The rise of
buildings & places
that help me thrive
How the WELL Building Standard sparked a movement
Published in collaboration with International WELL Building InstituteTM
Principal author Lynne Blundell
Disclaimer While the strategies in the WELL Building Standard and related offerings are designed to support health and well-being, an individual’s health and well-being are determined by a number of factors particular to that individual. Achievement of WELL Certification or any other rating or designation by IWBI does not in any way guarantee, represent or warrant that the individuals in a space, building or organisation will be healthy or healthier, and achievement of the WELL Certification or any other rating or designation from IWBI does not in any way guarantee that a space will be free from viruses or other pathogens, bacteria, allergens or volatile organic compounds.
Trademarks International WELL Building Institute pbc is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delos Living LLC. International WELL Building Institute, IWBI, the WELL Building Standard, WELL v2, WELL Certified, WELL AP, WELL Portfolio, WELL Portfolio Score, The WELL Conference, We Are WELL, the WELL Community Standard, WELL Health-Safety Rating, WELL Health-Safety Rated, WELL Health-Equity, WELL Performance, WELL Enterprise Provider, WELL EP, WELL and others, and their related logos are trademarks or certification marks of International WELL Building Institute in the United States and other countries.
Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
Contents Chapter 1 The building revolution heating up for health & well-being ������������������������������������4 Tenants’ strong appetite for WELL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Investors apply greater scrutiny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 So what does the WELL Building Standard look like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 WELL standards & programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chapter 2 Lendlease drives leadership in buildings for healthier outcomes ��������������������� 21
Chapter 3 National University of Singapore’s commitment to positive impact on human health. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter 4 Investa engaged early with a new human well-being standard ������������������������� 31
Chapter 5 Canada’s Oxford Properties Group - leading by example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Melbourne Quarter, Melbourne. Photo: Lendlease
CHAPTER 1
The building revolution
4
heating up
for health & well-being
Creating buildings that provide access to fresh air and natural light and are designed to encourage people to be physically active and socially connected has never been such an important priority. While not a new concept, what is relatively new is the rapid and widespread acceptance about how these health and well-being features can positively impact health and, ultimately, help people thrive.
This concept and the science behind it are the foundations of the International WELL Building Institute’s (IWBI) WELL Building Standard (WELL). Launched in October 2014, WELL integrates the science and medical research with building design, operations and management. Its features address physical and mental health and well-being across 10 core concepts and can be applied to whole buildings, spaces within buildings, large property portfolios, communities or entire organisations. 5
Explosive demand for WELL
Cumulative space across all WELL programs globally is 3 billion square feet or 300 million square metres as of December 2021
6
The uptake of WELL offerings has exploded sixfold since early 2020. According to Jack Noonan, vice president Asia Pacific of IWBI, the global growth in the uptake of WELL reflects a growing international awareness
“What we’ve seen over the past 12 to 18 months is exponential growth in the uptake of various WELL programs.”
of the importance of personal health and wellbeing and the critical role buildings can play in our health. “What we’ve seen over the past 12 to 18 months is exponential growth in the uptake of various WELL programs,” he says. That growth has been continuously rising and is tracking at about 700,000 square metres of newly registered projects per day as of late 2021. Noonan says a large part of that growth was in Asia Pacific as people decided to reprioritise their health and well-being, elevating the idea of a health focused building. By November 2021, there were more than 33,000 projects enrolled in WELL programs and 16,000 certified or rated projects.
JACK NOONAN
JLL’s office at Shanghai’s HKRI Taikoo Hui
7
According to Rachel Hodgdon, IWBI president and chief executive officer, there’s a good reason for the growing appetite. “The world is searching for every possible solution in COVID-19 recovery, and we know for a fact that we can activate the spaces and places where we spend our lives as a first line of defence in this fight. “There are over three billion square feet (more than 300 million square metres) of real estate now enrolled, rated or certified in WELL offerings, across almost 100 countries. This significant engagement demonstrates a desire to activate people-first places, as well as work to address gaps in health equity policies” “How an organisation tracks report and improves on human and social capital metrics, metrics that address health and humanity are routinely underreported by companies, misunderstood by investors and undervalued in ESG scores.
