Recent studies show a clear connection between investing in people-centric health strategies and enhanced business performance, increased asset value and higher financial returns.

This research shows that investing in health and well-being strategies not only benefits people, but also a company's bottom line.

As a result, real estate firms have been increasingly looking to incorporate well-being strategies into their design portfolios to boost tenant satisfaction, increase lease terms and raise their property value.

The International WELL Building Institute, the organization behind WELL Certification, has conducted a comprehensive research review titled “Investing in Health Pays Back: The Growing Research Behind the Business Case for Healthy Buildings and Healthy Organizations,” which is free to download here.

The study summarizes major findings from nearly 60 independent studies, including research led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Colorado-Boulder and many more.

To highlight these benefits, Bisnow spoke with representatives from four projects that span the globe from Colorado to China to learn more about how WELL Certification can make a positive impact on the lives of employees and tenants and provide a valuable return on investment.

Lakehouse is a 540K SF mixed-use community featuring 196 condominiums and retail space west of Downtown Denver at Sloan’s Lake. Built by NAVA Real Estate Development, Lakehouse is the first community in Colorado to achieve WELL Building Certification at the Gold level through the International WELL Building Institute. The community features ​​a wide variety of health-focused amenities and programming, including an organic urban farm with its own harvest room, a 70-foot lakefront lap pool with spa and sauna, a fitness lab, a creative workshop, social gathering spaces, fitness classes and more.

NAVA co-founder and President Brian Levitt explained what inspired NAVA to pursue WELL Certification and the impact the program has had on Lakehouse residents.

Bisnow: What led NAVA to pursue WELL for Lakehouse?

Levitt: NAVA is committed to developing projects that consider the well-being of occupants and the surrounding community. Colorado is very health-conscious and the site is well-connected to nature, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to develop the first residential WELL Certified project in the state. Once I learned how the WELL Building Standard essentially reverse-engineered how best to provide sustaining inputs to our various body systems through adjustments to our approach to engineering and construction, it became clear this was our path for the future.

Bisnow: How have residents responded to WELL?

Levitt: Condo buyers desire a sense of community and connection. The WELL Standard supports these aspirations through infrastructure that encourages exercise, healthful eating, better air quality, improved comfort, enhanced environmental control and a stronger connection to nature and each other. Many of our buyers cited healthy living affirmed by WELL as a top reason for choosing Lakehouse.

Certification is achieved through an on-site performance assessment where assessors test air quality, temperature, humidity and sound and physically verify the presence of the food and fitness infrastructure. This third-party assessment helped to validate the program and drive its value.

Bisnow: How did WELL impact traffic and sales of the condominiums?

Levitt: WELL helped to capture national interest and drive sales. Many buyers envisioned their purchase at Lakehouse as a long-term investment in their health. The project opened March 2020, right at the outset of the Covid pandemic, which resulted in some contract cancellations. After this initial setback, we were fortunate to experience our strongest sales absorption to date, thanks in part to the WELL features. Providing a MERV-13 building air filtration system designed to catch microbial and viral contaminants during a pandemic was unexpectedly beneficial to our sales success.

Bisnow: What WELL features have residents responded to most positively?

Levitt: In addition to the air filtration system, sound attenuation proved to be important to buyers, especially those moving from single-family homes. The STC and IIC levels were designed to exceed code by 20% and provide a higher level of comfort, which can help to promote better sleep, along with the blackout shades in every bedroom. Residents also love the enhanced outdoor space, pool, urban farm and fitness lab, which were designed through collaboration between the architects and various wellness experts.

Bisnow: What has been an effect of WELL you were not anticipating?

Levitt: The WELL Standard introduced our development team to MERV-13 air filtration in a residential setting, which we didn’t fully understand the importance of prior to the pandemic. Other WELL best practices like outdoor spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows and dens for work-from-home areas all turned out to be essential once Covid arrived.

Bisnow: What advice would you give to developers who are considering pursuing WELL for their properties?

