Southface Institute: Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a manufacturing and supply chain shortage for hospitals and clinics across the nation. With an immediate need for circularity in the healthcare industry, many companies, research centers and medical centers are creating equipment, medical supplies and other PPE supplies that can be reused.

As "shelter in place" orders have been made to control the spread of COVID-19, the world’s data centers and internet infrastructure are experiencing a rise in usage. This is because people are spending all their time at home using videoconferencing, collaboration software and other streaming services.

Your home should be your sanctuary—an inviting place where you can rest, rejuvenate and heal from life’s daily stressors. These days, it is where you may be spending most of your waking hours, trying to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and healthy. But creating a haven takes more than investing in trendy decorations and a security system. It also means getting serious about what you allow (and don’t allow) inside your home and saying “no” to harmful pollutants and chemicals. These simple yet powerful changes can transform the health and safety of your home without a ton of time or money.

In early March, researchers published "2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak: A Review of the Current Literature and Built Environment (BE) Considerations to Reduce Transmission," a paper summarizing how to control COVID-19 and other similar pathogens from spreading throughout the built environment.

A viral pandemic makes our connections clear, yet the same intertwined network is always part of our community health, though seen (or unseen) in different ways. We hope you find insightful context in this republished summary of our April 2019 Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable panel, featuring local experts speaking on “Healthy Homes, Health Families” and the broad vision of what is needed to improve the health of every member of the community, especially the underserved.