The one thing everyone is talking about…

Climate change. Or a rapidly changing climate. Or, it’s almost 2030 (no, really).

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I recently had the privilege of attending AIA Seattle’s Honor Awards and climate change and the associated issues were a common thread throughout the conversations, presentations and acceptance speeches. A big thank you goes out to AIA Seattle staff, volunteers, and committee members for putting on an excellent event. And I am so thrilled to be an Honorary AIA (and you bet I added that to every email signature, LinkedIn profile, social media platform, etc.). I would highly encourage you to check out the other individual and project award winners, so you can share in the inspiration!

Let’s also talk about healthy buildings.

Folks who know me, have worked with me, have taken one of my classes, or have generally spent any time around me know that I talk about healthy buildings a lot. And I’m not the only one: check out this graph from The International WELL Building Institute, which outlines the exponential growth of The WELL Building Standard. Healthy buildings are not a trend, they are, among other things, an effective risk management strategy.

Image courtesy of The International WELL Building Institute

If you are looking for an introduction to healthy buildings (I am often asked for a 101 version), I recommend this episode of The Weekly Take by CBRE, entitled “The Air That I Breathe: The Business Case for Healthy Buildings,” featuring two of the leading researchers from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The second version of the WELL Building Standard launched last year, which means there is a new version of the WELL Accredited Professional Exam. If you want to learn more, check out our latest blog post and learn more about our next series of online courses, launching in early 2022!

And for the lawyers in the room…

I will be presenting during the Seminar Group’s Annual CLE Bootcamp, on The Business Case for a More Sustainable Practice. This is the perfect opportunity to get caught up on your continuing education credits and (you guessed it), I’ll be talking about Healthy Buildings! Click the button below to learn more and email me for a discount code, nicole@sustainablestrategiespllc.com.

With Gratitude

AIA Seattle Honor Awards

I am so grateful to have been recognized by AIA Seattle, and awarded honorary membership. To join this group of leaders, and continue my work with an organization that has such a positive impact on our community, truly means the world to me. I am so fortunate to have many people in my network who support me every day - in ways large and small - so that I can do this work. I came to AIA Seattle as an outsider - a lawyer who wanted to do good in the “green building” space, and I am so thankful for every member who gave me the chance to speak, made room at the table, and took the time to listen to ideas I was (and am) still testing. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this leading organization. You can read more about the Honor Awards, including how to attend the event, by following the link below.

https://aiaseattle.org/aia-seattle-announces-2021-honorees/

By this point in time, most people know my favorite phrase: healthier buildings are a risk management strategy; unhealthy buildings are a liability.

And the research just keeps piling up. Another report came out earlier this month, outlining the impacts of poor indoor air quality on human performance. If you are not implementing basic healthier building strategies into your office building or educational facility, you are already behind! We posted an outline of this latest research to our Instagram account and below are a few highlights from the study, which involved six countries, 42 buildings, 30 cities, and 302 participants over one year.

Below are a few relevant highlights from the researchers.

Read the full report by clicking the button below, and check out our summary on Instagram (and if you don’t already, be sure to follow us).

And continuing with our theme…

1. A data point: let’s keep it light this time, Jane Fonda has been arrested five times for her involvement with climate protests.

2. 2. A place: I have been wanting to check out local restaurant Allyum, and a few weeks ago I finally had the chance - it did not disappoint! Allyum is a plant focused restaurant in West Seattle, with a “mission is to deliver high-quality, sustainably and locally sourced food and beverages to everyone.” If you’re in the area, I highly recommend.

3. A person or persons: Alix Devendra is the founder of Aligned Law, a Portland-based law firm serving purpose-driven companies throughout California, Oregon and Washington. Alix enjoys helping small-business owners bring their business practices and legal documents into alignment with their values. Services include new business formation, contract review and drafting, B Corp certification, and worker cooperative conversions. You can learn more by visiting this link.

And finally, as more folks are continuing to work from home at least part time, we want to give back, so for the month of September, our course on how to Create a Healthy Home Office is 20% off. This self-paced course provides low to no-cost strategies that you can implement to improve your work from home space.

Learn more below and use the code “20HEALTHY” at checkout.

Sustainable Strategies goes international!

