How did you get involved with Six Senses?
I met Anna Bjurstam and Neil Jacobs when they visited us at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment almost three years ago now. Most recently, I have been working with Six Senses as they adopt our nine foundations of a healthy building as a strategy for optimizing their buildings for health.
What can we learn from the nine foundations of a healthy building?
Ventilation is one. We know the outdoor air we bring into a space isn’t clean, and it will have a big impact on you in terms of cognitive function. Lighting has an acute effect on our circadian rhythms. That’s critical to our memory and basic cognitive processes. Water quality: Is your water free of heavy metals like lead and arsenic and other organic compounds and biological compound like Legionella? [Air quality, thermal health, moisture, dust and pets, safety and security, and noise round out the foundations.]
How do pollutants have an impact on our health?
A whole host of them have longterm implications, but there are many that are acute. They influence health immediately. You want a place that’s healthy and that’s reinvigorating. The overall awareness of this is growing. I travel frequently, and I think about it from where I’m spending my time to the taxi or bus I take to the airport and where I choose to stay.
How are you implementing these ideas into practice?
We’re partnering with big companies and figuring out what the strategies are. Anybody who has resistance is on the cost side, but healthy buildings don’t need to be expensive. We go above and beyond code minimums, which are not all health based and shouldn’t be the target. It’s not complicated to provide a healthy space.
Is there a heightened awareness on built environments and their health effects?
The green building conversation of the past 20 years is changing. We’re talking about indoor air quality, and it’s advancing beyond that. There’s a proliferation of cheaper [monitors and apps] on the market where employees can measure carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds, and they’re talking about it, which is raising the awareness about what this means. It’s all part of a health-first mindset.
