleep. These soothing sounds can also help mask disruptive noises that can disturb sleep, such as traffic or snoring.

Studies have found that listening to nature sounds before bed can lead to improved sleep quality, increased sleep duration, and better overall well-being. The calming effect of nature sounds can also help reduce symptoms of insomnia and other sleep disorders. Incorporating nature sounds into your bedtime routine can be as simple as playing a recording of ocean waves or rain on a phone app or sound machine.

By improving sleep quality, nature sounds can also have a positive impact on physical and mental health, including reduced blood pressure and improved cognitive function. The simple act of listening to nature sounds can transform your sleep experience, leading to a more restful and rejuvenating night.

Reducing Stress and Anxiety through Biophilic Sounds

Biophilic sounds, such as bird songs and water sounds, can have a profound impact on reducing stress and anxiety. Research has shown that exposure to natural sounds can lower cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure, all indicators of stress. Nature sounds can also have a positive impact on mental health, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The calming effect of biophilic sounds can be attributed to the way they interact with the brain’s default mode network, which is responsible for relaxation and stress reduction. Incorporating biophilic sounds into your daily routine can be as simple as taking a walk in a park or forest, or listening to a recording of nature sounds on a phone app.

By reducing stress and anxiety, biophilic sounds can also have a positive impact on physical health, including reduced blood pressure and improved immune function. The positive effects of biophilic sounds can also be seen in the workplace, where they can improve productivity and overall well-being. Embracing the natural world through sound can be a simple yet powerful way to enhance your mental and physical health.

Boosting Cognitive Function with Natural Acoustics

Natural acoustics, such as the sounds of ocean waves or wind, can have a profound impact on cognitive function. Research has shown that exposure to natural sounds can improve attention, memory, and creativity. The calming effect of natural acoustics can also reduce distractions and improve focus, leading to enhanced cognitive performance.

Nature sounds can also have a positive impact on mood, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Incorporating natural acoustics into your daily routine can be as simple as taking a walk in a park or forest, or listening to a recording of nature sounds on a phone app.

By improving cognitive function, natural acoustics can also have a positive impact on overall well-being, including improved sleep quality and reduced stress. The positive effects of natural acoustics can also be seen in the workplace, where they can improve productivity and overall well-being. Embracing the soothing sounds of the natural world can be a simple yet effective way to boost your cognitive performance and enhance your quality of life.

Sustainable Rooftop: A Key Element in Green Healthy Building Design — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

Why Green & Healthy building Rooftops?

Roofs can take up to 15-35% of the total land area of a city, making them a vital surface in urban settings (“Urban”). This often underutilized area of a building envelope can provide smart, healthy, and environmentally friendly design options that are increasingly being executed across cities.

The implementation of green roofs within a sustainable building strategy, for example, can provide benefits such as:

• a reduction of Urban Heat Islands

• increased energy efficiency

• improved rainwater management

• improved biodiversity

• the provision of amenity spaces

Compared to conventional roofs, green roofs have lower burning heat load and lower temperatures. They also include materials not found on conventional roofs, which contribute to their environmental benefits. Additionally, the installation of green roofs requires experienced roofing contractors to ensure proper setup and maintenance.

Green roofs are the most holistic and multifaceted design strategy for these surfaces, but other considerations such as cool roofs, the incorporation of rooftop gyms or exercise areas, and solar panels are a few examples of smart rooftop design that contribute to a healthy building or sustainable building strategy.

Sustainable building rooftops Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect

One of the most important influences that rooftops can have is a reduction of Urban Heat Islands (UHI). This phenomenon describes the prevalence of higher temperatures that arise in dense, urban regions, due to the presence of man-made surfaces with higher heat retaining properties than those in natural environments.

Out of the entire building envelope, roofs are subject to the highest amount of solar irradiance, making their albedo properties the most important to curb the effects of UHI (Costanzo).

With the rise of temperatures across the globe comes the rise of heat related deaths. Increased respiratory disease, heat stress, reduced productivity, discomfort, and mental health challenges can all also occur due to increased warming (Swain).

With UHI compounded with the rising temperatures, the physical health and wellness of those residing in cities becomes more dire—making it an essential problem to address.

The most common strategies to reduce UHI on roofs is to implement cool or green roof strategies. Cool roofs use highly reflective coating such as white paint to reduce heat absorption, while green roofs implement plants and other vegetation, which acts as insulation and a cooling mechanism for the building and surrounding microclimate.

Additionally, green roofs and cool roofs can reduce the energy demand for air conditioning by keeping the interior temperature cooler and lowering energy bills.

Increase Energy Efficiency via green roofs

The implementation of smart roof design has the potential to greatly increase building energy efficiency. For one, green roofs can reduce building cooling loads and therefore increase HVAC efficiency. Also, Solar panels can be implemented on roofs to grow renewable energy use.

When used in tandem, green roofs and solar panels can be implemented on the same roof and provide dual benefits. Reducing energy consumption through green roofs can also help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Generally, roofs are dark, heat absorbing surfaces that have the potential to raise building temperatures and increase cooling demands. Plants and greenery naturally reduce the temperature of roofs and add an insulation layer, diminishing the amount of hot and cold air affecting the building’s temperature, further regulating it.

In addition, the cooler microclimate created by rooftop greenery can increase the efficiency of rooftop HVAC systems (“Green Roof Benefits”).

In addition, solar panels can be placed on rooftops to act as a renewable energy source for a building. Although usually thought of separately, if a green roof and solar panels are used together, known as a biosolar roof, the benefits increase.

Like rooftop HVAC systems, solar panels work more efficiently in cooler climates, making the combination of vegetative cooling and solar panel energy creation a beneficial, symbiotic relationship (“Green Roofs-Solar”).

Improve Rainwater Management on green rooftops

Rainwater management and collection is a commonly mentioned concept in many building certification and rating systems, and can be improved through the implementation of green roofs. Impervious surfaces and hardscapes cause excess water runoff, which can disrupt natural hydrology and ecosystems, as well as contaminating water bodies with pollutants.

Green roofs reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and delay the time at which runoff occurs, resulting in decreased stress on sewer systems at peak flow periods. Pervious surfaces that allow for water absorption, capture, and reuse can be implemented through green roofs and through the incorporation of surfaces such as porous pavement or grid pavers.

Green roofs can capture the water as it falls, and filter out its pollutants naturally, reducing the burden on sewer systems and avoiding flooding, as well as preventing toxins from entering water bodies. It has been found that green roofs can hold 70-90% of the rain that falls on them in the summer, and 25-40% in the winter (“About”).

Once captured, this water can be redistributed throughout the building such as in irrigation, toilets, and other non-potable uses.

The use of green roofs and pervious landscaping can greatly impact rainwater management and reduce water demand within buildings.

One study done by researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that green roofs retain around 80% of fallen water, while traditional roofs captured closer to 24% of rainfall (“Green Roof Benefits”). However, when designing roofs for rainwater capture and reuse, it is essential that loads are calculated, and proper sealing of the building envelope is executed to avoid any leaks.

Improve Biodiversity with a green rooftop

Cities are barren compared to the natural world, and therefore provide fewer habitats for flora and fauna. Implementing green roofs within urban regions is a way to use often underutilized spaces to increase the presence and diversity of species within the built environment. Green roofs contribute to creating green space in urban areas, supporting biodiversity and improving the urban environment.

Increasing biodiversity in cities can not only improve the health of those ecosystems themselves, but also the systems that function around them–such as the hydrological or nutrient cycles. In addition, from a mental health standpoint, the visual presence and interaction with a diversity of species can be positive for human well-being (“About”).

Plants, especially native species promote the livelihood of birds, insects, and butterflies and restore the ecological cycles that are often disrupted in cities. In addition to providing an immediate habitat for animals, green pockets can provide places of respite for animals and provide more closely connected habitats for migrating birds and other species that would otherwise be fragmented by cities (“About”).

In addition to greenery, when solar panels are implemented as well on biosolar roofs, they can provide additional landscape diversity. The panels provide shade and protection, as well as a place for water runoff, creating a wetter side and a drier side. The implementation of PV can therefore cause a “habitat mosaic”, attracting a wider variety of flora and fauna and further increasing biodiversity (“Green Roofs-Solar”).

nike rooftop activation barcelona

Provide Amenity Spaces with a healthy building rooftop

In addition to the ecological benefits of green rooftops, they can also provide social and mental health benefits for building users. Strategies such as rooftop gyms and community gathering spaces can provide further benefits. Green walls can also contribute to urban greening by providing additional green infrastructure and improving air quality.

Outdoor exercise has been proven to have additional benefits when compared with traditional exercise, such as greater mood improvements, decreases in anxiety and increases in the desire to be active. Due to the mental and physical health benefits from both nature exposure and exercise, the combination of the two provides even greater gains (Loureiro).

Implementing exercise spaces and gyms on rooftops is an impactful way to improve the health and wellness of building users, while avoiding building footprint increases. Rooftop gardens can provide amenity spaces and enhance the sustainability of urban areas.

In addition, publicly accessible rooftops can provide places of respite and locations to gather as a community. Community gardens can be placed to encourage building users to spend time outside in nature, provide educational opportunities, improve nutrition and food awareness, and reduce the local community’s food footprint (“About”).

Finally, aesthetic roofs with various amenities can encourage occupants to utilize the space for events and social gatherings, further promoting community, connection to the outdoors, and overall wellness.

Sources

“About Green Roofs.” Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, https://greenroofs.org/about-green-roofs

Costanzo, V., et al. “Energy Savings in Buildings or UHI Mitigation? Comparison between Green Roofs and Cool Roofs.” Energy and Buildings, Elsevier, 12 May 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778815003527.

“Green Roof Benefits.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/tps/sustainability/new-technology/green-roofs/benefits.htm.

“Green Roofs and Solar Power – Biosolar Roofs Are Smart Green Infrastructure.” Livingroofs, 29 Oct. 2019, https://livingroofs.org/green-roofs-solar-power/.

Loureiro, Ana, and Susana Veloso. “Green Exercise, Health and Well-Being.” ResearchGate, Springer, Aug. 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308099577_Green_Exercise_Health_and_Well-Being

Swain, Sunanda SwainSunanda. “Urban Heat Island Effect: Causes, Impacts and Mitigation.” Blogging Hub, 4 June 2019, www.cleantechloops.com/urban-heat- island-effect/.

“Urban Roofscapes: Using ‘Wasted’ Rooftop Real Estate to an Ecological Advantage.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 25 July 2008, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/urban-roofscapes-ecofriendly-rooftops/.

Top 5 Sound Therapy App for Mental Wellbeing — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

What is sound wellness?

Sound wellness is leveraging the physiological process behind the act of listening, which produces specific chemical signals sent to the brain that in turn promote certain mental states such as enhanced mood and reduced anxiety.

Merely focusing in a mindful way on the sensation and experience of hearing can be an important way to tap into various biological processes that control human mental and physical wellbeing. Sound therapy apps can be particularly beneficial for individuals with hearing loss and can be used in conjunction with hearing aids to provide tinnitus relief. These apps are available on the App Store for iOS devices, ensuring compatibility and ease of access for users.

For instance, certain brainwaves can influence our circadian rhythm, promoting even a greater mental alertness or indeed relaxation. Similarly, they can also influence blood pressure and reduce anxiety, based on certain the inputs.

What are brainwaves and how do they relate to mental wellbeing?

There are 5 different types of brainwaves that all vary in intensity. From descending order of frequency: Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.

The most important ones to think about when controlling mood are Alpha and Theta that both involve relaxation and reflection.

The self regulation of brainwaves (neurofeedback) has become increasingly popular among wellness professionals because of its observable benefits. Sound therapy apps often include options like pink noise and brown noise, which can help in relaxation and managing tinnitus symptoms.

These benefits have been seen to tap into the frequencies of certain brainwaves and propagate signals to connect our external body to our internal body by focusing on manipulating brain patterns to affect everything from stress reduction, to sleep promotion, to muscle relaxation and everything in between.

Sound wellness and biophilia (natural sounds)

In the example of sound wellness, biophilic soundscapes are now being utilized in offices and personal spaces with the goal of providing mental clarity, enhancing relaxation, boosting attention span and reducing anxiety levels.

As humans continue to evolve, arguably enlarging the distance between us and nature in the process, the amount of unnatural noise we produce grows with it and yet, our natural body processes don’t seem to be keeping up.

Sound therapy, specifically the new concept (but actually nothing new at all!) of biophilic sounds of nature, have been trying to hack our indoor environments to promote all of these biological processes described above. Natural sounds, such as water running or crickets chirping, are often used in sound therapy apps to provide relief for tinnitus patients. Nature sounds play a crucial role in relaxation and coping, particularly for tinnitus relief and better sleep, with many apps offering high-quality and customizable nature soundscapes.

A range of new apps and software are available providing individuals and brands access to this new frontier in sound therapy, below we outline the top five to watch.

Moodsonic - biophilic soundscapes

Moodsonic uses sonic engineering and the science of psychoacoustics in order to construct biophilic soundscapes to promote healthier work places, school settings, and overall productivity environments.

This algorithm uses sound technology to create soundscapes that react and adapt to targeted users to promote better productivity and overall mental wellbeing.

These soundscapes are designed around the body’s circadian rhythms in order to help people feel more awake during the daytime, and better fall asleep during night. Additionally, soothing sounds can help users relax and improve their mental wellbeing by providing relief from tinnitus and aiding in sleep.

The brand announced its launch in early 2020 and is owned by The Sound Company.

https://www.moodsonic.com/

OpenEar's SWELL - sound therapy for tinnitus relief

Open Ear is a company run by international DJ Brian D’Souza and a team of music professionals. Their main business is to curate personalized playlists for businesses such as hotels, restaurants, retail stores and spas.

Swell is a sub-division of OpenEar that focuses specifically on spas, gyms and other wellness venues, with the aim of promoting overall levels of health and wellbeing by positively impacting mood.

Swell combines bespoke playlists and compositions with sounds of nature and other calming music as a form of sound therapy. The SWELL app includes options like white noise, which can be beneficial for providing tinnitus relief. The app also offers various tinnitus sounds such as pink noise, natural water sounds, crickets chirping, and specific tinnitus relief sounds, which can be adjusted and personalized for effective tinnitus sound therapy.

Based in London, the Swell app was made in order to be more accessible and affordable for people on either an individual basis or as a playlist solution for coffee shops, gyms, even co-working spaces.

https://openearmusic.com/soundwellness/

Mindbreaks - mindfulness sounds

Mindbreaks is a mindfulness app aimed at improving mental wellbeing and mood to increase energy, focus, and reduce user stress.

Delos, the company responsible for this app, focuses on the innate need for humans to be exposed to nature to better feel connected to the natural world. They are also the connected to / behind the WELL Healthy Building Standard and the International Well Building Institute (IWBI), making them a major player in the healthy building and wellness real estate space.

Mindbreaks, like other tinnitus apps, offers features such as sound masking and guided meditation to help manage tinnitus symptoms. Additionally, Mindbreaks offers a web app with unique features and comprehensive sound therapy options. Delos creates a “wellness sanctuary” with Mindbreaks, evidence based products, immersive experiences and other audio content to promote mental wellbeing– for a variety of environments from personal to commercial and everything in between.

https://delos.com/products/mindbreaks/

Endel - wellness soundscapes

Founded by a collection of artists and creatives in 2018, Endel uses AI to create personalized soundscapes to use the body’s circadian rhythm to reduce stress, increase productivity, and improve sleep quality.

Endel uses pentatonic scale and sound masking to make soundscapes that get in touch with various aspects of user’s motion tracking, heart rate, light exposure, blood pressure, and other nervous system responses. Endel also employs techniques like threshold sound conditioning to strengthen hearing and improve overall auditory health.

The main goal of this app is to take internal and external cues from the participants and use AI to create optimal environments without any conscious effort from the user.

https://endel.io/

Myndstream - wellness music

Myndstream is a wellness music company that partners with other music companies to circumvent licensing issues, reducing cost of audio privileges in the process.

A main issue that this company tries to avoid is that organizations, such as spas, pay big prices for a whole catalog of music while they only really use a small percentage of the music.

Thus, Myndstream provides spas specifically with a catalog of wellness music that takes away the need to pay for unnecessary playlists not geared towards mindfulness and mental wellbeing in particular. Myndstream also offers specific tinnitus treatment options, including various tinnitus sounds to help manage and alleviate symptoms.

https://myndstreamspa.com/

the role of water in a Healthy Building strategy

the importance of water in sustainable buildings and healthy buildings

Water within the built environment is often considered from a sustainability or sustainable buildings perspective, covering subjects such as water efficiency, reuse, and reduction strategies. However, water is also, clearly, an important aspect of human health and therefore forms part of a healthy building strategy too. 

The convenient availability and consistent quality of potable water is important for building occupants in an office environment for example as it helps promote healthy hydration levels during the workday and all of the cognitive performance factors that go hand in hand with that.

Moisture management, especially in areas within the building that are prone to damp or high levels of humidity, such as bathrooms or shower areas say, need to be monitored for issues such as mold growth, that in turn negatively affect indoor air quality (IAQ) and have detrimental effects on human health.

In addition to these elements of the WELL Healthy Building Standard’s “Water” concept, there are also specific products and practical solutions that can be integrated into real estate projects to help with healthy water management practices. Read on to find out more…

Water Quality in healthy building plans

In order for potable water to be made available in buildings, it must first meet health thresholds for a variety of chemicals and substances, as outlined in the WELL Healthy Building Standard’s “Water” concept. 

First up, some basics that you might not otherwise think about. In order to even approach a tap in a building, water must travel from its source to a treatment plant to be filtered, where it then is distributed through an extensive system of pipes.

This multi-stage process introduces a number of variables, meaning it can be difficult to track and regulate the quality of water as it moves to a site - regulations vary based on location and water quality may fluctuate based on a variety of external factors. Consequently water within buildings must be regularly managed and tested for the prevalence of contaminants to ensure its compliance with health parameters. 

monitoring for water contaminants in healthy buildings

Turbidity and coliforms are two commonly used indicators that are used to measure water contaminants. Turbidity essentially denotes the “cloudiness” of water, which on its own does not mean that the quality is poor per se but as it allows for masking and easier growth of microbes, it can suggest the presence of contaminants, making it harder to treat the water.

Coliforms are a naturally present bacteria, and are generally harmless, although some are related to fecal contamination and can cause serious health concerns if consumed. 

There are many other contaminants that can be present in drinking water, and these vary greatly based on location and local water management.

Dissolved metals from pipes, organic pollutants, herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers leached from soils, public water additives, and disinfectant byproducts can all be present in drinking water, negatively impacting its quality. 

In addition to the regulation of numerous water contaminants, the WELL standard also notes the importance of managing Legionella colonization. This bacterium can cause lung disease and even death if inhaled in hot water systems such as spas, hot tubs, fountains, or humidifiers. As with many other bacteria, Legionella can be regulated through regular turbidity measurements, as well as residual chlorine and pH monitoring. 

Water quality is the most essential characteristic to promote a healthy human relationship to water within buildings. The WELL standard thereby requires regular testing, monitoring, and reporting of various indicators to ensure high quality water throughout a building. 

Promoting hydration in a healthy building plan

Hydration is intimately linked to the accessibility and quality of water. Essentially, in those places with low tap water quality there is likely to be lower levels of hydration and a higher prevalence of bottled water purchased in plastic containers, causing other issues at an environmental level such as excess single-use plastic use and waste production. This is one obvious example of the interconnectedness of human health and environmental health in the built environment.

The availability of drinking fountains and other water dispensers throughout a building, be it an office, cultural or educational facility, provides enhanced opportunities for occupants to stay well hydrated. without recourse to purchasing bottled water.

Such ‘hydration stations’ should also contain water that is appealing in terms of aesthetics and taste. Although drinking water must reach technical health-based thresholds, it is important that it is desirable in terms of color and taste for the user. If the color appears redder due to iron prevalence or tastes saltier due to high chloride levels, for example, people may be less inclined to drink the water and stay hydrated. 

Moisture Management in a healthy building strategy

In addition to the water that is purposefully being brought into the building, it is also important to recognize that unwanted moisture and water may be present as well. Excess moisture affects around 20% of buildings across the U.S., Europe, and Canada. This dampness can lead to the growth of mold, which causes a variety of health issues for building occupants, as well as inviting in other pests, in turn causing additional building problems. 

One fifth of asthma problems in the U.S. have been linked to excess moisture in buildings. In addition to these building-related respiratory issues, trapped water in building envelopes can host small creatures that lead to the degradation of building materials and their integrity. Corrosion of building materials and structure can lead to a variety of other problems in addition to the negative health impacts of unwanted moisture. 

Regular inspections should be completed to eliminate the fear of mold and excess moisture, and the building envelope should be carefully designed to reduce the amount of water that enters the building as much as possible. In addition, mold and trapped moisture can arise from interior water sources, especially in places where water is present in surplus such as bathrooms, showers, or indoor pools. These spaces should be especially closely monitored. 

LARQ pitchers use UV light and a plant-based filter cartridge

Water Management Products in a healthy building

There are a variety of water management strategies, systems, and products that can aid healthy building managers with the upkeep of healthy potable water in buildings. The most basic strategy is to install water filtration devices, using technologies such as carbon filters, reverse osmosis (RO) systems, and ion exchange resins. I

There are also other newer technologies such as ultraviolet (UV) light devices, which disinfect at the point of use and can be effective at killing microbes. 

UV disinfection systems claim to eliminate 99.9% of waterborne living organism in water and can therefore greatly increase the quality of water. However, it is important to note the difference between traditional filters and UV systems—filters physically remove contaminants from the water through their processes, while UV treatments kill the bacteria without removing them from the water.

It is therefore important to have clear water when using UV systems to ensure the light can reach all organisms in the water. Ideally, some sort of filter and a UV light disinfection system should be used in tandem to ensure the healthiest, cleanest water in a building. 

UV disinfection systems can be installed at building level through built-in systems, all the way down to a personal level, through hand-held products. Several manufacturers provide building level UV systems that can be easily installed at the point of entry and help with the disinfection process.

For the individual user, the LARQ Bottle is an exciting self-cleaning water bottle product, which eliminates bacteria in your bottle with the press of a UV light button. In addition, the SteriPen is a handheld device that can be placed in a water source and works to eliminate bacteria through UV light, producing a smiley face when done to indicate success. 

for our guide to the essential principles of a healthy building strategy, see here.

winning the mental game in physical activity programs with martin ebner

Welcome to episode 053 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the themes of sustainability and wellbeing in real estate and hospitality today.

This week i’m in my home town of Barcelona, Spain talking to health and fitness entrepreneur Martin Ebner.

Martin is the Founder of Ebylife Personal Training and Fitness Solutions that include diet plans, training programs and what is now a fairly dominant Google ranking in Barcelona’s fitness scene.

We discuss:

• what needs to happen to activate a fitness facility in an office or residential development in order to extract full value from it

• the importance of being in a state of receptivity to start and stick to a new fitness program

• intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation factors

• real estate developers building gyms vs occupant demand for physical activity

• automaticity and setting medium to long-term physical activity goals

• aiming for physical activity as an enjoyable experience

• solo physical activity vs accompanied or led physical activity

• sustainable physical activity in the medium-term

• psychographic profiles in physical activity

• group fitness as a motivator for physical activity?

• adjusting physical activity programs for fitness levels

Matt Morley - wellbeing champion

I'd like to start with a question around something that I'm peripherally conscious of, but no doubt, to some extent probably tried to ignore, which is when we're creating healthy buildings and interiors for people to spend their days in, or perhaps live in, if it's a wellness residential development, or to work in, if it's a healthy office development, sometimes it can be a bit too easy even for me to say, ’well, we're going to provide access to a facility for exercise, yoga, fitness, whether that's on site or off site, and then the job is done’.

The issue I see is that the facility, once open, then may or may not get much use. And if it’s not getting much use, in the end, it comes back to me because the client justifiably says - ‘you recommended this as part of your healthy building strategy but the gym is always empty now we’re operational! What do we need to do? Should we have programming?’

And I think where I wanted to go with you in today’s discussion, was the inner process at an individual’s psychological level, why are people starting and sticking with a program vs someone who has access to a gym but that doesn’t convert into regular attendance. From your experience as an expert coach, what are the broad themes in terms of why people start a program and how you get them to keep on that path once they’re on it?

Martin Ebner - fitness expert barcelona

Well, yes, as you say, I don't think providing a space, it's enough to convince the majority of people to work out especially people that don't already work out. I have a lot of clients that work for, for big companies, and they have access to facilities, but for one reason or another they don't use them or don't take advantage of them so they employ me outside of their place of work to train them.

I think it may be comes from maybe a lack of education, or the motivation simply isn't there for them to use the gym. Most people need to be in a state of readiness to begin a training program, the majority of the time, it comes from an extrinsic motivation.

So maybe to get fit for a summer, to get six pack abs, to get a bigger chest or whatever it is. And that would be enough to get them to start a program, but rarely enough to get them to continue.

My job as a trainer once they've started is to get them to appreciate all of the intrinsic motivators of exercise. So feeling more energetic or feeling great when you're working out or sleeping better. I think these tend to be the factors that help people get into an exercise routine and stick to it. So like I say, I don't think providing a fitness space as part of a healthy building plan is enough, I think a degree of accompanying education is needed.

activating fitness facilities within a healthy building

Matt Morley

So you've made the distinction there between the first step into the gym, or the first point of contact with a personal trainer, by which stage something has gone on - they client knows they want so make a change. And that's typically coming from either internal or more likely external motivation, which ultimately suggests it doesn't matter how beautiful the gym, fitness room or yoga space I might design for them as part of a healthy building, by itself it likely isn’t enough!

If we dig into those intrinsic drivers, we quickly start to deploy the language of workplace wellness,and we're trying to encourage people to start exercising for the corollary benefits of better sleep, for example, you sleep better, you rest, you recover, you sleep, you come back stronger the next day, you're more productive, you have more energy.

So I completely see there is a piece of education and communication needed around that to the building occupants but what about after that first step through the door and those first few weeks? Is there then an interim phase where you're trying to get them over the hump from coming through the door to the stickiness effect when a client starts to get hooked? I imagine quite a few clients might drop off.

setting realistic goals in a fitness program

Martin Ebner

Yes. So I think people very often come to me with unrealistic fitness goals. So the industry, in general sort of promises, significant results physically or aesthetically, in a very short space of time. We’re quite lazy, in general, and I think we want to get maximum results with the minimum amount of effort.

So it's really my job to set realistic expectations. Yes, it's very nice to train for aesthetic reasons. But it's quite important for me as well to dig into the reasoning behind why they're so obsessed with improving their aesthetics. I think a lot of people believe that if they look better, they're going to feel better, or if they get to a certain weight, their life will automatically feel better. But from my experience, that's very often the opposite of what happens.

