Southface Institute: Blog

Research shows that coronavirus infections spread more easily indoors because of dense areas and shared airspace. With office spaces moving toward a more open concept, we are seeing more occupants, new ventilation improvements that allow for filtered air over fresh air and more energy-efficient offices. Indoor air quality is becoming the main focus as businesses reopen, and sustainability experts are hopeful that it presents an opportunity to create more sustainable ventilation systems.

Think you know everything about keeping a healthy home? Prove it! Take the quiz and see if you can spot the facts from the fiction when it comes to maintaining a clean and safe living space.

Your home should be your sanctuary—an inviting place where you can rest, rejuvenate and heal from life’s daily stressors. These days, it is where you may be spending most of your waking hours, trying to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and healthy. But creating a haven takes more than investing in trendy decorations and a security system. It also means getting serious about what you allow (and don’t allow) inside your home and saying “no” to harmful pollutants and chemicals. These simple yet powerful changes can transform the health and safety of your home without a ton of time or money.

A viral pandemic makes our connections clear, yet the same intertwined network is always part of our community health, though seen (or unseen) in different ways. We hope you find insightful context in this republished summary of our April 2019 Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable panel, featuring local experts speaking on “Healthy Homes, Health Families” and the broad vision of what is needed to improve the health of every member of the community, especially the underserved.

On May 15, 2019, plumber Ramel Herring and a partner, both from Legwork Plumbing Solutions, visited Atlanta resident Paulette Harris to deliver free plumbing repairs as part of Southface Institute’s Care & Conserve Plumbing Repair Program (CCPRP) funded by the City of Atlanta, Department of Watershed Management.

This spring, thanks to a $5 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, global humanitarian organization CARE launched an interior renovation of its downtown Atlanta office building, which has served as its global headquarters for the last 25 years.

  This article was originally published under Sustainable Communities: Thought Leadership on SaportaReport on March 19, 2018. Spring is the season of rejuvenation — and for many, home reorganization. Freshly …

Continue reading "Health Starts At Home This Spring"

Building America, a Department of Energy program, awarded Southface a grant to investigate indoor air quality (IAQ) in new and existing homes. Working with key industry experts, Southface expects to research the anticipated link between IAQ and chronic health problems.

The average American spends 90% of his/her day indoors, where pollutants can be more dangerous than outdoors. ECOS paint, owned by Imperial Paints, is used to mitigate harmful chemicals from an interior paint and lessen the health impacts for building occupants, and Southface is proud to feature it in our refresh.

The USGBC’s goal is to provide a program that gives building teams tools to develop high-performance, healthy living spaces. Southface utilizes this tool to provide technical assistance and sustainability consulting services for many clients interested in providing healthy environments in their homes, school, offices, and clinics.