Using Technology and Design to Create Healthier Spaces in a Post-Pandemic World

It has now been three years since COVID-19 first appeared, and the world we live in today has changed significantly from the one we knew before. One area where we continue to see developments to our collective way of life involves the spaces we occupy. From where and how we show up to work or play, to the ways we connect and collaborate, to the kinds of action that employees and consumers expect from companies on larger societal questions – have all shifted.

In the context of this ever-changing landscape, last month the NYU Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance hosted its InnovateESG spring forum focused on real estate innovation and sustainability. In a session titled, Technologies and Design Challenges for Creating Healthy Spaces in a Post-Pandemic World, IWBI President and CEO Rachel Hodgdon came together with Sam Chandan, PhD, Founding Director and Professor, Chen Institute , Anna Coltrane, Director of Development, Space Craft, and Gab Damant-Sirois, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Local Logic, to explore these societal shifts and discuss how companies are rising to the challenge.

The pandemic inspired new innovations for organizations looking to promote the health and well-being of their stakeholders. In the summer of 2020 IWBI launched the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management to serve as a roadmap for driving resilience into the center of business policies and operationsI during this unprecedented time. Informed by more than 600 scientists, practitioners and other experts it helps organizations address the health, safety and well-being of their most valuable asset—their people.

Further, the WELL Building Standard (WELL) can have strong connections to ESG frameworks. Indeed, we know that employee health and well-being and organizational performance are strongly linked. As WELL takes a holistic approach to health and well-being, many of the WELL features can help contribute to one or more of the E, S and G pillars. However while “we hold particular importance with the ‘s’, ESG strategies are lopsided, often favoring the E but anemic on the S and the G,” said Hodgdon, who added that many companies are looking to WELL as a way to help them improve ESG reporting.

Today, there is a solid research foundation that shows that elevating human health, well-being and equity can boost an organization’s bottom line. Late last year, IWBI released Investing in Health Pays Back: The Growing Research Behind the Business Case for Healthy Buildings and Healthy Organizations, which highlights and summarizes the growing body of knowledge behind the business case for healthy buildings and organizations. It encompasses both academic and industry research that focuses on healthy buildings, organizational health and well-being strategies, as well as return on investment in health.

Highlights from the report include:

• Research that tied higher ventilation rates to an 8% uptick in employee performance.
• A new peer-reviewed study that connected WELL Certification to a 28% improvement in overall satisfaction with the workplace.
• Numerous case studies, including one that demonstrated a 300% return on investment for workplace wellness programs.

In terms of the implementation of healthier, more sustainable buildings – one area of redress was clear to Damant-Sirois: “Younger generations are already asking for sustainable building practices, and not doing this now will cost far more in the future.”

And as more data becomes available, we’ll see greater integration of non-financial indicators into an organization’s bottom line. “What you can measure, you can quantify. We’re already looking at the ways we can incorporate these risks and opportunities into the final transaction – rent rates, sales rates and more,” said Damant-Sirois.

For more information on the InnovateESG event, please click here.