So my goal as a trainer is to try and set realistic expectations and encourage consistency. Over things are a little bit more extreme. And obviously, over my life and my experience as a trainer that has changed also, I used to quite enjoy training for aesthetics, for example. But it's, not necessarily something that is going to allow you to get into a routine and stick to it. Because a lot of the time, your expectations are far greater than what you think you can achieve. In the time that perhaps you've given yourself.

real estate developers building gyms vs occupant demand for physical activity

Matt Morley

It does. What I'm seeing is, effectively two very different reasons for gym facilities going in to office buildings and residential developments - there is the perspective of the employer or the landlord who to some extent wants (or feels obliged to) encourage a healthy occupant experience, no doubt partly nudged along by healthy building standards such as WELL Building Standard.

That decision, taken from above, may or may not be supported by demand from below., from the building occupants themselves - although one hopes more and more people are training regularly nowadays!

In the end though, the actual drivers to physical activity are, for most people more internally oriented, to do with aesthetics, their sense of self worth, and their confidence in social environments, I think that could partly explain the challenge of getting these facilities to a point of respectable usage figures (that often have a limited catchment audience of the building occupants - unlike a commercial gym with a far wider radius of potential clients).

What happens on the path to ‘automaticity’, where physical activity becomes almost self reinforcing, where it no longer needs to be pushed by some external factor but is a pleasure in itself? If you've got a good coach or a good fitness program to follow is that a guarantee of long-term success?

automaticity and setting medium to long-term physical activity goals

Martin Ebner

No. I think that's the million dollar question. I suppose we could use our ourselves as examples. Right? So I don't know at what point in my life exercise became so essential to my wellbeing. And I don't necessarily know how that happened. But I think, again, being realistic with your expectations is very important.

So the people that have the greatest success when it comes to, to fitness, are the people that are able to do it consistently. And they have the right reasons to exercise - so the clients that tend to have the most success aren't the ones that are coming to me and saying, I want to be this weight by this time. So that can look great for summer, okay, because it's a very short term goal.

A lot of people just assume that after the 12 weeks that’s it, they don't need to continue, or they take the route of going so extreme for the 12 weeks, they achieve enough. And then after the 12 weeks, they stop entirely and then that's it.

So yes, I think it's the people that come to me, and they just want to feel good. And they enjoy the workout. And I don't necessarily have to push them so hard, because the motivational factor isn't to get a six pack, it's to feel good.

Matt Morley

There you're talking effectively about a hormone release. Now isn't that a universal? A lot of people talk about that rush after a HIIT workout, for example, you just get this hit of endorphins. And it can last for a good half a day where you're just feeling an amazing afterglow effect that can positively impact on productivity at work for example, not to mention concentration levels and mood..

Now, you may or may not crash later n if you don’t refuel or aren’t accustomed to that type of high intensity exercise, but how much of that experience is at least potentially universal? Do you see that they're just some people who are more in tune with that than others?

aiming for physical activity as an enjoyable experience

Martin Ebner

I think it depends on the experience of exercise. So I think you're assuming the exercise feels good at the time. And for a lot of people, it really doesn't. So for you and I probably does, we've learned to appreciate pain, appreciating scum for accepting discomfort thriving on it, enjoying it. But for a lot of people that aren't necessarily fit, it can feel very uncomfortable.

So again, I think my job if I get a new client is to create a collection of enjoyable experiences for them. So they keep coming back. So I see this in gyms all the time, it's something that really frustrates me is I'll see these trainers, and they'll push the client to the point of dizziness, feeling faint, wanting to vomit. And if that is your first experience of working out or going to the gym, that you will never go back and do it again.

So I get lots of people when they come to a hated exercise. So what do you hate about, I ask? I just don't like how it feels, in my view is always done something that I dislike to push too hard initially, I think it takes a bit of time to build up. And you get used to that pain and that discomfort. And that starts to be a motivator. And you start to enjoy that feeling.

But initially I don't think it exercise unless you do it. Right, which is always what I aim to achieve with new clients, it's doesn't necessarily always feel great. So I think instinctually, you're not going to keep returning to something that is hard. And that is a challenge. And that doesn't necessarily feel good initially.

Solo physical activity vs accompanied or led physical activity

Matt Morley

That's where the difference between working with a PT working with a trainer on a one to one basis and just kind of starting to work out alone in the gym, with or without some knowledge. Perhaps someone has an issue with a squat, they just don't have the mobility to squat and doesn't feel good. So they stay away from it. And the squat never gets gets attempted again. And you can easily avoid it if you're training by yourself.

Or if you're in a group class that repeatedly asked you to do a particular movement. Maybe you just don't go back, right? Whereas when you're working with a PT and you and I have trained, there's nowhere to hide, and when you come up against a block a blockage, you find a workaround. And you make a note mentally, right, there's an issue there with hip or ankle mobility. Let's come back to that.

I'm going to push you on the timeline point because I think what you're talking about feels to me like there's a medium term hump somewhere around three or five months in terms of getting someone into the groove.

Sustainable physical activity in the medium-term

Martin Ebner

Absolutely. I think depending on your experience, your fitness level, age, etc. You tend to achieve or be able to achieve a lot initially when you start training. So if you don't know what you're doing, you might not be able to achieve it nearly as quickly but if you train with a trainer so you're just starting exercise for the first time or returning after a spell out, you can certainly achieve a lot very, very quickly. And that I think for a lot of people, it's very motivational.

But that also creates a problem because it's not sustainable, you plateau big time. So I think what what people tend to see is within the first three to six months, again, incredible results, they can achieve a lot, and then drastically slows down.

But hopefully, that's when the intrinsic motivators come into play, you're sleeping better, you're able to eat more, you feel great at that time, you know, it's a moment that you can de stress. So I think that's when it starts to, to sort of these motivators start to kick in, and you can begin to establish a much longer sort of habit, as opposed to start and stop.

Psychographic profiles in physical activity

Matt Morley

In your experience working one to one with clients, if you've identified certain personality types, because I think we touched on it a few minutes ago, the idea of, you know, almost seeking out diveadversityrsity, and there's a certain personality type, it's not masochistic, but to some extent, where we're heading deliberately towards the pain, we're seeking it out.

A 50k trail run on a Sunday morning, no one's asking me to do it, I go do it, because I kind of like the suck to kind of enjoy it on some weird level, I know it's gonna be awkward. And I'm probably come home and in all sorts of trouble. But I do it. There's something in there.

I'm no alpha male, but there must be certain personality types that you've seen whereby you're able to find that button and make it switch. And then I'm guessing there are others that are perhaps more challenging in terms of finding a way to connect better, how do you how do you adapt? How do you get into that? Because you're able to work one to one with clients, but like, What's that process in terms of trying to find their levers, their, their buttons to switch?

Martin Ebner

Sure. I think I'm in a very fortunate position where I can No, choose the sort of client I take on. Most recently. The sort of clients or take on aren't necessarily into extremes, perhaps that yourself. And personally, I'm not really into extremes either. I'm much more about consistency, and finding balance. And that's changing. Obviously, it's ice age. But like I said, the most important thing for me is to establish sort of realistic goals. And then to create a collection of positive experiences. So they can continue and one to continue to train forever.

So I don't necessarily get the sort of clients that are wanting to run 100 miles. I don't know if these people tend to seek the help of personal trainers, I think you don't necessarily get somebody that that would approach me that's never exercised before and says I want to run 50 miles in the did then I would probably say let's start with five. And then once you get to five, you feel good. With five miles, you can go for a 10 and build up that way. So I think less about extreme goals and all about moderation. And then you can expand upon that. As your confidence and your experience grows.

Matt Morley

It makes sense. I think the there's also something cumulative about it. I certainly found over 25 odd years of of training that yeah, you do start to look for, to some extent, the occasional peak, the occasional extreme and challenges and I think that's why you get so many middle aged men doing triathlons and Ironman, because yeah, we're kind of hunting, we were looking for a next big thing, or switching around and trying other other sports, but I can totally see that the bulk of the market for you.

And in fact, I think specifically when you're looking at say, trying to create healthy workplaces in the workforce, the majority of people need what you've just described, which is low. Let's just keep it simple and get you from point A to point C person through point B which is stickiness kicking in.

measurable results in physical activity plans

So when you look at measurable results do you have universal data points for that? Or is that also specific according to the type of person and the reasons they came to you originally?

Martin Ebner

Yes, I think it, it depends on the client, a lot of them don't tend to need to know, obviously, I keep record and track of all of the clients so that we can see or I can see their progression. I tried to discourage people to focus on weight, or body fat percentages, things like that, I think that that is quite an unhealthy view.

So I have a client who is quite obsessed with weight, and body fat percentages. And once I get to this body fat percentage, and you know, I always challenging him, to give me a good reason as to why when he gets to this, it's, he's going to feel any better. So for me, I tend to focus a little bit more on quality over quantity.

So a measurable result, for me might be technique. So I'm at, you know, what you've trained with me once. For me, I give quite a lot of importance to to the technique. So it might be a client, when I first get them can do a squat. And then after six weeks, they can do a squat perfect. And that for me would be a great result. And then from there, you can obviously begin to build upon the repetitions, build up the volume, build up the weight, etc. But each person is a bit different.

And I think a lot of my clients, again, they don't need to necessarily know the numbers or the figures or how much they have done. And I don't necessarily need to see the specifics either. It's more of that progression that I see in their ability to perform. And also how they feel I get a lot of art pleases me when when a client comes to me, I went to the supermarket and walked up the hill with too heavy shopping bags. So that would be something that nobody would train for ever. It's, it's a nice benefit.

You know, these benefits you don't necessarily notice. But then you look back on, you're like, wow, I've slept eight hours every night for the last week, I haven't done that forever. And these are a lot of the things I aim for now. With my clients, I was going to say also that a lot of the clients are getting now are maybe middle aged, and they've spent most of their lives making poor lifestyle choices. And something may have happened to them. And they've realized that they're not eating anymore, they can't eat the way they do. Or maybe they've had a health scare. And that is enough for them to start an exercise program and worrying more about their health.

group fitness as a motivator for physical activity?

Matt Morley

Clearly the group fitness revolution and boutique fitness studios over the last 10-15 years in most European and US capitals, primarily, it's just been game changing in terms of encouragement in terms of motivation, in terms of getting people to do things that they perhaps would never have tried to do. I mean, from CrossFit, all the way through to the yoga boom. There's just more out there in terms of group class and motivation.

But clearly, I think what I'm getting from you is that that may not work for people at a certain life phase who've been through certain things previously. And they're kind of having now to pay the debt on those cumulative results. And something does change at a certain age. And I think also around simply like how one lives, one's life, and the responsibilities we all have, and so on. It's just not necessarily convenient to work around a class timetable.

I think that's also where the PT really comes into its own around it being a little bit more tailored towards that person's individual requirements. And that might also then align with a demographic not say, can't work for an answer, like a 25 year old graduate just out of university, but it's much more likely that person has a spin studio membership or does yoga in group classes. Right? Sure. Surely that divide?

Martin Ebner

Absolutely. I think it depends on the sort of person who you are. I mean, I I don't really enjoy training in a group have done it, I did a little bit of CrossFit. And it pissed me off. people shouting at me to do more, I think, again, CrossFit isn't a great example, because I think a lot of these classes are very extreme.

So it's getting more bang for your buck and less time. And you go in and, you know, CrossFit is an interesting example, because there's a lot about it, which I think is fantastic. I'm not going to say too much about external, there's a lot of people that are diehard CrossFitters.

But I think, for a beginner to go into a CrossFit class, and, you know, unless they're physically prepared enough to do it, it can be quite dangerous. And I think that can be the case with quite a lot of group classes as well. And, and yes, I mean, I suppose I believe in queer tailored approach to fitness, I think everybody is quite different. I think there's a lot of great things that come from training as part of a group, it's community, it's motivation, these things are all great.

But I think it's unlikely that you will see as a significant results when you're training with the goals of a group as opposed to the goals of yourself, right. So again, if I was to go to a group class, I'm obviously and I have the education and the experience to know that if there was an exercise in there that wasn't suitable for my back, because I've gone some compression in my spine, I could work around it that somebody that didn't know, wouldn't know and would do the exercise anyway.

And that could, could potentially be a little bit risky for them. But I appreciate the value in both. And I've seen the boom and group fitness. And I think it's wonderful, it looks so much fun. That's just not necessarily my style. And I don't think it's motivational for everybody.

Matt Morley

I think the output that I'm getting from our conversation is when looking at a workplace wellness program that is really comprehensive. And that offers a 360 approach. From nutrition to hydration through to exercise and even what we call active design in the workplace, things like we're we're standing out on a standing desk, using the stairs instead of using the lift, etcetera, there are things we can do to encourage people to be a bit more active when they're at work.

And I think a one size fits all approach to that fitness component. And increasingly, the fitness component is on the table. It wasn't previously around the workplace, but I think it is then now it can be all too easy just to say right or have a yoga class might have a hit class. And it'll be you know, something along the lines of TRX and bodyweight training, which is cool, there's less likely have less likelihood of any injuries. But that's often as far as it goes.

I think where I'm interested in is a more variegated approach that allows for different needs and requirements according to people's life phase and also where they're at their relationship with exercise. I think just putting in the yoga class and the HIIT session. I just don't think it's good enough.

I think perhaps it's with a small group training, and we can we can touch on that, or having access to a PT just feels now based on what we've been discussing a much more rounded and complete offer. And then I guess people to make their own choice. If they do the group fitness thing, then they go to the class on a on a Monday. If not, they call it BT and, and work on a one to one. Right.

So I think that would be perhaps an ideal approach. I asked about small group training. How do you see that in terms of the benefits of working on a one to one and how much do you lose? If your training set three people at the same time? Do you think it can get close to that experience?

Adjusting physical activity programs for fitness levels

Martin Ebner

Ideally everybody in the group should be more or less around the same fitness level and have similar goals. So you know, if you have three people that are different fitness levels with different goals, it's not necessarily going to work because maybe the fittest member of the group is going to be held back and the person that has the least amount of experience is going to feel intimidated by so it needs to be balanced. I do small group classes, that people tend to be friends first.

So it's not public groups. I don't just invite anybody in they tend to come to me and we established our goals and there are ways that you can do it. S

o there's ways that you can train where you can have fitter members in the group and they do more you know attends to the internet. repetitions would be, you know, 30 seconds as opposed to 10 repetitions and that person could do as much or as little as they like from that time, for example, I think cost is quite important to talk about these businesses, and I'm interested to know as well, but why are they doing? Are they you know, to these big businesses, to the offer these, these services and facilities just so they can see that they do it? Or to the to they really care?

Matt Morley

So the cynical answer would be that a lot of them are signing up for, let's say, certification systems, for example, the WELL Healthy Building standard that pretty much requires that there is a component of just like as a nutrition chapter and a hydration chapter. There's also a fitness or movement chapter in particular, and then businesses are effectively encouraged to have provision for equipment, or fitness training spaces, and programming.

It’s then the level of detail around the programming - effectively what we've been talking about for the last 25 minutes - is the key piece around how you actually get it to work, to ensure the facility gets used.

So it's beyond just putting it out there. And actually, well, how can you activate that space? Or how can you fill the classes. And if it's not, often, the offer might not be completely enough? I think there's that extra layer of detail around a hybrid model between having bought or at least trying to offer some group class options, but also having access to a PT, just like nowadays, having access to a recommended mental health practitioner or therapist outside of the organization.

Or should this person if it's sort of an established relationship, I think having something along those same lines with the PT, certainly for a lot of businesses will make sense.

There's another layer to it, which is where the intrinsic benefits as you've been describing them, start to kick in and effectively help the employer as well, right?

Because you're just you've got more to give, you're more energized, is the the sort of the magic of all of this is that you don't have less energy, once you get into the trade. If it works, okay, I crashed in the evenings. During the day, I'm on fire, and I'm good, you know, it's only got my caffeine intake. Right. But you know, that's the thing. And so yes, there are collateral benefits for that, that workplace, owner, the employer, around reducing sick days around happier, healthier and more productive, primarily workforce.

And I think, so to some extent, they're doing it because they genuinely want happy staff, and it helps attract and retain talent. And there is to, to a greater or lesser extent, according to where you are, if you're in San Francisco, or LA or London, everyone's doing it, if you're not doing it, where's the person going to go somewhere where they have a gym, and a whole fitness, setup and massages on a Friday afternoon for those who need it, etc, etc, etc, or the one that doesn't.

And so there's almost a oneupmanship going on. It's a ratchet effect, and the markets moving up the markets adapting and adopting more and more of these measures. And certainly for the big guys, like investment banks and the big tech companies. If you're not playing that game, your competitor is, and they win the talent war.

And it's it's a little cynical to describe it that way, but it's happening. And the net results are that fitness and health are just becoming a much bigger piece. Obviously, it's not the main driver for why someone decides to go work for Goldman versus another bank, but it's definitely out there.

Martin Ebner

Absolutely. It's an interesting point, a wonder of its you know, for somebody that doesn't exercise, whether that's a draw for them, I wonder if that's a factor of their choosing between two big companies, or whether it's a deterrent for somebody that's unfair, something I was gonna say that I think confidence comes into as well.

So it can be very intimidating, to go to a gym or to start an exercise program when you're very unfit. And I think I get a lot of these clients that you know, I have quite a few, a few clients that work for Google, for example.

And I always wonder why they've come to me instead of using the facilities that they have, and I think that one of the reasons is a lack of confidence. It's intimidating, maybe to work out in front of there. If their work colleagues if they're the boss, for example, yeah, they might not want to show weakness.

So I think there's a lot of different factors, you know, and in the case of in the case of Google, I know that they don't have personal trainers, I think that they have access to a gym, but there's more guidance.

So yeah, you know, we've spoken about it many times, I think one of the issues with with gyms is that you go, you have no idea what you're there to do. You know, you looking at the machines, and you don't know what they do, and you're intimidated.

So you skip them altogether, and then you leave, and you never go back. So you know, this is going back a little bit. But I think it's very important to have a member of staff in these areas to help. Otherwise you get people turning up having no idea how to use anything at all. And that can be very, that can be a deterrent for them.

Matt Morley

Yeah, I mean, I think if I put myself in the shoes of the of the brand on the other side of the employer, I think I look at that I start weighing up the pros and cons of that operational cost overhead that is implicit in what you just described. And as Matt, I then come in and say, Well, look, let's look at virtual trainer options.

Let's look at subscriptions that can be available to facilitate those workouts. But effectively automated and streaming services so that there is there's a hybrid so that there's something for someone to follow. You have an A Technogym that picking up gym classes, it's 100 or the peloton fitness classes, you have a peloton bike in the gym, or you have a technology a bit of kit for 100 year, 100 euros a year, you also have the screen that can fold out away from the bank or from that main bit of kit and becomes effectively a virtual trainer. And it's something to follow. It's not ideal, but it fills that gap.

And I think again, it's something that we need to be conscious of. Because yeah, all too often there is the risk of someone who's not to use your term hasn't got the education behind them around what to do, how to do it, how often walk into a gym, happy moment, you finally made it in there, look around and you feel awkward. You don't necessarily like what you see in the mirror, or you don't want to be next to your boss on the spin bike anymore.

Someone you've had a round with earlier on over a work related issue. And yet it's complex. It's complex, and I think but those subtleties, those that level of detail is is where it needs to get to beyond just boom box ticking exercises of what we've done the gym and we've put in a yoga class and off we go.

I think that's that's my big takeaway from from this conversation that a little bit of extra thinking in terms of how that's structured and presented can go a long way.

https://www.ebylife.com/martin-ebner-profile

Health risks of toxic chemicals and materials in building interiors

a short history of building materials

In the past, human shelter and the earliest buildings were simply made from naturally occurring materials such as clay, wood, or stone, organically sourced and all safe enough to go back into the ground at their end of life.

It was only the industrial revolution starting in the second half of the 18th century and the concomitant explosion in synthetic compounds - that in turn began to find their way into building materials - that the buildings designed to protect us from the elements around us first become a health risk in themselves (who knew!).

Slowly and almost imperceptibly, the toxicity levels in buildings and interiors continued to rise as the decades passed and the ‘chemical revolution’ proposed ever greater numbers of solutions for the construction industry… until we finally began to take defensive action in the 1970s - starting with lead!  

Today, building and interior materials have the potential to negatively impact human health and wellbeing if they are not properly chosen, installed, and maintained.

These risks can vary according to the life phase of a chosen building material but we recommend taking into consideration all phases of the material’s life for good measure.

To do so, we apply the concept of a Life Cycle Assessment to better track, moderate, and eliminate harmful toxicity from a construction and fit-out project wherever possible.

It is also worth noting that if the whole cycle of a material is taken into consideration, the groups at risk of exposure to such toxic materials expand beyond just the building occupants. 

The negative health effects of toxic materials have the potential to extend to those living near the factories where the materials are made, the workers using the materials during construction of a building or interior fit-out, and even those charged with disposing or recycling the material at the end of its life.

For this reason we believe it is fundamental to understand what impact building and interior materials can have on human health.

Here we will look at common sources of toxic substances in building materials; common toxic substances we want to avoid in building materials; the health risks of human exposure to such toxicity; authoritative ‘red lists’ of these harmful chemicals in building materials and what can be taken from the materials-related content of various leading healthy building standards. Let’s get it into!

Common sources of Toxins in building materials

Toxic substances can be found in an alarming number of building materials and products from flooring to insolation, carpeting, cabinetry, paints and coatings, furniture and fabrics, all manner of adhesives and finishes.

Careful analysis of all such source materials should therefore be instilled in a project’s design phase as early on as possible to implement a green procurement policy as part of the project’s DNA.

Asbestos, VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), SVOCs (Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds), Lead, HFRs (Halogenated Flame Retardants), Chromate Copper Arsenate (CCA), and Phthalates are some of the most commonly occurring and detrimental building chemicals for our health.

Below we cross-reference the source with the type of toxic substance:

• Insulation Materials <> Asbestos, VOCs

• Paints <> Lead, VOCs

• Coatings <> VOCs, Phthalates

• Adhesives <> VOCs

• Furniture & Fabrics (e.g. upholstery foam) <> HFRs, VOCs

• Composite Wood Products <> Chromate Copper Arsenate, VOCs

• Flooring Materials <> VOCs

• Combustion Sources <> Lead, Particulates

• Cleaning Products <> Phthalates

Common toxins to avoid in building materials and products

Humans can be introduced to these chemicals through a variety of manners such as ingestion, inhalation, hand-to-mouth ingestion, skin absorption, breastfeeding, and even placental transfer before a baby is born. 

These potential avenues of human-chemical transfer from building materials are compounded when interior ventilation is poor, highlighting the increased importance of indoor air quality in the post-Covid home, workplace, gym, learning environment, etc.

‘Off-gassing’ is a common characteristic of such materials, describing the release of toxic particles into the indoor air over time, which if improperly ventilated can accumulate to unhealthy levels in building interiors.

That new car / carpet / furniture smell? That’s the first wave of off-gassing. If you can smell it, and it’s not a natural material, you’re witness to off-gassing. Best open a window!

It is essential to not only choose healthy materials and products, but to also monitor and maintain healthy indoor air quality to avoid health hazards. See our section on indoor air here.

Health Hazards of toxic building products and materials in interiors

Negative health implications arise from many building materials and products, including from legacy materials, so-called “high performing” materials, and even from operations-based sources such as chemical-based cleaning products used by facilities management in an honest attempt to make interior spaces cleaner and healthier. The irony surely cannot be lost on any of us! 

Although several legacy chemicals that were widely used in the past without proper understanding are now widely banned, many are still present in buildings and therefore remain a threat.

These chemicals include asbestos, lead, Chromate Copper Arsenate, and countless others yet legislation moves at such a slow pace compared to the release of new chemical compounds that we as healthy building consultants have to adopt our own strategies to help rather than relying on industry-wide legislation from above. 

Asbestos is responsible for over 200,000 deaths each year, the leading cause of mesothelioma, and is a known toxin and carcinogen.

Lead is an endocrine disruptor (or ‘hormone disruptor’) and can therefore affect reproductive systems, puberty, and child development during pregnancy. Lead can be ingested, absorbed, or inhaled and upon accumulation in the body causes highly detrimental health effects.

Chromate Copper Arsenate contains arsenic, which is associated with lung, bladder, skin, and liver cancer. In addition, it can be leached from wood structures into soil and expose children to contaminants, further increasing its danger. 

Halogenated Flame Retardants are commonly inhaled, ingested or absorbed through skin contact and have been found to disrupt endocrine function, cause neurological damage and even cancer. They have the potential to cause long-term health effects as they accumulate in our bodies.

VOCs and SVOCs are compounds that are emitted from materials and accumulate in interiors. VOCs can cause sick building syndrome, nausea, and central nervous system damage. Gaseous at room temperature, their negative health impacts increase considerably with poor ventilation and generally low indoor air quality. These compounds are commonly inhaled, and some VOCs are even considered carcinogens.

Phthalates are known endocrine disrupters, negatively affect reproduction and development, and are carcinogenic. Their health impacts also bioaccumulate, meaning they slowly build up over time and cause detrimental health effects.  

Red List Resources of toxic chemicals in building materials

There are several resources that can provide guidance on so-called ‘red list’ materials, or materials that have scientifically proven negative health impacts and should ideally be avoided in all building projects with a view to human wellbeing in interiors. 

The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) has a definitive and highly demanding material red list for example while health-oriented design practice Perkins & Will has its own precautionary list that provides information on unhealthy chemicals and materials they believe should be avoided.

Cradle 2 Cradle (C2C) sustainability certifications for a product or material can provide a resource for healthy materials. 

In addition, ingredient disclosures such as Declare, and Health Product Declarations (HPDs) can help guide and inform builders and designers on making health-focused choices by encouraging transparency from manufacturers.

In sum, there is no longer any need for this to be an endless laborious task, project teams can and should leverage the work done already by standing on the shoulders of giants and implementing procurement policies that prioritize products and materials with high recycled content, HPDs, Declare labels and so on. This then places at least some of the responsibility on the general contractor to contribute to such sustainability efforts.

healthy Building Standards on materials and avoiding toxic substances

The WELL, LEED, and BREEAM certification systems as well as the Living Building Challenge provide resources and guides for healthy material implementations. 

WELL, focuses on the human health implications of all building-related decisions, provides in depth research, guidelines, and strategies to avoid unhealthy products and materials within the built environment. As such it is a definitive research tool and guide for us as healthy building material consultants.

The US Green Building Council’s LEED and the UK’s BREEAM both encourage material transparency too of course, as well as encouraging healthy indoor air quality through low VOC emissions and proper ventilation. 

As with so much in the world of healthy buildings and healthy interiors, the two concepts are in fact inextricably linked - enhanced indoor air quality and a healthy materials procurement policy go hand in hand.

