REVIEW: THERME BUCHAREST
GREEN WELLNESS Therme Bucharest, the largest wellbeing project in Europe, is also the first wellbeing resort in the world to be awarded LEED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Sustainable Business Magazine’s George Bell bathed his way through a Romanian ‘wellbeing city’. Therme Bucharest is an organism of a building. It breathes. It maintains itself. Therme Group dub it the world’s first fully sustainable spa. The idea was partly driven by urbanization. “By 2050, predictions say 68% of people will live in an urban environment,” explains Duncan Newbury, Marketing Director for Therme Group UK. “This is a challenge.” But it’s also an opportunity for ‘wellbeing cities’. Any urban dweller and businessperson reading this article will be familiar with the downsides of urban life and technology – from mild ennui to alienation, depression, and health problems. The global wellbeing movement, at its best, is founded in a recognition that the way we organize our societies in the 21st century isn’t always in tune with the emotional and physical requirements of living, breathing humans. This motivation is felt whilst strolling through Therme Bucharest. Over 1,500 palm trees amongst a total of around 800,000 plants from 200 species - and a grand total of 0 artificial plants - fill the building, alongside resplendent natural light. “Just as we have wellbeing for people, we have 72 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
