Commercial Architecture September 2016 - 14

FEATURE healthcare difference between what a Type I will do for you-which is your quick thumbs up-and what a Type III does for Ken's V I E W you-which gives you a great deal of detail. People Who Hate Revolving Doors NOT JUST A MARKETING TOOL EPDs, to be sure, are part of a manufacturer's marketing mix, but they can be used internally to measure and improve the impact of products on the environment. Companies with sustainability goals can use EPDs and LCAs (life cycle assessment) and information-gathering tools to inform future strategies and R&D decisions. B ack in June when I was in Detroit, I should have how to behave around them. But, really, that seemed a bit checked into a hospital instead of a national chain implausible, so I decided to Google it, where it is said you hotel. At suburban Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, can find the answer to any question you can think to ask. according to a recent news article, patient meals are served That's not true, of course, but I did find a sketchy answer "EPDs are not cheap, whether you're doing it yourself on demand 24 hours a day-room service! Other amenities to the revolving-door issue-people "hate" revolving doors, or hiring a consultant to do it," Firth observed, but they include uniformed valets and in-room massages, none of are "annoyed" by them, or don't "see their point." In true can reveal what kind of impacts products have and how which were in evidence at my chain hotel. Internet fashion, missing from the responses was why company goals can be set to reduce those impacts. Hospitals, of course, are more competitive than ever, anyone felt a strong aversion to revolving portals in the first "I think tools will evolve," Martel said. "On the EPD looking to capitalize on positive patient experiences for side it may be more restricted in terms of how you create referrals, if not repeat business. Hospital executives At least some MIT students set out to study the situation the EPD to ensure a better comparison. Sustainability is argue, too, that creating as pleasant an experience as a bit more rigorously. They concluded that revolving defined in so many different ways that we need to give possible in an otherwise stressful circumstance helps doors exchange eight times less air than swinging doors, them the information that is relevant and easy to read with medical outcomes. Administrators are not unmindful accounting for thousands of dollars in energy savings. They with as much clarity as possible. I don't think we can go of the importance of patient scores on federally mandated also observed a campus building and discovered that only back; we won't go back to knowing nothing." surveys. 20% to 30% of people were using the revolving doors. Alas, place. "It will always be a work in progress because the inher- At the same time, most hospitals place a great deal of they did not approach students and ask them why they didn't ent nature of a LCA is you're doing an assessment at the import on being green, environmentally friendly, sustainable, use the revolving doors. No doubt the students conducting time you have the information," agreed Firth, "but as a and all of that. But LEED certification is less apparent than the survey were engineers and not sociologists. Pity the company you're always improving, that's your goal." a uniformed valet or a room-service menu. In fact, despite departments didn't collaborate. Companies will want to update EPDs to show im- their avowed approval of things such as saving the whales However, a behavior-modification experiment was provements or reductions they've made. "There is going and rhapsodizing over sunsets, I sometimes wonder just conducted at Columbia Univ. a few years later. It consisted to be continuous effort with EPDs, you'll continue to see how aware most people are when it comes to environmental of putting up informational signs encouraging people to updates, and you'll continue to see more category rules issues and certifications. use the revolving doors. Usage went to 71%, proving, developed to continue the effort," Firth said. Although I could cite many reasons for questioning as expected, that Columbia students could read with "I would say that sustainability is a journey, which is that environmental insight, I'll concentrate on just one- comprehension. I don't know if the experiment has been always going to be a work in progress. You don't ever see revolving doors. While they are generally considered to replicated in the general population. that point where you've arrived; it's always a continual save energy, people don't use them. Now, I lived and worked It's been a while and perhaps my memory is faulty, but I how-can-we-get-better mentality," he concluded. CA in Chicago for many years, and I took revolving doors for seem to remember back in my younger days in the big city, granted, did not find them a burden, and understood their people were fairly actively discouraged from using swinging utility even before the "energy crisis." If memory serves, the doors-by signs. The message was an authoritarian "Don't majority of people used them then. The swinging doors on use this door except in an emergency," not "We don't want either side of an office-building entrance were generally to nag, but pretty please use the revolving door if you feel reserved for emergencies or the UPS delivery guy. like it." Anyway, using the swinging door would often get you Want more information? The resources below are linked on our website at commercialarchitecturemagazine.com and our digital magazine at commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/ digital/sep2016. Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) website EPEA Cradle to Cradle website However, I've lately noticed that library visitors in a city a scowl from the elevator starter. (Some of you may want to some 40 miles from the Loop (and probably elsewhere) have ask a grandparent what an elevator starter was.) Aside from been avoiding revolving doors like Zika mosquitoes-even that, the pressure differential in high-rise buildings often though the library has thoughtfully posted signs thanking made using the swinging doors something to be avoided patrons for using the revolving door and saving energy. The for practical reasons. I remember more than once seeing flaw is that the signs are on the revolving door, and if patrons swinging doors that were shattered when the pressure, don't use it, they'll never see the signs. Rather, the signs usually exacerbated by a high wind, slammed them shut. USGBC: Transparency in Sustainability web page should go on the swinging doors and read something like: So, I still don't know why people hate revolving doors Tarkett's Material Health Statement (MHS) information Unless you are handicapped or this is an emergency, why or if they're just lazy. And isn't hate an overstatement-or Kaiser Permanente Environmental Stewardship website section are you being a thoughtless, selfish [person] and wasting just clickbait? energy by using this door? I thought perhaps these suburbanites, unused to big- How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet article Introduction to Eco-labeling pdf document COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE SEPTEMBER 2016 "journalists" would cut out the overblown prose and city things such as escalators, elevators, and revolving hyperbole. I really hate it. doors, were simply intimidated by them or didn't know - Kenneth W. Betz, Senior Editor HPD Collaborative website 14 Anyway, I wish Internet writers who fancy themselves commercialarchitecturemagazine.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/digital/sep2016 http://www.epea.com/en/node http://epea.com/en/content/cradle-cradle%C2%AE http://www.usgbc.org/education/sessions/transparency-sustainability-4729178 http://www.tarkettna.com/mhs https://share.kaiserpermanente.org/article/environmental-stewardship-overview/ https://share.kaiserpermanente.org/article/excerpts-from-greening-health-care-how-hospitals-can-heal-the-planet/ http://www.globalecolabelling.net/assets/Uploads/intro-to-ecolabelling.pdf http://www.hpd-collaborative.org/ http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture September 2016