As mentioned previously, the Living Building Challenge, part of the ILFI standard, focuses on choosing responsible materials and provides an impressively researched Red List of materials to avoid. 

Contact us to discuss your healthy building materials enquiry.

Embodied Carbon in sustainable Real Estate ESG

What is Embodied Carbon in Sustainable Real Estate Developments?

In the context of sustainable buildings and interiors, embodied carbon is essentially a question of materials.

Unlike ‘operational carbon’ or indeed ‘building energy efficiency’, embodied carbon accounts for the cumulative impact of building materials from extraction all the way through to construction; including transportation, manufacturing, and installation. 

The embodied carbon of a given material is therefore the amount of carbon emissions involved in first producing it and ultimately deploying it in a construction project.

Embodied carbon impacts from building and infrastructure projects have been estimated to account for 23% of global carbon emissions (McConnell, Mithun). 

In general terms, we can say that operational energy use has improved considerably as a result of sustainable green building principles, yet embodied carbon has lagged behind, remaining relatively constant over time despite the efforts of real estate sustainability consultants! 

Due to the negative impacts of embodied carbon, and its inherent relationship with sustainable material procurement policies, it is an area of particular interest for sustainable building and interior consultants, such as ourselves.

How to reduce embodied carbon in sustainable real estate development?

The bulk of the opportunities come in the early phases (pre-design and design) of a real estate development project as a small number of construction material choices will carry massive weight in the final embodied carbon status of the building. 

For this reason, project teams need to align behind sustainability objectives early on if they want to avoid playing catch-up.

Taking a step back further, developing a Sustainability Plan with objectives and priorities as early as possible, even doing so in broad principles for the development company as a whole in order to have an initial blueprint to apply as each new development deals comes online.

How to determine embodied carbon in building materials?

Completing Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) is the main strategy to determine embodied carbon for materials or projects. Embodied carbon can be reduced by limiting material use, choosing low-carbon solutions, decreasing transportation related emissions, and reusing and recycling materials whenever possible.

Reduce Material Use in Sustainable Real Estate Development

An important strategy to reduce a real estate development project’s embodied carbon is to optimize and reduce overall material use. Sounds simple, perhaps deceptively so.

One major way to do this is to identify opportunities to use or repurpose existing buildings rather than demolishing or developing Greenfield sites. 

Real estate projects designed with adaptive reuse in mind effectively plan ahead for this eventuality, baking in flexibility for future owners or developers to facilitate the process of repurposing old buildings or structures. 

Demolition and construction is by comparison extremely carbon intensive, as it requires both material disposal and the extraction of new resources.

In addition, looking for efficiencies in the volume of certain structural materials used in a redevelopment or construction project will also diminish embodied carbon. 

For example, research has shown that on average, the quantity of structural steel used in buildings can be up to two times the necessary amount from an engineering perspective, greatly increasing embodied carbon (Isaac). 

Ensuring that material use is optimized and using stronger, more efficient materials will mean less volume overall.

In addition, the use of more efficient building strategies such as modular construction reduces waste and increases the sustainability of the project. 

Other sustainable design decisions such as reducing the need for / specification of finish materials in favor of simply leaving certain elements of the building structure exposed also decreases overall material use, lowering a project’s embodied carbon and helping it achieve its sustainability objectives whilst also adding an appealing aesthetic dimension. 

Summary - Material Optimization and Reduction Strategies

• Use and repurpose existing buildings

• Optimize structural framing by volume and materiality

• Reduce material volume through efficient design choices

• Implement modular construction methodologies

Using Low-Carbon Materials in Sustainable Real Estate Development

In any sustainable development project, it is likely that there will need to be some integration of new materials. Materials should therefore be selected based on the lowest feasible embodied carbon impact, commonly determined through the completion of LCAs. 

LCAs consider the amount of carbon (and often other emissions) required to take a material through its entire lifecycle—from extraction all the way through to disposal. These analyses are invaluable to compare a project’s material options and the associated embodied carbon. 

Whenever possible, select sustainable materials that have been manufactured using comparatively less energy or using renewable energy. Options with high recycled content, those that are bio-based and rapidly renewable will also help achieve sustainability targets, especially if they can also be reused at their end of life (McConnell, Greenbuild). 

Healthy building materials such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), bamboo, cork, hemp, straw, sheep wool, and even mycelium are bio-based, carbon-sequestering options that can greatly reduce a project’s embodied carbon as part of a real estate sustainability strategy for example (“Whole Building”).

In addition, when choosing materials, it is important to consider their durability, specifically when calculated alongside local climate and weather patterns. It is essential to understand how different materials react to heat or moisture, for example, to make smart choices that will stand the test of time and not need replacing within a few years. 

The more durable the material in the specific climatic conditions of the project location the less materials will be needed in future for upkeep and replacement, therefore reducing the risk of provoking additional resource extraction later on (“Whole Building”).

Sustainable interiors and embodied carbon

Most embodied carbon reduction efforts have been focused on significant structural elements such as concrete or steel, which require energy intensive processes and are often used in large quantities. 

However, as substitutes such as CLT become more accessible, consideration for the embodied carbon of a sustainable interior also becomes more relevant. 

Common interior finish materials such as acoustic ceilings, gypsum wall boards, and nylon carpeting can have a considerable impact on a project’s embodied carbon if not assessed from a sustainability perspective as early on as possible in order to account for any budgetary adjustments they might require (McConnell, Mithun). 

Summary: Low-carbon sustainable building and interiors material strategies

• Reduce fossil fuel energy required for extraction and manufacturing

• Choose those that contain high recycled content

• Bio-based and carbon sequestering resources

• Prioritize rapidly renewable materials

• Consider climate-specific durability of materials

Reducing Transportation Emissions in Sustainable Buildings and Interiors

When considering a material’s embodied carbon and its life cycle, transportation emissions can also have a considerable impact meaning we need to look into material supply chains, aim to source locally or regionally, carefully plan construction material deliveries to limit wastage, and choose low-emission transport options whenever possible. 

Local sustainable materials 

Select materials that are produced from a low carbon system, both through their manufacturing and transportation. The use of local, sustainable materials will greatly reduce transportation distances and emissions, so it is important to understand what is available within an acceptable radius of your project (“Whole Building”).

Sustainable Transportation of materials

In addition, by reducing the number of site deliveries through close coordination of  manufacturing and construction timelines we avoid the delivery of materials at inefficient times that in turn can cause damage and unnecessary waste. 

Efficient alignment of transportation with project timelines in this way is an essential step to reduce the embodied carbon of a building project (Best Practice).

Finally, whenever possible choose transport options that create the lowest carbon emissions, such as train or barge, when available (“Whole Building”).

Low-Carbon Sustainable Building Transportation Strategies

• Choose materials with a low-carbon supply chain

• Source locally

• Coordinate transport with project timelines

• Utilize low-carbon transportation options

Reuse & Recycle Materials

The implementation of salvaged, reused, and recycled materials greatly reduces embodied carbon as it eliminates the need to extract and manufacture new resources. Salvaged materials only involve emissions related to transportation and refabrication, greatly cutting a sustainable building’s overall embodied carbon (“Salvaged Materials”). 

Hand-in-hand with the use of salvaged materials comes deconstruction, the process of carefully disassembling a building to save its materials rather than the more common demolition strategy. Examples of easily salvageable materials include brick and wood, as well as steel and precast concrete (“Salvaged Materials”).

If materials cannot be salvaged, choose options that contain high recycled content. Paper, plastic, and glass products are increasingly common in building materials and provide greener options for projects aiming to lower their embodied carbon. 

Sustainable Building Material Reuse Strategies

• Salvage materials from previous builds

• Implement deconstruction

• Utilize materials with high recycled content

Helpful Embodied Carbon Tools 

With all of these strategies, it is imperative to first set project carbon goals. As with all sustainable building projects, the use of benchmarking is essential to determine what has been done before and what is plausible for any given project. Within each development, stakeholders involved in the design and construction process will benefit of how their role can positive (or negatively) impact the embodied carbon of the project (“Whole Building”). 

Early on in the design process, various tools can be used by team members to determine the potential carbon outputs. For example, the programs Revit and Tally can work together to store information about material quantities and qualities to pre-form LCAs and determine the carbon impacts of building materials. Tally currently contains more structural, heavy material data but is moving towards containing more interior material information such as for furniture and casework. 

When considering which materials to utilize, look for those with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) - effectively a way of communicating information on a material’s environmental impact. This information can be found online in places such as the EPD library. In addition, the Carbon Smart Materials Palette provides information on high and low impact materials over their life cycles. 

Finally, there are several free carbon calculators that can be used to compare material options. EC3 is one of the most common in the industry, allowing users to compare construction materials and review material EPDs.

Pathfinder meanwhile is a carbon calculator that focuses more on landscaping elements, even including estimates for natural features such as trees and greenery.  

How to Reach Embodied Carbon Goals for a sustainable building

• Set embodied carbon goals early on in the design timeline

• Ensure collaboration across project team, aligned behind sustainable building interior strategies

• Incorporate design and LCA tools (Revit and Tally) to track data on embodied carbon in materials

• Use online resources or consultants to identify low-carbon material solutions

• Use online carbon calculators for complete transparency

Sources

“ Best Practice Guide to Improving Waste Management on Construction Sites.” Resource Efficient Scotland, Scotland. 

Isaac, Philip, and Jonny Hawkshaw. Elsevier, 2020, Scaling Low-Carbon Construction Materials, thestructuralengineer.org. Accessed 5 May 2022. 

McConnell, Claire, et al. “A Year of Embodied Carbon.” Mithun, 5 Nov. 2021, https://mithun.com/2021/11/05/a-year-of-embodied-carbon/  

McConnell, Claire. “Greenbuild.” Greenbuild, Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, 22 Sept. 2021, https://informaconnect.com/greenbuild/agenda-2021/ Accessed 5 May 2022. 

“Salvaged Materials.” SE2050, SE 2050, https://se2050.org/resources-overview/strategies/salvaged-materials/  

“Whole Building Approaches to Emissions Reductions.” Carbon Smart Materials Palette, Architecture 2030 - Enfold WordPress , https://materialspalette.org/whole-building/

a guide to real estate ESG management software

Real estate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting is becoming the norm for real estate developers and funds as societal pressure combines with investor pressure from above to nudge the industry towards a Triple Bottom Line position.

As real estate ESG consultants annual reporting is an obligatory piece of the puzzle, although it should be seen as a way to summarize and review the work done, rather than it becoming the focus of the work - a subtle but important difference!

Much of ESG is now about producing quality data and management of that data is fundamental, no longer can a spreadsheet do this job for us effectively, especially not for real estate portfolios with multiple, fully operational buildings. By setting up the necessary software early on in the ESG journey, a real estate developer sets themselves up for success in properly capturing, managing, and eventually disclosing ESG data.

ESG software helps us to track, visualize and monitor progress in real time throughout the year and then to transparently communicate to customers and investors the sustainability work delivered at the end of the year too. This process of collecting and analyzing data on an ongoing basis ensures alignment with the appropriate policies and ESG frameworks.

Depending on a real estate developer’s specific requirements, it can be difficult to find one single piece of ESG software that does everything we need, so here is a review of the major players right now.

Greenstone - ESG

Greenstone is a sustainability reporting software that enables organizations to more easily manage their ESG data and ESG reports. It’s primarily about data collection and data management, allowing the ESG team or external ESG Consultants to focus more on reporting, analysis and decision-making. Greenstone’s software and support services include modules concerning the environment, frameworks, and health and safety.

The Greenstone Environment module helps process environmental data, track consumption and carbon emissions, and manage and communicate this data.

The Greenstone Frameworks module ensures that clients meet the requirements of various reporting frameworks such as CDP, SASB, GRI Standards, TCFD, UNGC, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The Greenstone Health and Safety module helps organizations to collect and analyze  incident data and manage reporting (Greenstone). 

https://www.greenstoneplus.com/

Sustain.Life – Environment

Sustain.Life focuses specifically on ways to track, reduce, and manage carbon emissions and footprint. Additionally, the platform aligns this process with current certifications and standards to prepare for third-party assessments. The software aims to simplify the collection and management of data in one place, facilitating collaboration in the process.

Sustain.Life first aids in the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, then provides step-by-step guides for emission reduction strategies, and finally provides ways to offset unavoidable emissions. The carbon footprint is calculated through Sustain.Life’s carbon calculator using scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, meaning it considers all levels of a business’s emission behaviors.

Once the footprint is calculated, the software provides a sustainability plan based on the organizations budget, time, and climate impact. Finally, there are offset opportunities provided on the platform, allowing users to offset emissions from building users on an automatic monthly basis (“Sustainability”). 

https://www.sustain.life/

Brightest - Social 

Brightest, another big player in ESG, Social Impact and Sustainability software, aims to increase efficiency in collecting, managing, and reporting data. Its particular USP however is around the social impact component, at least for now.

Brightest helps organizations collect data on environmental accounting assets, supply chain, energy and resources, and employees, teams and departments through stakeholder surveys, utility and invoice analyses, and life cycle analyses.

Once collected, data can be transferred to the Brightest ESG and sustainability dashboard. There, emission targets are tracked, carbon accounting is regulated, social impact and community characteristics are noted, and action plans are recommended based on the available data. As data accumulates the software can then start to aid further with reporting and disclosure.

https://www.brightest.io/

Workiva - Governance

Workiva’s platform enables a simpler ESG reporting process through data management, the provision of reporting templates, and a single location for policy management. This software helps answer the ESG reporting questions of: who needs to be involved, what data should be included, and how can it be consolidated efficiently?

Workiva provides a platform to store data, create custom data sets and calculations, and format that data for reporting. Much of this process is automated. In addition, the platform allows for easier collaboration through simplified task management and progress tracking.

A master index of policies makes it easy to track and manage content for policies, standards, and other ESG guidelines. This allows ESG teams to keep all relevant ESG policies and documents in a single location.

https://www.workiva.com/solutions/esg-reporting

Measurabl – Real Estate ESG

Measurabl is arguably the most widely recognized ESG data management software in commercial real estate right now. The tool was designed specifically for real estate and is entirely data driven. It automates and consolidates much of the ESG processes, including ways to set targets, track performance, use benchmarks, and create reports. 

This platform helps measure data such as electricity, water, fuel, and waste usage as well as tracking sustainability targets. In addition, it helps users manage social and governance documents, and keep track of green building certifications and annual reporting frameworks.

https://www.measurabl.com/

Sources

Brightest. “Simplify Social Impact, Sustainability and ESG.” Brightest, https://www.brightest.io/  

“ESG Reporting.” Workiva, https://www.workiva.com/solutions/esg-reporting  

Greenstone. “Sustainability, Supply Chain and ESG Software Solutions.” Greenstone, https://www.greenstoneplus.com/

“Real Estate ESG.” Measurabl, 12 Apr. 2022, https://www.measurabl.com/

“Sustainability Management Software.” Sustain.Life – Sustainability Management Software, https://www.sustain.life/  

https://gresb.com/nl-en/

sound wellness biophilic soundscapes with brian d’souza

soundscapes / sound wellness / acoustic comfort / biophilic sounds

Welcome to episode 49 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing, sustainability and social impact in real estate today.

In this episode I’m in London talking to Brian D’Souza, a.k.a DJ Auntie Flo, founder of Open Ear Music and Swell sound wellness.

We discuss sound therapy’s mental health benefits, how music can be a window into our soul, urban noise levels and the role of nature sounds or ‘biophilic sounds’ in restoring a sense of calm amidst the chaos, how he creates sonic identities for hotels, restaurants and gyms, deep or active listening vs passive, and how to re-create the sonic experience of forest bathing.

Brian is erudite, dynamic and just the kind of guy you want on your team for a musical adventure one Saturday night I suspect.

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Sound wellness conversation highlights

Sound therapy was for me an exercise in trying to discover the inner workings of a soul.

Sound therapy is triggering different emotions, brainwaves and elements of the nervous system, to put people in a place of relaxation, where they can experience more mental clarity, calm and an objective perspective on life, away from the stresses of their day.

One thing that's going to come to bear post industrial revolution is the amount of noise that we as human beings have created, which takes us away from that natural environment and into this noisy urban environment. We lose touch with the sounds, the beauty and the essence of nature in cities and that's potentially problematic for our mental health. his latest initiative crafting biophilic sounds for interior spaces

If you're able to find time and space to consciously listen, then you will receive added health benefits in the same way that you might from meditation practice for example.

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https://openearmusic.com/soundwellness/

https://www.swellstudio.io/

https://www.ambientflo.com/

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Full transcription courtesy of Otter AI (excuse typos)

Brian, thanks for joining us on the podcast today. sound therapy is a hot topic, but it's also something that has an element of mystique around it. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on how music can affect us via our senses?

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, well, thanks for having me to join you in the podcast. I think you've touched on two distinct concepts there: music and you mentioned sound therapy.

music for wellbeing

Since as early as I can remember, I've been a fan of music, I think most of us know that music can affect us in many different ways, we've probably all had music as a soundtrack to our lives to some extent. We are all in essence expert listeners, we are listening to music, our worlds are filled with music, we're always receiving as our ears are always open.

music curation with technology

We're all DJs now in a sense, we can select music for our dinner party, or for our gym session or whatever with the new technologies we have greater access to all forms of music than we've ever had before. So music is at our fingertips, we innately know how to curate that music for different activities.

Health benefits of sound therapy

As far as sound therapy and its effects. For me, it was just trying to unpick what music is, the building blocks towards the soul, and how that song, or those frequencies, in essence would affect your brain and body in different ways.

So sound therapy was for me an exercise in trying to discover the inner workings of a soul.

Sound therapy works by using particular instruments, typically known as healing instruments, it doesn't always have to be made with those instruments, but those seem to be the most effective in terms of triggering a particular state of mind in the listener who, in effect receives those sounds normally lying down and going through some kind of a ritual, helping them to get to a place where they're open to receiving those sounds for full health benefit.

Sound and the nervous system

In fact, what it's doing is it's triggering different emotions and brainwaves, different elements of the nervous system, to put people hopefully in a place of relaxation, where they can experience more mental clarity, calm and an objective perspective on life, away from the stresses of their day. So, we've been able to bring people out of the present moment and put them into a safe space where they can delve deeper into different realms of consciousness, which I find really fascinating.

The distinction between sound and music

Matt Morley

You've made a an important distinction there between sound as a concept and music, which introduces the idea of sounds of nature that are, in some ways, the baseline from an evolutionary perspective, we were surrounded by that, as we evolved over hundreds of 1000s of years. So how do you see that relationship between, a connection to nature and our mood state? Perhaps even how our brain functions, cognitive performance or memory?

An evolutionary perspective on sound wellness

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, absolutely. I think the evolutionary perspective is important here. You know, from the earliest forms of man, music perhaps predates language, we're listening to music before we're even born in the womb, the rhythm of our mother's heartbeat, we're hearing the musicality of our mother's speech.

So inherently, we're open as human beings to receiving music and to understand the musicality within speech. When we're born, we immediately are immersed in a world of sound.

sounds of the natural environment and human health

From an evolutionary perspective, in terms of the natural environment, birds singing is a signal of safety - all is well, if they stopped singing, you know, perhaps as a predator lurking around the corner. Alternatively, they might change, you know, their types of calls to warn other birds of their species about a predator, or danger or whatever.

It starts to activate the sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight - that's something that has been with us since the earliest days of the universe, it's intrinsic to who we are as people.

the biophilia hypothesis

I think the natural environment is something that innately we feel an attachment to, you know, and I think that one thing that's going to come to bear, I guess, post industrial revolution is the amount of noise that we as human beings have created, which takes us away from that natural state and into this noisy urban environment. We lose touch with the sounds, the beauty and the essence of nature in cities and that's potentially problematic for our mental health.

Matt Morley

So we've introduced the third concept around noise, which I think has an inherently negative connotation. And if we bring it back to neutral, at least within the perspective of our evolutionary past, then you get to something close to what you're trying to do with the Ambient Flo project, so talk to us a little bit about that and how it connects with mental health and wellbeing.

soundscapes for mental health and wellbeing

Brian D'Souza

Ambient Flo began life as a live stream DJ set-up in my garden, it was the first days of lockdown, the sun was shining, we were entering into territory unknown. I think there's a lot of people, myself included, that were quite stressed at what the outcomes might be. Obviously, there was this real risk and danger to our health in terms of COVID-19. And a lot of people in my community of DJs and musicians were started to do live streams, trying to bring the club or the live experience into the home that way.

To me, that felt really alien, as a DJ I need to perform to a crowd and be there in the room with people. It's the interaction between myself, picking the tunes and the people dancing and responding to that really makes some sort of sense.

So what I decided to do instead was set up a live stream of ambient music where people could, in essence, receive the music early on a Saturday morning. So people were in essence just waking up. And with my very rudimentary technical setup on Instagram Live my phone would pick up the sounds of birdsong from my garden. And all of a sudden, the combination of music and birds in fact became the sonic experience that people were listening to.

I got so many comments from listeners saying this is brilliant, love the music, but actually really drawn to the birdsong and the natural environment. It made me think I'm very privileged to have a garden in London. And to be able to listen to birdsong. as frequently as I can do.

Studies showed the pandemic affected the noise levels in cities dropped because of less traffic. So the Birdsong, although it didn't actually get louder, the birds were perceived as singing louder due to a reduction in the ambient traffic noise.

Nature sounds and music combined for wellness

Anyway, the main takeaway was that the birdsong and the natural sounds were a precious feature for all the listenership. So when I eventually turned it into a radio station, I said, well, we need to try and recreate this.

So on the radio you have two channels, you have the music channel, and you have the birdsong recording channel, and it's your choice, you can just listen to music, or to Birdsong, or you can blend the two, which I think is a nice touch. We've now been running the station for a year and a half, and continually gets great feedback from people.

Anxiety-reducing sounds for calm mood states

Going back to your point around, you know, the health aspects of this. I wanted to put together a selection of songs, that really helped me lower my stress levels, and feel calm, and give myself this sort of safe space in amongst this terrible situation that the planet was enduring at that time.

At the same time, I was studying psychotherapy, learning about how sound can trigger different mood states, you know, bring yourself to that sense of relaxation. I thought, well, this music is, in my opinion, perfect for that. And it seems like the listenership agreed.

Matt Morley

I had it on for an hour yesterday, and definitely once I figured out that I could have both tracks playing at the same time, so that the ambient stuff and the birdsong that took it to the next level. So ambientflo.com

You mentioned ambient music, which I think may or may not appeal to everyone, but it does seem to have a very calming effect. There's that immediate sense of it bringing things down in tempo and encouraging a sense of rest and relaxation. But it is clearly distinct from muzak, which is just the poor quality background noise that we often end up hearing in commercial spaces.

Your Open Ear Music business is is all about counterbalancing that and taking a more conscious approach to the music that is associated with brands, particularly in physical spaces. So when you're thinking about creating an acoustic identity, or filling a space with sounds, and presumably music primarily, that connects with that brand, how do you go about that process?

Acoustic identities for brands

Brian D'Souza

It's trying to tell their story through a selection of songs. In essence, every song is a piece of communication, a piece of music is a fantastic thing it's packed with so much information. And that means that in actual fact, it can be quite complicated to think about, you know, what a song could lead to, you know, a listenership. And then when you take that song and put it in a context, that could be gyms or wherever, then you have that additional layer, where there's a certain expectation for the customer in terms of functionally what that space is set up to do if it's a gym space, if it's a restaurant or a bar. And then also their perception of of that brand, you know, what type of brand personality?

Pretty much every business plays music, the quality has gotten a lot better over the last 15 years, I think because people are slowly understanding the music they play is having an impact and can be a brand positive impact on the customer experience. And that's going to be a win win for everyone involved. It wasn't the case 15 years ago.

Music for productivity benefits

Muzak was interesting, because conceptually, it was designed around increasing productivity in factory spaces. And this was around the war time. And they would dictate quite a scientific approach with the music, it was a thing called stimulus progression.

So they didn't play music all throughout the day, they only played it in short bursts, at different times throughout the day. And that was really just as a motivational thing for the workforce, to be able to like, bring a bit of more energy, when they're kind of concentration levels kind of dwindled, or whatever.

There was this kind of inherent understanding that music had a functional purpose and benefit, unfortunately, what then it became was this kind of like, elevates, and literally kind of like wishy washy pastiche of what you know, music can be. And I think when open ears started, and certainly our mission today is to say, well, music is beautiful, we're filling our spaces, with music, it's having an impact. And again, it goes back to this paradigm of you know, is one man's music is another man's noise. Let's get it right, let's, if you get it right, it's going to be a positive is gonna be positive for the business, it's also gonna be a positive for customers, and they're gonna appreciate that.

In terms of the accessibility of music. Well, that's actually meant for the general kind of public. And the way that they listen is they're much more open minded to all forms of music, so a lot more a rich and diverse array of music. So actually, that gives brands and branded spaces a much more bigger chance to become creative with the music selections, you know, 15 years ago, it was the charts, and the classics, and not much else outside of that. No, you can really get into like the long tail of like all the independent, quite left field experiments or releases and really start to kind of tell this this story through the selection of songs functional, yes, but also like beautiful and inspiring at the same time.

Matt Morley

Let me dig into that, because I think you're absolutely right, what's happened is there's been a sense of democratization of, of music via these platforms, such as Spotify, and suddenly we're all able to dive in and out of country rock and an Afro Latino beats wherever else we want to go in the space of of an hour, right? So it's, in one sense, it's all too easy for a brand just to say, Well, okay, we're gonna follow these playlists, and that's more or less our mood, and Spotify will just keep spinning off that concept more or less. And then you know, we're good. We've got our we've got our soundscape. And I think all too often, we see that still where it's an improvement, for sure. But it's still not, there's not quite enough effort being made, and therefore, you know, this, it can still go wrong. So I think that leads you into the idea of more conscious listening, right? Because there are spaces where it's clearly background music, if it's so for example, a co working space, you don't want it to dominate, if it's a retail space, you don't want it to dominate.

When you're in a in a fitness environment, like a gym. It's a really central part and then to the Think of spinning studios, for example. I mean, it's like one of the main levers that they have to do it. But then, in a sense, like the ultimate peak of that then is this space where you're able to engage people in a conscious listening experience, right? And so how do you with the latest project with swell and the idea of a biophilic multi sensory experience, how have you integrated what we discussed previously about He sounds and that idea of really engaging with the music and what does that become in terms of this new brand that you've spun off from, from open air?

Brian D'Souza

Yeah, so Swell is a sister brand to Open Ear Music. And as we've just launched it, as you mentioned, I think open here, just back to the point around functional sound, I mean, yes, we fully understand the, you know, music for most people, in the spaces that we work with gyms, restaurants, bars, shops, etc, its periphery to, you know, the main activity. So yes, it has to be right, but you're not necessarily listening to it consciously. It might be, and this is, we do have lots of examples of this where one track, you know grab your attention, and you really want to know what that is. And that's a great thing for music discovery.

