Clarifications

HUMAN NATURE INTERACTIONS

Research studies show that a connection to nature has a direct effect on people’s productivity, their creativity, and their ability to counter stress. This imperative requires that the project provide sufficient and frequent nature interactions in both the interior and exterior of the project to connect the majority of the occupants to nature directly.

Human nature interactions must occur inside the building and outside the building. They can also occur by connecting the inside and the outside. The interactions must be direct, meaning that the connection cannot be through a video or image of nature. While imagery of nature can have a positive benefit to occupants, this Imperative requires that the interaction be with nature directly.

Project teams can consider all forms of nature including but not limited to plants, animals, earth, water, wind, sunlight, moonlight, and stars. Both interior and exterior landscaping can be part of the overall strategy to meet this Imperative. It is important to be explicit and intentional about the strategies used to meet this Imperative. While strategies used to meet other Imperatives may help meet the requirements of this Imperative, they alone will not be enough. For example, inclusion of windows to meet requirements of Imperative 10, Healthy Interior Performance would only help meet the requirements of this Imperative if they provided views to natural elements; and inclusion of raised garden beds to meet the requirements of Imperative 02, Urban Agriculture would only help meet the requirements of this Imperative if these beds were integrated into the spaces that occupants routinely pass through and occupy in their daily routines.

*“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.”
Andy Goldsworthy, British Sculptor and Land Artist

MAJORITY OF OCCUPANTS

A majority of occupants must benefit from sufficient and frequent human nature interactions. For the purposes of this Imperative, a majority means 75% of the regular occupants. All occupants regardless of status or role must have some human nature interactions during the course of their time within the project boundary. However, only 75% must experience human nature interactions that meet the quality and frequency required in this Imperative.

In order to document the number of regular occupants with sufficient human nature interactions, project teams should first describe and document the types and frequency of human nature interactions for each representative occupant group, as described in the Sufficient and Frequent Clarification. Once this documentation is complete, the number of regular occupants with sufficient and frequent human nature interactions should be quantified to determine that 75% of all regular occupants experience sufficient and frequent human nature interactions.

SUFFICIENT AND FREQUENT

Project teams should review research studies, case studies, and other sources of quantitative and qualitative information to determine what level and kind of human nature interaction is appropriate for the project type and context in order to provide health, wellness, and productivity benefits. What defines “sufficient and frequent” will vary depending on project type, context, and other factors. For example, a school in a natural setting may be able to achieve sufficient and frequent nature interactions by providing adequate class and recess time outdoors during the day to interact with the natural surroundings and by providing robust views to the outdoors from interior occupied spaces. An office tower in a dense urban setting could not rely on access to the outdoors and views to the outdoors to provide sufficient and frequent human interactions. Instead, the project team would need to create ways to bring nature and natural cycles inside or into any outdoor spaces included within the project boundary. An interior atrium or greenhouse with plants, a green wall, or interior water features could all be possible strategies to consider.

Project teams will need to describe and document the types and frequency of human nature interactions for all occupants as they move throughout their day, with the requirement that these interactions be sufficient and frequent enough to provide tangible health and happiness benefits. To communicate and quantify occupants’ human nature interactions, project teams should consider developing plans or diagrams showing representative occupants, where they move throughout the day, and at what points they have human nature interactions. For instance, a plan showing all interior and exterior opportunities for human-nature interaction might be overlaid with a typical day for each representative occupant type. For a school, that might be a plan showing the playground, a learning garden, interior plantings or green walls, view opportunities and any other human nature interactions, overlaid with a furniture plan showing where regular occupants including students, teachers, administrators, support staff, and maintenance staff work and move throughout the day, along with approximate time spent at each location.

POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION (POE)

The required post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is a two-part evaluation consisting of:

1. A survey of regular occupants, measuring the project team’s success in creating a space that is considered healthy and connected to nature by those who occupy it. Questions to occupants should include but not be limited to effects of daylight, fresh air, and access to nature, views, flexible work stations, control of airflow and temperature, other IAQ strategies, biophilic design, beauty, green cleaning, and healthy materials. The survey should attempt to reach all regular occupant groups in the building, and at a minimum, respondents must include a representative sampling of at least sixty percent of regular project occupants. Visitors or transient populations, for example those at museums or hotels, may be surveyed at 20 percent of occupants.
2. A measure of the quantifiable benefits of the strategies used to meet this Imperative and other Imperatives that have health, wellness, and productivity benefits. For commercial projects, this part of the evaluation would most likely be executed by the Human Resources, Leadership, or Management teams, and would include baseline (pre-LBC location metrics, as applicable) and post-LBC project occupancy analyses of health, wellness, and productivity indicators such as performance, sick days, employee retention, etc.
   

The two parts of the POE can be customized and as lengthy or brief as desired by the project team, and may be part of a larger survey addressing other issues, but must cover the content cited under bullets 1 and 2 above. The POE may be administered online or in person, and may be anonymous.

*“Research suggests that exposure to the natural world—including nearby nature in cities—helps improve human health, well-being, and intellectual capacity in ways that science is only recently beginning to understand.”
Richard Louv, richardlouv.com/blog