The Climate is Changing…How IWBI is Taking Action on Climate

Climate change is the single greatest threat to public health in the 21st century. It already impacts all facets of our lives from more extreme weather, wildfires and disasters to rising sea levels, increased air pollution and the likelihood of more disease. This week, international leaders from business, government and civil society gather in New York City for the 14th annual Climate Week, to showcase progress and raise awareness of global climate action that still needs to take place.

At the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), we know that human health and planetary health are inextricably linked. We know that strategies that address climate health impact human health, too. With a mission to promote people-first places and organizations, we’ve spent 2022 engaged in advocacy to drive positive change for people and the planet.

Just last month, U.S. President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes a historic $369 billion investment to combat climate change. Praised by climate advocates as historic climate legislation, the bill aims to set the country on the path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. The new law represents the most aggressive action in our nation’s history to combat the climate crisis and improve American energy security, all while maintaining the power to rewrite America’s climate future and create massive new opportunities for healthy buildings, equity and resilience.

Notably, the law significantly boosts and extends three longstanding energy-efficiency incentives for buildings — one for commercial buildings, another for whole-home efficiency and a third one for home efficiency improvements. Each incentive, if smartly deployed, could couple energy efficiency with contiguous strategies to improve indoor environmental quality, supporting climate goals and health goals simultaneously. Many leading service providers in the building efficiency space are already deploying products that help reduce building energy consumption while also improving environmental air quality. The bill, as we highlighted here, also includes funding for several other programs that will accelerate GHG reductions while promoting important health and equity goals.

While the President and Congress have taken the first step by providing funding for critical climate change efforts, companies around the world are also taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and aligning their commitments with science-based targets toward carbon reduction.

The connection between planetary health and human health is why IWBI added an innovation feature to the WELL Building Standard (WELL) that rewards climate leadership, with the goal of accelerating emission reductions in the face of ever-increasing public health impacts from an already changing climate. The Innovation Feature on Carbon Disclosure and Reduction encourages organizations to assess and disclose their carbon emissions, set science-based reduction targets and move toward carbon neutrality. The feature focuses on direct climate action by holding organizations accountable to their actual greenhouse gas emissions and tracking their progress toward those targets.

So for us, taking action on climate is taking action on health and we’re excited about continuing to deliver on these advocacy efforts. As our head of research at IWBI Dr. Whitney Austin Gray said, “We simply can’t have healthy people without a healthy planet.”