Levitt: Implementing WELL’s best practices can lead to differentiation in the marketplace with potential pricing premiums — let alone the positive impact on the lives of residents themselves. Some developers may think cost is an obstacle for pursuing WELL, but may not fully understand the value the investment in wellness can bring in diverse forms. ESG investments create multiple benefits, including faster absorption, reduced turnover and lower cap rates — all things that demonstrate an economic benefit to the bottom line.

Bisnow: Besides financial benefits to healthy buildings, what key benefits led you to pursue WELL for Lakehouse?

Levitt: NAVA set out to prove that healthy buildings could have a profound and lasting influence on the lives of residents. Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment was engaged to study the impact of WELL on occupants and conducted pre- and post-occupancy surveys of Lakehouse residents over a four-year period with the goal of determining whether or not their resident satisfaction, health, well-being and happiness improved after moving in. CSU reported they found 36 statistically significant improvements across the four areas.

I think that the biggest benefit we’re finding is just how it is touching people's lives. NAVA intends to use this knowledge to develop healthier communities of all types in the future.

EDGE Olympic Amsterdam, a newly redeveloped 133K SF office space in the heart of the city’s South Axis district, integrates health and well-being with corporate sustainability initiatives. As global headquarters for European real estate developer Edge, the building is the first to achieve WELL Platinum Core & Shell Certification and an additional Platinum Certification for the floor, becoming the world’s first building to do so.

Edge Well-Being Innovation Manager Florijn Vriend told Bisnow what sparked the developer’s interest in environmental initiatives and the profound impact it has had on the company’s employees, tenants and investors.

Bisnow: What led you to pursue WELL Certification for the Edge headquarters?

Vriend: We are on a mission to improve the world through buildings, starting with a very strong focus on sustainability. Back in 2015, The Edge became one of the world’s most sustainable buildings. Everything we learned from that building we incorporated into the redevelopment of our new EGDE Olympic headquarters.

During that time, the WELL Standard was launched. It was a very intuitive moment to start considering the health and well-being of the people in our buildings more strongly. We decided to pursue WELL Platinum Certification for our own headquarters and focus on the experience of the employees that were going to work there.

This was also a moment where we felt that well-being for end users was going to be as important as sustainability, so it was a no-brainer to pick up this initiative.

Bisnow: How have employees, tenants and investors responded to WELL features that you put in the building?

Vriend: At Edge, we have a very strong focus on IoT-enabled buildings and smart buildings. We measure the environmental conditions as well as sustainability performance of the buildings in real time. We also have screens in the building to show visitors and employees how the building is performing, including air quality levels, noise levels, lighting and temperature.

To help us create tangible KPIs and performance metrics, we’ve partnered up with Leesman, a global leader in evaluating the employee experience. This system has led to a lot of positive feedback from both employees and investors.

Our building scored very high in regard to employee satisfaction: 7.9 out of 10. With the lockdown right in the middle of the 2019 and 2022 surveys, we spotted that, in our case, our employees missed the office. This proved that the investment we made in our employees as well as the building standards has really paid off — our employees want to be there.

Bisnow: What are some of the economic benefits you've seen as a result of pursuing WELL?

Vriend: A study from MIT showed that WELL Certified buildings can ask for higher rents. Those findings were very promising to us in terms of financial benefits. When the product is extremely sustainable, but also very high-performing according to WELL features, good things can happen both financially and in terms of corporate culture.

Bisnow: What is the biggest impact from WELL?

Vriend: We always start with getting the basics right — that means focusing on the indoor performance of the buildings.

We design with biophilic elements, which means that we try to incorporate nature into the buildings. If you were to visit our headquarters, you would see an abundance of green and water elements. It’s nudging healthy behavior in an intuitive way that people might not otherwise do. We also offer a healthy restaurant, plenty of bike parking facilities, a gym and a very attractive staircase. In one of our upcoming buildings, EDGE Stadium, we even incorporated the world's largest treadmill so people can have walking meetings no matter the weather conditions.

Bisnow: What does having a WELL Certified office signal to your organization, investors and clients?

Vriend: We felt like well-being was going to be as big as sustainability, and WELL brings us really close to marrying the two.