This is a special edition because we have exciting news to share! We are so grateful to have been featured on the Ethical Evolution podcast. This podcast is a product of the Ethical Change Agency, based in Australia. It was so wonderful to talk about all things healthy buildings, and we covered a lot of ground during this 50 minute session: climate change and innovation, developing greater equity in the built environment, advocating for healthier spaces at scale, and how to approach climate change from a place of informed and empowered decision-making. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, and other major outlets like Spotify.

Healthy Buildings are a risk management strategy; unhealthy buildings are a liability. And most buildings are unhealthy in one way or another.

I say this all the time, and to better explain what I mean, I created a comprehensive article that outlines the issues and describes how healthier building strategies can manage risk. Practitioners can use this resource as a tool to advocate for healthier, more accessible buildings at scale. Read the full article at the link below.

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Finally, continuing with our three-bullets theme, below are this week’s topics:

1. A data point: the latest IPCC report was just released, and while it contains a lot of important data points, I also believe that when it comes to climate change, empowering individual action is the key! Stacy Smedley, Executive Director of Building Transparency, created this helpful infographic and shared it on LinkedIn.

2. A place: I took the below photo on a recent trip to my home state of Wisconsin. It is a beautiful place, and if you’re interested in learning more about the area, check out my Seattle Ignite talk.

3. A person or persons: we are big fans of Kena Peay’s work in the outdoors. Follow her on Instagram, where she recently highlighted her trip to Olympic National Park!

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I recently became WELL Faculty, after demonstrating an even deeper knowledge of healthy building strategies and the WELL Building Standard. As we continue to respond to variants, and employers explore hybrid work from home scenarios, I will be giving a training that outlines Strategies from the WELL Building Standard that support in the fight against COVID-19.

To share this information with our broader community, I will be hosting both a live training and launching a recorded, on-demand version on our Teachable site, this fall. The details are still being worked out, so click below to receive the latest updates and stay in the know!

Summer in Seattle

In my opinion, summers are one of the things that make Seattle so special. The long days, the sunsets, the weather and the opportunity to explore the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Keeping with the theme, below are this week’s three topics:

1. A data point: if you are connected with me on LinkedIn, you know that climate change is generally at the top of my mind. I’ve been posting a lot about the disproportionate impacts of climate change, and started collecting articles and resources that practitioners can use to advocate for change. Learn more, and study all the relevant data points, at this link.

2. A place: the Washington coast. I recently traveled to Westport, Ocean Shores and the Copalis Beach area. Wow, just wow. I highly suggest checking out this beautiful area, and exploring the nearby Olympic National Park. The photo above was taken at Ocean Shores.

3. A person or persons: FBomb Breakfast Club. Joining this group of fearless female founders turned out to be one of the best decisions I made when I started Sustainable Strategies. I encourage you to check out their website, and if it looks like a good fit, drop in to a meeting.

And, if you haven’t yet checked us out on Medium, it is the best place to find info and insights on a variety of topics. If you’re new to Medium, just think of it as a fancier blog that has a collection of authors and a broader reach.

One of the most common questions I get asked is: what’s next? Most of my clients want to know where is sustainability headed. They want to know how to prepare, what issues they should be looking out for, how future regulation will impact their business, potential opportunities and sources of liability, etc. To answer these questions and more, I’ve been giving a short presentation on Sustainability Trends. If you are your company are interested in a Zoom lunch and learn, reach out (click the email icon below). And to give you a sense of the presentation, you can access a few of the key slides at the button below.

Follow us on social! An easy (and free) way to support small businesses is to follow them on social. Click any of the links below to show your support, stay in the know and gain valuable insights. On our Instagram and LinkedIn pages, I recently shared a specific example, from my trip to Westport, of how practitioners can connect sustainable behavior with local values - check it out!

It’s time to shake things up.

At Sustainable Strategies, we are on a mission to make sustainability interesting, accessible, empowering and engaging. To that end, we are mixing up our newsletter. Going forward, in addition to other news, we will highlight: (1) a data point (2) a place or thing and (3) a person or persons doing something interesting and impactful.

1. A data point: June 28, 2021 was the hottest day ever in Seattle, when the temperature at SeaTac Airport hit 108 degrees, just after 6 p.m. While climate and weather are not the same, our climate is obviously changing. As I’ve said before, we did not “survive an unprecedented heat wave,” we got a taste of our future. This resource from Yale Sustainability does a great job of explaining climate change.

2. A place: Finnriver Farm and Cidery is one of our favorite places! With a deep commitment to both sustainability and craft, we encourage you to visit and support this great business, located in Chimacum, Washington.

