Sustainability, Health and Productivity to Accelerate a Quality Built Environment

Professional practices are “tooling up” around the world to deliver high performance and environmentally responsible buildings, infrastructures and communities in response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the growing demand for sustainable design. However, investments in “green,” high performance building solutions and technologies are still limited by first cost decision-making, and lifecycle tools are still largely inaccessible to professionals. This course explores the relationship of quality buildings, building systems, infrastructures and land-use to productivity, health, well-being and a sustainable environment.

The course begins with a series of lectures on high performance enclosure, mechanical, lighting, interior and networked building design decisions and extends to sustainable communities and infrastructures. The course engages students in the research literature that relates these building design decisions to multiple cost/performance impacts, including energy, carbon, facilities management, organizational change, technological change, attraction/retention (quality of life), individual productivity, organizational productivity, salvage and waste (the circular economy), tax and insurance, and, critically, to environmental and human health.