We are always approached by investors because we have these desirable standards in place — the well-being and ESG markets grew tremendously. In fact, in some markets, investors will only buy your assets if it meets the highest requirements in terms of sustainability, well-being and ESG. Although these requirements may overlap, it is not about choosing either one. It’s about offering everything.

Bisnow: What are you most proud of in your pursuit of WELL?

Vriend: We are a real estate developer, so we take a lot of responsibility for the quality of the product to be delivered even if we're not sure who the investor or tenant will be yet.

Pushing the boundaries and making sure that every building is certified at WELL Platinum level, regardless of stakeholders, is something I’m really proud of.

Bisnow: What's next in your WELL journey?

Vriend: We are strongly focused on the individual side of health and well-being. We are also trying to expand a bit more into societal health as well — what is our building’s impact in society at large?

In light of the rise of ESG, we predict we will have an interesting journey, together with the International WELL Building Institute, to extend deeper into the social side of the equation.

HKS is an interdisciplinary global design firm of architects, interior designers, researchers, urban designers, nurses, anthropologists, graphic designers and more. The company is committed to sustainability and well-being, which is one of the reasons why, while designing the HKS Chicago office in September 2017, the company chose to pursue WELL Certification to improve employee health and satisfaction.

The company treated its Chicago office as a “living laboratory,” and tracked how the health and employee satisfaction features it implemented into the building impacted its inhabitants.

Bisnow spoke with Kate Davis, HKS global practice director and commercial interiors principal, to learn more about the results and the company’s WELL journey.

Bisnow: What led you to pursue WELL? 

Davis: We've always taken sustainability seriously. HKS is one of the only architectural firms in North America to sign the UN Global Compact, and we’ve long embedded wellness and sustainability practices into our projects.

Pursuing WELL Certification represents this commitment, as well as our partnership with the International WELL Building Institute, and we believe it is something of real importance to our clients.

Bisnow: How have your employees and investors responded to WELL? 

Davis: At HKS, we’re having ongoing conversations about the health of the environment that we’ve asked our employees to come into, especially since the pandemic. We’ve posted signage throughout the office to keep employees informed about various WELL features like bottle fillers, water filtration and the updated HVAC system. Providing a safe, healthy space where employees can perform at their best is part of our core values, and it benefits both our workers and our shareholders.

Bisnow: Have you seen any economic benefits from pursuing WELL? 

Davis: After we implemented the WELL features, we led a multiyear longitudinal study of the Chicago offices to see the impacts. We monitored ambient conditions­ through sensor technology, surveyed employees pre- and post-move into the office using the IWBI's Building Wellness Survey and collected real-world behavior-mapping data. We discovered that employee satisfaction had gone way up.

Not only were employees more satisfied with the air quality, lighting and water quality in the new office, 66% of respondents agreed that “the workplace supports my thinking and analytical work,” compared to 26% at the old office, while 91% agreed that “it is easy to work collaboratively with others,” compared to 47% at the last office. Our research shows that by balancing design strategies with health, productivity and operational energy use, the new office managed to calculate projected savings in financial, social and environmental impacts of $4.6M.

These are clear metrics that we can communicate to our employees, partners, stakeholders and clients.

Bisnow: What were some other key findings? 

Davis: Employees reported a 51% increase in lighting satisfaction, a 44% increase in acoustic satisfaction and a 25% increase in thermal comfort. If you have ever worked in an office, you would know that finding a positive balance of thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics is the holy grail for internal design, so that was huge.

If you can have people feeling good about their office, feeling comfortable, feeling like it's a healthy and safe place, you will have a much easier time getting them to come in.

Bisnow: What does having a WELL Certified office signal to your organization and your clients?

Davis: All of this shows our clients the impact of interiors — it’s not just about materials and finishes and cost per square foot, but about communicating with employees and ensuring they are working in an environment where they can do their best. This has been a great case study to get people thinking more holistically about the totality of what's possible in terms of health, safety, sustainability and wellness in interior environments.

Bisnow: What are you most proud of in your pursuit of WELL? 

Davis: Achieving WELL Certification is no joke. It takes focused attention and intentionality to get it and it’s incredibly worthwhile when you do. I am very proud of the support we received internally from our team while working toward this goal and our partnership with IWBI.

