What we learned from joining the dots on climate, health, and the urban environment

In conversations around climate adaptation and the decarbonisation shift, it has been rare to find health, the property sector and sustainability consultants all sitting around the table. Making this happen for our Australian World Green Building Week 2024 event proved to be an invaluable learning experience.

Two key themes emerged; firstly, the importance of collaboration and dialogue between those who shape the urban environment, those who provide health services and the community is essential if we want to get adaptation right.

Secondly, and correlating to this, the quality of buildings has a major effect on the health of individuals, and as climate impacts escalate, this is an Achilles heel for the resilience of our society. As one of our speakers, Dr Kate Wylie, Executive Director of Doctors for the Environment Australia explained during the discussion, climate change is causing more than just an increase in heatstroke.

Heat is also correlated with increased patient loads for cardio-vascular conditions, strokes, mental health issues, pregnancy issues, respiratory problems, and mental health issues. Heatwaves also contribute to increased rates of domestic violence, something that has impacts beyond the immediate victims including putting additional strain on policing, medical services, the legal system, support services, crisis accommodation providers and the family, friends, and employers of those experiencing domestic violence.

The quality of the buildings people occupy - particularly their homes - can either reduce the health risks or amplify them. Renters are particularly vulnerable as they have limited power to improve the thermal performance and comfort of their homes.

Furthermore, with the soaring cost of rents, coupled with rising energy costs, many tenants cannot afford to use available cooling – even if it will make them ill to do without it. In cold weather, the poor quality of dwellings also places additional burdens on the health sector. As Dr Wylie said, being unable to afford heating can be a direct cause of a common cold turning into pneumonia, which is potentially fatal, particularly for older people or those with underlying health conditions.

How we put this lesson into practice

A key takeaway here for us as trusted advisors to developers, builders and designers is that we need to bring these matters into the dialogue of every projects. There needs to be more onus put on the developers and building owners to consider climate adaptation and the degree to which their buildings support occupant health, or indeed compromise it.

One can imagine that there may come a time when owners or developers could conceivably face reputational or legal risks around failure of duty of care, where there is a demonstrable link between a building and the illness, disablement, or death of an occupant.

We need to keep beating this drum – and pump up the volume. Just as we consider the impact of human activities on the health of the natural environment and animal species, we need to consider and mitigate its impact on human beings.

So often, we see headlines about extreme climate effects in faraway places and data on death tolls and damage bills. However, what we know from listening to health experts is we have climate-driven health problems right here, and right now.

Climate impacts are both pervasive and pernicious. There is no avoiding the fact that regulators, planners, investors, developers, and asset owners all know the risks and consequences of decisions, however, up until now the flow-on effects for health and wellbeing have been off the books.

Social value implications

There is a big opportunity here to operationalise the social value concept that is a major buzz across the industry, by bringing health and wellbeing into the equation. Unlike some of the fuzzier elements of social value such as community cohesion or sense of belonging, health can be measured, and we can benchmark the real outcomes of decisions.

For example, we could be incorporating Health Impact Assessment (HIA) as part of the social-environmental impact assessment process. An HIA is already part of the decision-making for bodies such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration and used in some areas of policy analysis such as regulations around tobacco, alcohol, nutrition labelling, sports funding, cycle path planning and so forth. If we can think about health for bike paths, sure we should be doing it for buildings?

Our panel speaker from the property sector, Tim Weale, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Delivery for Region Group, said that the community wellbeing and resilience aspects of their retail centres around the country is already a major focus for them.

Social value is given equal weight with environmental sustainability in their strategy and operational decisions, he said. The importance of retail centres as places for connection, belonging, respite from heat, and procuring essentials including food is central.

Retail and resilience

Putting a health and wellbeing lens on retail from the masterplanning or urban renewable perspective, means we need to think about a shopping centre less as a place for people to spend money, and more about its role as a safe place for the community come together.

People are social mammals, and for many people the local shopping centre is a place to go not necessarily to shop, but to see other people, escape the house and mitigate any sense of isolation or loneliness.

In times of crisis and emergency, shopping centres can be a refuge, both physically and psychologically. As large spaces with abundant roof space for solar PV, if they are designed and fitted out – or retrofitted – to be capable of being used in adaptable way, they can become havens to keep people safe.

Already on the operational level, there has been a shift post-covid for retail centres to reposition as entertainment and leisure destinations. It makes sense, as it is a function that cannot be filled by digital shopping.

There is also potential for these shared places to become valuable allies in community education and capacity-building for resilience. Where else do so many people from all walks of life come together outside of events like a concert, or a venue like a church? Retail could be seen as the public square or the town common, a place for connecting to the news, information, human connections, and shared endeavours that support public health and community wellbeing.

From a design perspective, measures such as electrification, light-coloured roofs with solar PV, shading, leveraging natural ventilation and daylighting, and the addition of vegetation and biophilic elements are all tested and proven opportunities to achieve healthy, climate-adaptive retail buildings and precincts.

Furthermore, through retail owners such as Region Group setting the example with their major rollouts of solar, net zero goals, energy efficiency upgrades and climate risk and adaptation planning, they demonstrate to other building owners what is achievable.

So often sustainability advocacy in the property sector has focused on commercial offices, partly as this sector has the capital and the regulatory drivers to improve. However, retail is closer to the lives of almost every person in Australia, so as an agent of change the sector has enormous power and influence.

You’re probably already feeling the effects

It all comes back to health, and the immediate and real impacts of climate change on the wellbeing of each and every one of us. As part of the webinar, we did a quick poll of the audience to ask whether they had experienced any of the main climate change impacts, from bushfire and flash flooding through to drought and heatwave. Most respondents had experienced at least one item on the list.

We also asked which of the health effects of climate impacts they had experienced, and again, most respondents nominated at least one health effect, with difficulty sleeping and stress being the two most common.

This tells us loud and clear that adaptation and resilience cannot be treated as abstract ideas, future priorities, or something we treat as an ‘add on’ for developments, planning or the operation of our cities and communities. This touches all of us, and joining the dots between practice, projects and people is essential to protecting everyone’s health and wellbeing now and into the future.