3. A person or persons: I am thrilled to have been elected to the Board of Directors of AIA Seattle. One important aspect of this great organization is the commitment to robust programming. To learn more about each of the candidates, you can view a recorded version of AIA Seattle's mayoral candidate forum, here.

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Finnriver’s Habanero cider is one of our favorites!

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Now that Washington state has fully reopened, we have received many inquiries regarding the return to work, and how employers and other business owners can make their spaces safer for employees and guests. If you feel overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, reach out. There are evidence-based and third-party verified tools that promote safer spaces, including the International WELL Building Institute’s Health Safety Rating. As WELL AP and Faculty, we help clients navigate these tools and communicate their benefits to employees and guests.

https://www.governor.wa.gov/

Need help? Have questions? Want to learn more? Contact us!

Pride month, the return to work, and wildfires

What Pride month means to small business owners

June is Pride month and we are so proud to be a diverse supplier: certified WBE and LGBT Business Enterprise. There is real value in life experience and listening to the perspective(s) of those who are not like you.

The research is clear that diverse teams consistently outperform their less diverse peers. Collaborative work and multi-disciplinary perspectives are the future of business. As an example, our friends over at Rushing recently highlighted our collaboration on their social media page. Let's listen, learn and lead together! Want to work with us? Click below to chat about collaboration opportunities.

The return to work - what questions should you ask?

Over the past few weeks, many of our clients and colleagues have asked for our thoughts on returning to the office. If you follow our work, you know that one of our core values is teaching our communities how to advocate for healthier spaces.

The first step in advocating for a healthier office is knowing what questions to ask. A recent article from the Atlantic heavily cites the work of Dr. Joseph Allen (Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and provides a good summary of the questions employees should be asking. Here are our top three:

1. What have you done to review and improve airflow in the office space?

2. Do I still have to wear a mask?

3. What happens if something goes wrong?

Read the full article here, and another useful article from the New York Times, here. A key point made by Dr. Allen directly relates to one of our key risk management themes: we can and should expect far more from our buildings. We should leverage them as the public health tools that they really are, “We know that better ventilation is associated with many positive benefits: better cognitive function, better performance on reading-comprehension tests in schools, better performance on math tests, fewer worker absences….”

So what we should really be asking is: why isn’t every building a “healthy” building?

Moving beyond the technical aspects of air quality and cleaning protocols, we encourage our communities to remember and honor the fact that 2020 was really hard and really scary. It is completely normal for people to adjust to returning to work at different times. Let’s make sure we honor each person’s journey.

If you need more support, or a structured framework, certification programs have been developed to specifically address the return to work and support safer and healthier work environments. As WELL AP and Faculty, we are prepared to help support clients certify their spaces under, for example, the WELL Health-Safety Rating and the Fitwel Viral Response module.

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Summer wildfire season

We should advocate for healthier buildings, but we also need to recognize the fact that our climate is changing. This summer’s wildfire season has the potential to be “catastrophic.” A dry spring in the Western states means a high potential for more fires that appear earlier in the season and are more severe in their impact.

Our advice: consider purchasing an air filter, now; before we experience a repeat of last summer, when every major retailer sold out. We encourage our clients to plan ahead to protect their health.

While air filters can be expensive (though they don’t necessarily have to be), we need to start looking at them like the healthcare tools they really are.

If you need resources, reach out or check out our healthy home office course. Last summer, many individuals contacted us in the middle of the fires and asked what they could do to improve their indoor air quality, but it was already too late.

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And finally, we are thrilled that Nicole has been nominated to the Board of Directors for AIA Seattle. Nicole has been an active member of AIA Seattle’s Professional Practice Steering Committee, and currently serves as co-chair. She is honored to be nominated and looks forward to the opportunity to take on a larger leadership role. Click the button below to learn more about the nomination process and her interest in joining the Board of this leading organization.

We help our clients drive better health outcomes

If I learned one thing from starting a business during a global pandemic: celebrate and share your wins. And the best wins are those that help us better serve our clients!

First, I am thrilled to share that I am now WELL Faculty! I'll be digging even deeper into the intersections of health and wellness with the built environment, and applying my legal and risk management background to drive better health outcomes - for all. I look forward to joining a great group of colleagues, in educating and supporting the market for healthy, equitable spaces to live, learn and work.

