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The WELLBuildingStandard™

©Bopro 2019Whitepaper2

Table of contents.

Health 3

What determines the state of health?

Health and wellbeing at work do matter

Wellness is paramount in the future of work

The building has impact

Invest in people for Return On Investment

The WELL Building Standard 6

WELL AP

Certification

Integrated approach 10

References 11

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“Is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being; and not merely the absence of di-sease or infirmity.”

– The World Health Organisation

Health.

What determines the state of our health?

Surprisingly, our environment is the biggest determinant of our health. Our environment is constantly changing and impacts how we live, our work and culture, our views, what we eat and how we feel, and how we get around.

PHYSICAL / SOCIALENVIRONMENT

LIFESTYLE / HEALTHBEHAVIORS

MEDICALCARE

GENETICS

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The world’s 3,2 billion workers are increasingly un-well: they are growing old; they suffer more from chronic diseases; they are stressed, unhappy, and sometimes unsafe; and they face significant eco-nomic insecurity.

The economic burden of unwell workers – in both medical expenses and lost productivity – is enor-mous, possibly reaching 10-15 percent of the global economic output. On top of this economic burden, there is unquantifiable human suffering and an un-sustainable burden on healthcare systems around the world.

Health and wellbeing at work do matter.

We may bring our underlying poor health and per-sonal issues to the workplace, where we become unmotivated, disengaged and unproductive. Work can also be harmful to us – for example, when the workplace itself is unsafe or unhealthy and when the work culture is hostile, aggressive and stress-lad-en. Mental and emotional distress from work can be linked directly to chronic diseases.

WELL helps us to turn this vicious cycle into a vir-tuous circle, where wellness and work mutually en-hance each other.

Because the work environment is social, it is also an ideal place to support and motivate us to develop healthy habits.

A VICIOUS CYCLE

unmotivated

unwell

disengaged

healthy

energy

motivation

fulfillment

joyhealthy habits

stressful

hostile

unsafe

unhealthy

WELLNESS

WORK

WELLNESS

WORK

A VIRTUOUS CYCLE

WELLNESS& WORK:

a two-way relationship

When we feel healthy and balanced, we bring energy, focus and motivation to our work, and we are more productive.

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Where we live, work, learn and relax profoundly impact our health, well-being and productivity. While there has been research for many years on the impact of specific building strategies like day-lighting and air quality improvements on factors like learning and attentiveness in education buildings, recovery rates in healthcare buildings and produc-tivity in general office settings, the industry is only beginning to calculate the true financial and busi-ness benefits of investing in healthier buildings.

Studies demonstrate two clear findings in this area:

• Many owners are not aware of the benefits from making healthier building investments.

• A vast majority reports positive financial and business impacts when measuring the benefits.

Around 90% of businesses’ overhead costs are staff-related. It is therefore safe to assume that even the smallest improvement in wellbeing and productivity is valuable and worth investing in.

In surveys, 77% of CEOs say that attracting and keeping the right employees is their biggest chal-lenge, also known as “the war for talent”. Compa-nies with happy employees have up to:

• 37% less absenteeism• 21% increased productivity• 10% higher customer satisfaction• 25-65% less employee turnover

Lastly, absenteeism costs are at 10,5 billion (or 3.1% of GDP) in Belgium. The cost of presentee-ism is estimated to be tenfold of that. Presenteeism is defined at the behaviour of the employee who, despite physical or psychological health issues, con-tinues to work, while he or she should stay home. Investing in the wellbeing of employees pays off.

As work tasks are increasingly borne by computers and machines, human beings add value by comple-menting and harnessing technologies and by being creative, innovative, perceptive, intuitive, empathic and flexible.

We need to be in a good state of physical, mental and emotional wellness to be able to bring these qualities to work each day.

In order to survive and thrive in the future, business-es and organizations will need to harness the poten-tial of wellness by aligning work environments and cultures with workers’ personal values, motivations and wellness needs.

Investing in people guarantees Return On Investment.

The buildinghas impact.

Wellness is paramount in the

future of work.

