Bring people back with to a healthy workplace
In recent times, people have become a lot more mindful of their environments and whether they are healthy spaces or not. Jack Noonan outlines the facts of a new Well Performance Rating, a roadmap for buildings keen to put people first.
In the heat of a post-pandemic return to work, people want to know how their buildings are performing for their physical and mental health. Whatever technological upgrades in buildings might have been, ultimately, they are all about the people inside.
A study by the U.S. National Institute of Health has concluded that future building design, construction and operations will focus more on occupant health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic experience. The critical question is what building owners or employers are doing to transform workplaces into healthier, safer and happier environments, and how they are communicating building performance to employees.
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In some parts of the world, this is not new. For those who often travel across Asia, you might see large displays in office buildings telling you what the indoor air quality (IAQ) or contaminant levels are. Interestingly, in parts of Asia, people sometimes go inside for a “breath of fresh air”. However, across much of the western world, we have taken air quality for granted. That is, until a global pandemic reminded us that the performance of the spaces we occupy matters, and that transparency is critical.
The recently launched WELL Performance Rating by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is a timely market tool for smart buildings to showcase their health impact on people, and to help organisations effectively communicate to stakeholders their commitment and efforts to prioritise people’s health and well-being.
Essentially, the WELL Performance Rating provides a roadmap for organisations to demonstrate excellence in occupant experience and building performance across key indoor environmental quality (IEQ) indicators related to air quality, water quality, thermal comfort, acoustics and lighting.
The rating was created with input from many world-class experts and leading companies such as Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Panasonic, Schneider Electric, Carrier, SGS, Trane Technologies and Australia-based Cognian Technologies. During this process, top players in the industry united around a common set of performance thresholds for healthy buildings and best practices for continuous monitoring through the installation of sensor networks to advance human health and experience.
“The WELL Performance Rating puts us on an accelerated path to make buildings smarter for human health, unlocking the use of new technologies and more intelligent approaches to improve and enhance well-being and performance,” says Rachel Hodgdon, president and chief executive of the IWBI.
“Thanks to the contributions of our collaborators from across the globe, the rating will connect building performance with the experience of the people inside, allowing organisations to make actionable what was once invisible through data and occupant insights.”
Companies around the globe can now use this rating to track building performance and communicate health impact through continuous monitoring. The rating is third-party verified. Upon achieving thresholds in key areas, a place becomes WELL Performance Rated by IWBI. The WELL Performance Rating can be earned as a standalone designation or a milestone toward a single-building certification or enterprise commitment. It works in complement to the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management, a subset of features from the WELL Building Standard that focus on operational policies, maintenance protocols and management policies including emergency plans.
Some companies have already adopted the WELL Performance Rating to guide their smart buildings or their clients to achieve desired health and well-being outcomes. These early adopters include Cyclone Energy Group, Delos, Edge Technologies, Ernst & Young (EY), Ethos, GreenJump Sustainability, Honeywell, International Commerce Centre (ICC), Laguna, Nucleus Office Park, StrongLED Smart Lighting, View Inc. and WELL Living Lab (China).
Not surprisingly, these early adopters are companies who have been on the forefront of smart building technologies with a history of commitment to people’s health and well-being through technologies.
Honeywell, a US-based global leading building controls company with operations in more than 75 countries, is now implementing the WELL Performance Rating at its new corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. in the United States.
“Based on research we’ve conducted, people want viable evidence that the buildings they use every day for work, school or care are healthier and use technology that helps to foster their well-being,” says Manish Sharma, vice president and general manager of sustainable buildings, Honeywell Building Technologies.
“Our priority is to deliver an unmatched occupant experience to support the well-being of our employees and guests while also being conscious of our environmental impact.”
In February 2022, Honeywell released a report from its second annual Healthy Buildings Survey, which queried 3,000 office workers in buildings with 500-plus workers in ASEAN, Germany, India, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States. The survey reveals 72% of office workers worldwide worry about air quality in their buildings.
Across Asia-Pacific where building performance metrics are even more scrutinised by people conscious of health impact, companies are eager to leverage a global standard to showcase their building performance.
Sun Hung Kai Properties, a Hong Kong-based developer and owner of the iconic International Commerce Centre (ICC) in Hong Kong has committed to implementing the new WELL Performance Rating in the mega tower.
“The WELL Performance Rating will help us improve our building performance and maintain the International Commerce Centre (ICC) as one of the best business locations in the world for our tenants,” said Lo King-Wai, general manager, Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, ICC.
Once there is trackable data on how smart buildings impact our health and well-being, the imperative for building owners, operators or employers to make adjustments to advance health becomes clear. A global standard such as the WELL Performance Rating helps organisations refocus on workplace strategies. They can now leverage building performance data and occupant experience insights to shift business performance and organisational culture.
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