But, you know, most of the time, you're going to be just passively receiving the music, and you'll know when it's not, right. I mean, that is the thing, you know, if it doesn't feel right, you will take action by leaving that space, and tons of examples of that.

Active listening / deep listening / conscious listening

But in essence, if it fits the surroundings, and it makes some sort of sense, then you know, that's going to make you feel comfortable in that kind of space. On the other side, you have a different kind of listening, I guess, and there's different ways to describe it, you mentioned conscious listening, it can also be referred to active listening can also be referred to deep listening.

This is really based around an intention by the listener to be more conscious, or to be more active, if you were present, in terms of listening to the sounds, you know, we were very good at processing Sonic information. As well as performing an activity, whatever that might be, it's cooking, or driving or whatever, we're very good at that.

Before recorded music, we only did conscious listening, because you would go to a concert, or folk music, so recorded music really transformed music into this largely passive thing, I guess what we're seeing with Swell sound wellness is, we're trying to put forward that notion that consciousness thing is important, it's important for health.

If you're able to find time and space to consciously listen, then you will receive added health benefits in the same way that you might from meditation practice for example.

So, consciousness thing is, you know, is a way for us to just say, Look, if you were able to pay more attention to the sounds, and give yourself space to do that, then there's potential health benefits to be gained.

Biophilia and nature sounds

So the way that we deliver that, through the Swell wellness sounds project is this combination between Biophilia, nature sounds, with music through different frequencies and intervals, to be able to trigger different emotions, mental states, even feelings from the listener. Then the sound therapy part can potentially trigger an altered state of consciousness but at the least promotes a sense of deep relaxation.

Biofilico quiet room concept design for workplace wellbeing

Sound in workplace wellness and office recharge rooms

Matt Morley

So in workplace wellness we have a concept called a recharge room or a restorative space it's often an unused meeting room, we might get 30 - 50 square meters where you're given permission to rest and step away from the work that you're doing. Your Swell wellness sounds could certainly play a role in that.

What about the Soniferous Forest project you delivered recently in London’s high-end boutique Brown’s? Also a biophilic environment, can you try and paint that picture for people so they can get a sense of what what that looks like?

Brian D'Souza

Sure, absolutely, is a really good manifestation. And as one of the first projects we've done as Swell, it's a good example of, of what we're looking to do. And the potential of this type of work. The Soniferous Forest is firstly an installation. It's based in Brown’s, which is a fashion retail store in central London and Mayfair.

They have what they call the immersive room, where they have a small space that they do a range of different pop up and partnerships throughout the year. We've currently got the installation live, and it will run to the end of of April. So if anyone's in London, and want to go and check out it's absolutely free. It's a 15 minute experience. In essence, it's inspired by by two things.

Forest Bathing sounds

One was my experience going forest bathing. So getting out into nature. Shinrin Yoku is Japanese practice of forest bathing, and really just trying to like a kind of mindful approach to being in nature, paying attention to all senses. There's plenty of studies now that have been done around how forest bathing will reduce stress levels, anxiety, reducing cortisol balance and promoting your NK / natural killer cells, etc. So that was all very interesting.

Then I guess taking what we're talking about with the Ambient Flo idea where a lot of people don't have access to nature in a dense urban environment. This was like trying to bring nature to them, but in essence creating a forest experience within this retail store with bark on the walls and grass on the floor etc.

Soundscapes and noise

The other part of the inspiration is derived from a concept of soundscapes by R. Murray Schafer a Canadian ecologist who in fact passed away last year. He wrote a book called ‘Soundscape and the tuning of the world’. looking at the rising noise levels in cities, the potentially detrimental health impacts that that's having. And he really advocated for this cultivation of significance gardens in our urban environments, or, you know, across our different spaces that we create this recovery of what he calls positive silence. Give us back space for mental, spiritual, life's energies, etc.

So the forest garden is a safe space where people can go in and listen to field recordings from local forests around London via a headphone experience. It’s a spatial audio 15 minute composition, which in essence resembles a sort of sound therapy, sound bath or Gong bath that uses acoustic instruments, instead of the traditional instruments, the gong and the singing bowl.

The reason for that was we experimented using Gong recordings, etc. and the feedback that we got was very mixed at best because we felt like we needed the gong player in the room, you needed the instrument, the physical object to kind of have authentic association. Without it, it can be a very dark and ominous and almost scary kind of sound.

Nature sounds for sound masking benefits

Matt Morley

You’re involved in the forage sounds for a restaurant called Native in London too, also at Brown’s correct?

Brian D'Souza

Yes, two separate brands. And this is a coincidence, almost the two projects came about around about the same time. But yeah, Native, the challenge was they have this outside space, which is beautiful. But unfortunately, next door to them, they have a I think it's Claridges Hotel, they're doing lots of building works. So in the daytime is lots of noise. And it's really, really intrusive.

We were tasked with creating a soundscape that will try to mask some of the noise. And actually, you mentioned office spaces. This is another project we've done with, you know, some cool workspaces. We worked with The Office Group - very similar challenge, where the noise levels would be very distracting for people trying to work or in fact many people were very self conscious in quiet areas to have work conversations, meetings, etc.

By introducing music into a cool workspace in that case, and with Native restaurant introducing a nature sound biophilic soundscape, helped to mask these unwanted sounds and make the spaces a lot more pleasant and functional.

Matt Morley

Awesome, because I feel like we can carry on for quite a while, but I'm gonna cap it there. Be respectful of your time. Thank you so much.

Brian D'Souza

Great, well if anyone's interested, they can get in touch with me and I'd be delighted to chat.

https://openearmusic.com/soundwellness/

https://www.ambientflo.com/

Acoustic performance in WELL buildings

acoustic comfort / acoustic performance / sound design / WELL rating system / healthy building

WELL Certified / SOUND CONCEPT

acoustic performance with ethan bourdeau

Welcome to episode 48 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate.

I’m your host, Matt Morley of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and in this episode we’re in New York talking to Ethan Bourdeau, the Sound Concept Lead at the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) - the organization behind the WELL healthy building rating system. 

An architectural acoustician, Ethan also holds down a role as Executive Director of Standards and Built Environment for Quiet Parks International (QPI).

Ethan and I discuss the role of acoustics in creating a comfortable environment for building occupants; how pink noise can cover up unwanted background noise, sound zones and spatial layouts; the all important distinction between sound, silence, and noise; the role nature sounds can play in promoting wellness; and the main causes of noise in a building that need to be mitigated in a comprehensive healthy building acoustics plan in line with the WELL Sound concept he helped conceive.

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acoustic performance / conversation highlights

• Acoustics is just one element of a holistic platform of comfort metrics that are operating in synchronicity.

• In WELL we look at spatial layout, acoustic thresholds and criteria for optimal performance (pulled from the leading acoustical standards) and in some cases, include novel requirements for acoustical design and acoustical comfort that have yet to really hit the market outside of the WELL rating system.

• Not all sound is noise - sound is just sound until it annoys you, then it becomes noise!

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WELL acoustic performance conversation with Ethan Bourdeau, Sound Concept Lead, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)

full transcript courtesy of OTTER.AI (excuse any typos)

Matt Morley

Ethan, a pleasure to have you here. I'd like to start with some basics, if we may - what was your path into sound design and audio engineering? For people who are perhaps not entirely familiar with how that relates to real estate, perhaps you could give us a quick intro to that bridge between those worlds?

Ethan Bourdeau

Sure, thanks, Matt. It's great to be here. Happy to discuss this. So my background in acoustics and sound goes back to my days as a musician growing up. I've practiced and spent a lot of time performing on the folium, which is a low brass tube like instrument that carried me throughout a degree in Music Performance and Acoustical Engineering at the University of Hartford.

So, yeah, constantly listening to my own sound really led me to want to better understand the way that interior environments sounded and to what degree architects and designers have the ability to manipulate, shape and improve the sound of spaces that we spend our time in.

Nature sounds, quiet and wellbeing

Matt Morley

As context, the work you're doing with the Quiet Parks International (QPI) might give us a starting point of the best case scenario, as in a perfectly quiet, natural environment. Does nature provide a baseline of excellence in terms of sound and noise?

Ethan Bourdeau

My work with Quiet Parks International is my latest endeavor. It's been the result of a year's worth of collaboration with those folks, field recorders that have come together behind this one mission of preserving and recognizing quiet in the natural and built environments throughout the world.

Their expertise so far has brought them to places like Glacier National Park, Haleakala Crater on Hawaii, and various other urban and wilderness quiet parks throughout the world as potential candidates for meeting our criteria that denotes and best exemplifies what quiet really means to the surrounding or indeed visiting populations.

We have, over the past year, worked to define what that criteria looks like, how do we define quiet from a physical, a parametric and even a subjective standpoint.

To what degree do we assess using audio technology, sound level meters, audio recording devices, and even just anecdotal and colloquial evidence that we can get from people with boots on the ground in those areas to describe ‘quiet’.

Over time, we're planning to develop a better understanding of how quiet and the definition of silence and tranquility changes around the world. So we're actively recruiting and finding candidate spaces, including a site here in New York City, actually, that we're hoping can add more flavor to understanding and unraveling that narrative.

Nature sounds for wellness

Matt Morley

So these are areas where there's no obvious intervention of a built environment, you're effectively out in a completely isolated natural corner of the world, in which case ‘quiet’ is not necessarily ‘silence’ . It's the sounds of nature with no man-made interventions.

Ethan Bourdeau

It is, for the most part, we do find ourselves in instances where the term ‘silence’ could perhaps be the only classification in the case of some remote places like Haleakala crater, but you're right for the most part, we are entering places where the soundscape is defined by sources of sound that are not manmade, they are a part of the natural landscape, they could be geographical features, they could be animals, migratory birds, insects, etc.

Well Certified / SOUND CONCEPT

Acoustic comfort in buildings

Matt Morley

So if we then use that as a bridge into the discussion around interiors and buildings, the idea of acoustic comfort or acoustical comfort, do you see that as being a fundamentally objective measure? Or is it all to do with how each individual responds to noise and their personal reactions to whether it's too quiet or to silent or is it and then measures that you can use that would say, Well, this is the optimal acoustic comfort to perform a certain task.

Ethan Bourdeau

When we think about occupants within a space, we can learn a lot about where are those people are coming from if if they're entering a new office environment that's undergoing renovation, to what degree can their past and prior experiences with the acoustical quality or even just the indoor environmental quality of where they're originally used to, how does that inform the way that we as designers can approach facilitating better sounding spaces.

Acoustics is just one element of a holistic platform of comfort metrics that are operating in synchronicity.

Acoustics in the WELL Building Standard

I think one great example is how the WELL rating system has been able to break this down into the various concepts among which includes SOUND is a key feature.

In WELL we look at spatial layout, acoustic thresholds and criteria for optimal performance (pulled from the leading acoustical standards) and in some cases, include novel requirements for acoustical design and acoustical comfort that have yet to really hit the market outside of the WELL rating system.

It’s a huge opportunity, I think, for not just acousticians, but really architects, designers, folks who are consulting in the space of biophilic design to really ask those questions of what is it about the sonic environment that maybe even I don't quite fully understand or can convey to occupants in clients who are coming from those areas where that was a large concern and maybe an obstacle towards a better productive and more fulfilling workplace experience.

Possible sources of noise in a healthy building

Matt Morley

Okay, so what are the typical causes of unwanted noise in buildings be that an office, hotel, learning or residential environment? How does the WELL standard concept of sound mapping mitigate for those sources of noise?

Ethan Bourdeau

There are many different sources, for the purposes of an initial review of a building, we'll look at environmental impacts from exterior noise intrusion that can be sources such as traffic, aviation noise, pedestrian noise depending on where this place is located.

We also look at Interior mechanical systems design and the way that building services can potentially impact not just any one given space, but the building at large which introduces sound in a number of ways.

Sound can travel through air, it can can travel through vents in HVAC systems, even through structures. If you have large, rotating pieces of mechanical equipment that are delivering air throughout a building, or even filtration systems, the vibration of air and movement can enter the structure and then radiate throughout an entire building.

We can also talk about occupant generated noise in the office that can be as one of my friends likes to say, the person next to you with the Frito lays chip bag in the middle of the day making sounds while you're on one of your 100 Zoom calls for the week. Or it could just be any combination of activity that's happening again throughout the building.

So while sound travels through air it can also travel through structures and with the proliferation of fitness areas and CrossFit gyms, things like impact noise from weights can travel through an entire building as well. Those lead to distractions and other obstacles to productivity.

Sound mapping in a healthy building

Matt Morley

So the process of sound mapping then would be an attempt to prevent the construction of the eventual fit-out on a building project being completed before a plan is in place for acoustics.

So you're talking to the HVAC engineers, the architects, quite a few people around that table to try and get a sense of what the acoustic environment will be like in a space especially on a on a new build construction?

Ethan Bourdeau

So when it comes to acoustics, there's something that's generating the sound to the source, which can be controlled or maintained, in some instances, it gets a little difficult when we talk about occupants, for instance, but for mechanical noise or exterior noise intrusion, there's ways to investigate noise control at the source.

There's the path so what is between that source and the receiver with HVAC, we mentioned ductwork there's also structural components - are we reducing vibration caused by circular mechanical equipment.

In the case of occupant noise, what's blocking you from not just the line of sound or the the path of the sound, but also even the line of sight with you and another person that plays a role in what we call psycho acoustics or the role that acoustics plays in our own mental and cognitive, health and wellbeing within the built environment.

Then there's the receiver. And so that's us the listeners, the final crux in the acoustic comfort equation of - who is receiving this sound? How are they responding to it and then how can we qualitatively assess the subjective outcomes of such sound.

Not all sound is noise, sound is just sound until it annoys you, then that becomes noise!

Biophilic design and acoustic comfort

Matt Morley

That brings to mind a project that I was involved in, in Switzerland, it was a round shaped, concrete and glass corporate headquarter building for a natural food business. We were called in to assist both on the biophilic design side, but also trying to fix the incredible noise issues.

They had a lot of hard surfaces, double-height central atriums that were allowing sounds to bounce around from the ground level reception up to almost the second floor of the building. We looked at options for introducing acoustic materials and everything from acoustic paint on the walls to sound absorbing plant walls.

Noise control and sound absorbing solutions

I'd love to hear how you think about what the tools are available to a consultant in that type of environment, as a specialist really, in that type of thing, you're going into a space, they have a problem with noise, and it's already happening. What's in your toolbox?

Ethan Bourdeau

Well, the biggest question that I would ask at the start is the one that I hoped the project team would have asked before creating a space like this, it's what is it the intent of this space? Why are people congregating here? What exactly are the activities and the experiences that have happen happen in this particular environment, then from there we can define criteria.

We’d work with the team to say, unless you do this, you will not be able to achieve XYZ. So you know, in the case of this building that you're describing, it sounds like there could be issues with speech intelligibility, or potentially even issues with too much speech intelligibility, where there are areas where you want to hear someone speak, and you simply can't.

Then when you're working at your desk, you might be hearing more conversations than you would may like to, and so that's where we pull out the really specific solutions based examples for acoustic and interior design and noise control. So in these cases, we would look at how do we reduce the sound in that path equation that we were talking about and source path and receiver?

Speech intelligibility for acoustic comfort

How do we bolster speech reinforcement, if someone is giving a presentation if they're giving a lecture, or even if they're talking on a simple zoom call, we're now starting to add tools to our toolkit that address this.

This in this hybrid workplace lifestyle, where we can communicate with others around the world like you and I are right now and not necessarily need to be in a studio that has acoustic panels like mine, you can be in a place that considers speech intelligibility without really breaking the bank and creating something that's a studio quality space.

There's no one element of acoustic comfort that should be focused for every single project, every single project is different.

WELL Rating Standard on sound in open plan offices

Matt Morley

So the WELL rating standard is especially strong on mixed-use buildings, and particularly commercial office buildings. Imagine then an open plan, office space for a creative team, the intent was originally to foster collaboration but there has been kickback on that over recent years around productivity taking a hit rather than a boost. Do you think there's still space for open plan offices like that with certain acoustical interventions?

Ethan Bourdeau

So a hot topic in the acoustics industry, right now, I'm fortunate to sit on a few Working Group committees for ISO and other standards groups that are specifically looking at Interior acoustics in the open work plan environment. And these conversations get very complicated very quickly, because the culture of Open Office acoustics and open office use in general changes so much as you go into different regions throughout Europe, and especially between North America, Europe and the rest of the world.

Acoustics in a workplace wellness strategy

Where we pull this criteria from to develop, and design, better acoustics and open offices changes quite a bit. So what I like to do, again, is really take it back to some fundamental steps. And on a lot of these working group discussions, I bring up what I feel the WELL rating system has done so well in breaking down into the fundamentals of what types of zones could you potentially think about, and what are the lowest common denominators for acoustical comfort when thinking about spatial layout, from a workplace strategy perspective in an open office.

Acoustic zones in a healthy building plan

So we have a few categories in this WELL feature. So one, we break it down into quiet zones, where focused work is the priority, or that could also include places like bedrooms, for instance, what is an area that you want to protect in terms of acoustic comfort and make entry as a sensitive space, we then have mixed zones, which could be a combination of any of those things and include collaboration, not all collaboration necessarily has to be boisterous and loud and, and people shouting over a desk of a floor plans, or, or whatever, it could also just be, hey, we're going to meet together as a team in this open environment and discuss XYZ amongst ourselves at appropriate levels.

Then we have loud zones. And so these could be any combination of areas where you have noisy mechanical equipment that just needs its own isolated, dedicated space to be moved away from any other sensitive environments, are these gonna be places where you have amplified speech, you have maybe a very active teleconference room that uses amplification. So these are areas that you really need to keep separate from your quiet zones.

In the precondition, this is required for every single project in the sound concept. Now, we have found that when people approach from this lens they have a better idea of WELL, I know now what I should probably be pursuing with our subsequent optimizations in the wall rating system.

Spatial layouts in the WELL SOUND concept

Based on the spatial layout that we were required to do. I know that speech reinforcement is going to be important. I know that speech privacy in my Open Office is going to be important. So what do I need to do to then show up and make sure I'm meeting those needs for my occupants? And those conversations become very fruitful, we learn a lot more about acoustics than we would if we were just meeting criteria. If we were just submitting documentation, saying, from an acoustician, you pass, here's the checkmark. Here's the check in that box of acoustic comfort.

So I would encourage folks who are in that position of rethinking the Open Office, from an acoustic perspective to really focus on the lowest common denominator, how many spaces do you intend to have there where focused quiet work is a key function of the holistic open office design, and start from there, because if collaboration is the leading draw to creating an open collaborative space, the folks who rely on quiet zones to complete their work aren't being there. The folks that are relying on quiet zones to achieve their work, have needs that aren't being met by the design team and the organization who put collaboration first, when in reality, people want a healthy balance of both.

Sound masking systems in a healthy building

Matt Morley

And we also mentioned the idea of sound masking systems - the idea of there being a level of white noise that can be pumped into the background to create a baseline that can help cover some of the mechanical systems. How does that work? Is that about the frequency? Is that about the the intensity of the sound? And would some nature sounds fit into that category?

Ethan Bourdeau

Yes, so sound masking is a very tried and true technology that as a consultant, I've been able to deploy quite a bit in open office settings with great success. And what it really focuses on is delivering a Pink Noise signal, which is somewhat calmer than white noise, which, if you were able to compare the two on YouTube I guarantee you will have a preference over over pink noise to over white.

Why we choose pink noise is because you can you can also go into the sound source itself and adjust the contour of the equalization curve, so that it can really match and really perform in accordance with preferred occupant acoustic comfort parameters. Now that's that's more of the technical side of how you would deploy a system like this.

A sound masking system is a network of loudspeakers that are directly mounted hung from or otherwise located throughout a ceiling, plane or even plenum, they can be directly exposed or be behind an acoustic ceiling tile. So it's a very useful tool when we try to address speech privacy from a signal to noise perspective.

Sound masking for productivity in an office

Signal to Noise - meaning you have a ‘signal’, which could be another person talking, their voice carries throughout an office that you don't necessarily need to hear. And then ‘noise’ being what is the background sound level that allows you to discern that signal or the sound of another person's voice.

So as we raise that background sound, the difference between the ambient level and the signal is then reduced. And so that helps with reducing the total impact of hearing another person's voice encroaching on your ability to focus and be better productive in a in a workplace.

Natural soundscapes in the built environment

Now to your other question about natural sounds as a sound source, I'm, as a designer and in working with folks who are field recordists and who are architectural designers. I'm actively trying to indicate that introducing natural soundscapes into the built environment is a new format of introduced sound. Sound masking is a form of introducing sound that focuses specifically on speech privacy.

Natural soundscapes have a number of potential benefits to them as well being immersed in and hearing soundscapes of birds, wind, waves, etc. In a spatially uniform environment that can elicit emotional response in ways that addressing speech privacy, for instance, isn't necessarily going to do.

There's some really tremendous examples of new technology that's emerging that focuses on this. There's actually a company there's a couple companies one is MoodSonic, who actually sits on our advisory board for the sound concept that focuses on delivering soundscapes from a natural sound source perspective.

There's a new company that I've heard about called spatial, who I'm trying to learn more about in the coming weeks that is providing a similar solution and has worked with some hospitals and then North America to create spaces for respite for nurses and people who need a moment of Zen or peace or tranquility to to continue their daily work.

Biophilic sounds for wellbeing

Matt Morley

Yeah, I've certainly used it in an intimate nature space in the central business district of London called Canary Wharf. We did a month-long biophilic design research study.

Sound was definitely part of what he called a multi-sensory wellbeing design strategy along with aromatherapy, and smart lights and various other things. But I found it was all too easy to just accept that, you know, a Spotify playlist of English bird songs, as we were in England, would be sufficient, I felt that there was more to be done in terms of perhaps matching place, season and the situation or the desired emotional response. And so I could see how those type of services could perhaps add that extra layer of detail, right?

Ethan Bourdeau

In reality, the ear is not dumb. The ear knows when it's in an office and crickets are playing from a Sonos speaker in the corner. The brain understands that when it is truly immersed in an environment, only then can it naturally respond and react to it the way that we would if we were there in reality.

I am an aspiring audio engineer and more of an architectural acoustician. But audio engineers are really looking at this from the perspective of, of how do sounds really travel in the sound field? And how can multiple loudspeakers and an array of loudspeakers help to create and elicit those environments.

I've seen examples where in software, they can create sound sources and an XYZ grid and just have them move around. And you know, not too dissimilar to going to the theater and listening to a Dolby system where you can pinpoint exactly where the sound is in the given cinema. So we're seeing that enter places like workplaces, hospitals and public public areas where sound installations can better interact with humans and vice versa.

WELL Rating System on SOUND

Matt Morley

In terms of how the WELL rating system positions the sound concept, the ultimate aim here, when you get all of this right, is primarily a boost in comfort and productivity, worker happiness? What are your desired outcomes in terms of a healthy building strategy and the acoustic component in particular?

Ethan Bourdeau

It changes per project type. So in a typical workplace, yes, we would talk about workplace satisfaction, we've talked about productivity, we would talk about ability to collaborate, if if there are more spaces, if there are more areas throughout a given office floor plate, where a person can interact with different types of acoustic environments to better support their work, there is a sense of fulfillment that we can we can draw from that and indices indicating surveys that are indicating that noise is a top concern.

Or pointing to that the lack of choice and the inability to be in a place where you can speak when you need to without worrying about other people hearing you or vice versa.

That is the primary focus that is that is something in the workplace environment that that is a key outcome. Absolutely. And especially now when we think about how do we return to that type of environment where you you are looking someone directly in the eye from across a table and your voice doesn't have to go through a series of digital signal processing through Whatever you can describe the software for this hybrid environment, I think there is a real learning that we will have to undertake when it comes to thinking about how we communicate in the workplace, for instance, and then that will ultimately describe the way that we address acoustics from the onset and design.

Acoustics for improved sleep in residential and healthcare

Now, with places like healthcare and residential, we see noise as a concern as it relates to sleep. And with acoustics being a top contributor to sleep disturbance, it's important that we can see the key outcomes in things like fitness trackers, and other types of technology that can measure and better assess our quality of sleep.

This is very important with healthcare where patient surveys that are administered, especially here in North America, indicate the performance of a hospital based on a patient's ability to sleep and spend their time recovering in some instances.

The links between acoustic comfort and patient recovery are many, it's actually where a lot of the research in acoustics and health and wellbeing derives from.

So over time, as we see places like hospitals, Senior Living outpatient facilities, adopting more of these health and wellbeing metrics into their design, the more we're going to see these uptakes in patient satisfaction surveys.

Matt Morley

In summary then, the WELL rating standard for me is a such a helpful marker it has given me at least a minimal level of understanding in sound and acoustics planning. So congratulations on everything you've done so far. How can people reach out to connect with you?

Ethan Bourdeau

You can find me on LinkedIn of all places. I'm usually posting the latest updates with all of the outfits that I'm involved with there.

mental health & wellbeing in healthy buildings

The WELL Standard MIND concept

Urbanization and the shift away from nature towards a lifestyle dominated by the built environment has led to a plethora of human health issues, some obvious, others less so. Many of us now spend 90% of our time indoors, making the spaces around us of surprising relevance for mental wellness.

mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Strategies such as biophilic design, mental health programs, the encouragement of an active lifestyle and the provision of restorative spaces can all be used to increase mental wellbeing for building occupants.

In addition, it is helpful to have a designated mental health champion within a workspace, school, or other community to encourage building occupants to engage with mental health issues openly.

For our take on the specific components that make up a healthy building see our dedicated article here.

Biophilic Design for mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Biophilic design aims to connect people to nature through interior design, reinstating the increasingly distant relationship between us as human beings and the natural environment. Our ancestral affinity with nature ensures exposure to nature, even in indoor environments, provides a range of restorative mental health benefits.

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) states that spending time in nature helps to reduce mental fatigue, increasing focus and restoring optimal cognitive function (Kaplan/Jimenez).

The Stress Reduction Theory (SRT), on the other hand, focuses on how our stress or anxiety levels can be lowered via immersion in a natural environment, whether ‘living’ or, implicitly, indoors thanks to biophilic design interiors that bring the outside world in (Ulrich/Jimenez).

Strategies such as introducing botanical motifs, organic materials, air-purifying plants, wabi-sabi finishes, living walls, Circadian lighting systems, biophilic sounds and forest aromatherapy are all possible examples of biophilic design for improved building occupant mental health. 

nature, Greenery & green spaces for mental wellbeing

Plants are one of the most important biophilic design elements as they provide a plethora of health benefits. Air-purifying plants are especially relevant in this sense, as are rooftop gardens, moss art on walls, hanging Japanese kokedamas and so on.

