Covid, baby

Working in the sustainability field has been turned on its head during the Coronavirus pandemic.

I went on a short hiatus to become a Mom (Elliott was born in March of 2020 only a few days before lockdown in NJ), and when I resurfaced, our approach needed to be different, here are some examples:

Typically, the balance between ample fresh air within a building and energy use would result in driving the building toward lower energy use. Now, the ability to increase the outdoor air is desirable and is carrying more importance as a design consideration.

We almost always pursued green cleaning operations and maintenance plans with our projects, however the Green Seal certified (or other healthy for people) cleaning products do not disinfect to the level desired for Covid- forcing teams to decide between abandoning their healthy cleaning policies and safety.

Everything is packaged and sealed, and wrapped again. Cafes stopped allowing refillable coffee cups, towns that had plastic bag bans needed to back down. Even now, coming on 2 years later- as we know more about the way the virus spreads- many have not returned to the more sustainable route out of convenience.

Health and Safety may be political in the world of Internet- but it has never been a more important discussion in our real estate. One thing that we lost in this pandemic is trust- the ability to trust our peers and neighbors are taking actions to protect the community (vaccinations, masking, social distancing, staying home if sick) and the innate trust that our buildings can keep us safe. 

Covid exposed a gap in how our buildings should be operated and maintained, and how they are- with poorly maintained buildings recirculating contaminated air and making people more than just unproductive, but deathly ill. Developers and building managers agree with scientists on the way to improve, but still the people won't return.

Some of that is the improved work/life balance we've found since being quarantined, and the productiveness discovered in working from home, at least some days. But primarily, more people became aware that we cannot take for granted our spaces are healthy, and we need to ask more questions, and demand our employers do the same.