Lessons Learned from the Pandemic: Celebrate the Development of Vaccines, but Remain Focused on Healthier Workspaces and Buildings Going Forward.

By Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and Middle East, Green Business Certificate Institute (GBCI).

We all know that the COVID-19 global health pandemic has changed the world in previously unimaginable ways. Globally, over 1.6 million precious lives have been lost to the virus. In India, over 144,000 people have died, behind only the United States and Brazil in terms of lives lost. These are sobering numbers, even as we now see an uptick in new cases around the globe.

Amid the promising and celebratory news of the development and availability of vaccines, we must all remember one of biggest lessons that COVID-19 taught the world: buildings - as they are designed and constructed, operated and maintained - play a significant role in the health and well-being of not only their occupants but of the people and communities around them. This includes our commercial office buildings, residential buildings of all sizes, entertainment venues, schools and public buildings.

Buildings can either help to mitigate the spread of viruses or manifest the environment in which viruses and other public health hazards can easily spread.  All of the public health data increasingly points to this, as we have learned a great deal about how COVID-19 and other similar viruses spread over the course of the past year.

The successful development of a vaccine for COVID-19 does not mean that we shelve the lessons learned from the coronavirus and go back to business as usual in how we value and treat the spaces and places around us. Why? Because not everyone can or will receive the vaccine, vaccines are only one part of a comprehensive anti-health pandemic response, and there will undoubtedly be other challenges that we face like this in our lifetimes. We cannot allow to have history repeat itself. That would not only be an affront to the lives of those we lost, but to future generations who are counting on us to learn the lessons of this pandemic and to apply them in order to safeguard our future. The time to act is now.

Public health data has shown that buildings are safer to occupy when building mechanical systems (especially HVAC systems) promote good ventilation, air scrubbing and purification and enhanced outside air exchange. While significant upgrades to aging existing buildings have been delayed for decades due to the cost of the investment, COVID-19 has shown us that cost of ignoring these needed upgrades - human lives lost, shuttered economies and schools and overburdened healthcare delivery platforms - are far greater. And COVID-19 has also shown us that, like with climate change, our most vulnerable communities that face the greatest risk. We must act now to build a permanent and resilient trust between the spaces we occupy and the people in and around them. And that trust needs to be built upon the foundation of sustainability, health and wellness, resiliency and equity.

Healthy people in healthy places equals a healthy economy. A permanent emphasis on addressing the health and wellness inequities and inefficiencies in buildings and structures across the globe and across India must be a part of any COVID-19 recovery plan. In the year ahead, we must put in place a framework of trusted strategies and platforms that will pave the way for resilient buildings, communities, cities, states and countries all over the world.

That means working with national, state and municipal governments across the globe to ensure that they are leveraging critical funding to building upgrades for our aging buildings, providing safe affordable housing for all and renewing our dedication to sustainability. It means partnering with these same governments to help them implement the LEED Safety First Pandemic Planning Pilot credit which helps cities and communities prepare for, control and mitigate the spread of disease during a pandemic. It means working with commercial office building and public use building owners to establish safety protocols, such as our LEED Safety First Pilot Credit which offers a trusted tool to assess and plan for re-entry, as well as to measure progress once the space is occupied. It means partnering with these same stakeholders to implement Arc Re-Entry which allows facility managers to evaluate the relationship between expectations for policies and procedures and the real-world experience of occupants. This creates transparency and supports a safe, confident workplace and building re-entry. And it means continuing to innovate and update the most trusted global platform focused on sustainability, health and wellness, resiliency and equity: the LEED green building rating system.

GBCI believes that better buildings equal better lives and that our best and most promising days are ahead. Our work in the years ahead will ensure a brighter, healthier, and more equitable and sustainable future for all.

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