Besides the obvious characteristic of natural beauty, such botanical greenery in interior spaces increases the human connection to nature as part of a healthy building experience, and also improves indoor air quality.

In addition, a visual connection to such indoor vegetation has been found to reduce stress and anxiety, and even increase healing rates for hospital patients in one often cited study (Bratman).

Also, memory and creativity are augmented with the implementation of green space, especially notable in children as these factors are important for brain development. 

Overall, greenery increases our ability to concentrate and facilitates workers being able to find a quiet space for recharging during the work day.

Daylight for mental wellbeing in a healthy building

Daylight is an essential building block of health buildings and wellbeing interior design.  In addition to reducing a building’s energy consumption, natural light has been found to improve mood, synchronize us with our circadian rhythms, and increase alertness and concentration (Determan). 

Natural light can be used to align us with our circadian rhythms, also known as our natural 24-hour internal clock. When our bodies follow the natural daylight cycles of the day, our health is positively affected through improved sleep by night and cognitive function by day.  

In addition, natural light increases the prevalence of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which improves mood (Kaltenegger ch 13). Due to these positive influences of daylight on our health, daylight has led to lower levels of absenteeism and lower dropout rates in schools, according to one study (Kellert). 

Additional healthy building considerations such as the quality of any external views via external windows (out onto blue or green nature?) and whether the building’s windows are operable are important to factor in. Operable windows can provide the co-benefits of natural ventilation and the potential to increase thermal comfort, while nature views provide additional biophilic benefits, all proven to improve human wellness. 

Mental Health Programs in workplace wellness

Mental health programming is an increasingly relevant workplace provision. To name a few, offerings such as mental health educational programs, stress management and support group programs, encouragement of healthy nutrition and fitness, and childcare support are all viable solutions.

Workplace wellness programs are good for employee health and for the business’s bottom line too - studies have shown that employees perform better when they are less stressed. 

Mindfulness and stress management

Strategies such as mindfulness programs and stress management courses can reduce employee anxiety levels. Mindfulness workshops can be achieved through digital or in person means, for example using employer-designated digital applications, or through in person meetings and exercises.

Educational courses focused on stress management can support employees and encourage them to take breaks and reset as needed throughout the workday. 

As with any benefits program, it is important that the resources are not only available but are being used by building occupants so the benefits can be reaped. Learning materials should be accessible 24/7 to help avoid any lingering stigmas around engaging in mental health issues.

a mental health champion in a healthy building plan

In addition, the designation of a mental health champion within the company can increase awareness and ultimately engagement. These mental wellness advocates can lead informal meetings, facilitate outside speakers and ensure that any mental health issues that emerge are directed to an appropriate expert - a mental wellbeing champion is not expected to be a psychologist, far from it, they just need to know the right person to call, discretely, when needed.

a Biofilico concept design for a nature inspired office recharge room for peace and quiet

recharge rooms in healthy buildings

The provision of restorative spaces in the built environment is extremely important to maintain appropriate mental health levels for building occupants. Especially in work and school environments when long hours of concentration are required, places of refuge are essential to allow students to recharge and reset throughout the day. These rooms can include spaces such as a nap pod, meditation room, or a restorative space for quiet time.  

Many restorative spaces utilize biophilia in their design, due to the proven mental health benefits that come with nature connection. Recharge rooms have been proven to promote feelings of vitality and reduce stress and anxiety, promoting rejuvenation through respite. 

WELL building standard on restorative spaces

According to the WELL Building Standard’s Mind concept, “restorative spaces should include natural elements and have thoughtful lighting, sound, thermal and material choices. In addition, an element of privacy and the inclusion of calming colors, textures and forms is beneficial for recharging and refocusing.” See our own example of this above.

In addition to designing these spaces in buildings, concern must be taken to facilitate their use, creating a company culture that is accepting of their benefits and therefore time spent in a recharge room by staff members - rather than it being stigmatized.

active design and fitness spaces in healthy buildings

Boosting healthy habits such as physical activity and nutrition can be encouraged through building design and have the potential to improve mental health and wellness. Workplaces and schools in particular can benefit from finding ways to promote healthy habits through interior design, active furniture choices more tactical, promotional strategies such as signage prompts. 

physical activity for mental wellbeing in a healthy building plan

Physical activity provides not just physical health benefits but a mental boost of positive mood, enhanced energy and self-esteem, as well as camaraderie if performed in a group setting. Studies show that exercise helps maintain a healthy sleep cycle at night, ensuring deep rest and recovery. 

Strategies such as incorporating fitness facilities or gym rooms in buildings, as well as places to change and shower on site (as part of an active design plan) can all encourage physical activity.

In addition, offering fitness classes, encouraging the formation of community running or biking groups, or employee fitness related challenges can boost activity levels of building occupants.

Finally, more indirect strategies such as promoting stair use through thoughtful design or smart signage can increase activity and physical and mental health. 

nutrition for mental wellbeing in a healthy building plan

Nutrition is also a very important aspect of physical health that has been shown to be linked to mental health. Studies show that mindful eating is correlated to better wellbeing, which can be encouraged through designated eating areas.

Other strategies such as providing access to healthy snacks, providing cooking or nutrition classes, and encouraging communal eating through designated lunch times have all been shown to increase nutritional health (WELL), this in turn helps foster happy, healthy students or staff. 

---

Sources

Bratman, Gregory, and Gretchen Daily. The Benefits of Nature Experience: Improved Affect and Cognition. Tech. Vol. 138. Stanford: n.p., 2015. Landscape and Urban Planning. Stanford University Libraries. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Determan, Jim, et al. “THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIC LEARNING SPACES ON STUDENT SUCCESS.” Oct. 2019. 

Jimenez, Marcia P. et al. “Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.9 (2021): 4790. Crossref. Web.

• **Note**: this source was used for ART/SRT info (although original theory names given credit above)

Kaltenegger, Ingrid. "Integration of Mother Nature into Smart Buildings." Integration of Nature and Technology for Smart Cities. By Helen Santiago Fink. Switzerland: Springer International, 2016. ch. 13,18. Print. 

Kellert, Stephen R., and Bill Finnegan. "Biophilic Design-The Architecture of Life Viewing Guide." (n.d.): n. pag. Biophilic Design. Tamarack Media and Stephen Kellert. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.

https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/v/mind

9 Foundations of a Healthy Building: Thermal Comfort Strategy — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

Introduction

The concept of a healthy building has gained significant attention in recent years, as research has shown that the built environment can have a profound impact on human health and well-being. A healthy building is designed to promote the physical and mental health of its occupants, while also minimizing its impact on the environment. In this article, we will explore the foundations of a healthy building and provide guidance on how to create a healthy indoor environment.

What is a Healthy Building?

A healthy building is a structure that is designed and constructed to promote the health and well-being of its occupants. This includes not only the physical health of the occupants but also their mental health and productivity. A healthy building is one that provides a safe, comfortable, and healthy indoor environment, while also minimizing its impact on the environment.

Foundations of a Healthy Building

The foundations of a healthy building are based on scientific research and public health principles. They are designed to be simple and easy to understand, making them accessible to building owners, managers, and occupants. The nine foundations of a healthy building are:

Air Quality and Ventilation

Air quality and ventilation are critical components of a healthy building. Good air quality is essential for a healthy building, as most people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. To achieve good air quality, building owners and managers should opt for building materials, supplies, and furnishings with low chemical emissions. They should also check for legacy pollutants like lead, PCBs, and asbestos during building renovations. Additionally, they should limit vapor intrusion by using a vapor barrier and maintaining humidity levels between 30-60%. Conducting annual air quality tests and responding to occupant concerns can also help ensure good air quality.

Ventilation is also essential for a healthy building. Building owners and managers should meet or exceed local outdoor air ventilation rate guidelines to control indoor sources of odors, chemicals, and carbon dioxide. They should also filter outdoor and recirculated air with a minimum removal efficiency of 75% for all particle size fractions. Avoiding outdoor air intakes at street level or near other outdoor sources of pollutants can also help improve air quality.

Thermal Health and Comfort

Thermal health and comfort are critical components of a healthy building. Building owners and managers should ensure that buildings meet minimum thermal comfort standards for temperature and humidity. They should also provide individual level thermal control, where possible, to allow occupants to adjust temperature and humidity to their liking. Regularly surveying the space and occupants to identify zones that underperform can also help improve thermal comfort. Responding to and evaluating occupant concerns about thermal comfort can also help ensure that the building is comfortable and healthy.

Moisture and Water Quality

Moisture and water quality are critical components of a healthy building. Building owners and managers should conduct regular inspections of roofing, plumbing, ceilings, and HVAC equipment to identify sources of moisture and potential condensation spots. When moisture or mold is found, they should immediately address the moisture source and dry or replace contaminated materials. Identifying and remediating underlying sources of moisture issues can also help prevent mold growth and water damage. Regular moisture inspections can help prevent moisture-related issues.

In addition to moisture control, building owners and managers should also ensure that the building meets the U.S. National Drinking Water Standards at point-of-use. They should test water quality regularly and install water purification systems if necessary. Ensuring residual disinfectant levels are sufficient to control microbes, but not in excess, can also help improve water quality. Preventing water stagnation in pipes can also help prevent bacterial growth.

By following these foundations of a healthy building, building owners and managers can create a healthy indoor environment that promotes the physical and mental health of its occupants, while also minimizing its impact on the environment.

Healthy buildings / thermal comfort / wellness real estate / well building standard

What is thermal comfort in a healthy building?

Heating and cooling tend to account for around half of a building’s energy consumption, making thermal comfort a key consideration for a green building‘s overall energy use. In addition, thermal comfort is considered one of the leading factors in occupant satisfaction within the built environment, making it a vital component of a healthy building strategy too.

Spaces that are perceived as being too humid or warm have been shown to lead to decreased productivity, increased sick building symptoms (such as cognitive impairment and sleepiness) as well as negative mood states (ref: WELL Building Standard). To enhance these environments, it is also crucial to design spaces that minimize background noise, achieving sound levels of 35db and controlling reverberation time. Additionally, controlling outdoor noises such as traffic and construction is important to maintain a conducive indoor environment.

As a result, a comprehensive thermal performance plan which includes strategies such as thermal zoning, individual thermal control, and monitoring thermal characteristics within the building is now firmly part of the green & healthy building consultant’s toolkit.

Thermal Performance in Real Estate

To achieve acceptable thermal comfort within an interior space, healthy building standards such as WELL designate that 80% of occupants must consider a space to be comfortable - a qualitative (subjective) response. As thermal comfort is determined by the level of perceived comfort from building occupants, it is impossible in this case to lay out a plan based specifically on pre-agreed numbers.

Adhering to fire safety and carbon monoxide monitoring standards is also crucial as part of comprehensive safety and security measures in buildings.

The healthy building standards therefore predict what will cause comfort in spaces through a range of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, outdoor temperature, occupant density and activity, air movement and more. However, even with all these data points in front of us, getting it right for everyone can be challenge, especially in a workplace environment with both men and women sharing the area.

This is due to varying occupant perceptions of comfort, so even more specific zoning strategies by space type / activity for example as well as providing individual thermal comfort control provide opportunities for further refining a thermal comfort plan. When building occupants are comfortable with their thermal environment, productivity increases and levels of fatigue are reduced (WELL).

Thermal Zoning and Minimum Thermal Comfort Standards in a Healthy Building

When considering the thermal characteristics of a space, the type of activity taking place in that interior area matters greatly. For example, a hotel gym where guests are exercising and emitting body heat will need not just higher ventilation rates to remove the CO2 but also a lower temperature.

A study space such as a school library will be very different in that sense, although again there are considerations around optimal temperatures for cognitive performance and concentration. Breaking a building down into a number of such activity zones can help ensure suitable thermal conditions, leading to enhanced occupant satisfaction.

Using high efficiency filter vacuums can also help maintain clean surfaces and reduce dust, which is crucial for enhancing indoor air quality and preventing pest problems.

Temperature can therefore be influenced by a variety of factors such as human activity, building location and orientation, as well as the type of ventilation strategy - be that natural, mechanical or a combination of the two (WELL). When designating different zones, it is important to consider these various factors in order to regulate the thermal properties of each area in advance of building occupants using the space.

Generally, HVAC ventilation systems are responsible for maintaining thermal conditions, and therefore can be used to create different thermal zones within a building, with the level of zoning precision depending on the HVAC set-up. When natural ventilation options are in use, it is operable windows that are used to regulate temperature and thermal comfort.

Towards Individual Level Thermal Control in a Healthy Building

Individual thermal controls can be used to further delineate zones and create smaller, more personalized areas even within rooms. Strategies such as individually accessible thermostats, fans, flexible dress codes, or easily accessible operable windows can all help contribute to giving individuals a sense of control over their thermal experience indoors.

Clean surfaces regularly as part of a broader strategy to limit dust and pest accumulation in buildings. Using high-efficiency filter vacuums and integrating preventative measures can maintain a healthy environment, thereby reducing the potential for exposure to allergens and chemicals.

No one space will please everyone, especially if there is a mix of ages, genders, and so on. It is clear that women tend to be a few degrees colder than men, and tend to be more sensitive to changes in temperatures (Allen), they also are less likely to be in a full trouser suit every day in formal work environments, as men are (in certain industries) no matter what the season.

In addition to individually manageable thermal controls, the provision of outdoor space such as courtyards or rooftops can provide places of respite to allow building occupants to adjust their comfort levels. Access to the outdoors not only provides space to increase thermal comfort, but also can provide other benefits such as biophilia, which improves mental health and can restore focus.

Monitoring & Displaying Thermal Characteristics in a Healthy Building

Sensors that monitor and regulate indoor air temperatures should be placed intentionally to gauge if any unexpected deviations occur. As with other smart building systems, thermal comfort should also be monitored to provide feedback to building managers and inform potential changes. 

Generally, the same sensors can be used to regulate various thermal factors such as temperature and humidity, as well as other interior environmental characteristics such as air quality, for example. Regular commissioning and maintenance of building systems is also imperative to promptly respond to any thermal problems that occur (Allen).  

When coupled with occupant preferences and surveys, the combination of thermal data and occupant satisfaction can be applied to provide optimal thermal comfort. Building occupants should be surveyed regularly to maintain desired thermal levels and to gauge comfort. 

As thermal preferences vary greatly from person to person and are harder to measure numerically, information from post-occupancy surveys is especially important, giving us perceived comfort feedback as well as hard thermal data to work with.

Allen, Joseph. “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.” For Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, https://forhealth.org/9_Foundations_of_a_Healthy_Building.February_2017.pdf

WELL Standard v2

Operating Smart, green & Healthy Buildings

air quality / water metering / energy metering / waste management / cleaning / biophilia / thermal comfort

As the shift towards green and healthy buildings continues and sign-ups for building certifications such as LEED and WELL rises, it is equally important for real estate developers with an eye on ESG to dive deeper into building performance during the operations phase. For those holding onto and managing an asset in the medium to long-term, the journey does not stop once construction and fit-out are complete, quite the opposite.

As there is often a considerable gap between intended building performance and actual, ongoing building performance, a ‘commissioning process’ upon completion followed by an enhanced healthy buildings facilities management plan are the solution.

Smart building monitoring, which includes strategies such as air quality management, energy and water metering, and thermal comfort monitoring is a key factor in facilities management of a healthy building or a healthy co-working office for example.

With the latest real time sensors (e.g. Kaiterra and Awair) providing high quality, 24/7 quantitative data for analysis in the cloud combined with qualitative occupant feedback through regular surveys and pattern analysis of registered complaints, building efficiency and occupant comfort can increase. 

In addition, signage and educational prompts (a.k.a ‘healthy nudges’), enhanced green cleaning protocols, landscaping and greenery maintenance, as well as wellness programs for building occupants covering both physical activity and mental wellbeing are important factors to maintain in a smart, healthy building. This article explores the above in more detail so let’s jump in!

Air Quality Management in healthy buildings

Enhanced indoor air quality is vital to optimal occupant health, and an air quality plan needs to be implemented in both the pre-occupancy and occupancy phases of the building. Subsequently, as both indoor and outdoor air quality can fluctuate, live monitoring and tracking is necessary to ensure healthy indoor air quality levels and catch any issues as and when they arise. 

In the construction phase, an excess of dust and particles have the potential to accumulate indoors and compromise air quality in the later occupancy phase if not properly managed. It is essential to have an air quality management plan for the construction phase such as sealing air ducts, storing absorptive interior materials separate from the construction area, using temporary barriers to isolate working environments, and replacing filters before occupancy. 

In the occupancy phase, when the building is complete and occupants are using the interior spaces, air quality management combine with real time sensor monitoring becomes essential for occupant comfort.

Sensors should be placed strategically around the building at approximately head height to measure temperature, humidity, CO, CO2, PM2.5, PM10 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). For more detail on. this see the RESET AIR standard in particular. For more on this see our article on RESET AIR here.

In addition, hazards such as mold and indoor smoking have to be tightly controlled to avoid additional negative influences on air quality. 

Water Metering in Smart, Green & Healthy Buildings

Both energy and water use should be tracked to ensure that the building is operating at the optimal level. Monitoring green building water use can not only provide information about how much water is being used in a green building but also guide improvements or highlight potential problems. 

Water monitoring should include both regulating and tracking the amount used, as well as maintaining proper drinking water quality to ensure building occupant health.

Permanent water meters should be installed to measure total water use and should be available in monthly and annual blocks to provide more specific information and monitor efficiency. In addition, leak detection systems should be installed and regularly checked to avoid potential problems and water overuse.

Finally, water should be regularly checked for contaminants, and drinking water quality factors such as pH, turbidity, and chlorine levels should be regulated to ensure safe consumption for occupants. 

Energy Metering in Smart, Green & Healthy Buildings

Green building energy efficiency should also be tracked within the building, a very important operational building factor that can vary greatly if not monitored.

Sub-meters should be installed to track energy on both the building level and system levels to identify opportunities for energy savings. For the most effective data, the systems should report hourly, daily, monthly, and annual energy use separated by energy type and source. In addition, the information should be readily available to facilities management teams so that changes can be made if needed, and any abnormal activity can be quickly detected. 

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) and Automatic Reading Systems (AMR) are examples of common energy monitoring and management systems. With the incorporation of energy tracking systems, the data can be used to make improvements in the future and provide insight into building performance. 

waste management in healthy buildings

In line with US Green Building Council LEED Operations + Maintenance guidelines, we recommend integrating into a workplace floor plan upfront a storage location for recyclable materials such as mixed paper, glass, plastics and metals, with safe storage areas for batteries.

Monitoring for Thermal Comfort in Healthy Buildings

Thermal comfort tends to be the factor with the highest number of complaints from building occupants as it is an immediate, visceral and in many ways subjective matter.

Numerous studies have proven correlation between building temperature and employee wellness and comfort, making thermal comfort a vital building characteristic to monitor, not least because of enduring sexism in how building temperatures are set - men in suits and ties and always going to have a different opinion on indoor temperature than any female not in a full trouser suit.

The way forward in smart building terms is, eventually, to offer greater autonomy over thermal controls within the building to its occupants. Factors such as outdoor temperature, ventilation rates, and indoor occupancy density all have the potential to affect perceived thermal comfort. 

As with other smart building systems, sensors should be placed intentionally to regulate indoor air temperatures and gauge if any unexpected deviations occur. These sensors can provide feedback to building managers and inform changes when necessary. 

The sensors provide little insight on their own however, only when coupled with occupant preferences and surveys, the power of information and data can be applied to provide optimal thermal comfort. On this basis, facilities management teams need to see complaints not as problems but as valuable data!

Currently, standards designate that 80% of building occupants should be considered comfortable to achieve acceptable thermal comfort levels (WELL). In order to reach and maintain this goal, building occupants should be regularly surveyed to gauge comfort levels. 

With information collected through post-occupancy surveys, perceived occupant comfort can be utilized with temperature data to inform the most effective next steps. As with air quality, temperature can be variable and should be regularly monitored to ensure optimal conditions and increase occupant wellness and comfort. 

Signage in Healthy Buildings

As healthy building consultants we advise on signage systems, wayfinding and their role in creating a healthy building. Signage can be used to promote a variety of health and efficiency-related concepts, with the potential to improve occupant wellness and building performance. 

Signage can be used to improve health through physical activity encouragement for example. Motivational point-of-decision wayfinding signs next to lift doors can promote greater stair use and increase physical activity levels, the WELL and FITWEL certifications encourage this policy.

Especially if stairs are not clearly visible, signs and wayfinding prompts can encourage use—both increasing physical activity and decreasing elevator energy use. 

In addition, building entrance signage can publicize a tobacco-free zone - a requirement of most green building certifications. There is no acceptable exposure level to cigarette smoke, so signage must be implemented clearly to indicate the ban.

Signage can also be used to indicate the health impacts and hazards of smoking, hopefully further discouraging tobacco use and encouraging healthier habits for building occupants. 

Educational signage is also very impactful. Promoting hand-washing has never been more important, a simple visual reminder that helps prevent the spread of infection in the new Covid-19 era. In addition, nutritional messaging can be used in and around dining areas to encourage healthy eating habits. 

On the other end, signage can be used to encourage people to adopt sustainable habits such as reminders to turn off task lights when leaving in the evening, (again) using the stairs instead of the elevator, and turning water faucets off when not in use - just a few obvious reminders that can encourage occupants to reduce energy and water use.

Building signage can on occasion be given to the architects or interior designers, at least the more visually exposed elements such as the reception / entrance lobby but much of the above mentioned signs are just as likely to land on the desk of facilities management.

Enhanced Cleaning Protocols in Green Healthy Buildings

Without proper cleaning protocols, health factors such as interior air quality, pollutant levels and surface cleanliness can be compromised. The cleaning products themselves should not contain any harmful ingredients, and surfaces should be cleaned regularly to avoid excess accumulation of dust or other unhealthy substances.

Many cleaning products contain hazardous ingredients that when applied to surfaces can emit ingredients that degrade indoor air quality, and therefore impact human health. Products should be selected carefully to eliminate any potential hazards and reduce detrimental health effects.

There are several third-party certification systems, such as an ISO 14024-compliant (Type 1) Ecolabel, which designates green cleaning products and can be used to guide healthy selections.

In addition to smart selection of the products themselves, a plan should be created that designates the extent and frequency of cleaning, where to access cleaning products, and the roles of cleaning staff and building occupants, when applicable, to the cleaning process.

Surfaces encounter countless microorganisms throughout the day, and can host pathogens from sick individuals, which if not properly cleaned can spread to other building occupants. Especially in the COVID-19 era, frequent and thorough cleaning practices should be embedded in building operations.

Dust and dirt from the outdoors readily accumulate in building interiors through windows, entrances, and other indoor-outdoor building connections. In fact, studies have shown that 65% of inhalation of outdoor air particles occurs indoors.

Entrance walk-off mats are used to reduce this transfer of dirt and other pollutants from the outdoors, and their maintenance and cleanliness is essential to keep up this role. Building entryways should be regularly wet cleaned and vacuumed to minimize the amount of outdoor pollutants entering interior spaces. 

Cleaning processes and habits are entirely reliant on cleaning staff and building occupants. Because of this, proper training and easily accessible green cleaning supplies should be implemented to ensure the promotion of healthy interiors.

Biophilia landscaping maintenance

Green and healthy buildings often contain vegetation in around buildings, providing countless human and environmental health benefits. However, they also require maintenance. Proper landscaping and greenery upkeep will not only benefit the health of the plants themselves, but also the building occupants and surrounding environment. 

In building interiors, features such as living walls must be maintained and watered properly to ensure their health. Living walls enhance biophilia, filter air pollutants, and provide cooling capabilities, making their health essential for promoting additional building operation benefits. 

On the exterior, landscaping maintenance encourage plant health and biodiversity. A landscape management plan implemented by the grounds maintenance staff protects the flora and fauna while minimizing wildlife disturbance. Petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides should be avoided whenever possible, and efficient irrigation techniques such as xeriscaping prioritized.

Workplace Wellness Programs 

Mental health and wellness programs are an important part of a healthy office workplace that places employee health at its centre. Provisions such as stress management and mental health support groups and programs, educational programs, childcare and family leave support, as well as fitness and nutrition services are all beneficial to workplace wellness.

Studies have shown that when employees are less stressed and anxious, they perform better an are more productive, making workplace wellness programs a smart business decision in addition to the clear occupant health benefits. 

Through the use of strategies such as mindfulness programs and restorative spaces, employee stress levels can be reduced. Mindfulness programs can be achieved through in person meetings and exercises, or through employer-designated digital applications, such as Headspace, for example.

Restorative spaces in healthy buildings

Restorative spaces should be maintained, and employees should be encouraged to take breaks when needed and use them to relax and reset throughout the workday. 

It is important that the resources are available, but more importantly that occupants are made aware that they exist. Educational materials should be readily accessible to inform employees of the resources, encourage their use, and reduce any stigmas against mental health and wellness issues. 

In addition to mental health wellness programs, physical health is equally as important, including both nutrition and fitness services. Nutrition or cooking classes, healthy recipe sharing, and nutritious snack offerings in the office are examples beneficial nutrition programs.

Gyms, exercise and mental wellbeing in healthy buildings

Access to fitness rooms, gyms and fitness equipment can all be complemented by programs such as exercise classes, running clubs, or a bike-to-work week or contest are all potential implementations to encourage active travel and health. 

If occupant participation is consistently low, additional incentives may nee to be implemented to encourage resource use and highlight the importance of wellness in the workplace.

Often, it is helpful to have a designated employee as a ‘wellbeing champion’ who promotes health programs within a company, and this person or group can host health promotion meetings and communicate digitally with employees to further encourage participation. 

The role of sleep in healthy buildings & workplaces

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charlie morley / sleep / healthy sleep / healthy buildings / workplace wellness / cognitive performance

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Welcome to episode 46 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate. 

I’m your host, Matt Morley of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and in this episode I’m talking to none other than Charlie Morley, a bestselling author and teacher of mindfulness, lucid dreaming and all round sleep expert whose latest book deals with resolving trauma affected sleep through a set of practices called ‘Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep’.

Charlie, who is as you may have guessed my brother, was “authorised to teach” within the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism by Lama Yeshe Rinpoche in 2008. Since then he has written four books, delivered retreats in more than 20 countries, spoken at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as well as the Ministry of Defence Mindfulness Symposium and The Houses of Parliament. 

