Gina Ciganik is determined to make our buildings healthier. She uses science-based research to raise awareness about the harmful chemicals used in building products, and advocates for a built environment that’s better and safer for people and the planet.
Ciganik is the CEO of the nonprofit Habitable (formerly Healthy Building Network). Before joining the organization in 2015, she worked as a real estate developer, spending two decades creating healthy and efficient affordable homes. Based in Minneapolis, Ciganik is known as a national leader in advancing human and environmental health, and a powerful advocate for equity and environmental justice. Her honors include Finance and Commerce’s Top Women in Finance and the Women in Sustainability Leadership Award.
We spoke to Ciganik as part of our Resilient 7 series paying tribute to housing leaders building a healthier, more sustainable future.
You worked as an affordable housing developer for two decades. In 2013, you had a “wake-up call” when the Living Building Challenge showed you how many building materials contained toxic chemicals. How did this lead you to your role at Habitable?
As a developer, I thought about addressing environmental damage and human health locally, adding more trees, creating a nicely designed and energy-efficient unit with great day lighting. When I was doing my last project, The Rose [a multifamily housing development in Minneapolis], I got much more connected to the lifecycle of materials. Before that, I didn’t think about where my products were being made, what they were made from, and the enormous impact of the built environment.
We tend to be more concerned about lotions we put on our face, the food we put in our mouth, but not about the flooring we walk on, or that the dust coming off those products gets inside our bodies. And we rarely think about where these products came from and the impact on a community.
My work on The Rose caught the attention of national audiences. I was recruited to join Habitable and work with scientists to translate their deep research into actionable solutions. So I went from the micro view of the unit, the site, and the surrounding neighborhood to considering the whole built environment, its role in the materials economy, and how it affected the health of people and the planet.
A Habitable report examining building products commonly used in affordable housing found that 70% of them were the worst-in-class. The organization’s Informed™ tool uses a color guide to label unhealthy products and provides guidance on finding healthier alternatives. Why was it important to come up with this tool?
The minute people learn about how unhealthy products can be, they start to change. So we created this science-based solution to make it easy.
I think of myself as an interpreter. When scientists would give me their 50-page report on the health impact of carpets, for example, I thought, “This is great, however, nobody is going to read all this. Can we summarize it in one paragraph so people can understand it?” That’s one of the most important pieces – translating the complexity into something actionable for non-scientists and non-chemists.
There is no shortage of toxic materials. But what is one recent example of a better product or a success story?
There are many safer alternatives on the market that we see developers and architects use: linoleum floors, cellulose insulation, ceramic tiles. And I’m really excited about product innovations. The Lower Sioux Indian Community here in Minnesota is replacing commonly used plastic insulation with hempcrete, which is made of hemp mixed with lime and water. It’s a plant, it’s carbon neutral, and has great insulation qualities. So they not only have a better product, but it’s leading to green jobs, reducing pollution, and helping a community that has long been oppressed and harmed.
You said the biggest challenge you face in your field is lack of awareness. Most people don’t know about the harms associated with building materials, including the devastating impact in places like Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where some of these products are manufactured. How do you help change this paradigm?
Attention to the harms caused by building materials is often drowned out by the industry’s focus on decarbonization and electrification, but that’s just one part of the holistic piece. If we don’t think more holistically about better materials, we’re letting in lots of plastic insulation types that are made from fossil fuels.
For example, there is a lot of money going to removing lead-based pipes, but what’s being used instead? If it’s PVC and plastic pipes, these materials not only cause negative lifecycle issues, but could also leach toxic chemicals into our water. Let’s do better. You don’t want to swap one set of harms for another.
There is also a lot of manufacturing greenwash. Somehow everything has a green label and is sustainable. We must inform people of the independent research and get them to trust the science.
You have cited the United Nations estimate that by 2060, 2.5 trillion square feet will be constructed, doubling the Earth’s building stock. How do you think about your goal of making buildings healthier given that massive scale?
First, how do we make sure we don’t add 2.5 trillion square feet of construction? Let’s build more efficiently and reuse, not demolish like we tend to. And if 70% of our building products are unhealthy, at 2.5 trillion square feet, we will devastate Earth and humanity.
But that also means we have power. We can literally heal by trusting science. If we start picking better products, we can improve the health of our planet. Real estate is that big – it can really improve the Earth if we start getting it right.
Vesna Jaksic Lowe is an award-winning journalist. This profile is the third in our series, The Resilient 7, celebrating housing leaders charting a course to a healthier, more sustainable future. Read previous installments: Bomee Jung: Helping Housers Build Resilient Homes and Oji Alexander: Building Wealth and Resilience through Homeownership.