Evaluating a buildings’ impact on active transportation: An interdisciplinary approach

Abstract

The healthy building movement has re-defined buildings as key agents of public health for many of today's most pervasive health challenges, including global levels of physical inactivity and sedentariness. Today, we're building smarter building places and spaces with people (and planet) at the forefront of design and operations decisions. Because human-powered forms of travel displace sedentary time during commutes while also increasing levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity, building- and community-scale interventions to increase active transportation are considered promising pathways to promote health-enhancing physical activity among working adults. Many building rating systems/certifications include strategies to promote active travel among occupants, deriving much of their evidence and rationale from research focused at the community scale which has linked active transportation to positive health outcomes. Few rating systems, however, require a thorough evaluation of the impact of building-scale active transportation interventions to increase occupant physical activity. This paper argues that the evaluation of building design and operation strategies that aim to increase active transportation among occupants should move beyond traditional building audits to include metrics that capture occupants' perceptions, intentions and health behaviors. Ultimately, systematic evaluation of building-scale strategies offers an opportunity to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what role buildings can play in the built environment to have a positive impact on active transportation and subsequent human and even environmental health. This paper provides an evaluation approach that will help address a major gap in the literature regarding the built environment, active transportation, physical activity, sedentary time and health.