Our conversation explores the connections between my world of healthy buildings and interiors, and Charlie’s world of healthy sleep. We discuss sleep hygiene, the physiological impact of sleep on our bodies not to mention our brains, pre-industrial age sleeping habits vs todays, the power nap as a productivity tool, how to create restorative spaces or sleep pods in an office or educational environment that people will actually use, and the role of meditation and restorative deep relaxation practices in improving rest.  

https://www.charliemorley.com/ 

Charlie Morley instagram

Full transcript courtesy of Otter.ai

“Unless you are part of the ‘sleepless elite’, which is less than one percentile of the world’s population, who can do very well on five hours or less sleep, almost everybody in the world, needs seven to nine hours per 24 hour period - this is still the golden standard of sleep. ”

— charlie morley

Matt Morley

When thinking about sleep the building blocks of creating a healthy night's sleep in terms of how much we need, the risks of poor sleep hygiene and what you've described as the ‘sleep delusion’, how does one evaluate and measure a good night's sleep?

Charlie Morley

So the measure of sleep is inherently subjective. How do I feel upon awakening? What are my energy levels the next day? What is my cognitive ability the next day, so we can look at it like that.

They've done some interesting tests where people who are very high achievers are only getting kind of six, or five or six hours sleep, great social lives etc who say, this is all I need, I work perfectly well on six hours sleep, but then you put them into a brain scanner, or you give them cognitive ability tests. And although they say they feel optimal performance, their brain shows significant sub optimal neurological performance.

Now, that's one of the scariest pieces of research I came across, because it shows that even if you think you feel fine, in fact, a state of sleep deprivation has been so normalized by ourselves and by society that are natural, I feel fine state is actually one of suboptimal neurological functioning.

Sleep and cognitive performance in the workplace

So what's the next step, you force these people into position where they have to have one extra hour of sleep per day, it can be a nap during the day or an extra half an hour at night, but you get one extra hour per 24 hour period. Their cognitive performance went through the roof, the descriptions they have is like it feels like have access to a superpower. They're social lives, become more vibrant, their interpersonal relationships get better, or their performance at work gets better, just through one extra hour. So yes, it is subjective. But also there are very objective measures that show seven to nine hours for most people is 17 hours will allow us to function optimally. And crucially, just one extra hour per night can do massive, massive benefit to everyone.

Matt Morley

And how do you see then in terms of integrating an element of tech so that you're able to literally see the sleep quality over the course of the evening that otherwise we're over the course of the night that otherwise you might not? You might have a sense of how you slept, but you don't really no? Are you buying into this? Do you think there's there's real value in it, or were we being sold product and service that frankly, we've managed pretty well without all these years. And we're, in a sense trying to create a desire that, that we don't necessarily need to own these things.

Sleep trackers for health metrics

Charlie Morley

So at the moment, one of the higher end sleep trackers called the AURA ring, who sponsored a sleep science study that was part of even the aura ring, which is really the top end of the market is still only 60 to 70% accurate, which means is a crucial 30 to 40% of the time where it's just getting it wrong. And that's that worrying, let alone most people have a much cheaper version, the kind of, you know, the wrist based ones that hook up to your iPhone and stuff like that.

So if sleep trackers are benefiting your sleep, if they are making you feel more refreshed, if they are leading to more healthy relationships with sleep, then continue to use them. For a lot of people, they lead to a real neurosis around sleep. So take them with a big pinch of salt. I mean, in my new book, The first chapter is about becoming your own sleep tracker. So in the morning, taking most of how do I feel upon awakening? What are my energy levels throughout the day? Yes, what time do I go to bed?

What time do I wake up any dreams, I can remember, becoming your own sleep tracker to create a baseline is far better than that than the level of tech we've got at the moment. However, there is something on the market that we use when we do this sleep science studies called the Zed max or the Z max. Now that's about $600. And that's like a mini EEG machine. That's very, very accurate. So give the technology five years when we can get the technology of the XEmacs into an aura ring or into the to the app on your phone. And then sleep tracker data will be very, very accurate. But at the moment, we're just a little bit behind. So yeah, I wouldn't take don't take it too seriously.

Matt Morley

So if we then jump into establishing exactly what's going on during a night's sleep, you have what you've described as light, light sleep, the dream phase, and then deep sleep. So sort of the top line concepts for each of those three, and how is the sleep connecting with our health during the rest of the day? Like what are the processes going on? Sure. So there's

Charlie Morley

Actually two there's the gateway in and out either side to the hypnopompic and hit sorry hypnogogic hypnopompic. So stage one of sleep is called the hypnagogic state and is experienced by most people. Less is asleep stage proper, more a state of drowsiness. So you can still hear the sounds of the room, you can still feel your body in the bed. brain goes into deep alpha and theater, the brain looks almost indistinguishable to a brain that is in hypnosis.

So every time you fall asleep, the gateway into sleep, whether in a nap in the middle of the day or at night, you go through this natural state of hypnosis. And it's actually in that state that we can do a lot of really beneficial stuff for asleep because it's in the hypnagogic state that we can practice ns a nonslip, deep rest to us, humans term, or yoga nidra practices or my term hypnogogic mindfulness, which are the states of deep relaxation that happened just before we enter asleep.

So we have the hypnagogic state, really good for you, deeply relaxing, but a state in which people who have stressed out sleep will spend a lot of the night you know, you're kind of tired enough to be in that drowsy state, you can't quite pass the threshold. Eventually, though, with normalized sleep patterns, you'll move from hypnogogic into light sleep, light sleep is named for the quite untechnical reason that it's just quite easy to wake people from, you know, back in the early days asleep science, they would register the depth of sleep just by poking someone and saying their name.

So light sleep as it sounds, you're easy to be woken from it, you are now blacked out, you can't hear the sounds in the room. Unless they're loud enough, you can't feel your body in the bed. But you're yet to be dreaming. Light sleep is really good for procedural memory integration. So sleep is all about memory. That's why there's a direct link, as we know, with our with our mum, between sleep and Alzheimer's, and sleep and memory. So let's say you're learning to drive a car, it's light sleep, that you'll be processing the memory of how to do this, the stick in this and the the gears and all of that, and the pedal in the gas and everything that will be happening in light sleep procedural memory, whereas if you were in a car crash, that would be processing dreaming sleep.

So dreaming sleep is about processing emotional memory, memory reconsolidation, especially traumatic or stressful memories too. So we have the hypnagogic state stage one, then light sleep for procedural memory and learning, then we move into deep sleep. Deep Sleep is very, very interesting. This is where the brain is almost entirely switched off. So your brains never fully switched off. But if you look at the brainwaves of the waking state, they're very close together ticket ticket ticket ticket, if you look at the brain wave of someone in deep sleep, this will delta wave is dominant brainwave, and are very far apart.

I know people can't see me, but I'm making slow deep waves, signals with my hand. So in deep sleep, the brains almost entirely switched off, very unlikely to be dreaming very little happening in the brain. Apparently, but actually, if you look at the neuroscience of what's happening, loads is happening. Deep Sleep is when cerebral spinal fluid is flushed up into the brain. And it actually removes toxins from the brain a bit like imagine he had a fruit smoothie, and he drank all the fruit smoothie, but there's still kind of the remnants of the fruit smoothie in the bottle. And then if you put a bit of water in that bottle and shook it up, you could get all the remnants of the fruit smoothie out, right.

That's what's happening in deep sleep, the cerebral spinal fluid is flushing through the brain. And the blood capillaries go big, small, big, small, big small, which creates this kind of flushing motion. And that directly flushes out amyloid plaques, which are what cause Alzheimer's and many other forms of dementia.

So also a human growth hormone is released. So I know you're really into your fitness. If you have like a big workout during the day, like you're you're kind of working out you're lifting weights in the gym. Unless that night you get enough deep sleep, your muscles will not grow, there'll be massive reduction in muscle gains. And the same goes for losing weight.

So if you spent your whole day dieting, but then at night, you don't get enough deep sleep, you will lose weight based on the calorific deficit of not eating that much. But you won't actually make changes to your metabolism that leads to long term weight loss. So deep sleep so so important for memory for toxins flushed out for changing the body in any way we want.

We have that period of deep sleep, and then we'll move into dream. So dream actually comes at the end of the cycle, we think of dream as being a very active sleep state. And it is but by the time you get the dream, you've been knocked out for at least 6070 minutes. And if you put those together that makes up the 90 Minute sleep cycle, the cycle continues throughout the night. What changes is the amount of time you spend in each one until you get to the last two hours or you're almost in full dream for like two hours.

sleep for human performance

Matt Morley

Okay, so I think that's really given us the kind of foundations between these connections between sleep like what's happening at night and how are we performing? How are we feeling, how we cognitively how we functioning during the day so effectively that is the basis of sleep as a form of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Charlie Morley

“Yeah, there is no biological process that is not adversely affected by insufficient sleep - anything less than seven hours per 24 hour period, yet we don’t teach kids about this in school, we have a sense of almost pride that we can get by off of a lack of sleep. It’s crazy. ”

— charlie morley

Certain parts of America lost an hour because the daylight saving. So like 1.6 billion people do this every year different times, but based on your countries, but on that day where people lose one hour of sleep, the next day, American Studies have shown as a 22% increase in cardiac arrest the next day, just by robbing people of one hour asleep. That's 10s of 1000s more death, because of one hour lost sleep. There's also a massive increase in traffic accidents the next day, when you take one hour of sleep.

Conversely, when the clocks change, and you gain an extra hour of sleep, there's a 22% decrease in heart attacks the next day, and a 15% drop in traffic accidents. Now, when you roll that out in 26 countries around the world that have these daylight savings, that is millions of people live longer, or live shorter lives based on robbing or giving them one extra hour of sleep.

Sleep health in a historical perspective

Matt Morley

Yeah, that's powerful stuff. If if we can take a step back to a slightly sort of, let's say, a historical perspective, just to understand the connection between pre Industrial Age sleep cycles, modern sleep cycles, and the potential benefits in accepting and embracing the idea of a nap, a siesta, or sleeping again, after the amount, number of hours you managed to get during the night. So when do you draw the line between how things were before the Industrial Age? And how things are now? And is that necessarily have the optimal version of our sleep pattern?

Charlie Morley

Sure. So I'm sure many of your listeners have heard about this. heard this before. That before the Industrial Revolution, so about 200 250 years ago, most people in Western Europe slept very differently. They didn't sleep all in one, they would obviously this depends on seasonal fluctuations. And a lot of research was done in England, actually, especially the British Isles, where it can get dark as early as 4pm in the nighttime, in the wintertime, so people get asleep within about two hours of sundown.

So because candles are really expensive. They're made of whale oil, only the wealthiest people could have these candles and kerosene was difficult to come across, or whatever they use back then. So people get asleep within about two hours of sundown. So it could be 6pm 8pm. But like early, right asleep for about two, three hours. And then they would wake up again, like fully awake, pubs would reopen.

People would have these like tobacco circles, you kind of sit around and smoke, people would go into the field and milk their cows, they believe the quality of the milk. If you milk them at this time was better people would have sex they felt you're more fertile. That actually true. There is a fertility booster at that time. There are hundreds of these records is oh, there's even a 15th century prayer manual from Portugal, full of prayers especially to do in the second sleep. Sorry, between the first and the second sleep.

So you get this reference the first and second sleep. The way it actually came about was a crime researcher was looking at records in courts and other crimes were committed after the first sleep basically the middle of the night, you'd get your three hours sleep you got Rob someone's house and then go back to bed again. It was like perfect crime. Right. S

o this is how it first came into, into public awareness. Now is that the best way Oh, sorry. And then you would go back to sleep after two hours until sunrise. seasonal fluctuations. So you'll still be averaging about like 678 hours sleep but Krushi with a two hour gap in the middle. Fast forward to the modern day, the most common form of insomnia. In western societies, the most prevalent form is not sleep onset insomnia, which is where you just can't get to sleep. It's actually sleep maintenance insomnia.

Now, here's a description of sleep maintenance, insomnia, the ability of the subject to fall asleep upon first awakening. Within two to three hours, the subject awakens again, feeling fully awake and conscious for up to two hours. The subject is then able to fall asleep again till morning. That is flippin exactly the same description as the pre industrial sleep cycle.

So could it be that there are millions of misdiagnosed insomniacs, who aren't actually insomniacs, they are showing from an anthropological point of view a much more natural sleep cycle than the rest of us who are trying to blackout for eight hours. Does it mean that blackout of eight hours is not the way to do it and we should all be having that nighttime waking No, not at all, perhaps is a chronotype thing perhaps type thing. But it is important for people to know, if they do have that sleep pattern, you're probably not insomniac.

And actually just knowing that it's okay to be awake in the middle of the night moves us out of the fight or flight sympathetic response that keeps us awake and allows us to fall asleep. And secondly, there are a lot of people who have that sleep pattern, but they don't know that there's a second period of sleep waiting for them in the wings. So they don't stay awake for two hours, they just get up and Assad do there is another four hour sleep waiting for you.

But you have to allow yourself to slip back into it. Interestingly, the term insomnia was first produced in print as a, as a kind of a coined term in the New York Times in 1901. It was called the new fangled malaise of insomnia, within 30 to 40 years of us changing the way we sleep, we suddenly have this term insomnia cropping up. So very, very interesting. So no, I wouldn't say we should be sleeping like that. But if you are sleeping like that, it may not be such a bad idea. It may be just the way your body is, is working. And the main thing to know is there's nothing wrong with it. You know, nighttime wakefulness is not a pathology. For some people. It's just the way they're built.

Matt Morley

We introduced the idea of bi-phasal sleeping or perhaps sleeping for X number of hours during the night, and then catching up at another stage during the day. And interestingly, that's one of the connections between your work in healthy buildings / workplace wellness and you work, right. So when I'm looking at, say, healthy building concept of trying to create spaces within a building that are designed to foster wellness, and wellbeing for people spending eight to 12 hours of their days or nights, if it's a residential context, or if it's an office environment, then it's a place where they go to work and to be productive.

With the leading healthy building standard, that's called the WELL Standard, they have an entire concept around MIND. And one of the features there is the idea of restorative opportunities and, and nap policy.

So we're starting to see the way sort of trickle down effect from the top whereby the certification systems that are becoming increasingly common now in the world of real estate are encouraging and completely accepting the concept of a nap being a healthy part of a workday, it might sound confusing for some people, but it's out there.

But for sure, it's already happening. It's already coming. Now, once you have that policy as a as an employer, you then need to offer some kind of a space where that happens. So yeah, that might be an area where I'd say okay, well, I'm going to try and introduce some, some natural elements, biophilic design, I'm going to think about light, I'm going to think about the thermal qualities of the temperature in there and think about the acoustic isolation.

When you think about what I know you've turned sleep hygiene. And so the restorative environment in which one goes to sleep like what are your your key touch points there? Like what are the essential elements that we need to think about when we're creating an environment, whether it's at home, or in a potentially office space, where it's congenial to having a 20 or 30 minute nap during the day?

Restorative spaces in the WELL standard

Charlie Morley

First of all, before I answer that, I just like to say, that's so good to hear that that's part of, you know, you building regulation and part of what businesses are thinking about.

“Apart from any kind of philanthropic aim that the business might have, your employees will be 30% better at anything they do after 60 to 90 minute nap. That’s the science. That’s a fact. ”

— charlie morley

It's like if you want to make more money, give your employees a nap because they will make better deasl. They make better trades, they'll have better interpersonal relationships. It is very good for your employees. Yes. And also you will make more money. It seems crazy. They aren't implementing this. I did a thing at Deutsche Bank at Deloitte. I was telling them you will make more money if you do this, and hasn't been implemented. Not that I know. But really anyone listening?

The science is there. This isn't hippie dippie stuff, your employees will be better at whatever they do after a 60 to 90 minute nap. So rant over next bit. I would say when you people sleeping in public is a really vulnerable thing to do. So actually, your question is not so much about the bedroom at home, but actually sleeping in public, which is very different sleeping and public. I would save for Start, you need something that's lockable, if possible, something that's lockable.

So I know the are these great sleep pods in I believe it's Munich Airport, you can rent them for like an hour, a pop, and these little kind of micro pod beds, but they're lockable. And it's really important that that it's not just quiet and dark and all the sleep hygiene II stuff. But they're lockable. And a lot of the traumatized populations I work with, like veterans and people with C PTSD. simply placing a lock on your bedroom door can increase sleep quality by up to half an hour, an hour a night. Because there's something about humans, we need to no one's going to come in, we're in this deeply vulnerable state of rest.

So I would say they need to be not only private and a correct temperature for sleep, and yes, dark and quiet if you can, but also lockable. There was one rest port I went in, and there is a difference in arrest port and asleep port, where my legs were exposed, there was kind of a big bubble thing over most of my body in my head, but my legs were exposed, very difficult to fall asleep. And one of those, you know, my feet, people could brush by they could do something to them, I wasn't able to fully sleep.

So yes, it would be enclosed, it would be lockable, it would be private. Just to say that those rest pods, you know, there is a difference between NSDI non sleep deep rest and napping. Non sleep deep breath has loads of benefits, too. So even if you can't provide a full private, lockable, even just a space for rest and mindfulness like they have in the Google offices in London are really, really good.

Recharge rooms in tech offices

Matt Morley

Yeah, it is often the tech companies that are approaching the and saying, Well look, we want to create a space in a sense, in your terms, clearly that they will then actually be breathing a multifunctional space where there can be some of that depressed slash napping going on. It can also be a space where it's congenial to restorative practices, whatever that might be taking some time out of your day, perhaps to meditate perhaps to do your prayers, or just simply take some time by yourself.

And in fact, there's often the term the quiet room, or a restorative space where the idea is really just to take some time away from your key tasks to recharge, to go back. And then I think within that there's perhaps a subgroup too, which is the the nap pods or sleeping pod? The issue there with my sort of design head on is okay, you got to think about hygiene.

Now, post COVID, you got to think about ventilation. If it's lockable, and it's an enclosed space, then the best thing to have their own fans and and suddenly, you know, the prices do go up. But I think there's there's real value in that. So we've established you mentioned temperature just to dig into it. So thermal comfort typically is actually cooler than we think, isn't it in terms of the ideal sleeping temperature.

Thermal comfort during sleep

Charlie Morley

I can't remember the exact temperature ideal to seven temperature. First of all, they differ from men and women. I remember a brilliant chapter in a book called The The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry. And the title chapter was air conditioning is sexist. Now you see that the title chapter anyway, I'll come on straight to that chapter. He's absolutely right, the average the default setting of air conditioners across the world are set to the male preferred temperature at room temperature. And women need it about up to one to two degrees warmer. So actually, air conditioning is sexist.

So the first thing your points would need to be would you need to adjust it because women would want a slightly different to men. Basically, if you're in bed, and you can stick your foot out from the blankets or out of the duvet, and it's warm enough to keep it outside your rooms too hot. Your bedroom should be pretty cool, but not cold. But if you stick your foot out, it should feel cool. And your nose should be cool. You know this is cooler, the better many people with sleep problems, they just have the room too hot, it becomes the Princess and the Pea.

You know they pile up loads of blankets and and they get really really hot and you can't you know sleeps about thermo regulation. Remember the we used to we now know actually that human beings used to even hibernate for long periods of time where the deep sleep state would go for a massive percentage. And you could actually move into these almost hibernation states for days or weeks. And of course, what's hibernation about thermo regulation? So yeah, temperatures, pretty important.

Matt Morley

There is a there's a really interesting book was published recently by the Harvard Chan School for public health by Dr. Joseph Allen, in which he discusses exactly that point around the sexual or sort of the differences between the two sexes in terms of body temperature and therefore thermal comfort within a space and it seems that a lot of the regulations that were still in place or to have guidelines in the US and in fact, even in older buildings how the HVAC aircon systems have been programmed, referring to some data that was plucked from sort of 1980s office buildings were so slick as well. What was happening in 1980s, it was male dominated, they were probably wearing a suit.

And there's now just much more sexual, let's say equality. And therefore, as the man in the three piece suit or in a shirt, a tie, and a jacket is completely different to me sending in a normal summer dress. So some of the solutions around that seem to be around, ultimately creating almost sort of microclimates within or having clusters or microclimates where it's adjustable, if they're getting there with the HVAC and aircon systems, it's sort of within the next five to 10 years, it seems like that would be in a really smart building. So like sort of high performing building where they're able to adjust and allow each individual occupant to have some say over the temperature in their space, just by you know, the kind of airflow that's going on within that.

So yeah, another crossover between Your world and mine. Let's talk about mindfulness. Again, it is something that's part of the healthy building concept, the idea that a allowing time within the day and allowing a space within an office environment, for example, where meditation or mindfulness practice and perhaps breathwork, and can take place is positive, again for productivity, but also for worker well being. So how do you integrate mindfulness and meditation with sleep?

Because obviously, once once we're asleep? There's, in theory, for most of us, at least, there's no active meditation or mindfulness going on, right until you get to like next level, Tibetan Buddhist practice of dreaming. Yeah. But before that, yeah, how what's the connection between mindfulness and improve sleep quality, so that if someone's perhaps practicing or finding time during the day, they're also able to have a positive impact on the sleep at night, which is, I think your another gain, isn't it?

breath work and deep relaxation for rest and sleep

Charlie Morley

Yeah. So mindfulness has a whole wealth of benefits. As far as sleep goes, actually more than mindfulness, it's about regulation of the autonomic nervous system through the breath, and through deep relaxation. Those are the two things that you really find affecting sleep. And it's all based on this thing called parasympathetic drive.

So there's a system within the autonomic nervous system called parasympathetic drive, which is, think of it like a battery, which is charged up every time you do anything relaxing during the day, you charge up this parasympathetic drive battery. Now the reason most people tend to sleep slightly better on holiday than in their working day is unless you're screaming kids and stuff, on holidays, you're probably doing more relaxing things. So every time you do anything relaxing the day zap, you get a little charge to the parasympathetic drive. If you spend at least half an hour a day doing something really, really relaxing, that moves you into a deep parasympathetic emphasis, such as yoga nidra, slow, deep breathing, coherent breathing, other forms of non sleep deep breaths, you're spending 30 minutes charging up that parasympathetic drive.

Now what happens is then when you go to sleep at night, even if you charge it at 11 o'clock in the morning, or 10 o'clock in the morning, that battery will store the drive until you choose to go to sleep at night. So when you fall asleep at night, the brain kind of downloads that battery power from parasympathetic drive, allowing you to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer.

This means we need to completely reconfigure the way we view sleep. Sleep is not about oh, it's half an hour before bedtime quick put on some sleep hygiene tips like not looking at my phone, going wearing my fancy red sunglasses, all this kind of stuff. It's like That's too late dude. Like if you if you've got high levels of stress or trauma, but again, who hasn't got high levels of stress off last two and a half years we've been through as a global society. Sleep good sleep begins during the day.

How much time can you spend charging up that parasympathetic drive battery, and that's where periods of mindfulness but especially slow deep breathing, and NSDI, non sleep, deep breaths, kind of the hypnogogic, mindfulness practice, those really, really work to regulate the nervous system and help you sleep well at night. So that's the link mindfulness is good, because it can help create a habit of mind that sees not getting perfect sleep as more okay, but as mindfulness creates, fosters an attitude of okayness with myself and compassionate acceptance if it's taught in the right way. But the link between just standard mindfulness and sleep is quite tenuous. The link between non sleep deep rest and slow deep breathing and sleep is very, very direct, because it's based on this parasympathetic drive.

Sleep quality for productivity in the workplace

Matt Morley

So then you you see that there is effectively a short term benefit. That is, if you like he's reaping those benefits. Well, first of all, the person in question so the worker the occupant, and indirectly, the, the employer, that's more than that. So the people who are then that they're producing for once they go back into their work environment and are just sort of recharged and fresher and able to do more or get through the rest of the day without hitting X number of coffees.

But then that same building Brunt that same worker gets their own slightly more medium term benefits later on in the day, that's an entirely private matter once they end up trying to get to sleep that also suggests, you mentioned sort of the three hours, I think there's often, you know, there's practical considerations, of course, around when you work out an exercise, right. But when I see people exercising at 9pm, and the best hours of sleep seem to be between about sort of like 11 and 1am, right. There's just it's a crunch between the late workout, getting to bed and getting good quality night's sleep. So it's that would then suggest if, if at all possible exercise should happen lunchtime slash middle of the day.

Charlie Morley

It depends what the exercise is. So for it again, this is about the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. So for example, lifting heavy weights, like you're doing a big weight session actually can lead to such a parasympathetic hit off with this deep tiredness that comes out was it could be reasonably beneficial or at least neutral to do in the evening. However, as we both do a lot of martial arts like Thai boxing, kickboxing, something really fight or flight II like Krav Maga at 10pm, you want to go to bed at midnight? Yeah, you're going to be while you're going to be in that state.

So it's not so much the exercise, but the type of exercise the effect that has on your body, and you can feel it after your workout. Do you feel deeply relaxed? Do you feel that sense of calm? Or do you feel it's kind of jittery? You know, you've still got your pre workout shake in your system or something like that. So it's kind of subjective and personal. But generally, exercise is really good for sleep. But yeah, if you can do it within like three hours of your preferred bedtime, that's best. Sorry, I would do it not, not over three hours before your preferred bedtime. That's best.

Matt Morley

Cool. Plus, I think we can carry on for a while yet, but we're gonna wrap it up there. So if people want to follow along, see more of your work, or reach out with any questions or buy the books like where is that all happening online?

Charlie Morley

Yeah, my website, Charliemorley.com

I'm also on Instagram So check it out.

Smart buildings for improved air quality, energy saving, carbon capture - Sally R

air quality / smart buildings / healthy buildings / energy efficiency / green building / hvac / indoor farming

Welcome to episode 45 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate today.

In this episode I’m in Sweden talking to Fredrik Tunberg, CEO of Sally R, a cloud-based intelligent ventilation solution that uses algorithms to optimize indoor air quality while reducing overall energy consumption related to the HVAC system.

We discuss how buildings have traditionally had to make guesstimates about how much ventilation they will need, and then applies a blanket approach throughout the day, throughout the building, whereas the latest technology, sensors and IOT enabled software completely changes the game, opening up opportunities for far more tailored, efficient and cost effective solutions. Which is essentially what Sally R do.

As Fredrik points out, high quality indoor air does not need to cost more, quite the opposite in fact, once you can see the air in a building and map that against usage data, and feedback from a network of air quality monitors, it’s a complete game changer that also saves on energy use in the process.

Finally, they are also getting into Carbon capture in indoor farms, but I’ll Fredrik explain that part. 

• Sally R website

• Sally R indoor farming

• Sally R on LinkedIn

Talking indoor air quality in healthy buildings and energy efficient green buildings with Fredrik Tunberg of SALLY R

Let's start with the basics. So, when you're describing SALLY R, what's the problem that you're solving here around HVAC and mechanical ventilation system optimization in healthy buildings?

Fredrik Tunberg

As part of the increasing energy prices, of course, across Europe across the world, as well as the pandemic, that we're hopefully seeing the end of. I believe that real estate and especially commercial real estate and public buildings starting to open up will create some very important questions for the real estate owners, as well as sales managers, and how to tackle these two issues - energy efficiency and indoor air quality. That's where Sally R can really make a difference.