Along with that, I am proud that we can clearly demonstrate the benefits of WELL Certification to our employees and clients, from operating costs to community engagement to employee satisfaction.

Bisnow: What's next in your WELL journey? 

Davis: This whole journey has led us to take a harder look at how we engage in real estate deals for ourselves, and to notice something that is missing in the market that our clients want. It’s not just about pursuing WELL but making WELL a bigger part of your initial decisions.

Often, companies will make a decision about a lease and then say “we’ll pursue WELL or LEED once we’ve closed.” The problem with that is the type of building you have chosen may not allow for such changes to be made easily, so WELL needs to be taken into account from the very beginning, not as an afterthought. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact this strategy will have on our portfolio and pursuing a more holistic approach overall.

Mind the Sea Phase 2, located in Houhai Bay, Shenzhen, China, is a comprehensive mixed-use community offering residential, office and commercial space. Built by Shenzhen-based Wanxia Real Estate, Mind the Sea Phase 2 has made health, comfort and art core tenets of its development. As a result, it has earned eight WELL Certifications.

Lv Dong, general manager of Wanxia Real Estate, explained how the WELL Building standard has been implemented into every aspect of the project. He said that since implementing the WELL Standard, the way employees think about health and their general attitudes have changed.

Bisnow: What led you to pursue WELL Certification for your space? 

Dong: Health is at the core of our development concept at Wanxia, and a key part of our company culture. By creating internationally leading healthy building projects, we have established the unique value of our projects and laid a strong foundation for long-term management.

We have found that achieving WELL Certification has led to improved health metrics for our team, which, in turn, has positively transformed the company. We’ve seen greater efficiency and effectiveness across the board.

Bisnow: How have your employees responded to WELL? 

Dong: After we moved into the WELL Certified office, we found that not only did employee health improve, but also their behaviors — it enthused them to learn more about health and well-being, and they were inspired to organize health-oriented lectures and learn more about WELL. This reflects the positive influence a great environment can have on people. More than a dozen employees voluntarily signed up for and passed the WELL AP exam in 2022.

We sent out a questionnaire and discovered that, since moving into the new office, 60% of employees have begun alternating between sitting and standing during the workday, while 70% reported drinking more water every day. Additionally, many said their back pain has improved, and 85% reported an overall improvement in their physical health and efficiency in the office.

Bisnow: Have you seen any economic benefits from pursuing WELL? 

Dong: WELL helped us create a high-standard healthy space and allowed us to truly highlight the project’s value, which helped us achieve 100% of residential sales within five months.

At the same time, it boosted our brand reputation. We created a Healthy Living Pavilion where we showcased WELL features, and it attracted hundreds of visitors who have now learned the benefits of healthy buildings.

Bisnow: What does having a WELL Certified office signal to your organization, to your investors and/or to your clients?

Dong: For our company, WELL gives us unique value in the market, so our project stands out from competitors. At the same time, the health strategies that we have implemented have become a part of company culture. Our employees have adopted healthy thinking, improving our efficiency and company standards. We’ve also seen a reduction in employee sick leave.

When it comes to our clients, the environment and how it impacts their health is very important. WELL Certification not only provides a beneficial physical environment, but it also helps shape good health habits.

Bisnow: What are you most proud of in your pursuit of WELL? 

Dong: We are very proud of our residential project, Mind the Sea Phase 2. At the beginning of the construction, we had never created a healthy building, but the whole team committed themselves to studying hard and learning the practices. Their efforts have paid off tremendously.

At the same time, we are also proud that healthy habits have been embedded into our company culture and that we have created a more cohesive, efficient team. Every employee has become an advocate for health and well-being, taking these concepts beyond the office and into their home lives.

Bisnow: What is next in your WELL journey? 

Dong: We have seen the value of WELL and the standards it brings. We plan to implement these standards throughout our entire company, to drive the growth of our employees, establish a strong reputation in the industry and implement it into every detail of our operation.

We are now focused on reducing our energy consumption and are adopting a low-carbon strategy. We have established an intelligent low-carbon operating platform, which will continuously optimize energy consumption and the data it produces.