“That’s why leading-edge companies aren’t waiting for regulatory bodies or industries to mandate or even incentivise this shift. Rather than just saying people are their greatest asset, they’re acting on it by way of their real estate and embracing the fundamental truth that high-performing businesses require high-performing people”, says Rachel. Ann Marie Aguilar, senior vice president IWBI, Europe, Middle East and Africa says that for the past several years, there has also been increased demand across Europe, the Middle East and now Africa “for people-first places”. “With thousands of projects encompassing more than 20 million square metres, the uptake of WELL strategies across the region is significant – and growing. “Worldwide, the rapid adoption of WELL underscores the fact that building owners, developers and operators, as well as corporate tenants, are taking notice of the impact healthier building environments have on people.”
JLL’s reception at Shanghai’s HKRI Taikoo Hui
In March 2017, JLL Shanghai’s new and WELL Certified office kicked off a “future of work” framework to encourage collaboration, openness, knowledge sharing and innovation, and ultimately, to promote employees’ health and well-being as intended by JLL’s strategies adopted from the WELL Building Standard. In 2018, JLL released the data it tracked under its Productivity Index. Over 92 per cent of employees were proud of their workplace. Sick leave among the nearly 400 employees dropped by 20 per cent in first quarter of 2018 as compared with that in 2017 prior to the relocation. The smart and eco-friendly lighting control system reduced JLL’s electricity consumption by 41 per cent while providing health-promoting lighting comfort. This kind of interconnectedness between buildings and the health, wellbeing and performance of people has become front and centre catalysed by COVID-19. 9
In Australia, there is an interesting market factor driving demand. The country stands as a particularly strong market for the program – in the top five globally as at December 2021 – possibly because of the wellknown competitive spirit of the real estate industry alongside its equally well-known collaborative nature, according to Noonan. Australia has strong networking practices through associations, such as The Property Council of Australia, where information and achievements are widely shared. The biggest momentum has come from the large real estate owners, which then influences the rest of the market.
Canadian based Oxford Properties Group, which bought Australia’s Investa Office Fund in 2018, says the pandemic spurred WELL ratings for its company. The company’s sustainability manager Marlee Kohn says the entire portfolio has achieved the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management (WELL HealthSafety Rating) and it’s now working on applying WELL strategies across its real estate portfolio via IWBI’s WELL Portfolio program. “Achieving the WELL Health-Safety Rating has also helped building occupants make the transition from COVID-19 lockdown back to the workplace, particularly in Oxford’s Canadian properties. In the US the return has been a little slower, but the rating has given people more confidence,” says Kohn.
“Achieving the WELL HealthSafety Rating has…helped building occupants make the transition from COVID-19 lockdown back to the workplace.” Marlee Kohn
10
MARLEE KOHN
Jack Noonan
But that’s not the only influence. Noonan says the industry has been on the cusp of a healthy buildings revolution for a while now. Major environmental focused building rating tools such as the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star and NABERS both have indoor environment quality (IEQ) metrics included, “But,” he says, “WELL has been so successful because it has taken it to another level. “WELL also has a more holistic view and looks at how organisations can influence people’s health and well-being outside of the four walls of an office. It looks at organisational culture, equity, and much broader social sustainability concepts impacting health and well-being. IEQ is fundamental, but WELL goes beyond this. “It is also an international tool and the leaders in the Australian market want to show they are leading internationally.” There is growing global awareness that by creating healthier buildings and a culture that prioritises human well-being, employers will benefit from a healthier, more productive workforce and building owners and property investors gain a higher-valued asset. The wider community benefits – the idea that an organisation or building can impact public health more broadly - are a new concept for many, but one that is gathering pace, according to Noonan.
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Citi Tower at One Bay East, Hong Kong
Tenants’ strong appetite for WELL There has also been growing demand from tenants for health-focused buildings. In Australia, WELL projects, until recently, were made up of two thirds building owner projects and one third tenant projects. This is the reverse of the US project mix, where tenant projects dominate. Since the COVID pandemic, there has been a shift in the Australian mix as an increasing number of tenants want healthier environments. “Even where the building is WELL Certified, tenants now seek WELL Certification for their leasehold areas,” Noonan says. Building owners are on board because anything that helps create “sticky” tenants is desirable. They can demonstrate they offer a health-focused building and that they provide amenities above and beyond anywhere else.
