An interview with Gail Vittori, Co-Director

RP

What is your organization’s most notable accomplishment to date in the field of toxics reduction?

CMPBS

The Green Guide for Health Care™, of which CMPBS was Convener, and LEED for Healthcare. As the first health-based green building toolkit and self-certifying green building rating system, the Green Guide for Health Care established a framework, awareness and vocabulary to introduce an expanded portfolio of toxics-related credits into the LEED rating system, and to initiate first steps to bring this work to scale in the healthcare and other building sectors.

This work included advocacy to include the precautionary principle within the U.S. Green Building Council’s Guiding Principles, and building awareness among USGBC’s staff, board of directors, and volunteer committee members of the importance of the precautionary principle as an underpinning of organizational decision-making. The precautionary principle is defined by the 1998 Wingspread Statement as “when an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.”

One of the contributors to success was having clarity about who needed to be involved from what organizations to ensure complementary perspectives and skills. We leveraged a small amount of seed money provided by philanthropic foundations through a substantial volunteer effort and a single, highly effective staffperson. We stayed on track throughout the process and kept the goals and objectives of our ambitious agenda high. And, we had a clear focus which was to produce the first quantifiable sustainable design toolkit customized for the design, construction and operation of hospitals, aligned with the health care sector’s mission to ‘first do no harm,’ integrating health-based metrics into a green building rating system.

RP

What was the plan you followed to achieve this accomplishment?

CMPBS

Our intention was to create health-informed market signals to avoid chemicals of concern, building on the healthcare sector’s early leadership. We recognized the leverage that could result from integrating these strategies into the LEED rating system, given its proven effectiveness to catalyze market transformation in the U.S. and globally. By embedding health-based considerations into material procurement decisions via LEED, we hoped to provide a strong market signal to incentivize manufacturers’ shift to healthier materials at scale.

Our goal from the onset was to develop a roadmap to guide the design, construction, and operation of high performing healing environments that uphold the relationship between human health and built environment. We recognized that the healthcare sector was perfectly positioned to be a leader in identifying the consequential influence of the built environment on human health given their mission on health and healing — unique among building types – and their creation of places where people go to get well.

Our strategy was to create awareness about buildings generally and, specifically, building materials, and their consequence to human health at three scales: protecting the immediate health of building occupants; protecting the health of the surrounding community; and protecting the health of the global community and natural resources. The healthcare sector became the big opportunity to play these issues out and to then expand to other building types.

RP

What would you like your organization to be known for?

CMPBS

Establishing a bridge between environmental health advocates and the green building community, and positioning beneficial health outcomes as central to green building. This, and creating an enduring recognition of the consequential influence that the built environment has on human health.

Increasingly, we’d like to advance the principle of always asking the question of whether decisions we make about buildings – and, particularly, the materials we build with – contribute to or compromise human health. It’s actually a straightforward question to put on the table and prompts the sort of dialogue that will lead to more informed decisions.  We also are supportive of efforts like the Health Product Declaration Collaborative that position transparency, reporting, and disclosure as necessary underpinnings of informed decisions.

RP

What outlets are you using to communicate your mission to the public?

CMPBS

We write articles, books, and peer communications. We also speak at public presentations and conferences.

RP

What are the most important actions you’ve taken within your organization to support your mission? Within your portfolio of strategic actions, which ones are getting the most traction?

CMPBS

We recognized that through the multi-organizational collaboration that emerged through the Green Guide for Health Care, including the partnership with Health Care Without Harm, it was possible to influence the key design and materials decisions that define the massive health care sector’s approach to the design, construction, and operations through a combination of policy initiatives, such as Green Guide for Health Care™ and LEED for Healthcare with a focus on positively influencing human health outcomes. We also have taken on more micro efforts, including direct consulting roles on healthcare projects that emerged as visible examples of what is possible on the global stage. We participate in conference presentations and media including magazine articles and interviews. I co-authored with Robin Guenther the book, Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, with second edition released in 2013.

RP

How has the Green Guide for Health Care™ influenced other organizational initiatives or goals?

CMPBS

The Green Guide for Health Care™ was a groundbreaking best practices toolkit that informed the development of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® for Healthcare. The Guide provided the healthcare industry with tools to guide hospitals and other healthcare facilities towards healthier and more sustainable materials and design strategies.

The Green Guide for Health Care™ influenced LEED and, more broadly, the health care sector globally. In addition, this initiative contributed to the work of organizations Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth by expanding their sphere of influence to include design, construction and operation of buildings.

The work on the Green Guide for Health Care™ cemented the recognition that it is possible to fundamentally shape the built environment to promote health–and that, by and large, the design/construction industries, building owners, and managers have been unaware of their influence on human health. Since the initial work of the Green Guide for Health Care™ in the early 2000s, health and wellness has emerged as a more specific definer of ‘good design’–so it is easier now to bring that perspective to the decision makers’ table.

We view our practice at CMPBS as bringing that pivotal intervention as an explicit part of the decision making process. The Green Guide for Health Care™ was a focused effort to raise the bar on opportunities to insert and deliver positive health outcomes as defining attribute of a project’s success.

RP

What advice would you give other nonprofit organizations based on the lessons you’ve learned through your work?

CMPBS

Be conscious of evolving contexts and trends in the sector in which you’re working. Find and work toward common goals and objectives to support toxics reduction and cast the net wide to engage organizations and individuals with varying perspectives, with a goal to align around shared principles.