How Healthy is your Building?
Written by
Chris Pimm - Graduate Sustainability Consultant
To contact please email: chris.pimm@mainer.co.uk
How can you measure whether a building looks after the health and wellbeing of the people who will call it home during its lifespan? We explain the system that Mainer Associate uses and how it can help your building.
Firstly, why are healthy buildings important?
Healthy buildings look after the wellbeing of its occupiers be they residents, employees or just visitors to the building. They also benefit the surrounding environment and local community that they are based in.
Buildings do this by having a variety of features, for example: good air quality, outdoor amenity spaces for occupants to use, healthy food options, drinking water availability, comfortable lighting, acoustics, and Pedestrian access to alternative transportation support.
To quantify how healthy your building really, you need to use a Certification Scheme
What is Fitwel?
Fitwel is a commercial building certification scheme that provides guidelines on how to design and operate healthier buildings. The Fitwel certification uses a points system to measure a building credentials and it can be awarded between 1 and 3 stars.
How do these Point System work?
Multiple proof-based procedures which demonstrate an increase in the wellbeing to occupiers fall into the following 12 categories:
Each of these procedures are then weighted against the 7 Health Impact categories below:
● Increases Physical Activity
● Promotes Occupant Safety
● Reduces Morbidity and Absenteeism
● Promotes Social Equity for Vulnerable Populations
● Instils Feelings of Well-Being
● Impacts Surrounding Community Health
● Enhances Access to Healthy Foods
Fitwel works out how big the effect a procedure has on health and wellness against its ability to demonstrate this against the 7 Health Impacts and this generates points.
How does Fitwel decide how many stars are given?
Based on the points tally, Fitwel uses a star system to certify a building.
There are 3 different levels of accreditation based on how many points a project has accrued.
1 Star: The building needs between 90 and 104 points
2 Stars: The building needs between 105 and 124 points
3 Stars: The building needs to achieve between 125 and 144 points (which is the highest level)
Who can advise me to get the best rating for my building?
At Mainer Associates we use Fitwel Ambassadors to help your building obtain its desired rating.
Our sustainability consultants are trained Fitwel Ambassadors and will guide you through each step of the process, meaning you only need to provide the relevant evidence that has been requested by our Fitwel Ambassadors. They will also navigate the Fitwel Digital Certification Tool to help clients track progress and attain Fitwel certifications.
What are the benefits of getting the Fitwel Certification?
Fitwel Certification 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 helps the surrounding community.
Fitwel can be used on Commercial and Industry, Community, Multifamily Residential, Retail, and Workplace buildings. This makes the certification scheme highly adaptable throughout the built environment.
Compared to its competitors (LEED and WELL) Fitwel is less expensive and faster to get a Fitwel certification on a building than its competing accreditations.
After Covid-19 there has been a massive movement toward Fitwel. In reaction to this Fitwel quickly created a Viral Response Module in addition to the Fitwel certification which addresses these issues and considers the issues that have been introduced post-covid.
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 this certification for an entire building or even a section within a commercial building.
How do I go about being a Fitwel Champion?
Conclusion
The benefits to having a building certified by Fitwel are clear. A healthy building improves the health of the people working, visiting, or living in the building and surrounding community. This makes the building more attractive to everyone from developers to occupiers.
Furthermore projects that strive for excellence and achieve a 2 or 3 star rating put themselves into a position themselves as a unique development within the market place.
Mainer Associates has recently work on 11 & 12 Wellington Place, Leeds which has just been awarded a Fitwel Two-Star score.
References
Fitwel - Fitwel | World's Leading Healthy Building Certification System
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