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WELL offers a way of bringing the various aspects of an organisation together so that it transforms the enterprise. The potential is that the WELL journey stimulates the development of a better and more health-focused culture. The growing emphasis on environmental, social and governance credentials, or ESG, is also a major influencer in the rise of WELL globally. Rachel Hodgdon says there is growing attention to real estate assets as corporates tackle their performance on ESG metrics. “Over the course of the pandemic, we have begun to see real estate is taking centre stage in the corporate efforts to enhance ESG performance. “A key reason our customers cite today for electing to pursue WELL across their enterprise is specifically for the purpose of enhancing their ESG performance. Solutions to advance people’s health and well-being in real estate are increasingly seen as a way to crack the code on the social pillar or the S in ESG.”
Jack Noonan delivers presentation at Deakin University
Investors apply greater scrutiny In recent years large real estate owners and institutional investors have started to search for more stringent sustainability metrics for their portfolios in response to growing stakeholder demands to prove that “what’s under the hood” matches “what it says on the label”. Organisations such as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) track ESG performance by owners on a comparative basis, while influential investors such as Larry Fink, who runs the world’s biggest fund manager, BlackRock, underscores the critical importance of better environmental and social performance in his yearly missive to investor chief executives. According to Jack Noonan, “It’s been quite easy for some time now to demonstrate what good environmental performance looks like.
“In the same way, it’s been relatively easy to show what good governance looks like with initiatives like board diversity and risk management practices. “Social sustainability, though, has been quite difficult for organisations to get their heads around and to work out which community engagement or health and well-being projects are good and how they compare with what their peers are doing.” This is where achievements in WELL have played an increasingly important role. It is a third party verified assessment of health and well-being that translates and measures an organisation’s commitment to its most valuable asset, its people. And it shows what good social sustainability can look like.
15
“How an organisation tracks reports and improves on human and social capital metrics, metrics that address health and humanity, are routinely underreported by companies, misunderstood by investors and undervalued in ESG scores. That’s why leadingedge companies aren’t waiting for regulatory bodies or industries to mandate or even incentivise this shift. Rather than just saying people are their greatest asset, they’re acting on it by way of their real estate and embracing the fundamental truth that high-performing businesses require high-performing people.” RACHEL HODGDON
16
The social sustainability lens of WELL has been enhanced with the necessary adoption of new features including a recent addition of a domestic violence credit. This has helped push awareness that domestic violence is not only a social issue, but a public health issue as well. Other aspects of the standard such as diversity and inclusion, accessibility, universal design and providing spaces for neuro-diverse people are focused on the health of the individual, but also address a wider social aspect. Another example is modern slavery. “This is clearly a public health issue because people affected by modern slavery have poor health outcomes. We’re trying to put a lot of these topics on the agenda and gathering information internationally about what best practice and leadership looks like,” Noonan says.
So what does the WELL Building Standard look like? The scheme contains 24 preconditions that every project must achieve to cover the fundamentals of a healthy space or building and then organisations can select features that are important to them. These cover concepts including mental health, physical activity, nourishment or air and water quality. In most projects there is a fairly even spread across air quality, water quality, nourishment, light, movement, sound, thermal comfort, mental
“We’re not in the business of just handing out plaques and ratings. That is not what we’re trying to do with the WELL Building Standard. “Market transformation is about getting organisations to do things differently. If we’re going to really transform the market, we need to demonstrate what leadership looks like in a particular area and get organisations to strive for that leadership. “We want HR managers, architects, engineers, project owners to shift their behaviour and the way they do things so that eventually best practice becomes standard practice. “That’s the whole point of a rating tool and why we exist – to shift behaviour.”
