LBC Petal – Health & Happiness
The Living Building Challenge calls for creating healthy spaces that allow all species to thrive by connecting people to nature and ensuring that our indoor spaces have healthy air and natural daylight.
Health + Happiness is one of the Seven Petals of the Living Building Challenge.
When creating the Stanley Center’s new home, the physical and psychological well-being of our employees was at the forefront of our design. Providing a space where every individual employee could comfortably and efficiently work and thrive was essential. In each office, we incorporated a thermostat, a height-adjustable desk, and an operable window, or alternatively, a plant wall with a skylight. In addition to offices, the Stanley Center’s open-concept living room and café space on the first floor provides our staff with flexible work options, as well as four different collaboration rooms for various uses. Wellness rooms and a gym ensure that spaces for mental and physical health are available to all.
Access to nature was an essential aspect of the Living Building Challenge. At the Stanley Center, we have over 300 plants, with native Iowa plants displayed throughout the exterior landscaping. Inside the building, the living room features two separate lettuce walls and four full-sized trees. Our courtyard doubles as a garden and provides access to natural light for our offices. Vegetables and herbs grow in our courtyard, from where a certain percentage of our produce will be donated to our neighbor, the Muscatine Center for Social Action.
CREDIT: Cameron Campbell, Integrated Studios
The health of our employees is also dependent on the type of cleaning supplies that we incorporate into our cleaning practices. All cleaning products that we use have been purposefully selected from the EPA’s Safer Choice website, based on the Safer Choice Standard. The pesticides that are used to care for our plants were chosen from the Organic Materials Review Institute database for organic products. Air quality is equally important to employee health; therefore, Merv 13 filters are utilized in our HVAC equipment and are regularly replaced. Along with the Merv 13 filters, our plants also play a key role in improving our air quality.
Learn more about the Health + Happiness Petal of the Living Building Challenge.