Commitment to Health and Equity in the Built Environment

The "Commitment to Health and Equity in the Built Environment" reads as follows:

I share the capacity and responsibility to prioritize health outcomes through my work. Collectively with my colleagues, industry partners, and community leaders, I will:

● Provide affordable and accessible housing, support services, healthcare, transportation, parks, and education;

● Provide access to high-quality air, water, and nutrition;

● Improve mental health (through stress prevention and reduction, a sense of safety, etc.);

● Promote social well-being (social connections, community cohesion, a sense of belonging);

● Encourage healthy behaviors such as physical activity (active living, walking, exercise);

● Protect or restore site-based ecologies (biodiversity and habitat, water and waste management, access to light, and sound pollution);

● Realize environmental comfort (thermal, acoustic, visual, physical).

By acting on this commitment I will do my part to repair long-standing inequities that exist in our communities. Through my work, I will:

● Recognize the capital value of a healthy environment in the marketplace and make the case for the cost of inaction;

● Set clear and achievable health and social equity goals for each project in partnership with the communities with which we are working;

● Hold ourselves and our teams accountable for the health and social equity outcomes of our work;

● Employ evidence-based strategies and best practices to achieve these health goals;

● Partner with community stakeholders, health researchers, and clinicians as needed to improve our understanding of and dialogue with the lived experiences of a given community;

● Proactively identify unintended health impacts of our work and commit to rectifying shortcomings where they are found;

● Understand outcomes by tracking project and organizational performance against these goals;

● Continuously expand our collective knowledge base by engaging in research initiatives and collaborative partnerships and by sharing case studies in support of this work;

● Advocate for health and social equity in conversations about development and land use;

● Bring the health and social equity lens to all ULI initiatives we participate in.

To act on this commitment most effectively, we must understand and elevate the work of those already engaged in the communities we seek to work with, including community members, public agencies and institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and other professionals.

I will seek to build partnerships within and outside the ULI network that help promote, lead, and champion our goals and our commitment to health and social equity in our communities.

Through the work outlined above, we are committed to ULI’s mission of shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.