health, materials and community-building. The focus can also change depending on who is the key stakeholder responsible for the project. This is a significant advance on concerns from three or four year ago when sustainability managers led activity with a stronger focus on air, materials and thermal comfort, and less on things like mental health and nourishment. Jack Noonan says, “now we have HR managers in the room so they are more likely to look at the social and mental well-being aspects. There is also the rise of the chief wellness officer so more and more spaces are providing benefits such as sit/stand desks and there are more ergonomics assessments. It is important to have a broad range of people around the table.” 17
WELL standards & programs WELL v2 WELL v2 is the latest version of WELL Building Standard and is designed to cover all project types and sectors. There are 10 concepts in WELL v2, each with distinct health intents:
AIR
WATER
NOURISHMENT
LIGHT
MOVEMENT
THERMAL COMFORT
SOUND
MATERIALS
MIND
COMMUNITY
WELL v2 projects fall into one of two main groups: •
Owner-occupied: The project is mainly occupied by the project owner (which may be different to the building owner).
•
WELL Core (base buildings): The project owner occupies a small portion of the project area and rents/leases most of the space to one or more tenants.
WELL HEALTH-SAFETY RATING A stand-alone rating that includes a subset of WELL Building Standard features – specifically 22 strategies focused on operational policies, maintenance protocols, emergency plans and stakeholder engagement.
WELL FOR PORTFOLIOS AND ORGANISATIONS Application of WELL strategies can be applied at portfolio or enterprise levels. This is designed to help organisations scale impact and can be applied across a portfolio of properties, and may or may not include pursuit of WELL Certification and/or WELL Health-Safety Rating across an organisation’s real estate portfolio. 18
COOKFOX Architects, New York office
Daramu House, Barangaroo South, Sydney. Photo: Lendlease
CHAPTER 2
Lendlease drives leadership in buildings
for healthier outcomes Lendlease has long been a leader in sustainable property and is also something of a trailblazer in creating healthier buildings. In 2020 the company was the world’s first property owner to achieve a WELL Score for its office portfolio and Australia’s first to achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.
Lendlease offices. Photo: Lendlease
The WELL scope applies to properties in Lendlease’s Australian managed office portfolio including the three towers at Sydney’s regeneration precinct Barangaroo, and International House, Australia’s first engineered-timber commercial workspace, also at Barangaroo. Towers One, Two and Three were also among the first to be awarded WELL Certification for Core & Shell at the Platinum level.
The Sky Park, Melbourne Quarter. Photo: Lendlease
21
The above infographic denotes the number of people impacted based on reported occupancy data.
Lendlease offices, Sydney
22
In 2020 Lendlease was the world’s first property owner to achieve a WELL Score for its office portfolio and Australia’s first to achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.
“We use positive psychology to help people buffer against mental illness, bolstering mental health during pandemics and building positive processes and capabilities, not just focusing on what’s happening today but thinking about the future.” DUNCAN YOUNG
Duncan Young, Lendlease’s head of health and well-being, says achieving a WELL Score for the Lendlease office property portfolio was an opportunity for the company to showcase wellbeing from a listed property point of view and also a continuation of work and research into well-being that Lendlease has been doing for years. “We had some [preliminary] well-being initiatives that just seamlessly slid into WELL once the scheme became available,” Young says. One of these was research on discretionary food in the workplace. Lendlease was able to cut out 1022 kilos of sugar in one year by changing food offered within its buildings to high fibre, low added sugar. Another program in partnership with Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Queensland University addressed problems associated with the sedentary habits of knowledge workers.
The most recent initiative is a global positive psychology program in partnership with leading academics and the Michelle McQuaid positive psychology movement. “We use positive psychology to help people buffer against mental illness, bolstering mental health during pandemics and building positive processes and capabilities, not just focusing on what’s happening today but thinking about the future” “So behind our WELL Certification and everything we do there’s a whole lot of research and academic input that flows through all of our buildings. We showcase it but also share our findings across all our tenancies.”
Lendlease offices, Sydney
Detailed information gathered over 2000 days from accelerometers worn by Lendlease employees was built into the design of the Lendlease workplace at Barangaroo, with 41 per cent of all workspace settings sit-to-stand or standing type.
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According to Liam Timms, fund manager, Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust, the WELL Certification was an opportunity to have its commitment to health and well-being validated by a third party.
