Announcing the recipients of the Building Health Leadership Award at Greenbuild

The Green Health Partnership, a research and development initiative between USGBC and the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and the International WELL Building Institute are excited to announce the projects that have received the Building Health Leadership Award at Greenbuild in Atlanta.

The Building Health Leadership Award celebrates green building projects that focus on promoting health and well-being throughout all phases of building development and operation. Award recipients go above and beyond standard practice by rigorously considering occupant health during project planning, taking strategic action to promote health and well-being through building certifications, and committing to measuring impact.

Recipients of the Building Health Leadership Award at Greenbuild include projects in the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong. These projects join a cohort of outstanding projects that received the award at IMPACT in St. Paul and GreenerBuilder in San Francisco earlier this year.

Genentech Employee Center
New Construction, Health and Fitness Center
South San Francisco, CA, USA
LEED V4 BD+C Gold, WELL v1 Gold

The Genentech Employee Center is a physical embodiment of Genentech’s focus on creating a great workplace environment. They began their health promotion process by setting goals to directly impact the health and well-being of their employees. Genentech aimed to:

• Foster a positive sense of community,
• Reinforce their focus on wellness,
• Create meaningful change through innovative designs, and,
• Provide positive impacts on the environment.

The Employee Center’s design features target physical activity and mental health, and include a fitness and health center, gymnasium, ergonomics showroom, as well as career and financial coaching. Genentech partnered with designers at Perkins & Will to develop a comprehensive screening process for sustainable material selection that prioritizes human health and promotes supply chain transparency. Universal design, biophilia, and aesthetics were integral to the Employee Center’s design, resulting in an abundance of natural daylight and views, an interior courtyard and lush green spaces, and a comprehensive art and sculpture program. Monthly building tours introduce the wellness design features to occupants and a comprehensive building signage program educates occupants on design concepts like healthy materials and natural ventilation.

The Hub Council and WELL Workplace Steering Committee have also developed a framework to measure the impact of wellness initiatives at Genentech’s Employee Center. Information on their utilization strategies, annual occupant user surveys, and measuring indoor and outdoor environmental quality provide health performance indicators for the building and help fuel decisions for future wellness strategies.

“We’re honored to receive the Building Health Leadership Award for our Employee Center in South San Francisco. At Genentech, we’re dedicated to maintaining a sustainable campus environment that minimizes resource consumption while enhancing worker health, comfort and wellbeing, which is why we chose design and construction partners who value the same goals in bringing this vision to life,” said Veronica McCright, VP of Site Services at Genentech.

M Moser
Interior Design and Construction, Office
Hong Kong
LEED Gold, BEAM Platinum, WELL v1 Platinum, RESET Certified, Fitwel Certified

The M Moser Hong Kong office integrates sustainable practices throughout its design to provide occupants with a health-promoting, environmentally friendly space. The goal of the project is to promote the mental well-being of their employees by fostering a collaborative, productive, and vibrant workplace environment.

Through detail, specification, design decisions, and policy, this high-performance workplace maximizes space, natural light, and views, and supports the firm’s “Work Well, Live Well” values. The project team utilized a holistic, human-centric process to weave together best practices from a number of different rating systems in order to promote employee health and well-being. M Moser has achieved a broad range of best practice industry standards such as WELL, BEAM, RESET Air, LEED, Fitwel. Not only do users benefit directly from carefully considered designs like ergonomics, acoustics, lighting, biophilia, and food options, but they also learn how to implement these concepts for clients and share this knowledge with their local communities.

M Moser tracks the impact of their health and well-being initiatives using data from personal fitness devices and participation in extensive health benefits programs, such as immunization promotion, remote work opportunities, healthy sleep policies, and more. By creating workplaces that champion planetary stewardship and promote physical and mental wellbeing, M Moser Hong Kong encourages people to meet and exceed their own potential, while raising the bar towards a more sustainable future.

Teknion Toronto Showroom
Interior Design and Construction, Office
Toronto, Canada
CaGBC LEED Gold, WELL v1 Silver

Teknion has a long-standing dedication to improving health in the workplace. As an early adopter of WELL, Teknion recognizes the importance of prioritizing and standardizing wellness efforts for employees and building occupants across the organization. The company’s Toronto showroom was designed with health, well-being, and sustainability as cornerstones for creating a warm, welcoming, and productive workplace inspired by the principles of ethonomics.

To accomplish Teknion’s health, well-being, and sustainability goals, the project pursued both LEED ID+C and WELL v1 for New and Existing Interiors certifications. Teknion Toronto obtained WELL Silver certification, in 2017, the 27th WELL Certified project in the world. The showroom is currently under-going expansion and is pursuing recertification under the WELL v2 pilot at the Platinum level. Upgrading to WELL v2 is a natural next step to progress Teknion’s commitment to health and wellness.

Teknion uses design, operation, and maintenance guidance from both LEED and WELL certification to ensure that their space meets the goals of their employee health strategy. WELL recertification helps Teknion monitor performance. Air and water quality testing, air filtration maintenance, thermal comfort monitoring, and occupant satisfaction surveys are required to reconfirm that all health policies remain in place, and that the health and well-being of the building’s occupants remains a principal focus of the company.

“Teknion is honored to be recognized for leadership in advancing what seems fundamental to business and the importance of human health. We hope that others will be encouraged to advance cultural changes within their own organizations for the future. We couldn’t have done this without our partner, Ecoworks Studio,” said Tracy Backus, Director of Sustainable Programs at Teknion.

Texas Mutual Insurance Headquarters
New Construction, Office
Austin, TX, USA
LEED Gold, Austin Energy Green Building 4-Star

Texas Mutual Insurance Company, in close collaboration with their design team, prioritizes utilizes design to create a health-promoting and active workplace. The headquarters building is located within the Mueller development LEED ND rated community - a pedestrian-friendly environment with walkable destinations, open green spaces, and connections to public transit - concepts which are replicated throughout the project’s design.

One of the primary goals of the project was to align itself with the “Design for Active Occupants” LEED innovation strategy, to promote physical activity in what would normally be a sedentary office environment. Rated LEED Gold and Austin Energy Green Building 4-Star, the project took action to implement building design features that encourage an active lifestyle for current and future occupants. Some of these wellness features include: accessible central staircases, activity-promotion signage, an on-site fitness center, complimentary healthy and locally sourced food/drink choices, biophilic elements, ergonomic workstations, public transit incentives, and access to natural daylight and work-friendly green spaces.

To monitor the activity and health progress of their occupants, Texas Mutual provides wearable devices to track activity and access for employees to an online portal that evaluates individual health scores and biometric data. The company also provides a generous financial incentive to all employees who participate in an annual health risk assessment and biometric screening. The data collected from internal programs, combined with data from medical claims, provide key insights into the overall health of the organization.