90%SALARY / BENEFITS

9%RENT / OPERATIONS

1%ENERGY

PHYSICAL MENTAL

SOCIAL

ENVIRON-MENTAL

SPIRITUAL

EMOTIONAL

WELLNESS

AIR NOURISHMENT

MOVEMENTLIGHT

WATER

THERMAL COMFORT SOUND

MIND COMMUNITYMATERIALS

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This standard is revolutionising the way people think about buildings. It explores how design, operations and behaviours within the places where we live, work, learn and play, can be optimised to advance human health and well-being.

Originally launched in 2014 and fine-tuned in the 2018 WELL v2 , WELL focuses solely on human health and wellbeing in the built environment. Its approach is holistic and addresses ten concepts, each with their own features.

The WELL Building Standard.

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In total, there are 112 features, separated into preconditions and optimisations.

for the design team, providing health standards for (day)lighting, air quality and ventilation, thermal and acoustic comfort, advice on building lay-out to promote ac-tivity from workers, green building features and so on.

In order to obtain a base level WELL Silver certificate, all applicable preconditions and 50 points worth of optimisations need to be achieved. If even more optimisations are achieved, the certificate level can be improved to WELL Gold and eventually WELL Platinum.

WELL acts as a guide

WELL v2 is a flexible online system, applicable to all project types and accessible to all project team members.

The assessed surfaces and functions are taken into account when determining the certification’s fixed costs.

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Throughout the process, we help project teams in making informed decisions. The challenge is to in-corporate the WELL requirements, in balance with aspects like energy performance and without ex-ceeding the project budget.

Through the different project stages, we inform the project team on the necessary steps and on the re-quired documentary evidence. We insist on the in-tegration of smart building technologies in order to maximalise the user’s wellbeing.

Near the end of the process, an administrative au-dit is carried out by an independent WELL Assessor. Once the audit has no more non-conformities, an on-site performance audit is carried out by a quali-fied third party organisation.

When no curative actions are required anymore, the certificate can be awarded.

As a certified WELL AP, we assist the devel-oper to integrate the WELL principles into the development’s program of require-ments.

WELL AP.

Register projecton WELL Online

approved

WELL assessor isassigned to project

Submit documentationfor review

Schedule performanceverification

Approval or curativeaction plan/appeal

Completedocumentation review

Perform on-siteperformance verification

Create finalWELL report

Gather projectinformation and prepare

documentation

WELL AP WELL Assessor

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WELL evaluates the design, the building’s operation and its occupants behaviours. You can apply WELL principles in every building and a certificate can be carried out. Even though, the best results can be ob-tained in consultation with the tenants.

WELL is complementary with other sustainability referentials. In this way, projects can have both a proof of quality for environmental performance (carbon-based, e.g. BREEAM & DGNB) as well as hu-man well-being.

WELL criteria are compatible with BREEAM criteria. The same material evidence is allowed. We integrat-ed the WELL guidelines into our advisory services in order to make sure that these developments will be ready for potential future certification.

Certification.

WELL provides a label of quality and added value.

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We @ Bopro strongly believe in an integrated and holistic approach to real estate, enabling economi-cally sustainable designs. Wellbeing, like many other real estate aspects, needs to be incorporated from the first stages of the development. By integration and anticipation, the impact on the development, the design, construction and maintenance process will be minimal, have lower costs and a higher, sus-tainable value.

The biggest economic benefits are realised when impacts to the environment and people are ad-dressed jointly from the start of building design and a clear direction to achieve key metrics such as improving air quality without sacrificing energy efficiency is set. Please note that the largest im-provements in employee satisfaction is appointed when staff is engaged in co-designing their healthy workspaces.

Integrated approach.

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References.1. Frequently Asked Questions 2014 – Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention

2. The future of wellness at work – 2016 research report, Global Wel-lness Institute

3. State of the Global Workplace - Gallup

4. e.g.: Doing right by planet and people – World Green Building Council

5. The Drive Toward Healthier Buildings 2016 – Dodge Data & Ana-lytics

6. Health, Wellbeing & Productivity in Offices – World Green Building Council

7. The talent challenge: Harnessing the power of human skills in the machine age – pwc

8. State of the Global Workplace - Gallup

9. Absence from work – European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

10. GCC Insights report – Global Corporate Challenge

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