Social Equity - The "Missing Metric"
Guest
Author:
Shawn
Hesse
Architect
/ Sr. Sustainability Consultant
RA,
LEED AP BD+C
Many people talk about the
"triple bottom line", or "three-legged stool"
of sustainability - environmental, economic, and social
impacts. However, when discussing sustainable features of
construction projects, the social impacts are often left out of the
picture.
In many ways, this is
expected due to the lack of quantifiable metrics that can be used
to measure social equity. Most everyone understands the
metrics of economics - cost per square foot, return on investment,
etc. Additionally, thanks to LEED, we can now talk about
environmental impacts in quantifiable terms - LEED Certification,
percent energy reductions from ASHRAE, construction waste diversion
rates, water efficiency, even site selection. But when it
comes to social impacts, or social equity, we don't have a common
language yet. Social impacts are the missing metrics in
measuring true sustainability.
The old adage that you can't
improve what you can't measure is very true. Unfortunately,
there are many examples of 'green' projects that have negative
social impacts. Six workers died building the newly LEED
Certified CityCenter project in Las Vegas, the labor practices of
countries like Myanmar (where most bamboo is grown) have been
criticized by the U.N. and other human rights organizations,
and right here at home, more than 100 cases of wage theft have been
reported in Hamilton County in the last two years.
Despite the design
industry's lack of awareness, there are metrics available to
measure the social equity impacts of construction projects. OSHA's
recordable incident rate (RIR) and lost time case incident rate
(LTCR) provide metrics for job-site worker safety, prevailing and
fair wages are well defined by most municipalities, use of
materials that are manufactured within the U.S. ensure fair labor
practices are utilized, and providing community access to resources
associated with private projects are all quantifiable metrics that
could measure social equity. emersion DESIGN has developed a
social equity rating system specific to buildings covering these
and many other facets of social equity - it is available for free from our website.
We hope everyone will download it, use it, and give us feedback.
The
good news is that the USGBC is also working at both the local and
the national level to promote social equity within the
organizational operations, and within the LEED rating system
itself. There are other examples of socially equitable
efforts as well - when we purchased bamboo for our office
renovation, we made certain it was FSC Certified to be grown and
manufactured in compliance with U.N. Labour Laws, and when Neyer
Properties recently completed work at Keystone Parke, they worked
with the Bengals, and the Home Depot Foundation, and the community to revitalize the adjacent Evanston Park.
Our hope is that in the coming years, with the leadership of USGBC
and others, social considerations during construction will be as
much a part of the design discussions as is energy and water
efficiency.
To
learn more about local efforts to promote social equity, contact shawn.hesse@emersiondesign.com
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