Matt Morley

So there's two pieces that you mentioned, effectively, the building energy cost, the energy implications of running a mechanical ventilation system in a building, and also how that mechanical ventilation system relates to airborne diseases, such as COVID. So let's look at the first one. So the energy costs I get, how do you how to get involved or integrate into that, start measuring it and make improvements?

Indoor air quality and energy efficiency

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, and in our case, those two different pieces are very intertwined into each other. So overall, we're trying to really prove to people that well, an increase, and more secure indoor air quality, actually doesn't mean that you have to spend that the consumer energy is rather the opposite. 

“It’s a contradiction that clean air costs more, it’s actually the other way around. So an optimized indoor air quality in a healthy building will actually provide you with substantial green building energy savings. ”

— fredrik tunberg

smart buildings and hvac systems

“You have to bear in mind that the traditional way of controlling HVAC has been the same for many years. With the help of technology breakthroughs, such as big data, connectivity, and wireless sensors, we can manage that data to control very complex systems within buildings. ”

— fredrik tunberg, ceo , sally r

Matt Morley

So for someone who's perhaps not familiar with traditional building management systems, or facilities management, you said it's a bit of a dinosaur, and it hasn't really upgraded. So what does that look like for someone who's not familiar with it, obviously, you know, natural ventilation is where we came from. And then at some point, we started creating pressurized, mechanically ventilated buildings with HVAC air conditioning systems. And over the last, say, 20 years or so, or more, how has that? What's that look like?

building management systems in healthy buildings

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, this is different, depending on what kind of building you're talking about. And obviously, also what kind of country you're in, from our experience from, from Sweden, Scandinavia, and Europe, is that evolved buildings, once they were built, they were are the someone from the BMS system provider or their partners, they were in the building and programming a unique solution for that building. And that was obviously based on a lot of assumptions. And these assumptions goes hand in hand with what like the building would be intended, intended views, and all different kinds of things.

So one practical example would be one, one building that we implemented our solution and very recently, where they 2025 years ago, when the when the building was built, the HR system was programmed. And it was programmed based on the assumption like, Alright, let's do 40% return here. And it was just an assumption that that would work out and that that was a good level. It is not based on any kind of facts and figures, because and to be honest, like 25 years ago, you couldn't do that. And what we can do now is that we can, we can allow the building to choose his own level of returner, depending on how it is being used. What is happening on the outside of the building, and, and taking into a lot of different factors concerning the indoor air quality into account in order to calculate optimal performance for the system.

Matt Morley

So then that links in with the idea of the big data, right? Because you're then using global benchmarks to understand how it should be done comparing that with what's actually happening and trying to find gaps discrepancies between the two and then making the adjustments to how the air ventilation system is operating. Is that right? Yeah,

energy efficiency in a smart building

Fredrik Tunberg

Absolutely, absolutely. So that's one way to look at it. And then there's other other types of buildings like we're optimizing a large shopping mall in Stockholm, it's the largest one is going to need for more mall of Scandinavia. So it's, it has a good name. And that building was built in a was I believe it was finished, like in 2015, or 2016. So it's very, it's very new, it was a huge investment, obviously, for the real estate company. And so it's very sophisticated, everything that is within the building. And still, we managed to save around 40-42% of the energy being used with HVAC system, simply because we were more reactive to whatever was going on. And this was especially so during the pandemic, of course, when the building had a lot lower people occupants passing through. And again, was based on assumptions on how how it would be used the building. And, yeah, so there's a lot to be done.

automated hvac in a smart building

Matt Morley

So if I can create an analogy, would it be basically like someone going in to a building, turning on all the lights at a certain point on the dinner and saying, Well, that's it. That's how we operate the light system between nine o'clock and five o'clock? And you're saying, well, actually, you might need certain different intensities during the day. And you might need perhaps a little bit on a on a weekend, or you might need some later in the evening? Because that's actually how the building's being used. Would that be a fair analogy to draw, you're trying to connect the the usage by the occupants in the building with the amount of air ventilation and circulation that they need is that, yeah, absolutely

Fredrik Tunberg

That's definitely a huge part of it. And then we also have different ways of like, analyzing the building, as well. So we are measuring and we're constantly calculating the loads within the building and not not just the heating load, but are also like the load concerning co2, we can calculate any kind of boat, we can calculate and monitor VOC load process. And by doing it that way, we can predict what will happen a lot better than then what would normally be the case, as well. So there's a lot of different things, but those definitely a good analogy as well.

Matt Morley

“VOCs, volatile organic compounds, basically, the nasty chemicals that are off gassing from things like adhesives, glues, carpets, furniture in an office. ”

— matt morley

So for the listeners who perhaps aren't aware that toxic chemicals can be found in office furniture, the reality is they often can, especially in fabrics, textiles, foams, paints, and cheap ceiling panels and what have you. So the importance of what you've just described, is, is really, I think, critical for for improved indoor air quality.

So if we look at the hardware and the software involved in making that happen, like what's, what's going on in terms of bringing pieces of kit into the building? Or is it a completely software based solution? Like how do you integrate into the building management system into the BMS?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, there's, different ways to do that, of course, and we do a lot of different types of integration and implementations. But Sally R is in essence a software company. So we don't have our own hardware concerning this particular service. Rather, we would prefer to collaborate with with a partner and primarily, that would be the BMS company and the BMS provider, but it can also obviously be an IOT platform, for instance, or it can be a sensor, sensor company, providing sensors.

But we have also done integrations and implementations where we made use of a kind of a simple kind of each unit each gateway, but that is simply just because we want to cut corners. And this is primarily we do that primarily for older systems, older buildings, where they sometimes they don't even have an internet. It's not connected to the internet.

Matt Morley

So it strikes me as an example of smart building systems, right, but we're trying to connect the bill Seeing via your software with the daily realities of what's happening inside the building. So it's reactive rather than being passive. Do you? Do you just make a distinction between the air purification that's going on in the building and the air quality?

So like, is the software looking at purification rates that are happening? Do we need to consider that there's not enough purification beyond just the ventilation rates in the building, do you normally recommend that there is a complimentary strategy in terms of improving the indoor air quality beyond just ventilation or is that typically enough to remove the VOCs? Remove the co2?

indoor air quality and sally r software

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, and obviously, definitely depends on where in the world you are, and what kind of room but we will obviously like we, we see a lot of data we can see. And we can analyze that for the customer. But then it's obviously up to the customer to take actions based on that data. But it's not that uncommon, obviously, that we get questions like how do we how can we improve this further?

How, what measures do we need to take it apart from the software, and stuff like that, and then we like to be really, really frank about, we're not a consultancy in that way, there are others who are way much better than than us that providing advice on that. But any way we can to help is, obviously a bit.

“we are not actually in this to to save energy, it might sound strange, but our standpoint is we want to secure indoor air quality, the energy saving is an extra benefit!”

— Fredrik Tunberg, CEO, SaLLY R

Matt Morley

So then you'd imagine there being say, a network of head height air quality monitors throughout the building that there's the building management team are getting one source of data coming in, you then got what Sally are producing in terms of data, and you can start to see how the management team is building up a picture, right? of exactly what's what's going on. So how does that how does that take place?

For someone who's not familiar with that process? Yeah, so like you said that there, you're creating the data. And you're is it is the is the software making decisions on behalf of the building management team or the building management team having to take to sort of interpret the data that you're creating, and then manually create, implement changes, or is it automatically linked, now is

Fredrik Tunberg

“Our software automates improvements in indoor air quality 100% based on whatever parameters, you as the building owner, or manager, want to achieve in the building in terms of indoor air quality.”

— fredrik tunberg, ceo , sally r

And usually, there is a minimum value and a maximum value, and never to exceed the maximum value of course. And then the system the software would optimize within that can range and it will do that automatically. But it would also obviously pick up on any like discrepancies in in that performance as well. And for instance, we can easily analyze a abnormal high energy consumption within any kind of like fans or anything like that, that we can track back to, for instance, that filter change being needed.

So we can optimize that and we can we can optimize for other types of filters as well. So you can introduce more filtration, for instance, concerning knowledge, but then who are starting to talk more and more about TM one for instance. So we can we can definitely there's definitely room to improve more on the filtration side with an optimization.

Particulate Matter in indoor air quality

Matt Morley

So PM1 - we typically talk about PM10, which would be dust level particles, then PM 2.5, which is much smaller. Things like mold, VOCs and tiny little things, but PM1 would be airborne disease level?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, exactly. I mean, noncredit to me, according to the WHO.

indoor farms and carbon capture

Matt Morley

Yeah. Okay. And and so you then have this other piece, right, you have this other element, which I think is a really interesting complement to, to what we've just been talking about around the the HVAC Building Management and this carbon capture and indoor farms. So where did that come from? What's that product about?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, absolutely. So we will need to go back five or six years basically, because Sally R - our name to begin with is a tribute to Sally Right, the first female astronaut, US astronaut. So we basically turned to space in the beginning to find solutions to how our buildings can rely less on the outside air. Because we see problems with the outside air becoming more and more polluted. And a lot of energy consumption comes from the process of changing outside air into heated or cooled indoor air.

So when starting to look at ISS, and how they're solving the indoor air quality on the space station, we came across some some very like crucial, crucial things that need to solve. And one of them obviously, being the optimization of the whole service. And that's, that's our software today. Another part of it is being able to capture co2 from an HR system or from an indoor environment. So for the last three or four years, we've basically been digging into that and evaluating different technologies out there, and then coming up with our own technology in order to capture carbon efficiently from indoor environments. And then, obviously, like looking looking for for different solutions in how to offset that carbon.

But once you want to calculate what what would you do with the co2. And we saw this, this kind of new industry, it's not new, but it's, it's definitely on most people's radar these times. And it's concerning vertical farming and locally grown verbs that urban farming and container farming, there's a lot of buzz going on there. And one crucial part of sustainable indoor farming is being able to enrich the farming area with co2. And the the only solution that we've seen so far is to bring in like shoo, some tanks with co2 that quite often comes from natural gas. And that's not very sustainable. So we see a possibility here to kind of make one industry more sustainable by giving them the co2 and one industry, the real estate industry, both safe, safer and more energy efficient by capturing. So yeah, that was a long explanation, a monologue.

Matt Morley

So if that was say, just to understand, because I know some images on your website, they depict maybe like a rooftop indoor farm that could be on a could be on a an office building, for example, where they decided to go into that with a kind of, like a Yeah, a bubble, right? So you create this this glass house area where it's a protected environment? Would it have to work would only work in those that context? Or could it be, say, a vertical farm set up in the reception of a big building, for example? Or do you need an enclosed space? How is it? What are the applications? Like what do you need from your side?

Fredrik Tunberg

Well, we need an enclosed space in some way, in order to really have an effect on the co2 levels. So the so that you actually get an increase in yield on the crops. So they grow more and more co2 have a certain extent, of course. So that that is what you need. But we're also looking into different applications preferring more like traditional indoor farming, like traditional greenhouses, and particular than commercial greenhouses. And then we would actually capture the carbon from from ambient air instead, that would be more like direct air capture for it for a specific purpose. That's another another kind of application.

Circular Economy and green healthy buildings

Matt Morley

So you sort of have this circular economy concept, right? Where you're, we're trying to keep everything in the loop rather than and in this case, the co2 is kind of like the waste product that we want to keep in the loop to reuse to get more value from it.

Fredrik Tunberg

Absolutely. That is what we really want to achieve and we also want to kind of like waste from the general awareness but you can actually do this if faced with co2, and co2 is natural, it's in our air, he says that we have a bit too much of it these days. So we need to like we need to make something useful with it. And why not actually do or try to increase the production of healthy food, and especially locally grown healthy food? Because there's loads and loads of benefits with vertical farming, indoor farming, and being really, we can help one.

Matt Morley

So where do you go from here? In terms of building the business? bringing in new clients developing new products and services? Like how do you see this evolving over the next three to five years?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, no, it's very exciting time here - the plan for this year is internationalization where we are at scaling up business as we're getting to new markets. obviously started out in Sweden and Scandinavia, but we're looking to expand into UK and further into Canada as well this year, concerning the carbon capture where we are now way more like a pre mature stage, but we're commercializing right now. We're getting our first first couple of clients, and we will continue to evaluate the performance on that technology. And so yeah, it will be a little bit divided. But we're, we'll have different places that we have our hands full.

Healthy buildings integrating Sally R software

Matt Morley

So let's take a potential building in central London. And there are certain parameters within which you can work or are there certain requirements in terms of going in? Does it need to be a certain genre or type of building or something that's built after a certain year in terms of its HVAC? Like, are there? Are there areas where you can't help? Are there areas where you can have more impact and more more positive results?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, essentially, we don't, our software works for any kind of building anywhere. Basically, as long as you have mechanical ventilation, we can optimize that. But it's more of a matter of where we put our focus, as of today. So we focused deliberately on offices and retail primarily, but also on on more sensitive buildings, like schools and hospitals, elevate the health health sector. But we make the most difference in obviously, large buildings, obviously, less complex buildings. So open spaces, versus open spaces. And we can really make a difference where you have a lot of people coming in and changing the the occupancy, because then we can be casting a huge difference on the interview.

What is the cost of healthy building software?

Matt Morley

So it's a question that I'm nearly always asked when I'm proposing these kind of concepts and services to clients that I work with. So I'll map Okay, but what are the cost implications? And how much more is this gonna cost me? And often, my responses will look, there might be a little bit more upfront in terms of your capex, but then how long will it take you to pay that off in terms of operating costs once you open the building, and actually, it can often be within a space of two to three years.

But then the owner, if they're holding the property for that long, if they're redeveloping or constructing, building and then selling, then it's slightly different story I find, but when they're holding the building for at least a few years, there's often a discussion around well, what are your management and operational costs over the next three years? And how much can we save you on those? Is it a similar argument in terms of selling in a salary or service to a developer or landlord?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, no, absolutely. And obviously, with the twist that we sell our service as a service, so So you would basically pay a monthly fee that is way lower than your energy savings. So I mean, from our perspective, there's actually no investments that basically like saving money or making money from day one, basically. But obviously, like in the in the startup phase, there can be certain investments that we need to do. And that could be relating, like investing in more sensors, for instance.

But the way that we figure is that well, you want sensors anyway, even if you're not going with that those are not selling your specific sensors. So whether or not whether or not you like it or not, you need the sensors. And then you can subscribe to our service and start saving entity as well as be comfortable with that it's actually locked in with security and oil quality, no matter what happens in the building or outside.

Matt Morley

So sensors you mean ventilation rates as in in inside the HVAC system or in terms of the air that's circulating in the occupied spaces?

Fredrik Tunberg

90% I would say that the sensors inside the HV system that is already in place, is a very rarely that we need to compliment those sensors. But what we want, it all depends on what type of building obviously, but in an in an office building, with a more traditional office building, with a lot of different roofs and stuff like that, we would need some more reference, measuring measurements in in the different groups so that we can securely control the indoor air quality. But as sensor costs, as the cost for sensors comes down even more, it's not a huge investment and maintain away. I would say, yeah, it's minimal compared to what other types of investment can do for themselves.

Matt Morley

That's a much easier sell than than solar panels on a roof. I can tell you from experience. Very good. So how can people learn more? How can they connect? How can they reach out and follow what you're doing?

Fredrik Tunberg

Yeah, w obviously have a website, which is fairly good. It's, it's getting more and more content on it. But we're also trying to stay as active as we possibly can on primarily LinkedIn. That's our channel of choice. And you're always happy to schedule a meeting with me or one of my colleagues to learn more as well. So we're always always eager to

Acoustic Comfort in Buildings: Healthy Building Interior Acoustics — Wellness Design Consultants

Risks of Structure Borne Noise in Buildings & Interiors

Risks of Structure Borne Noise in Buildings & Interiors

Human exposure to unfavorable noises and improperly regulated acoustics has been found to cause negative health and wellness impacts.

Factors such as a lack of acoustical privacy, speech intelligibility, and audio distractions can all impact occupant comfort, leading to acoustic discomfort. Excessive noise can lead to irritation, disturbed sleep, and long-term health issues such as cardiovascular disease and psychological problems. These issues can stem from both interior and external noise sources.

Acoustic comfort in healthy buildings

As such, acoustics and a well-designed sound environment are important considerations in healthy buildings, healthy indoor environments, and workplace wellness plans.

While every space is different, the primary risks of poor acoustics are diminished attention, productivity (due to inability to concentrate for long periods), and memory retention.

Those apply most directly to a learning or work environment while in a residential context there is also the risk of negatively impacting sleep quality.

Causes of Acoustic Discomfort in Buildings & Interiors

Design oversights such as loud HVAC equipment, improperly insulated spaces, and airborne noise can all contribute to poor acoustic comfort. The sound pressure level of these noises can significantly impact the acoustic comfort of a space. Structure borne noise, such as vibrations from pipe-related noise, can also contribute to acoustical discomfort. A general lack of acoustical privacy in zones that require deep work, or the dominance of hard interior surfaces that cause sound to literally bounce around an interior, can further exacerbate the issue.

Acoustical solutions in healthy buildings

To combat these issues, strategies such as planned and isolated HVAC systems, noise barriers, and the inclusion of suitably sound absorbing acoustic materials can all be relevant. Effective sound control measures are essential to ensure the wellbeing, comfort, and productivity of building occupants. With due attention paid upfront to an interior’s acoustics and sound insulation, as healthy building consultants we can help ensure the wellbeing, comfort, and productivity of building occupants once the fit-out is complete.

For details of healthy co-working offices specifically, see here.

Challenges of Sound Absorption in Open Plan Floor Plans

A recent shift to open-plan office layouts was intended to promote greater connectivity and interaction. The results have, most would agree, been mixed at best.

One of the primarily drawbacks by stripping back partitions from an office environment has been a corresponding rise in acoustical issues, noise problems, distractions and low level anxiety. Sound waves like nothing more than to bounce around a large space until they hit some kind of a sound barrier. In addition to internal noise sources, traffic noise can also contribute to acoustic discomfort in open-plan layouts.

If offices and learning spaces want to facilitate the highest levels of occupant productivity and focus, open-plan layouts require, upfront, an acoustics plan to compensate these issues.

Reducing sources of noise in advance, introducing a range of strategically positioned sound absorbing materials, offering spaces with complete acoustical privacy for certain tasks (such as sound booths - see photo above), and possibly introducing thoughtful background noise can, collectively, help to ensure a productive work or study environment.

Sources of Noise Distractions in Buildings & Interiors

Both indoor and outdoor noises can affect the quality of interior acoustics. However, interior noise sources can of course be more easily regulated within a design plan as an engineer, architect or facilities management has some sway over their location and operation.

For example, sound can emanate from sources such as HVAC systems, voices, footfall and occupants moving through a space (think of two female colleagues chatting animatedly while wearing heels, walking down a corridor with hardwood flooring), as well as from other mechanical equipment and electronics such as computers.

Impacts of Acoustic Distractions in Building Interiors

If not properly managed, sound can cause surprising effects on worker productivity, focus, motivation, and stress (Acoustics). One study showed that on average, workers lose eighty-six minutes of work a day due to noise-based distractions (Franklin).

In addition, it has been found that after an acoustic distraction, it can take around twenty-five minutes for someone to return to their task, and an additional eight to reach the original level of focus (Ecophon).

With sound in mind, research shows that a positive acoustic environment can reduce adrenaline by 30%, increase concentration performance by up to 50%, and improve motivation by 66% (Ecophon).

With impacts such as these, acoustic design should be a priority for businesses, creating comfortable, healthy spaces that increase worker productivity, focus and wellness.

Implementing Healthy Building Acoustic Strategies

Now that the problems associated with inadequate acoustic design are clear, what can we do to alleviate these impacts and promote healthy working environments? Proper planning, the inclusion of sound absorbing materials and dividers, as well as soundscapes are all beneficial strategies that can improve acoustic quality. Here we address each of these three in turn.

Acoustics Planning in a Healthy Building Strategy

The size and type of a space, demographics of people in that space, and the type of activities that will occur in that space all affect its acoustic priorities. It is important to first identify the potential sources of noise such as machinery and HVAC systems, both of which could affect interior noise levels.

When possible, the location and insolation requirements of these spaces should be considered early on to avoid unnecessary leaching of excess noise into workspaces.

In addition, in larger multi-use spaces, it is likely that different acoustical zones are required—such as louder common spaces for social activity and casual meetings, as well as quiet more private spaces for more focused work or study.

Although each space is different, there are strategies that can be commonly applied for all healthy indoor environments—with this type of acoustics planning being the first and most important strategy, acting as a guide for all other potential interventions.

Sound Absorbing Materials in Healthy Indoor Environments

When possible, sound absorbing materials should be implemented into the design strategy to reduce noise transmission. Use of acoustic sound absorbing materials on the floors, walls, ceilings, and desks or dividers in an office or study space are all options to reduce reverberation and increase comfort.

Suspended acoustical ceiling panels are often an effective starting point as they provide considerable sound absorption over the whole sound frequency spectrum. In addition, dividing walls and screens can be added to any space to provide privacy and extra sound absorption. There are then acoustic flooring underlay options as well as acoustic paints, wallpapers and decorative wall panels.

Different spaces require different responses clearly. So for example, in a place such as a restaurant or bar, you may want increased privacy between tables, intelligibility between tables a negative, while in a large boardroom or auditorium we absolutely want to facilitate speech from one end of the room to another.

Soundscapes in Wellbeing Interiors

The use of active acoustic treatments and what is known as ‘sound masking’ can be used to encourage consistent noise levels and increase sound privacy, decreasing acoustical distractions within a space by layering on top a variety of subtle sound interventions.

Such sounds can be interspersed throughout a space via speakers almost imperceptibly if needed. In one study, it was found that the installation of an active acoustical system decreased wasted time by 55%, providing huge potential to improve workspace performance (Browning).

Although background noise can be created in a variety of ways nature sounds to do so may provide additional benefits. Leveraging the concept of biophilia, nature sounds can provide a connection to the outside world. Specifically, it has been found that water sounds are especially effective at improving cognitive performance and creativity through sound masking (Browning).Sources

“Acoustics in Open Office Situations .” Ceilings & Interior Systems Construction Association, Jan. 2016.

Browning, William, and Dakota Walker. “AN EAR FOR NATURE: PSYCHOACOUSTIC STRATEGIES FOR WORKPLACE DISTRACTIONS & THE BOTTOM LINE.” Terrapin Bright Green, Terrapin Bright Green, 2018.

“Ecophon Office Guide: Welcome to the Sound of Nature.” Ecophon.

Franklin, Sydney. “Quiet, Please: How to Design Acoustics for an Open Plan Office - Architizer Journal.” Journal, 4 Nov. 2021, https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/acoustics-open-office-plan/.

WELL v2 Sound Concept

https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/wellv2/sound

Healthy building design strategies for nutrition & hydration

Healthy Building Interiors That Promote Nutrition & Hydration 

Just like adequate sleep and regular movement, nutrition and hydration play a key role in human health, meaning healthy building consultants need to consider how these elements of the building occupant experience will be affected by architectural, engineering and facilities management decisions made during the construction or refurbishment process.

While there are of course any number of external socio-cultural and psychological influences at play in occupant health, a building’s interiors can indeed should play a positive role in promoting healthy habits and behaviors. The leading healthy building standard ‘WELL’ even has an entire section devoted to the subject.

So how can healthy building consultants positively impact nutrition and hydration in particular for residents, office workers and students? The design of a healthy building should seamlessly integrate design strategies, policies and practices to encourage positive behavioral change.

The availability of healthy food choices and adequate numbers of filtered water stations on each floor can go a long way in this sense but we can go well beyond that into the layout of eating spaces, what is known as ‘strategic dining design’, educational signage and promotional messaging, the specification of rooftop gardens and vegetable boxes, even policies that specify the local sourcing of ingredients used in canteens, or healthy snack options in vending machines, for example.

Mindful Eating Spaces and Strategic Dining Design in Healthy Buildings

The design and layout of eating spaces in a healthy building as well as access to specific types of food and beverage options can have a tangible impact on occupant dietary choices over the long-term.

For example, communal eating spaces help to encourage a more mindful approach to eating, as well as social engagement, as opposed to eating alone in front of the TV say.

The WELL building standard is particularly committed to this idea of designated places for food intake as a key driver of overall occupant mental health and wellbeing.

Design of eating areas in healthy buildings

In addition, the WELL standard encourages designating eating times to increase the likelihood that people will eat in groups and reap the full benefits of a shared, collective experience one or more times each day (see WELL Nutrition section). 

Within healthy buildings, several other wellness interior design strategies can be put in place to promote nutrition and hydration further.

For example, eating away from home in an office or educational environment is often associated with poorer dietary habits, so including basic kitchen fixtures such as chopping boards, colanders and food prep knives, a microwave and generously sized refrigerators for storing food can all help make small, incremental improvements to occupant diets (see WELL Nutrition). 

Food display strategies in healthy buildings

In addition, in the case that food or drink is provided by a workplace or school cafeteria, for example, the display of this food can impact consumption habits.

In the context of a healthy building plan, an increase in the visibility of healthy food options makes such options convenient and top-of-mind. This can be done through strategies such as providing easily reachable fruits and vegetables in the line of site for each diner, by placing clearly visible drinking water access points, or even through a “healthy convenience” rapid checkout line. All of this helps reduce tendencies for sugary drinks, junk food options and sweet snacks.

Finally, the ambiance of the healthy interior space itself can impact how people interact with their food. For example, glaring lights and loud noises can cause frustration or low level anxiety, leading to reduced eating times, and overeating as a result (by not allowing the body time to recognize it has reached a point of satiety), both detrimental to nutrition, digestion and weight management (Anthes). 

Nutrition – promoting dining strategies for healthy interiors:

• Designated eating spaces

• Adequate food preparation and storage areas

• Priority given to healthy food in terms of visibility and convenience

• A comfortable, stress-free ambiance to encourage slow, mindful eating

Use of Signage Prompts and Labeling in healthy design interiors

The use of food-related signage and promotional messaging has been shown to impact our nutritional choices. Strategies such as including nutritional information, deliberately promoting healthy products, or using signage to guide consumers towards healthy products are all useful interventions that leverage environmental psychology principles. 

Including nutritional information and health warnings on food can increase a healthy building occupant’s chances of making an informed food consumption decision. Whether that be allergy related, vitamin content, or calorie-based, the information can be subtly communicated without being overpowering or didactic.

In addition, food advertising has been shown to have direct and indirect impacts on consumers and nutrition. Children are especially susceptible to advertising, which may suggest that in places such as schools, promoting and marketing healthy options may have a positive impact over say, the extreme alternative of selling out to big brands pushing their sweetened products to children for example.

