Conference ideas - Design for People

Meredith Elbaum

Executive Director

Built Environment Plus

LEEDuser Basic Member

9 thumbs up

July 1, 2019

Hi All,

We’re planning a conference here in Boston, October 23rd & 24th, focused on Designing for People. We’re rounding out our speaker lineup and I thought I’d reach out to you all for ideas. If you had an all-star list of people speaking on Health and Wellness in the Built Environment who would be on that list? Send me 3 names directly and we’ll see what we can do. Don’t be shy to include yourself. I haven’t seen your 5-minute presentations lately.

Thanks in advance, Meredith

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Mike Fowler

Sustainability Integration Leader, Associate Principal

MITHUN

LEEDuser Basic Member

1 thumbs up

Tue, 07/09/2019 - 17:09

Hi Meredith, You mentioned sending names to you directly but I also with this reply want to share with the group these two interesting short articles on SVOC's (Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds). Bill Walsh from the Healthy Building Network was a speaker on this topic in June at the North American Passive House Network conference in New York, might be a good candidate for your event in October.
https://healthybuilding.net/blog/509-the-next-challenge-in-indoor-air-quality-svocs https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/jargon-watch-svocs-next-challenge-indoor-air-quality.html?mc_cid=bd967087f4&mc_eid=bb4b6d0524 Concluding sentence in the second link: VOCs are problematic, but at least they can be ventilated away and the ones in building products go away over time. SVOCs are another story; they are bio accumulative and build up in our bodies over time. We should be taking them a lot more seriously. HomeFree from the Healthy Building Network is noted as a resource. https://homefree.healthybuilding.net/products While on their product page, check out their recommendation on paints: It's not just about VOC's, specify APE-free paint too. Are others starting or taking steps to address SVOC's in project work? Thanks,
Mike