Lecture - Health, Architecture and Sustainability by Karen Lee, Deputy Director, NYC Dept. of Health

Lecture - Health, Architecture and Sustainability by Karen Lee, Deputy Director, NYC Dept. of Health 7:00pm Lecture, Thursday January 24, 2008, University of Miami, Whitten Learning Center 120

Last month, I wrote a post titled: What can dieting teach us about Environmental Consciousness...??? where I related dieting to sustainability. This lecture will present a variation of what I wrote on. See how the summary below compares to my post.

In NYC, the Department of Health is currently working with the American Institute of Architects, NY Chapter, to promote physical activity through design. Physical inactivity and poor diets are second only to tobacco as the major causes of premature deaths, and chronic diseases such as diabetes/heart disease/cancer now account for over 70% of our deaths. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese and 1/3 are obese. Just as design and infrastructure interventions have helped us to address previous infectious disease epidemics (e.g. clean water supply, building infrastructure requiring potable water/sanitation/light and air, etc), design and infrastructure interventions have an important role to play in helping society combat our current epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases. Furthermore, there are synergies to be had between interventions that promote physical activity and interventions that can help to address our current environmental crisis: biking/walking/public transportation rather than cars, stair use rather than elevator and escalator use, active recreation rather than TV viewing. There is now a good body of scientific evidence that specific types of design interventions can be used to increase active modes of transportation, stair use and active recreation.

For those unfamiliar with the University of Miami Campus parking may be found in the lots off of Pisano Avenue. Please refer to the Campus Map found at http://www6.miami.edu/maps/ for further information.This event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by The University of Miami and The South Florida Emerging Green Builders