“Following the introduction of WELL we’ve seen more demand from tenants and investors for WELL certification with interest growing over the last couple of years,” says Ann Austin, head of sustainability, Australia.
“We have a saying in our team ‘we don’t bring companies to work, we bring people to work’.
“We have definitely seen a deeper awareness of the role of buildings in supporting wellbeing and an appetite for excellence in this space amongst our customers. Certification programs like WELL and Green Star help us demonstrate our commitment to excellence in providing healthy, sustainable places for our customers.”
“We’re very focused on how we enhance the experience for individuals. When WELL Core and Shell was done at Barangaroo it was also a first for WELL so there was a lot of information sharing and learning. “It involved us committing ourselves both in terms of people, the data and lessons we had as well as a substantial financial commitment. Support from all parts of our business made that happen. “It took about 12 months from the initial conversation to the end of the process – an enormous amount of document sharing and an enormous amount of benchmarking had to be done.”
Liam Timms agrees. He says not only is wellbeing embedded into business, those companies that truly embrace it benefit financially. The performance of the International Towers Sydney Trust, three times named the best sustainable development fund by GRESB (the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark), backs that up.
“We have a saying in our team, ‘We don’t bring companies to work, we bring people to work.’ ” LIAM TIMMS
24
In the 2021 GRESB Assessment, the fund achieved a GRESB-first ever score of a perfect 100, and ranking globally first in the office sector.
“I’ve got one of the best performing funds, with a high unit price, because of applying a holistic view on ESG and well-being to our assets.
The fact that GRESB factors in well-being credentials such as WELL Certification and WELL Health-Safety Rating achievements and is highly valued as an investor benchmark clearly shows what investors hold in high value, Timms says.
And the businesses I’ve partnered with, those that have moved into the buildings, are resilient long-term businesses in their own markets that understand the value of what they’re in – so they weren’t ringing me up when the market hit a speed bump during the pandemic.”
“I just issued a bond in local market off the back of the fund. I did back-to-back interviews with multiple investors – 40 interviews over two days pitching the bond. “There was not one investor who didn’t ask a question about ESG and well-being. It’s clear that it is absolutely on everyone’s agenda. A couple of years ago I did a bond off the fund in the US and that did not happen.” The value of workplace well-being is also reflected in the share price of listed trusts and companies much more than people realise. The resilience of companies that place a high value on ESG and health and well-being has also become apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Buildings that can demonstrate their WELL and ESG credentials attract like-minded companies, Timms says. And with people representing the major part of a company’s costs, while real estate is about 7-8 per cent, a building that enhances health and wellbeing and productivity of employees is a very sound investment. “We attract businesses that already have policies of good business practice, including flexibility, agile environments and team culture. “COVID probably drove a hot sword through archaic, inflexible workplaces. Disciplined and good ESG and well-being practices are very important to the financial outcome for any business. I’ve had proven experience of it with our occupiers during COVID and it has further reinforced my conviction.” 25
CHAPTER 3
National University of Singapore’s
commitment to
positive impact on human health
National University of Singapore. All images courtesy of School of Design and Environment and Serie Architects. Photography by Rory Gardiner
26
The SDE campus has four flagship buildings – SDE4, Singapore’s first purpose-built net-zero energy building, SDE1 and 3, a low carbon and super-low energy adaptivereuse development, and a proposed SDE2 hybrid development, which is aiming for net-positive energy and net-zero water use.
“Well and Green” is the tag line for the School of Design and Environment (SDE) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). It promotes the philosophy that buildings must be designed to have a positive impact on human health and well-being as well as the environment. It is certainly something SDE lives up to judging by its sustainability achievements, including a swathe of design awards and commitment to reaching WELL Certifications across its buildings. The SDE campus has four flagship buildings – SDE4, Singapore’s first purpose-built net-zero energy building, SDE1 and 3, a low carbon and super-low energy adaptive-reuse development, and a proposed SDE2 hybrid development, which is aiming for netpositive energy and net-zero water use. Embodied carbon will also be carefully considered in construction methods and materials to track the total carbon use for the SDE2 development. All four buildings consider human health and well-being as fundamental to their design. The approach is paying dividends. SDE4 is the first building in Southeast Asia to be awarded the stringent Zero Energy Certification by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and the first in Singapore to achieve the WELL Health Safety Rating along with SDE1. Building 1 also took out the Best of the Best and top in the Learning Space category in the 2021 INDE Awards – which covers buildings across the Indo-Pacific region – as well an award in the 2021 International Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum of Architecture and Design. NUS is also the first university in the world to enrol for WELL at portfolio level.