Second, I was accepted into the International WELL Building Institute’s Health Equity Advisory. I am honored to join a diverse group of professional colleagues, as we tackle some big questions. Sustainable spaces should be inclusive, not exclusive - but we have a very long way to go. I’m proud to be a part of this important work. Read the full press release below.

What does these wins mean for our clients? Healthier buildings are in very high demand. And both employers and employees have a lot of questions - and anxiety - about what the return to work will look like. We leverage our expertise, and the latest research, to answer these questions and support deep market adoption of spaces that enrich our experience. If you need support, reach out to nicole@sustainablestrategiespllc.com!

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How to work with us…

We recently updated our summary slide deck of the many ways we support our clients! We posted it on social media and it has been our most popular campaign, so we are sharing it here as well. Check out a few highlights below, and follow the link to the full slide deck - and don’t forget to follow @sustainablestrategiespllc on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Medium!

Finally a big thank you to the NGLCC for featuring our work during Earth Week. Click the button below for our one-minute summary on why sustainability matters!

ESG is in the news - let’s break it down

Many of our clients have asked for more information on ESG, so if you have questions, you are not alone. Here’s a quick summary:

ESG, or Environmental, Social and Governance, is essentially an investing framework that brings a broad range of what have traditionally been considered “non-financial” factors into financial decision-making. While the current lack of standardization (though this is expected to change) can make ESG seem amorphous, another way to think about it is that ESG expands corporate accountability beyond shareholders and to include external stakeholder expectations on a variety of factors such as climate change, use of consumer data and racial justice (among many others). These factors are often reported publicly, and in today’s market, we believe that ESG analysis is a key risk management strategy for at least two reasons:

1. The rise of ESG is already expanding traditional fiduciary duties, as industry leaders like BlackRock continue to take increasingly strong positions on climate and related issues.

2. The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking action in the ESG space by, for example, creating new, senior level ESG roles and a Climate and ESG Task Force in the Division of Enforcement.

This means that ESG reporting is likely to become (1) increasingly mandated and (2) standardized. And a variety of entities will be asking for this information from their service providers, clients and business partners.

The bottom line: failing to get smart on ESG exposes companies to a variety of risks.

In a recent Public Statement, the SEC echoed many of the risk identification and management strategies we advocate for, including the importance of innovation and the cost of inaction:

“Going forward, I believe SEC policy on ESG disclosures will need to be both adaptive and innovative. We can and should continue to adapt existing rules and standards to the realities of climate risk, for example, and the fact that investors increasingly are asking for ESG information to help them make informed investment and voting decisions. We will also need to be open to and supportive of innovation – in both institutions and policies on the content, format and process for developing ESG disclosures.”

If you need support, reach out. We help businesses understand, and manage, a variety of ESG risks and opportunities.

Our latest article, What I Wish You Knew About Sustainability, was just published in The Ascent. After working in the sustainability space for more than a decade, there are a few themes that consistently rise to the surface. I value a practical, accessible approach to sustainability and wanted to share not only these themes, but also the individual action that can help eliminate common roadblocks and drive sustainable change.

Here are the top things I wish everyone knew:

1. Clear language is incredibly important.

2. Companies are constantly competing for your “green” dollars.

3. Recycling is a complex topic that requires a hands-on approach.

Learn more by accessing the full article below.

Many colleagues know that I take every opportunity to explore new places and in particular new and innovative forms of real estate. And I’ve been encouraged to share insights from those explorations. I recently took a trip to Bend, Oregon, to check out some adaptive reuse in the lodging sector; a theme I’m seeing more and more frequently. I’ll share more in later posts, but for now, here’s a photo I took of the Deschutes River, as it runs through Bend.

Sustainability, Risk and Epic Fails

When things are changing rapidly - as they are now - a proactive business strategy is an effective form of risk management.

In our latest article, we explore one of our favorite risk management strategies: attempting to get and stay ahead of future regulation. This often-overlooked strategy should be at the top of every business owner’s list. In the article, we break down the key aspects of this strategy, including:

1. Guideposts that suggest future regulation, including examples;

2. How to manage the risks of future regulation; and

3. The benefits of, and opportunities associated with, staying ahead of the regulatory curve.

To learn more, check out “Get and Stay Ahead of Future Regulation” at the link below. We use buildings as a grounding example, but the strategies and issues apply to virtually all business contexts.

Example framework, from the article, of how to get and stay ahead of future regulation in the built environment.

