DRAFT STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES The built environment has profound effects on human health and on and the world around us. At their best our buildings and communities are powerful promoters of health and well-being. At their worst, they contribute to some of the key public health concerns of modern society, from asthma to cancer to obesity. The opportunities stretch from the local to the global. Our built environment can protect the health and promote the well-being of: • Inhabitants of our homes, schools, and places of work, worship, healing, and recreation. • Workers who build, operate, maintain, and renovate these places and who manufacture and dispose of their materials. • Neighborhoods in which our buildings and infrastructure are located. • Fence-line Communities along our material supply and disposal chain. • The Global Community affected by the global reach of emissions from our activities and the production, use, and disposal of building materials. • Future generations who will face the consequences of our decisions. To help guide our work going forward, we are proposing a set of key principles, the intent of which is to provide a kind of North Star for the work of the multitude of stakeholders who are needed at the table to build this movement. They are as follows: 1.
Affirm that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The built environment has a fundamental role in the achievement of health and there is a strong need for rigorous triple bottom line analysis as part of every decision made about the design, construction and operation of our buildings and communities.
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Underpin all our work on the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle states that if a threat of serious or irreversible damage to the environment or human health exists, a lack of full scientific knowledge should not be allowed to delay containment or remedial steps if the balance of potential costs and benefits justifies enacting them. This public health approach is a relevant response to environmental and public health hazards, and an appropriate basis for decisions regarding the methods and materials that define our built environment.
3. Strive for transparency in all we do. Decisions about the built environment need to be made with access to as much information as possible supported by design tools that make transparency possible. 4.
Implement an inclusive planning process. Build a community-wide planning process that engages a broadly diverse spectrum of people and organizations with the expertise and knowledge to advance our common cause, with special attention to include people whose have not traditionally been at the table.
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