Can businesses make a profit while saving the planet?

Rick Fedrizzi
Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council

September 29, 2016—As cofounder of the organization that created the LEED green building rating system, Rick Fedrizzi spends a lot of time working to help business people and environmental activists see themselves as allies. Speaking at the kickoff lecture of a series marking the 20th anniversary of the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Fedrizzi told an audience of business leaders, environmentalists, and others how common goals such as reducing waste and inefficiency are good for the economy and the environment—and public health.

CHGE was founded in 1996 to study and promote a wider understanding of the human health consequences of global environmental change. Fedrizzi, a CHGE board member, is CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). He spoke at the Harvard Club of Boston on September 22.

In her opening remarks at the lecture, Dean Michelle Williams said, “Climate change and sustainability will continue to be a focus at the School because it is central” to public health. It touches work across the School from health promotion to disease prevention, she said. As part of that commitment, the School is launching a new Sustainability, Health, and the Global Environment track next academic year for the MPH degree.

“Health and sustainability are synonymous,” Fedrizzi said, noting that saving the planet is not just about saving a rock in outer space—it’s about people.

Fedrizzi encourages business leaders to see sustainability as an opportunity to make money, and environmentalists to see private-sector forces as an opportunity to make change. One way to make both camps happy is through better buildings.

Real estate is one of the largest sectors of the global economy—and one of the largest drains on the environment through energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use, Fedrizzi said. He co-founded the USGBC in 1993, and brought together leaders from environmental groups, businesses, government, and trade groups to develop the LEED standards, which cover design and construction, and maintenance and operation of buildings. There are now 15 billion square feet of LEED real estate in 165 countries, Fedrizzi said. There are more than 100 LEED-certified buildings at Harvard, more than at any other university in the world.

Fedrizzi is now working to learn more about how buildings affect the health of the people who use them. People in LEED-certified offices, schools, and hospitals have described fewer employee absences, less asthma inhaler use among kids, and better patient outcomes, he said.

A study led by Joe Allen, director of the Center’s Healthy Buildings Program and an assistant professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard Chan School, recently found that green buildings could help office workers’ cognitive abilities. In a simulated office environment, study subjects in a well-ventilated space with below-average levels of indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide had significantly higher cognitive functioning scores—in crucial areas such as responding to a crisis or developing strategy—than those working in a typical office environment.

Amy Roeder

Photo: Sarah Sholes