by Shane Henson — June 26, 2013—The benefits of constructing sustainable buildings are numerous, yet so are the dangers to those involved in their construction, according to an article released in the June issue of Professional Safety, a journal published by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).
The article, Sustainable Buildings—Applying Prevention Through Design, notes that with sustainable building becoming a trend in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, a growing number of jobsite hazards associated with their design elements have been identified.
The most recognized sustainable building initiative is the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a certification that evaluates the potential environmental performance of a building over its life cycle. Research has found that LEED-certified projects incur higher Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable injury rates than conventional construction projects due to widely used design elements and construction practices employed to attain LEED certification, say the article’s authors, Mohammed Albattah, Marielle Roucheray and Matthew Hallowell.
The authors explain that when it comes to sustainable buildings, the construction industry’s current perspective has focused on resource efficiency in terms of positive environmental impact, reduction of utility costs, and the health of its final occupants. However, sustainability should incorporate the effects of a building throughout its entire life cycle. This includes the health and safety of workers on the construction site, advise the authors.
In addition to the article examining the increased hazards in the construction of sustainable buildings, it offers tools to mitigate the risks early in a project’s development, including through prevention through design (PTD). As the authors explain, PTD is a deliberate consideration of construction worker safety and health in the design of a building.
In advocating for PTD in sustainable buildings, the article describes recent research identifying specific exposures to hazards connected to sustainable building components, the magnitudes of their impacts and the methods of risk mitigation, a Web-based tool that organizes PTD information into a single decision support system, and the results of pilot testing this tool on active projects with experienced professionals.