It was my pleasure to be interviewed by Jessica Payne for her podcast series, Build Your House of Wellness. In this series, Jessica asks guests one open-ended question: how are you building your house of wellness. We cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes, and if you want to hear me say things like “that is an epic fail of our legal system,” you can listen to the full podcast, below.

Finally, I wanted to share one quick air quality hack: you can ask Alexa to tell you the outdoor air quality for your location. Just ask “Alexa, what’s the air quality today.” Knowledge is power, so learn more about the negative impacts of air quality in our latest course, Create a Healthy Home Office.

Create a Healthy Workspace is Now Live!

Set Yourself Up For Success in 2021!

Thank you for your interest in our latest course, Create a Healthy Workspace! This course is now live and you can access it below.

Working from home is stressful! We created this course to support our community and encourage workers to advocate for health and wellbeing in their work from home spaces. This course was designed for busy professionals and students who are looking to get the most out of their home offices.

During this course, you will learn high-impact and researched-backed strategies you can easily implement to foster health and wellness while working from home. The even better news? Most of these strategies are low-to-no cost.

The course contains written materials and just under an hour of recorded videos - we expect it should take approximately an hour and a half to complete.

This course will begin with a brief summary of the historical background regarding healthier home spaces. We then dive right into the latest research that ultimately informs the recommended strategies and tools.

There are numerous aspects that relate to a health and wellness while working from home. In this course, we focus on three, big-picture concepts:

1. Air quality

2. Lighting and design

3. Thermal, ergonomic and other considerations

In our experience, these three concepts have the greatest impact with respect to work from home spaces. Set yourself up to do your best work in 2021!

Health and Wellness in 2021

It’s time for a reset, so we will keep this short.

Our live seminars on fostering health and wellness while working from home were so popular that we redeveloped and updated the content, and created an online course that you can access at any time. The course includes high-impact strategies and was designed for busy professionals who want to get the most out of their work from home space. Create a Healthy Home Office will launch on our one-year anniversary - January 6, 2021, and registration will only remain open through the end of the month. Set yourself up to do your best work in 2021! Learn more by watching the video at the link below.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for all the launch updates, or sign up to be notified when the course goes live on January 6th.

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Speaking of 2021, we were asked to share our thoughts on sustainability in the new year with the Puget Sound Business Journal. In our opinion piece, we emphasize the power of small acts:

“Challenge yourself and your organization to see the value in the small acts that foster engagement and build momentum for larger goals, even if the starting point is small, imperfect or analog. These personal choices and scalable opportunities foster engagement and community, which inspire larger projects and provide a sense of hope — something we could all use as we close out 2020.”

Access the full article below.

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Finally, we wish all of our fans and friends a safe and happy new year. And if you haven’t yet, be sure to check us out (and follow us) on Medium! Our latest post, “Building Owners: Engage Your Tenants Like an Airline,” is now live!

This Should Be a Holiday Card (Sigh)

For obvious reasons, sending a holiday card to an empty office did not make much sense. So, we are sending our holiday wishes virtually, to your inbox!

If you are receiving this email, you supported our vision in one way or another; and for that, we are extremely grateful.

I started Sustainable Strategies almost a year ago, determined to drive meaningful change at scale. Guided by the belief that sustainability should be engaging, empowering and collaborative, I spent the past year helping our clients and communities pursue big, bold projects and goals!

If you are familiar with my work, you know that I’m a firm believer in looking back to look forward, and the power of drawing on historical lessons learned to inform future decision-making. In that spirit, this virtual greeting contains three parts: a quick recap, a small token of our appreciation and a simple way you can support small businesses like ours!

The Recap

Despite the challenges associated with starting a business during a global pandemic, we were able to achieve some pretty great things:

• Selected to present at Ignite Seattle to more than 900 attendees.

• Invited to participate in a global webcast on the WELL AP Experience, North America and a live, 60-minute Rapid Response with the Greater Seattle Business Association. We also contributed to the inaugural ABA Lawyer Wellbeing Week.

• We shared our expertise with numerous organizations including the Portland Area Business Association, Seattle University School of Law, the Environmental and Land Use Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association, and more. Our co-presentation on health and wellbeing for the Washington State Bar Association drew more than 1,200 virtual attendees!

• Created custom educational content for various clients, including law firms and property management groups, on innovation and the latest trends.

• Developed and fostered lasting partnerships with law firms, construction and design firms and educational institutions.