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“Our sense of comfort is not just about temperature – it’s multi-faceted.” PROFESSOR LAM KHEE POH
Professor Lam Khee Poh, Dean of the School of Environment and Design, is well known for his holistic approach to building design. He says that central to his training as an architect and to his subsequent research has been a focus on the four key aspects of human well-being – physiological, psychological, sociological and economic. On returning to NUS five years ago after teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, he initiated links with organisations such as IWBI and its parent company Delos to establish a collaborative research framework. “An important part of these collaborations was that we had our own building that gave us the opportunity to implement WELL Certification. It was not designed for WELL because it was built in the 1970s, but because we adhered to the four principles of human well-being [in the retrofit], and those elements are inherent in WELL, we were a long way there already,” Professor Lam says. While all the buildings incorporate the latest technology, a significant part of achieving energy and water efficiency, as well as a healthier environment, was encouraging behavioural change and perception of comfort.
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“Firstly, we offered a healthy and very comfortable environment – a most important starting point to convince our students and staff that in order to be energy efficient we don’t have to subject them to sweat and discomfort. “People think green buildings will be uncomfortable, especially in Singapore. There is also a tendency to cool everything too much and that is not good in terms of health and air quality because the air is recycled.” “Then for the energy and water savings we have to teach them to be aware of turning things off when they’re not in use.” SDE4 achieves high level of fresh air because the building is cooled to 26 degrees Celsius rather than the usual 20 degrees, which also means a 60 per cent energy saving. “Ninety per cent of people feel very comfortable at this temperature,” says Professor Lam citing findings from a study done on temperature and air velocity. “The reason for that is our sense of comfort is not just about temperature – it’s multifaceted. One of our enhancing features is ceiling fans. Air movement induces a better comfort sensation. And finally, the fact it is 100 per cent fresh air makes a lot of difference.”
SDE’s commitment to creating a positive impact on health and well-being through buildings guide its continuous efforts on holistic research on built environments, as an example, it has embarked on research with the Minnesota based Well Living Lab on the effect of indoor environments on human health and well-being. In one project, health and well-being parameters in SDE4 were measured, including adaptation time for students when moving from the outdoors into the building. “The students run from class to class and in Singapore the outdoors is pretty hot.” The PhD student did a detailed study on adaptation times and comfort when coming into our building versus another building,” “The thing about an educational establishment is the students are not in one place, unlike an office. The students run from class to class and in Singapore the outdoors is pretty hot. The PhD student did a detailed study on adaptation times and comfort when coming into our building versus another building,” Professor Lam says. “The adaptation results for our building, because the contrast in coming from 32 degrees into 26 degrees is not large, was about 10 minutes. For other buildings the adaptation is as long as 40
minutes because the contrast is dramatic. By the time they adapt, their class is over. The CO2 level is also too high.” The faculty has also partnered with health professionals to research the transmission of COVID-19 in buildings such as SDE4, including the effect of fresh air and ceiling fans on droplet dispersion. The results were extremely encouraging, with low droplet spread and any that did occur quickly dispersing because of the level of fresh air. Also a co-chair of the IWBI Task Force on COVID-19, Professor Lam believes the pandemic has put the spotlight on the importance of programs like WELL and the need to collaborate to find solutions. “In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is pivotal to work together to ensure the mental, physical and social well-being of our community in a collective effort with local and international support.”
