(D06) Benchmarking for Health Within Multifamily Residential Assets

Over the past century, public health research has outlined the connections between the built environment and health outcomes of occupants. These connections have become more important than ever considering the intensified focus on occupant well-being throughout the real estate sector. In light of COVID-19, with homes serving a growing number of purposes, the importance of health-promoting design and operations became especially important within the multifamily residential sector.

Multifamily residential building owners are being met with rising demand, from both investors and occupants, to provide data showing not only how their assets impact human health but also how existing health-promotion interventions affect their bottom line. Given this expanding interest, use of health certification systems has increased significantly in recent years, and as a result, more data on the impact of the strategies found within these certification systems is emerging. How do people respond to the strategies identified in public health research and implemented in their facilities? Is there a clear, measurable outcome for human health? Health benchmarking is a valuable tool to connect this important data to building occupants. This session focuses on the role benchmarking plays in connecting health-promoting interventions within the built environment to distinct and measurable outcomes, and new data demonstrating these connections within the multifamily residential sector.

During this session, Joanna Frank, President & CEO of the Center for Active Design will moderate a conversation between Jamie Gray-Donald, Senior Vice President, Sustainability & EHS at QuadReal, Sara Neff, Head of Sustainability with LendLease Americas, and Pete Zadoretzky, Senior Director of ESG with LivCor. The conversation will center on the importance of evaluating real estate portfolios through health benchmarking to provide data that increase property values, showing that focusing on health positively impacts occupants, building owners, and investors.