The ULI  Building Healthy Places Initiative is leveraging the power of ULI’s global networks to shape projects and places in ways that improve the health of people and communities.   The Initiative has recently released the highly anticipated  Building Healthy Places Toolkit: Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment.

The toolkit provides 21 evidence-based recommendations, each with a set of action-oriented strategies, across three categories: physical activity, healthy food and drinking water, and healthy environment and social well-being.  At the heart of the report lies a rigorous review of existing health literature. The recommendations all have strong supporting evidence and include a list of practical implementation strategies and best practices.   Recommendations include:

• Incorporate a mix of land uses
• Provide infrastructure to support biking
• Design visable, enticing stairs to encourage everyday use
• Accommodate a grocery store
• Support on-site gardening and farming
• Ban smoking
• Facilitate social engagement

Developers, owners, property managers, designers, investors, and others involved in real estate decision making can use the report’s recommendations and strategies to create places that contribute to healthier people and communities, and to enhance and preserve value by meeting growing desires for health-promoting places.

Download Toolkit
Read more about ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative