Public health outcomes can be improved by the development community by adopting strategies such as providing bikeways, creating walkable neighbourhoods and offering social and fitness amenities, according to a new publication from the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Building Healthy Places Toolkit: Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment outlines 21 evidence-based recommendations to help developers, owners, property managers, designers and investors understand ways they can integrate healthy practices into real estate development, said the ULI.
“In many communities around the world, the healthy choice is not the easy choice,” said Patrick L. Phillips, ULI’s global chief executive officer. “We know that the built environment has a profound impact on health outcomes. ULI is aiming to encourage development practices that promote health and wellness, physical activity and social interaction. Increasingly, the ability of developers and communities to deliver on health is translating into market value for projects.”
The institute said that it released the report in response to declining health trends and increasing public desire for change, particularly in the United States. It reported that:
- 76 per cent of US millennials think walkability is important in where they live;
- more than half of Americans (51 per cent) want to live in a community that has transit; 53 per cent want to be close to shops, restaurants and offices;
- homes located in neighbourhoods with good walkability are worth US$34,000 more on average than similar homes in neighbourhoods with average walkability; and
- access to sunlight in office buildings increases worker productivity by 15 per cent.
The report’s 21 recommendations for developers are organized into three categories:
- the availability of opportunities to be physically active;
- access to healthy food and drinking water; and
- exposure to a healthy environment with a high degree of social interaction.
The ULI report follows a study by UBC in September 2014 that said the lack of affordable walkable neighbourhoods in Vancouver were damaging health outcomes.
To read the ULI’s report summary, click here, or to download the full report, click here.
