Building H #71: Designing for Happiness

Our biggest project at Building H is the Building H index. Last April, our index ranked and rated products and services from 37 companies on how they affect the health of their customers. The report got great national coverage, with Fast Company covering the release and the issue of how the product environment affects public health. We were also pleased that many of the companies we profiled engaged in the process as well.

And now: time for the next edition of the Index! For the 2023 report, we will double the number of companies, adding many in some product categories — like chain restaurants and home builders — that we’ve reviewed before and adding products from new categories, like social media, video and computer games, and automobile manufacturers. And we’ll continue to refine our methodologies, in collaboration with experts in the different domains of health behaviors. We’re excited to work with a terrific team of students from the MPH program at USC — Onelia Hawa, William Henry and Alec McMorris — who have been researching companies, surveying the scientific literature, and reviewing different metrics.

We’re inviting you to participate in two ways. First, as we did with the 2022 Building H Index work, we need volunteers with some background in health to review and score product profiles. It’s about a 20-30 minute exercise and it’s vital to our process (and it’s fun!). Eighty people pitched in last year and we estimate we’ll need 150 people this time, so please sign up and share the opportunity with friends and colleagues.

You can also make a tax-deductible contribution to Building H, through our fiscal sponsor, the Public Health Institute. To date we’ve accomplished a lot through inspiration and volunteer contributions, but we do face some hard costs ahead that require us to write some checks. In particular, we need to field some consumer surveys on how people use different types of products and how their use affects their health. We used information from past surveys extensively throughout the Building H Index and shared the insights in a series of blog posts.

As you or your organization plan your charitable giving this fall, please consider a donation to Building H (go here). We’re setting a goal to raise $25,000 by the end of the year.

Thank you.

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