• Launched an Online School, with a variety of courses that serve both a general audience and provide Continuing Legal Education credits for Washington lawyers.

• Published in the Puget Sound Business Journal and BuildingGreen, among others.

• Expanded our expertise by obtaining two new credentials, Fitwel Ambassador and EcoDistricts AP.

• Achieved certification as an LGBT Business Enterprise (during Pride month) and a Women’s Business Enterprise with the State of Washington

• We are still here. Despite the challenges of this past year, we continue to serve our communities and advocate for a better world - for everyone - through sustainable design and practices that are accessible and inclusive.

Our Appreciation

We believe that training and education is not only an effective form of risk management, but that access to information regarding, in particular, health and wellness, is a basic human right. We love sharing what we know and want to offer our fans and friends 50% off any of our online courses, now through the end of the year. Access our courses via the button below and use code HOLIDAY50 at checkout.

Our course on Supporting Health and Wellness While Working from Home was so popular that we are refreshing it with the latest research for 2021 - stay tuned for a relaunch in early January! Or, if you or your teams need support while working from home, reach out to nicole@sustainablestrategiespllc.com, and book a virtual training.

Support

This past year has been tough, and we are grateful for the number of people who have asked what they can do. You can support our work in at least two ways:

1. Over the past year, we managed social distancing by elevating all of our social media channels including Instagram, Facebook, Medium and YouTube. We share a lot of information via these channels because they reach broader and more diverse audiences. If you can follow us on one or more of these channels, it we would greatly appreciate it! Social media presence and followers can significantly help small businesses. While you’re at it, please take an extra 30 seconds to support another small and / or BIPOC-owned business.

2. We love meeting new connections who could benefit from our services, and networking has been particularly challenging during the pandemic. If you can spare 3 minutes to draft an email introduction to someone in your network who could be a potential client, partner or referral source, we would greatly appreciate it! Even if you’re not sure if your contact would be the best fit, someone in their network may be the perfect match! To make it even easier, you can just forward this virtual holiday card, direct your contact to your social media channels, reference our website and copy my email nicole@sustainablestrategiespllc.com.

We wish this was a holiday card, and that we could deliver it along with a hug. Until then, our deepest gratitude for your support as we run full speed towards the challenges of 2021! Stay well, Friends!

It's CLE Season! Learn more about free, low cost and discounted courses.

We are proud to support our legal community friends with a variety of opportunities to earn Continuing Legal Education credits. We have been extremely busy planning and preparing new content, as our unique combination of legal, risk management and sustainability expertise is in high demand!

Below is a summary of upcoming opportunities that provide CLE credits:

November 9 - WSBA Environmental and Land Use Law Mid-Year. Insurance and Sustainable Design. Our presentation will cover the role of insurance in sustainable design and development. We will identify the latest issues, products, and developments, and provide best practices and strategies. Learn more and register at this link.

November 24 - WSBA Legal Lunchbox, Healthy Selves, Healthy Workplaces. We will join naturopathic physician Kristen Allott for this engaging presentation that summarizes practical strategies. We will provide insights into the latest research and best practices to help promote health and wellness in your work from home spaces. Learn more and register for free at this link.

December 2 - The Seminar Group, Construction Defect Claims. We will be joined by Program Chair Brandon Smith, and will provide an overview of the latest trends and issues in sustainable design and construction, including evolving risk management frameworks and considerations. Learn more and register at this link.

December 8 & 9 - The Seminar Group, during this multi-day bootcamp, we will leverage our teaching experience to provide insights on High-Impact Strategies for Teaching and Presenting, and join two other panelists for a discussion of Life after Law. Reach out for a code that provides $200 off the regular registration fee. Learn more and register at this link.

And remember, our on-demand, recorded courses are always available on our courses website. Our recorded webinars are engaging and include access to our App. - review your materials from anywhere! We currently provide three courses with CLE credit:

• Defining "Green" - 1.0 CLE (Law & Legal)

• The Intersection of Insurance with Sustainable Design - 1.0 CLE (Law & Legal)

• Greenwashing - regulatory issues and best practices - 1.0 CLE (Law & Legal)

Adding Value Through Sustainable Practices

At Sustainable Strategies, we believe that sustainability is a value add.

