Fitwel Ambassadors: Connecting you to Better Buildings
Fitwel Ambassadors are a key link to help clients - not only to make healthy buildings - but to add value to them, too. In this Blog Post, we look at Fitwel Ambassadors, the role that they play, and what benefits a Fitwel Ambassador from Mainer Associates can bring to your next building.
What is Fitwel, and how are Fitwel Ambassadors involved?
Fitwel is the premier certification system for optimising buildings to improve health and productivity outcomes, through targeted improvements to design and operational strategies.
A Fitwel building aims to benefit the way that occupants behave towards a workplace, community, residence, or retail building. This is where a Fitwel Ambassador’s role is crucial.
Ambassadors are professionally recognised individuals who are leading the healthy building movement through the application of Fitwel. The Ambassador programme arms its participants with the tools necessary to certify buildings using Fitwel.
How do you become a Fitwel Ambassador?
To become qualified as a Fitwel Ambassador, you must complete a series of lessons, revision materials, and an exam. This helps you to thoroughly understand how a building can affect its occupants.
Only a Fitwel Ambassador can get Fitwel accreditation for businesses.
Becoming an Ambassador gives access to the Fitwel portal, Fitwel scorecards/guidance, and all of Fitwel’s standards, as well as allowing open communication for enquiries with Fitwel directly.
What role does a Fitwel Ambassador play?
The Fitwel Ambassador guides a construction project from the design stage to the as-built stage, to ensure that the required rating is achieved. They use their knowledge to provide a building project with the most up to date methods for making a building sustainable. They also have the tools and guidance to ensure that a project is well documented and evidenced.
By making your building a healthy building, you are ensuring the wellbeing of all your occupants. This subsequently increases the attractiveness of your building for those potential occupants, thus ‘future proofing’ the building, in addition to aiding in the adaptation of the building to climate change.
An Ambassador will help you to gain Fitwel Certification... but what value does this bring?
Fitwel Certification’s benefits include:
It can increase the real estate value of a building, as an occupier would pay more for a building that values the health of its residents, employees or visitors. Fitwell does this by prioritising wellness, optimising the health of occupiers, using the best sustainable practises, and helping the surrounding community.
Fitwel can be used on buildings that are classed as: Commercial and Industry, Community, Multifamily Residential, Retail, and Workplace. This makes the certification scheme highly adaptable throughout the built environment.
When compared to its competitors (LEED and WELL), Fitwel is less expensive, and, moreover, the certification process is faster.
Finally, the best part about becoming a Fitwel building is that there are no prerequisites. Points are voluntary, based on the level of points you wish to obtain. You can earn Fitwel certification for an entire building, or even a section within a commercial building.
Introducing Mainer’s Fitwel Ambassadors
To contact either, please email:
Ben Wells Managing Director
ben.wells@mainer.co.uk
Chris Pimm Gradute Sustainability Consultant
chris.pimm@mainer.co.uk
At Mainer Associates, we are proud to have two Fitwel Ambassadors.
Ben Wells has been a Fitwel Ambassador for many years, providing support for numerous projects. Most recently, he helped to obtain a 2-star Fitwel accreditation for 11 & 12 Wellington Place in Leeds.
11 & 12 Wellington Place, Leeds
Working alongside the Development Manager, MEPC, and the Contractor, Wates, Ben helped to deliver the 2-star Fitwel accreditation – which will enhance the credentials of the Wellington Place estate. Together with the development of 6 phases before it, 11 & 12 Wellington Place has now also achieved BREEAM Outstanding, and Net Zero Carbon.
11 & 12 Wellington Place was also recently awarded winner of the Yorkshire Property Sustainable Development of the Year award.
Some of the key drivers on the project included:
Amenities to enhance work-life balance
High quality outdoor space, and urban gardens with biodiverse landscaping
Fitness, running clubs, and on-site gym
Maximisation of natural light
Living green wall in reception
Sustainable transport alternatives for staff / visitors & free bike hire
Site wide secure bike storage
Electric car charging points
On-site vegetables patches, beehives and fruit trees.
Our second Fitwel Ambassador, Chris Pimm, has undertaken the Fitwel Ambassador role as part of his Graduate Scheme.
4 Angel Square - NOMA, Manchester
Working alongside the Client, Federated Hermes, the Development Manager, MEPC, and the Contractor, Bowmer & Kirkland, Chris has worked on achieving a 2-star Design Stage certification for 4 Angel Square, NOMA in Manchester.
During the process of accreditation for 4 Angel Square - NOMA, we have drafted several policies which will be added to the Building Management Documents post-construction. These included the Indoor Air Quality Policy, the Integrated Pest Management Policy, the Smoke-Free Policy, and the Green Purchasing Policy, in addition to commuter and occupant surveys.
To prove compliance in some areas, this involved reviewing the areas external to the building, including: the local Farmers’ Market, walking trails, restorative gardens, local transport access, and main entrance access. For this, we required Validation Statements, along with annotated maps and drawings which showed the evidence.
All evidence must comply with the Fitwel Scorecards, which is a form of guidance used throughout the assessment.
For more information about Fitwel, please see our service page.
Can Mainer Associates can help with Fitwel on your project? please feel free to get in touch.