The U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC), part of the organization responsible for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rankings, recently launched the Building Health Initiative. The Initiative, which is consists of 27 prominent corporations including, Adobe, CalPERS, Google, Kaiser Permanente, and salesforce.com, seeks to address the topic of green building from a health prospective.

The Initiative builds on anecdotal evidence suggesting that LEED-certified buildings improve concentration and productivity levels among people. As a part of the Initiative, Adobe will study its LEED certified workplaces to determine the correlation between employee performance and health. Other participants will engage in similar studies during the course of the Initiative.

The Initiative is part of an effort to expand the conversation surrounding green building to emphasize the impact of the built environment on human health, happiness, and performance and the role healthy buildings can play in the creation of healthy communities. The Initiative is scheduled to last for two years, during which time, USGBC-NCC plans to host, along with its partners, a series of educational events. Stay tuned.

To read more about the Building Health Initiative, click here.