Sustainability can be an effective risk management strategy, smart business plan and value-generating market differentiator. We see sustainability as a service, and one that is:

• Empowering and inspiring

• Meaningful and aligned with business goals

• Accessible and inclusive

We are driven to demonstrate that our strategies add value. We provide specialized support for deep green goals, and part of that work involves tracking the latest trends. Follow us on our social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn as we provide a weekly summary of various sustainable building metrics, and analyze the resulting trends.

In case you missed it, here’s the data we released this week!

We have already scheduled in-house seminars that summarize our 2021 forecast - reach out if you are interested in learning more about our analysis of what’s next!

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As we mentioned in our last update, we are thrilled to partner with Blue Daisi Consulting for our upcoming webinar, Upgrade Your Home Office: making a healthier, more sustainable workspace, on November 17, 2020 from 11 - 12. Learn more and register by clicking the button below.

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For the lawyers in our network, on November 24, 2020, we will be co-presenting with naturopathic physician Kristen Allott, as part of the Washington State Bar Association’s Legal Lunchbox series: healthy selves, healthy workplaces. We are proud to support legal professionals by sharing the latest research on the impacts of indoor spaces on health and wellness - and strategies anyone can leverage to improve their workspaces. Learn more and register by clicking the link below.

Our training programs on supporting health and wellbeing while working from home have become very popular. In addition to our on-demand online course, if you are interested in booking us for a live training with your organization, contact us!

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Finally, we know that there are significant opportunities to improve the energy performance of existing buildings.  We recently co-authored an article, Energy Efficiency Mandates and Impacts to Leases for Existing Buildings: How Practitioners Can Proactively Manage a Changing Landscape, with attorney Erik Jennings of Pacifica Law Group. We developed this resource for leasing professionals and related practitioners. Read the full article by following the link below. Article reprinted by permission of the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section of the Washington State Bar Association.

And stay tuned as we have many more events and other activities to share before the year is over; including a video special, podcast appearance, several seminars and much more!

Energy Efficiency Mandates and Commercial Leases: Challenges, Opportunities and Insights

Our latest article was just published in the Washington State Bar Association’s (WSBA) Real Property, Probate and Trust Newsletter

We recently co-authored an article, Energy Efficiency Mandates and Impacts to Leases for Existing Buildings: How Practitioners Can Proactively Manage a Changing Landscape. We partnered with attorney Erik Jennings of Pacifica Law Group to develop this great resource for leasing professionals and related practitioners.

Article reprinted by permission of the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section of the Washington State Bar Association.

What's Next in Sustainable Design?

Healthier buildings are in high demand.

Consumers are increasingly searching for indoor spaces that support health and wellness. And this trend is expected to continue. Consider this: according to the International WELL Building Institute™, the entity that delivers the WELL Building Standard,™ it took approximately four years to certify 250,000 square feet. However, it took only a year to double that figure. Additionally, the latest data reveals that over the past few months, approximately one million square feet have been certified per day. One million square feet per day - during a global pandemic. What other industry has experienced this type of growth?

At Sustainable Strategies, we have expertise with respect to healthier building strategies and maintain professional credentials as both a WELL Accredited Professional and a Fitwel Ambassador. Last week, we put our expertise to use as we delivered a comprehensive training for members of the Portland Area Business Association (PABA) on Fostering Health and Wellness While Working From Home. We were thrilled to partner with this great organization. Check out the review from Board Member Jaime Duyck

We are also excited to announce that we are partnering with the Education Foundation of the Associated General Contractors of Washington to present a training on Healthy Building Basics. We look forward to supporting the construction community with this timely training, which will cover the historical background with respect to healthier buildings, analysis of the impacts of indoor spaces on health and wellness, common strategies and frameworks for defining and certifying healthier buildings, and opportunities and risks for contractors. Learn more and register at this link.

Later this fall, we also have trainings booked with the Washington State Bar Association and a new collaboration we are very excited about - stay tuned for more information!

In fact, our trainings on health and wellness while working from home have been so popular that we created a new online course! Below is a quick summary of the course:

Working from home presents many stressors and challenges. This course will cover high-impact strategies that anyone can leverage to foster indoor spaces that support health and wellness.  This course will include an overview of the historical background regarding healthier indoor spaces, analysis of the latest research, and considerations and strategies related to indoor air quality, natural daylighting, biophilic design, digital wellbeing, ergonomics and more.

As with all of our courses, you can access our high-value content any time on your computer, tablet or phone! Learn more by visiting our courses website.