“People think green buildings will be uncomfortable, especially in Singapore. There is also a tendency to cool everything too much and that is not good in terms of health and air quality because the air is recycled.” PROFESSOR LAM KHEE POH
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Barrack Place, Sydney. Photo: Investa
30
CHAPTER 4
Investa engaged early
with a new human well-being standard
“Occupants don’t necessarily say they want a building with a WELL rating but they are asking for a building that is healthy and for features that they associate with that.” MARGOT BLACK
Investa Property Group has been an active participant in the WELL landscape since it arrived in Australia around five years ago. Along with other large real estate companies, Investa saw its early engagement as an opportunity to help adapt the tool the local market as well as chance to have its well-being achievements recognised and rated.
rating. This was attractive to us because, while we are a developer, our core is in operations and we wanted to have a methodology to demonstrate the wellness and productivity of our buildings.”
Investa’s general manager corporate sustainability, Margot Black, said the company started the WELL journey like a lot of its peers by applying the rating to individual buildings.
The company has achieved Platinum WELL v1 Core & Shell ratings for two of its Sydney developments – Sixty Martin Place and Barrack Place – and in 2021 received the WELL Health-Safety Rating, applying WELL across its entire portfolio.
“We learned a lot from that approach and then IWBI set up the opportunity to participate in WELL Portfolio and we were an early adopter of that
Black says collaboration with IWBI over WELL offerings has been a great sharing of knowledge and experience.
31
259 Queen Street, Brisbane. Photo: Investa
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Investa, along with other Australian early adopters, helped the tool adapt to unique local conditions. “It’s been a great collaboration between the Australian market and IWBI, a sharing of what wellbeing looks like along with the different standards and expectations,” Black says. A key benefit of WELL is that it puts people front and centre inside buildings. Other tools focus more on the built form and less on the occupants and the ongoing occupant experience. As an owner and manager of property this gives Investa a major advantage for attracting and keeping tenants.
“It’s very much about having third party certification and verifying all the work we do or are planning to do. It provides that extra authority when talking to tenants.” MARGOT BLACK
“It’s very much about having third party certification and verifying all the work we do or are planning to do. It provides that extra authority when talking to tenants,” says Black.
those things we are doing and going forward provides more structure to ensure we continue to address key criteria.”
“Occupants don’t necessarily say they want a building with a WELL rating but they are asking for a building that is healthy and for features that they associate with that. WELL enables us to showcase
“WELL arrived at the same time that there was a well-being revolution going on so the scheme was a good way for people to understand what elements of health impact on people in the workplace.
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It addresses six different areas of wellness and clarifies for people health and wellbeing is about more than being active – it’s also about lighting, water, air quality and materials. As a building owner it’s a real opportunity to contribute to workplace well-being but also to productivity.
“Being a commercial real estate company means a lot of that was underway under the green cleaning and green certification of products, but it certainly made us a lot more aware. It also helps us get this information across to cleaning contractors and encourage them to try different products”.
The biggest learning areas and opportunities for Investa were around lighting and materials. As a building owner the company could focus on these in common areas, but as a building manager and operator it was a chance to educate tenants in their fitouts and to research materials and cleaning products. The process led to some positive outcomes, such as an opportunity to support an Indigenous enterprise that produces soap using natural and indigenous ingredients.
The release of the WELL Health-Safety Rating during the COVID-19 pandemic was also invaluable; it allowed Investa to demonstrate its credentials at a time when occupants were very concerned about health and safety protocols in the workplace.
According to Black it allowed the company to look beyond standard procurements across the board.
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The rating was created to guide organisations’ operational protocols and policy management to deal with health challenges.
CHAPTER 5
Canada’s Oxford Properties Group
leading by example
“If your people are happy and they have a great space and good indoor air quality, then you can focus on all the sustainability features of that space too.” MARLEE KOHN
With a significant global portfolio of properties, Oxford Properties Group offers an insight into how the concept of health and well-being is applied to the built environment in different regions and jurisdictions. Based in Toronto, Oxford owns and manages nearly US$70 billion worth of assets across Europe, the United Kingdom, North America and Australia. The WELL Health-Safety Rating was recently awarded across Oxford’s global office portfolio. This has been a relatively straight forward exercise, according to Oxford’s sustainability manager Marlee Kohn . While different regions do have varying approaches to ratings, there are a lot of synergies in health and safety protocols. “If we were going for an environmental or green building certification it would be a bit harder to do it on a global scale. While the different regions do have differences in government regulations or policies related to health, the way the certification is designed allows for different regional standards and protocols to be used where appropriate,” Kohn says.
