Buildings have a huge influence on both physical and mental health and well-being. People not only want to spend their time in healthy buildings, they are increasingly looking for the WELL Certified plaque on the door to validate those healthy spaces.
Accelerating healthy buildings is becoming a more focused strategy across public and private real estate sectors. Momentum behind WELL that has been years in the making picked up even more speed in recent years. As of September 2023, the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) had nearly 25,000 projects certified and rated with WELL and an additional 17,000+ projects enrolled that represent 4.84 billion square feet in 128 countries
Growth in demand for WELL stems from the growing general awareness and concern for the impact of indoor – and outdoor – environments on health and well-being. “The reality is that we have become an indoor generation,” says Dr. Whitney Austin Gray, IWBI’s Senior Vice President, Research. People spend about 90% of their time indoors across the live-work-play spectrum of different types of spaces. “The majority of your life is spent indoors, so people also need to realize that the places where you are spending your time matters in how long and how well you live,” says Gray. Ultimately, that means people are going to start paying more attention to where they are spending their time indoors.
Evidence that shows that WELL can deliver compelling ROI presents a solid business case for employers and property owners. “The physical and mental health benefits of healthy buildings are significant, but to date, those benefits have really been underappreciated and under-leveraged,” says Dr. Matthew Trowbridge, IWBI’s Chief Medical Officer. Research supports the benefits of healthy buildings that range from helping people to sleep better at night and breathe better throughout the day to improving cognition when people are doing complex tasks as a worker or student.
The ROI of WELL
The business case for WELL is backed by research that shows a positive impact in tangible areas such as productivity, employee retention and recruitment and higher property values. A newly published peer-reviewed study in Building and Environment analyzed the impact of WELL Certification using more than 1,300 pre- and post-occupancy survey responses from six companies in North America with analyses conducted at both the aggregate and company level. Specifically, the study showed WELL Certification improved overall occupant satisfaction by nearly 30%, as well as occupant perceived well-being scores by 26%, reported mental health scores by 10% and productivity gains by 10 median points.
Research also reinforces the ROI for property owners to invest in healthy buildings. For example, researchers at MIT examined the relationship between healthy buildings and rental increases in the Boston market, finding sizable rent premiums. Specifically, the results showed that buildings that pursued a healthy building standard, such as WELL, garnered higher effective rents between 4.4% and 7.7% more per square foot compared to their nearby peers that didn’t pursue a healthy building standard.
Although the data to support the ROI for investing in healthy buildings and spaces is an important catalyst, the bigger picture that people need to understand is why health matters and the role that the built environment plays in supporting health and well-being, adds Gray. “Think about if a building could be a pill or prescription for your health and you walked in and reported feeling an improvement in well-being and your mental health,” says Gray. From that perspective, one could go a step further and say that the commercial real estate industry is in a unique position to become the biggest healthcare provider in the world by creating well-being through real estate, she adds.
A healthy workplace has moved more to the forefront of workplace trends as companies try to pull remote workers back to the workplace. One of the ways for employers to show that they value their employees and the time they spend on that commute is by providing a healthy environment, one that has good air quality, natural light and access to healthy water and food. “WELL Certification can give you that roadmap to help bring people back to the workplace, as well as identify how to create equitable, healthy spaces for your entire workforce,” says Gray.
The WELL Roadmap
WELL is a vehicle for buildings and organizations to deliver more thoughtful and intentional spaces that enhance human health and well-being. WELL includes a set of strategies—backed by the latest scientific research—that aim to advance human health through design interventions and operational protocols and policies and foster a culture of health and well-being. Even a simple design change, such as making stairs a more prominent feature, can drive healthy benefits by encouraging daily physical activity. The WELL Building Standard spans 10 concepts that can support health and well-being:
- Air
- Water
- Thermal Comfort
- Light
- Movement
- Nourishment
- Sound
- Mind
- Community
- Materials
IWBI and WELL offer real estate owners, operators and developers across property types a wide range of entry points that help companies, regardless of their size, increase the value of their assets and deliver healthy benefits for their occupants. Those entry points include three thematic ratings that include a performance rating, health-safety rating and equity rating. WELL as a framework is holistic. For large organizations, it was designed very intentionally to be applicable at a portfolio and even an organizational scale. For example, its WELL at scale product offers an opportunity for organizations to choose specific features within WELL, such as access to water, and commit to that at more of a policy level.
“There’s an opportunity to utilize IWBI’s platform and WELL’s catalog of interventions to really help developers, existing building owners, in a very succinct and simple way, find a collection of strategies that they can implement,” says Trowbridge. “It’s not just to organize or catalog those interventions. That WELL seal on the door reassures the workforce, customers and tenants that there’s a very intentional focus on health and well-being occurring in that building.”
Public sector galvanizes action
WELL also is showing a major growth trajectory in the public sector with numerous governments stepping up to do their part to be a leader in healthy buildings. “Unlike any other time before, we’re seeing the government sector prioritize buildings as a prescription for health and well-being, from the White House to city halls across the country,” says Jason Hartke, IWBI’s Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Advocacy.
For example, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted two resolutions focused on endorsing and accelerating healthy building efforts and encouraging mayors and other city leaders to lead by example by improving the health and safety in municipal buildings. Dozens of cities around the country are taking action and using WELL in some capacity. “Those health leadership commitments are shining a light on the importance of buildings as a vehicle for driving positive health outcomes, something that has resonated among mayors everywhere,” he says.
In addition, Miami became the first city in the country to take a portfolio approach to adopt WELL and the health and safety rating for an entire portfolio of municipal facilities. Other cities that have followed suit include Jersey City and Oklahoma City. “When you see these examples of cities adopting WELL across a portfolio of municipal buildings, that’s a signal across the entire community that helps inspire and galvanize the private sector,” says Hartke. “And vice versa, if there is a commercial building leader who is adopting WELL at scale it can spur action among cities that want to make sure those same healthy building benefits are reaching city workers and residents.”