Healthy food advertising has been proven to increase the selection of healthy food choices. Although this concept is often applied to places like grocery stores, it can be used in cafeterias and workplace eating rooms to encourage healthy habits as well.

Along the vein of advertising, smart signage and visual guides can help nudge more nutritious food and drink choices. Visual aids can be used in and around eating areas to encourage the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and healthier drinking sources such as water.

Something as simple as an arrow guiding consumers towards healthier options can influence decisions. Educational signage can also be placed in locations outside of the eating areas—for example, colorful signs denoting the benefits of water consumption and healthy meals. 

Nutrition-promoting visuals and signage in healthy interiors: 

• Include nutritional information on and near food

• Advertise healthy options (rather than processed food products)

• Use signage and visual guides to promote nutrition

Local Sourcing of Food for healthy building occupants

Locally grown food not only increases access to healthy nutrition options for a healthy building occupant, it also provides social and environmental benefits. When possible, community or educational gardens should be integrated into wellness real estate projects, be they residential, workplace or learning environments.

It has been shown that people who are engaged in gardening have higher levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as improving other aspects of life—such as community connectivity, educational opportunities, and anxiety reduction (WELL). So a communal rooftop garden, no matter how small, can be a modest investment with tangible impacts for the overall healthy building strategy.

Gardens on a project site can provide opportunities for building occupants to connect with the land and the food they eat through learning, as well as acting as a local source of produce for cafeterias, if delivered at scale.

In the case of children, gardening can increase food knowledge and increase their willingness to try more vegetables, breaking down the barrier between the food on their plate and the natural cycle of growing / harvesting (Anthes). Eating habits are learned through our environmental cues—making gardening a very powerful tool to increase our knowledge and connection to nutrition, especially in students and children. 

Depending on density constraints, the inclusion of rooftop gardens is becoming more popular in healthy buildings as they can be used even in high-density urban locations, while also providing a wealth of environmental benefits such as cooling / reducing the urban heat island effect, increased biodiversity and direct access to the calming, restorative benefits of nature for the building occupants. 

Local Food Sourcing Strategies for Healthy Buildings: 

• Source food locally and provide healthy produce to cafeterias and building occupants

• Include gardening to connect occupants to food

• Use gardens as an educational and community fostering opportunity

Healthy Building Certification Systems on design for Nutrition and Hydration

Various healthy building certification systems provide a guide to nutrition-based health and design strategies. Most notably, WELL, Fitwel, and the Living Building Challenge offer insight and place varying levels of importance on nutrition and hydration. 

The WELL Building Standard contains an entire concept, ‘Nourishment’ that discusses the importance of healthy diets and how our environments can promote this goal.

This standard focuses on factors such as increasing access to fruits and vegetables, nutritional transparency, food advertising, production, and preparation, as well as the concept of mindful eating (WELL). More information on the nourishment concept within the WELL healthy building standard can be found here. 

Fitwel contains a ‘Food and Beverage’ Standard and a ‘Health Programming’ section that mention strategies to promote healthy eating.

This standard recommends certain types of on-site dining services and what food should be available, as well as implementing policies such as nutrition programs, healthy cooking classes or gardening workshops. More information on the Fitwel healthy building standard can be found here. 

Although the Living Building Challenge green building standard doesn’t have a section specifically focused on nutrition, it has an imperative that focuses on urban agriculture.

This section mentions the importance of dedicating a space for growing food on site, connecting people to locally grown healthy nourishment options. More about the Place Petal and urban agriculture imperative can be found here. 

Sources:

WELL v2 Wellness Real Esatte Standard

Fitwel healthy building standard

Living Building Challenge green building standard

Anthes, Emily. “3. STAIR MASTERS.” The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness, Scientific American/Picador, New York, 2021. 

Ventilation and healthy building design

indoor air quality / healthy building certification / ventilation rates / healthy indoor environment / consultants

kaiterra indoor air quality monitor

What is ventilation in a healthy building plan?

There has never been a more urgent time to consider an enhanced ventilation strategy as part of a healthy indoor environment. Why does this ventilation matter and what can landlords, developers and workplaces do about it?

‘Ventilation’ describes the cyclical process of supplying outdoor air and removing the existing indoor air through either natural or mechanical methods. 

Natural ventilation in a healthy building strategy aims to introduce outdoor air into a space thanks to operable windows, doorways and ceiling vents for example, without relying on electricity. This approach typically benefits from an accompanying CO2 monitor plan to ensure healthy indoor air at all times.

Mechanical ventilation for a healthy indoor environment meanwhile does the same albeit in a far more calculated and energy intensive manner via a powered system of vents, piping, filters and fans.

Mechanical systems should ideally be designed with the anticipated occupant numbers and type of activity in mind; for example a busy gym full of cardio machines will require a different ventilation rate than a boardroom used for occasional meetings.

A mixed or hybrid ventilation model would deploy a combination of both healthy building strategies but in all three cases the ultimate purpose remains the same - to increase occupant comfort and create a healthy indoor environment by removing dust and particulates, unpleasant odors, CO2 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that off-gas from toxic materials in furniture, fittings and adhesives.

Ventilation and indoor air quality for workplace wellness

From a workplace wellness perspective, adequate ventilation rates are fundamental to ensuring healthy indoor air that in turn plays a role in promoting cognitive function and reducing the transmission of viruses, amongst other things.  

Ventilation in healthy building certifications

It is also worth noting that ventilation rates are often designated by regional codes, as well as healthy building certifications such as the USGBC’s LEED, BREEAM and WELL. This means a healthy building consultant and/or MEP engineer can be a helpful resource when creating and implementing a comprehensive wellbeing interiors or workplace wellness strategy. 

Finally, for home upgrade to indoor air, there is also the option of a standalone air purifier such as those made by Dyson for smaller spaces (25m2-50m2 let’s say). These are limited in impact compared to a mechanical system but still represent a viable option in certain circumstances, for example in a bedroom for a sleeper with asthma or allergies.

Healthy indoor environments and air filtration

Filtration is a key aspect of ventilation, this is the process of removing potentially harmful particulates from the outside air intake before that air is sent into the building interiors. 

Air filtration is done via increasingly advanced filters in the ventilation system, meaning this is an area where we as healthy building consultants can make a tangible difference simply by encouraging an MEP Manager or consultant engineer to upgrade the filter, for example.

A High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter removes dust, mold, pollen and particulates. The Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) is a 1-20 scale that measures the effectiveness of these filters and is commonly mentioned in building certification systems as an indication of enhanced indoor air quality. 

A MERV 13 or above filter is now seen as the gold standard - with local equivalents applicable - the higher the number the greater the removal of small particles from the air. Note that all filters require regular maintenance and upkeep as part of an ongoing healthy building strategy delivered by facilities management.

In contemporary buildings, standard practice is to use mechanical ventilation with a filtration system but natural ventilation and other more advanced strategies can be used to reduce energy use in certain specific locations and with adequate planning by the engineers and architecture team. Simply opening a lot of windows and hoping for the best is not a healthy indoor air strategy!

UV light for enhanced indoor air quality

Anti-bacterial ultraviolet (UV) light systems can be incorporated into an indoor air management plan to reduce the risk of harmful organisms lingering in the indoor air. This system can be used in tandem with other ventilation systems or on its own, and uses UV light to kill airborne pathogens. 

Using UV light systems to enhance the indoor air quality is especially relevant in spaces with high occupant densities such as restaurants, in places where occupants are especially vulnerable such as hospitals, or in health clubs and gyms where optimizing the health of members is a priority.

RESET Air certification process

Healthy Building Certification System Benchmarks and Guidelines

There are several guidelines to help determine the ventilation rates for appropriate indoor air quality levels. ASHRAE Standard 62.1 designates “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” and is used as an industry benchmark as a minimum value, rather than a target to aim for. 

As is often the case when it comes to consulting for healthy buildings and healthy indoor environments, we are in fact looking to go beyond the bare minimums to achieve excellence, wherever possible.

In addition to the ASHRAE standard, certification systems such as LEED and WELL include numerous credits denoting indoor air quality and ventilation guidelines. 

In the LEED standard, for example, a MERV value of 13 or higher contributes to the “Enhanced Indoor Air Quality Strategies” credit. In the WELL standard ‘Air Filtration credit’, different MERV values are recommended based on the average outdoor air quality levels.

In addition, both the LEED and WELL standards denote the importance of maintaining proper air quality throughout the construction, pre-occupancy and occupancy phases. 

Strategies such as a full flush-out (the elimination of indoor air pollutants that were accumulated during the construction phase through the introduction of outdoor air), replacement of air filters pre-occupancy and ongoing indoor air quality testing are all recommended strategies to ensure enduring air quality levels.

The guidelines and recommendations for the LEED standard are present within the Indoor Environmental Quality credit category, while WELL’s reside within the Air concept.

The LEED and WELL standards focus on different things—LEED places emphasis on the environmental impacts of the built environment, while WELL focuses on the human health and wellbeing side of the built environment. 

Both standards overlap closely in the arena of indoor air quality, ventilation, and filtration however, reflecting the importance of this aspect for a healthy indoor environment and minimizing a building’s environmental impact.

Indoor Air Quality Monitors as part of a healthy building plan

In many green building certification systems, constant monitoring of indoor air quality is a key strategy. Indoor air quality can range greatly throughout the day depending on factors such as outdoor air quality and interior pollution sources, which can all affect what the optimal ventilation rates should be to maintain healthy conditions.

RESET Air advocates for commercial grade air quality monitors connected to the cloud as a way to monitor and assess indoor air quality factors such as airborne particles, temperature, humidity and CO2. Constant monitoring provides a level of transparency and insight that can in turn help to reduce wasted energy costs, not just make for a healthy indoor environment.

See Kaiterra here https://www.kaiterra.com/en/index/

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation

Proper ventilation and HVAC filtration systems are important components of a healthy indoor air quality plan however due consideration should also be given to additional factors, such as healthy materials, outdoor air quality, green cleaning policies, entryway systems (walk-off mats) and pest management protocols.

If consistently delivered, suitable ventilation rates and healthy indoor air quality supports occupant wellbeing, promotes concentration and productivity, helps improve attention and memory, and can in reduce the possible spreading of viruses indoors. 

A cohesive, joined-up indoor environmental quality plan is required that may well involve some combination of healthy building consultants, architects, interior designers, mechanical engineers and facilities management. 

Sources:

Allen, Joseph. “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.” For Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, https://forhealth.org/9_Foundations_of_a_Healthy_Building.February_2017.pdf. 

“Upper-Room Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation/uvgi.html. 

Biomimicry and Biophilic Design: Biodesign Insights by Danielle Trofe - Wellness Design Consultants

the potential of mycelium as a healthy building material / examples of biophilic design that are truly sustainable / biomimicry as a leading light in the new field of sustainable design

Welcome to episode 43 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast, brought to you by Biofilico healthy buildings & interiors.

In this episode I’m chatting to Danielle Trofe, a biodesigner with her own studio in New York who also lectures in biomimicry for The Pratt Institute and Parsons New School. Danielle is a part of the green building movement herald, promoting sustainable and biophilic design.

Danielle’s MushLume collection of lampshades made from organically grown mushroom mycelium and hemp have featured in the seriously cool, eco-luxury 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge amongst other projects and she is a leading proponent of biofabrication - that is using naturally grown materials in product design.

Our conversation covers all of these ‘bio’ terms that may understandably be new for many of you, we also look into the full Life Cycle impact of a design product from production through to end of life, we discuss how biophilic design can when delivered poorly equate to a largely superficial greenwashing of the interior design process, and we introduce the topic of green chemistry, that is research and development around new bio-based materials that designers such s Danielle can then introduce into future product development.

Conversation highlights

• biophilic design allows us to connect to nature indoors, reminding us that we are still part of nature

• a label of ‘nature-inspired’ doesn’t necessarily mean a product is good for both people and planet, poorly delivered examples of biophilic design may in fact be harmful to the environment

• biomimicry as a movement is emerging as a rigorous framework for creating design that takes into consideration both our own health and that of the planet.

• I think a lot of the biodesign field is really about taking action, it’s not just the study of it but rather how we can actually start making goods that help restore balance back to our ecosystems.

https://danielletrofe.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielletrofe

https://twitter.com/DanielleTrofe

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FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI (excuse typos)

Matt Morley

Let’s begin with some terminology, specifically ‘biodesign’ and ‘biofabricated design’. How do you describe those two concepts to someone coming to this subject for the first time?

Danielle Trofe

In this past decade, or maybe even a little bit further, biodesign as a term has kind of come out in two different fields, one in the medical field and one in the design field. It’s serving a purpose as this catch all term that incorporates biomimicry, biofabricationbiophilic****design, to help those who don’t really know what each of those different facets really means. So that we can all kind of have the same conversation.

What is Biofabrication?

Biofabrication is what I do, it's about using a living organism to actually grow a product or design for you. So you're typically extracting something from nature or not, you can actually grow in a lab and and use that living organism to do the producing for you. In this case, I'm not not doing the manufacturing, the organism is actually doing that, for example mycelium - the roots of mushrooms - but also bacteria, algae or kombucha.

What is biophilic design?

I refer to Biophilic Design as the visual copying of nature and natural elements. We all have Biophilia, we all instinctively connect to nature in different ways, biophilic design is about tapping into that emotional state, that very native energy that we all have inside of us. Biophilic design has been shown to improve cognitive performance and provide health benefits. It allows us to connect to nature indoors, reminding us that we are still part of nature.

What is biomimicry?

Biomimicry goes a bit deeper by looking at Nature’s forms, processes and entire ecosystem, so it has these three different levels in other words. The aim is to draw out these principles to integrate them into human design to address any design or engineering challenge. Biomimicry involves understanding how nature overcomes similar challenges to the engineering challenge encountered. It leverages nature's evolutionary problem-solving to solve technological challenges.

Matt Morley

I think it’s very clear that you’ve mastered those concepts, it’s often so difficult to give a succinct description of concepts like biophilic design, yet you just managed to do it! Part of your work is in fact in education isn’t it? Besides being a designer you are also a teacher on biomimicry?

Danielle Trofe

Yes, correct. So I’ve been teaching biomimicry and biodesign at the Pratt Institute and the Parsons New School in Manhattan. I try to help orient students with an understanding of what this new field of nature inspired design is all about. That’s really what it is, it is a very new field, that is still unfolding, these terms are really being birthed at the moment, we continue experimenting with them.

Terminology can also vary from region to region. I know in the UK and in Germany, there are different terminologies for biomimicry for example. Everyone involved in this field is collectively trying to come up with a language to be able to talk about these particular topics such as biophilic design.

Matt Morley

There is so much discussion now around healthy buildings, healthy materials and wellness interior design on one side, with concerns over the sustainability of our buildings and interiors, the impact of our built environment on the planet, on the other. It looks to me like biodesign bridges those two worlds of wellness interiors and sustainable buildings.

It is not contributing waste, nor damaging the environment, and at the same time biodesign products are non-toxic, so these bio materials are inherently healthy and help contribute to an Indoor Environmental Quality plan.

Danielle Trofe

Yes… but with the caveat that it is done correctly! So let’s talk about that. Yeah, there is poorly delivered biomimicry, biofabrication or indeed biophilic design, right? You could create something that looks exactly like a tree. But if you’re using materials that can’t be recycled, that take tremendous amount of energy to create or that are mined unsustainably, you’re not really completing the holistic viewpoint of what biomimicry is, or hopefully in the larger sense, bio design.

My point is that just because it can fall under that label of nature-inspired, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a product is good for both people and the planet. The issue is that there’s nobody really there to judge what is or isn’t a high standard of biophilic design, for example.

So we’re kind of evolving together to be able to evaluate our own designs. Even if you are taking inspiration from nature, do you have the understanding and the tool set to be able to authentically factor in a products complete life cycle assessment, including where it’s coming from, how it’s affecting humans / nature during its use phase and the end of life disposal?

Whether that’s biophilic design, bio design, biofabrication or biomimicry, one thing that really stands out when you work in these fields is that there’s a greater framework for ensuring that a design meets all those needs throughout the process, from inception to production and end of life. This framework ensures that the number one thing and biomimicry is life can do, life creates conditions conducive to life.

That’s where I feel biomimicry as a movement is emerging as a more rigorous framework for creating design that really does take into consideration our health and the health of the planet.

Matt Morley

You’re practicing what you preach as you apply those same theories in your own products. And so that, in a sense leads us into the MushLume Biofabricated Lamps discussion. Why don’t we talk a little bit about how you have created a case study in a way of how to implement these ideas in a product-led business.

Biofabricated lamps

Danielle Trofe

Sure. Yeah, so about eight years ago, I started working with this amazing material that was coming out of upstate New York that was created by Ecovative - a mushroom mycelium material. And so for anyone who doesn't know what Mycelium is, it is the roots of a mushroom.

So just like an apple is the fruit of a tree. Mushroom is the fruiting body of this network of mycelia that live beneath the forest floor. And nature is the big recycler you know, it decomposes all dying and decaying matter in a forest or in an ecosystem. It connects all plants and an ecosystem actually is nature's communicator, it shares information, can warn other plants of impending danger, distributes water within a forest, shares nutrients underground… It really is this incredible organism that is one of the largest terrestrial organisms on the planet. There's one network that's known to be a couple 1000 years old in Oregon and stretches several football fields long.

Mycelium and hemp as healthy materials with positive health benefits

We take this mycelium and instead of extracting it out of nature, like we often do for most of our goods, we are we are inoculating it in a lab and reproducing it, then once it is in a liquid form we combine it with hemp and let nature do what it does best - grow! For that we put it in an environment that it wants to grow in, allowing the mycelium to bind to the hemp over a course of just a few days. You will see this white matte structure that actually solidifies all of the hemp.

The hemp is just used as support material for it to grow into, and also food as well. So cellulose, it wants to digest the cellulose. To give an understanding of the application of a lampshade, we create these forms, we pack them with the substrate that's already been inoculated. And then we just leave them to grow, we're not even adding additional water or energy into the production process!

Our largest lampshade, which is a 24 inch diameter dome takes about a week to grow. And if you think about this timeframe, to be able to use wood, you know, you're looking at anywhere from 25 to 100 years of a tree growing out in nature, and then you're harvesting this and you're putting all this energy into being able to process the material to use it.

We isolate mycelium in a lab, transport it a very short distance, and then let it grow in the course of just a few weeks. So you can already start to see the life cycle impact there.

The other most important part which is something that we're not as familiar with, but we're starting to understand its value now, is at the end of its life, the mycelium product is just going to decompose!

Biodegradable at end of life

Traditionally, in the last couple, maybe last 100 years, we've really wanted things to last. We want things to last as long as possible, we want them to be super durable. But we're starting to find out and especially since the invention of plastics that these might not be the best concepts. And rather than using materials that we're not quite sure how they're going to break down to an elemental form and affect our own bodies. We know exactly what's in these lampshades and they are going to actually add nutrients back into the soil rather than pollutants. So that's a completely different concept to a lot of our traditional goods.

And often people are like, Well, is it gonna break down in my living room but it's actually a very inert material. We do bake it at the end of its growth cycle, that's mainly to damage the cells enough so it won't continue to grow in your living room. It won't spore, it won't shoot off mushrooms. It's a completely stable, inert material in your living room. There's nothing that's going to break it down.

What's more the lampshades have this incredible soft feel, almost like a lamb's ear. So it's something that you actually want to touch. And there's not many lamps out there that inspire you to interact with it. And of course, that makes it a conversation piece, being able to talk with your guests at the dining room table about the light fixture that's overhead.

Matt Morley

You are rightly pointing out how long a lampshade really needs to be with us, where's that sweet spot between durability and being biodegradable. I wondered whether the lampshade had anything inherently suited to this particular medium. Could you have done any other number of things but you randomly selected the lampshade? Have you got an entire collection of products in your mind eventually?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, so that's an excellent question. Part of the story is that Ecovative at the time was working mainly in packaging. So using the material to displace Styrofoam, which is a fantastic use for it.

We reached out to them, ordered samples and we wanted to start working with the idea of using it for a lampshade and it was kind of a crazy idea at that level eight years ago, and it ended up being one of the best use cases for it because of the material's properties. So to give everyone a better idea - when fully grown, it's very lightweight, it almost has the density of Styrofoam, but has a much softer exterior coat, which is actually the mycelium.

We can actually tune the material and kind of play with a little bit with its coloring. So yeah, we do have some that are not completely white. And that's the other thing about them. Once it's grown, the Mycelium is white, naturally. And that's how we leave them. So there's not any paint that's added to them. That's just the natural form that the mycelium takes.

Mycelium as an alternative to plastic packaging

It's great for packaging for single use packaging but it has limitations in terms of you a product like a chair or stool that is going to get bumped around, rubbed, scratched or knocked over. But for an object that's hanging above you suspended from the ceiling or perhaps a table lamp that's not always being touched, then that's a perfect case for using mycelium.

There were a number of years of us getting over shipping issues, modifying the form so that when they ship they don't crack or break, and they can be installed easily by the end consumer too. So there were huge learning curves of bringing this biotechnology to a place where you could commercialize a product.

I used to grow everything in Brooklyn, New York, I had a studio space here, and I would grow each one by hand. And just over this past year, year and a half, we move production to a company out in California who now grows all the lampshades for the studio. So we're able to finally expand past my own capabilities.

Biofabricated materials as a future trend

You're really seeing not just the general public, but the industry start to buy into Biodesign. Early on when we started to work with this material, nobody really knew what mycelium was, it was kind of a new term but the conversation has really shifted in the last five years so people know what Mycelium is.

There's all these startups around the world now working with mycelium whereas when I first started, there was maybe a handful around the world. We're talking single digits. So it's really been larger than just one studio or just a few companies. It's now so many young startups, working around biomaterials because they see the value in creating new products that are not going to necessarily pollute the planet or provide a negative impact.

Algae as a healthy material in design

Matt Morley

The other big player then, that I think deserves a mention in our conversation is algae - another biomaterial often mentioned in the same breath along with mycelium. Are you working with algae based materials too?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, just when I started working with it, and it was for a completely different project, I ended up closing the studio to shift focus a little bit but we do work with it, for example an algae-based pigment to color the lampshades. We're collaborating with artists and designers to paint on our lampshades using algae ink. A start-up in Colorado has developed a new ink pigment derived from algae, which is fantastic.

There's also the Biodesign Challenge, which is a nonprofit organization that has a worldwide competition for young students to be able to create Biodesign applications and then have them be judged by professionals within the field. And there's been so many startups that have come from just these kinds of competitions, and you're really starting to see this field being driven by people that are under 30.

I really I do believe it's the generation underneath mine that is really going to power everything in terms of sustainability because they've inherited something that generations before did not - there has to be action. So I think a lot of the biodesign field is really about taking action, it's not just the study of it but rather how are we can actually start making goods that help restore balance back to our ecosystems.

Matt Morley

You collaborated with the 1 Hotel brand - they arguably reinvented what ‘eco luxury' could mean in hospitality. Can you talk to us about that project to help them create an example of biophilic design in one of their suites using your mycelium lampshades?

Biophilic design with natural elements in hotels

Danielle Trofe

Yeah it was fantastic. Working with 1 Hotel, that really was the project that elevated our lampshades to the next level, we did around 130 lampshades in this huge cloud in the presidential suite at the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. Biophilic design in hotels can support positive health benefits for guests.

Just working with 1 Hotel as a partner, it was really fantastic. We share the same values and be able to create different kinds of opportunities where the public can participate. So for instance, we had an exhibit where people could come in and see the lampshades being grown for the hotel. One of the things I realized is to hear the conversation that we’re having now, it’s really difficult to not physically see and feel the material, or watch the growing process. Demystifying that experience was really valuable.

The images that we got from that project really captured the possibilities of what our MushLume lampshades could do and have inspired a few other hotel installations since then too. We have grown from that as well I think, those images really did solidify that this is not just a case study. This is not just a single project but a commercialized product - that differentiation was huge. From there, we could move beyond this small niche to compete against big lighting brands, while also supporting positive health benefits through biophilic design in hotel suites.

Vertical gardens

Matt Morley

You've also got a vertical garden product that looks to be essentially a sort of an upright, vertically oriented planter for multiple plants. I'm wondering if you've got more things in the pipeline. Where do you go from here?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, so the vertical garden was actually originally a hydroponic vertical garden. So that was the first product I ever created. And we launched that back in 2012. And it really kind of grew into a couple of installations with BMW.

The vertical garden now exists in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. So if you go to their Visitor Center, you can see it there. And it's something that hasn't completely come to full realization, mainly because I started getting into the lighting and that kind of took off. But it's something I do want to bring back and one of the main reasons this was lagging is because at the time there weren't the tools to be able to create those planter pods. They look kind of look like Alien eggs, if you will.

So we created them out of thermoformed plastic which went against everything that I as a designer and as a studio believed in. So we've kind of been in this holding pattern to get to the right material and the right process to be able to recreate this. And that's actually being done right now, with much more sustainable materials.

For example we're looking at upcycling food waste into ceramic planter pods. So that's definitely something that's happening in the future. We hope to actually come out with a full product and not just an installation.

As for future, it's a good question. I recently became a mom. So a lot of things have really shifted. You know, even a fetus can contain over 100 Different manmade chemicals at that stage yet it's extremely difficult to find healthy materials or healthy interior products aimed at babies. That's the next thing I want to get into - green chemistry, and being able to actually bring products that are not toxic to our environments.

Green chemistry to develop new natural materials

Matt Morley

So the green chemistry thing for those who perhaps not clued up on it, that’s really where the nature-inspired R&D is taking place that then facilitates people such as yourself as a designer, to create the bio products you envision, that then are sold to bio-friendly businesses like 1 Hotels with their biophilic design in the bedrooms. Green chemistry is a crucial part of sustainable design, focusing on creating products that are environmentally friendly and efficient. It can help create products that mimic natural forms and patterns.

If you haven’t got the green chemistry, providing you with what you need - the tools and materials to create the products - then the products can’t materialize yet. These products can enhance human well-being and connection with the natural world.

Equally, if there isn’t also the consumer demand, the end market there to make it all into a viable business proposition, then the products either don’t materialize or remain prototypes and concept designs. So we have this delicate dance required to push the industry forward…

Danielle Trofe

Exactly - what you’re doing with the Green & Healthy Places podcast is also helping these fields to advance, by communicating these ideas to a wider public. We need to popularize the basics of what Biodesign is about, biomimicry, biophilia, all of the ‘bio whats’ to our industry and beyond, to consumers because ultimately consumers are driving the demand for these bio materials and bio products as well.

Clients are asking for things that are more sustainable. And they’re also starting to ask the questions. Well, where does this come from? How was it made? Hopefully ‘where does it end up?’ will be the next question that they’re going to ask…!

https://danielletrofe.com/

Danielle’s products are available in Europe through https://www.grown.bio/