What has been particularly interesting is the evolution of how WELL programs are perceived in different markets and how it has pushed the understanding of what well-being means and how that integrates with environmental sustainability. When WELL was first launched it was tested via sustainability managers and other sustainability and green building tools had been around for some time. There were some overlaps, such as indoor air equality, biophilia, and some community aspects, but some obvious differences. “There was some reaction from operations at first,” Kohn says. “The strategy around bringing fresh air into the building had operations alarmed about conflicts with energy efficiency. Then it was a matter of talking about how you can marry fresh air with energy efficiency and bring the E and S together.
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Oxford Property’s Sony Center, Germany
Oxford Property’s EY Tower, Toronto.
“I think we’ve hit a sweet spot where people are starting to see how intertwined and connected everything is.” “If your people are happy and they have a great space and good indoor air quality, then you can focus on all the sustainability features of that space too, such as giving them buildings with materials that don’t off-gas and having good waste programs in place. All of it is connected.” The pandemic has accelerated the focus on fresh air but even before that there was growing awareness that a holistic approach was possible to meet the wellbeing as well as environmental requirements. “It was a matter of getting the right people around the table,” Kohn says. “Also, occupants were asking for these things so we needed to find a solution. “As a result, the focus for operations has shifted away from worrying about whether fresh air would impact energy efficiency to ensuring good systems are in place, doing system upgrades and retrofits as well as improving operating schedules and monitoring fault detection.” Kohn says different property teams are still trying to navigate what well-being and social sustainability means. In the past, adoption of some features would often be driven by tenant demand, but now there is a drive to look ahead and lead by example.
“The focus for operations has shifted away from worrying about whether fresh air would impact energy efficiency to ensuring good systems are in place.” MARLEE KOHN
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There are distinct differences across the regions in how ratings are perceived. Australia, for example, puts a lot of weight on third party certification compared to other markets such as North America, which has historically had a preference for local standards. This is changing. “WELL has shifted their (property teams) thinking about what third party certification means. They’ve found it’s made a difference to their customers having a best practice certification. The scheme is very research-based and pushes you to think beyond what you may have traditionally thought and it also requires buildings to continually update. “Leasing teams tend to rely on what their customers ask for, but they are now seeing the importance of leading rather than being reactive. It’s a matter of
“Leasing teams tend to rely on what their customers ask for, but they are now seeing the importance of leading rather than being reactive.” MARLEE KOHN
educating both internally and externally.” In Australia, Oxford has partnered with Investa to broaden its Australian presence. Oxford bought the Investa Office Fund in 2018 to form Oxford Investa Property Partnership, which meant its Australian properties were managed by Investa’s management arm, Investa Office Management (IOM). In late 2020 the partnership was further consolidated when Oxford acquired 50 per cent of IOM. In 2021 both the Investa Commercial Property Fund (ICPF) and Oxford Investa Property Partnership (OIPP) received the WELL Health-Safety Rating for their office portfolios, in addition to a WELL Score for its portfolio. While Oxford has achieved the WELL Health-Safety seal across its entire cross-continent portfolio, it has not yet applied the WELL Portfolio program outside of its Australian properties. Getting buy-in from the various global teams for new ratings can
be challenging, but in the end the WELL HealthSafety Rating was a “no brainer”, says Kohn. It is also an excellent precursor to going for WELL Portfolio. “WELL Health-Safety Rating’s pricing is reasonable especially when applied across such a wide array of assets. And the pandemic further pushed the decision. It also prepares different regions and teams for the idea of a portfolio rating in the future.” Achieving the WELL Health-Safety Rating has also helped building occupants make the transition from COVID-19 lockdown back to the workplace, particularly in Oxford’s Canadian properties. In the US the return has been a little slower, but the rating has given people more confidence, says Kohn. “It has been a good piece to get them back. It adds an extra layer to help people feel safer.”
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