The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), in partnership with 11 organizations, announced its new CGI commitment to developing “ASID Protocols for Health and Wellness in Design” at the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting.
In effort to improve the well being of 1 million people through better building design and construction, ASID will train 40,000 interior designers and architects across the country to use these protocols to create spaces that promote occupants’ health and to specify healthier products and materials. The protocols will encompass design, products and healthcare. Planned to be concise and accessible, the protocols will incorporate Healthy Product Declarations and Cradle to Cradle certified products, as well as evidenced-based, LEED v4, biophilic and active design principles, among others, according to the society. ASID expects to beta test the protocols across multiple sectors as early as this time next year.
“ASID has a history of convening multiple stakeholders on Healthy Product Declarations, LEED CI creation, evidence-based design and biophilia research,” said Randy Fiser, ASID CEO. “Our CGI commitment aligns with the Society’s core business and strategic goals. It also expands our opportunities for partnership, learning and raising awareness about the value to society of building for health and well-being.”
Currently a number of factors—including the amount, complexity and multiple sources of information on creating healthy spaces—prevent interior designers, architects and the larger design community from achieving the necessary understanding to benefit fully from healthy design principles or to persuade their clients to implement them, according to recent research conducted by McGraw Hill Construction. Resulting space and building design, therefore, does not offer the greatest opportunity to positively affect occupants’ health and wellness.
According to Fiser, ASID will convene a cross-sector, multidisciplinary group of leading doctors, nurses, healthcare administrators, interior designers, architects, engineers, product developers and suppliers to compose a single resource manual for professionals concerned about the built environment’s effect on people. The society will provide financial and in-kind support of the CGI commitment by convening and facilitating meetings, producing education and communications tools, tapping members’ expertise in elements of healthy buildings, distributing the design protocols, and more.
The following 11 organizations are joining ASID in its commitment with CGI to develop the “ASID Protocols for Health and Wellness in Design”: AkzoNobel, CertainTeed, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Gensler, Health in Buildings Roundtable, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), International WELL Building Institute, MSR Design, Steelcase, The Vitality Institute and Wolf-Gordon.
For more information, visit asid.org.