In addition to training and education, we bring 10+ years of construction litigation experience to sustainability consulting. We leverage this experience to view sustainability goals and challenges through a legal and risk management lens.  If you are innovating in the sustainability space, we are your support team!  We have the unique combination of skills to help you get the job done, while minimizing risk and maximizing business value.

Indoor Air Quality: The Basics, Impacts and What You Can Do About It

Air quality is having a moment right now: the pandemic brought airborne viral transmission issues to the forefront and the recent wildfires have continued to elevate the general public’s awareness of the health impacts of poor air quality.

There is a lot of information available and it can get overwhelming, so we wanted to provide some context, give an overview of the key strategies, and share resources.

First, some context. Indoor air quality is of critical importance because on average, Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, where concentrations of pollutants are often two to five times higher than outdoors (and for some, as much as ten times higher). Yet, indoor air quality is almost completely unregulated. This seems counter-intuitive, especially since the latest research demonstrates that small improvements in air quality can dramatically improve cognitive function - critical for those trying to focus while working from home.

Second, we find it helpful to break the relevant strategies to improve air quality down into three aspects, and in this hierarchy.

1. Control pollution sources

2. Improve ventilation

3. Utilize filtration

A few quick points about each of these strategies:

Control pollution sources - one of the most effective ways to improve indoor air quality is to reduce or eliminate the amount of pollutants introduced into indoor spaces. For example, be mindful of the contents of cleaning products, anything with a “fragrance,” and furnishings or other household products that off-gas harmful chemicals, such as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

Improve ventilation - when safe, open windows to dilute the concentration of indoor pollutants. This strategy obviously assumes that outdoor air is “safe,” so consult resources like AirNow.gov before implementing this strategy, and follow EPA guidance with respect to outdoor air quality.

Utilize filtration - there are many products designed to filter indoor air. At a high level, look for those with both a particulate filter (we generally encourage HEPA) and an activated carbon or other absorbent filter designed to remove gases (including VOCs). Other aspects to note include the importance of replacing filters as recommended by the manufacturer, avoiding products that intentionally produce or emit ozone, and making sure the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is appropriate for the room(s) where the unit will be used.

Finally, if you need more information, consider consulting resources from the EPA and Harvard’s School of Public Health.

This information has been in such high demand that we developed a comprehensive training on how to support health and wellness within indoor environments. We explain the latest research and demonstrate the “why” behind comprehensive strategies that anyone can implement. If you, your team or your business are interested in booking a training, contact us.

If you prefer information in visual form or are looking for quick lessons on sustainability, healthier buildings, and related topics, check out our YouTube channel. Below is one example of the short, yet informative videos you can find on our channel.

Dangers of the "Wait and See" Approach

My father was a dentist his entire career, and while he was still practicing he had a sign in his office that read, “The five most dangerous words in the English language: maybe it will go away.”

In the same way that ignoring tooth pain won’t make a cavity go away, ignoring the negative health impacts of traditional buildings won’t make them any less damaging. In fact, we are at the point where ignoring the growing body of research that supports the efficacy of healthy building strategies is creating (and perpetuating) risk.

This is largely because we expect that increasing pressure from consumers and evolving regulatory requirements will create an even greater demand for healthier places and products. This is also why we educate our clients and communities on the importance of attempting to get and stay ahead of future regulation: to mitigate risk and capture emerging business opportunities.

This background leads to one of our mantras, “Healthier buildings are a risk management strategy; unhealthy buildings are a liability.” To help explain what we mean, we created a short video series. You can access the first video at the button below; stay tuned for the rest of the series, and be sure to follow us on Instagram (@sustainablestrategiespllc) and Facebook!

And if you need help developing and implementing proactive strategies that mitigate risk and support health and wellness, contact us.

Have a big presentation or pitch coming up?

Our latest course, Getting Started with Prezi is still available - but not for long! If you want to learn how to leverage this tool to engage audiences, differentiate yourself as a speaker and grow your brand, sign up now!

Washington Lawyers have less than five months to complete continuing education.

Factor in all the holidays between now and December 31 and there really isn’t much time. Three of our courses have been approved for CLE credit:

• Defining "Green"

• The Intersection of Insurance with Sustainable Design

• Greenwashing - regulatory issues and best practices

These courses are designed for a general audience. You don’t have to be an environmental lawyer or have a background in sustainability for these courses to be relevant - just an interest in the topic.