Sustainable Certifications: Fitwel.
Healthy buildings have an effective rent of 4.4–7.7% more per square foot than their non-certified peers.
- Fitwel
Fitwel is a cutting-edge certification system that promotes healthier workplaces and buildings. It evaluates factors such as indoor air quality, access to natural light, physical activity options, and healthy food availability, aiming to enhance the overall well-being and productivity of occupants. Achieving Fitwel certification allows clients to demonstrate their commitment to employee health and well-being, attract and retain talent, and create environments that foster a positive and thriving work culture.
FItwel certification provides an all important shift in focus to the ‘S’ in ESG metrics, and the promotion of individual and community wellbeing using the built environment.
Why get Fitwel Certified? “Healthy buildings have an effective rent of 4.4–7.7% more per square foot than their non-certified peers” - Fitwel (Portfolio Benchmarking)
SCORING
There are two types of Fitwel Certifications available, Design and Built, depending on the assets current status. Design certification is available to new constructions and major renovation projects after the design is complete but prior to building occupation. This certification is valid for three years. Built Certification is available for existing or recently completed projects that are occupied and in use, and is valid for three years. Buildings are reviewed and scored by two assessors and are given a numerical score that correlates with a star rating from 1-3 stars. A score of 90 to 104 points is required for a single star rating; scores between 105 and 124 earn a two star rating, while the three star rating is reserved for scores of 125 to 144 points.
THE PROCESS
The Fitwel system evaluates assets across twelve areas. These include: building access, entrances and ground floor, stairwells, indoor environments, outdoor spaces, shared space, water supply, cafeterias and prepared food retain, vending machines, emergency procedures, and workspaces.
After asset evaluation, Fitwel will send you a scorecard along with 63 strategies for improving your building’s health and Fitwel score. Once you incorporate these strategies, you can send evidence-based documentation back to Fitwel to boost your score.
Unlike its competitors such as LEED and WELL, Fitwel offers a much more affordable route for asset owners to obtain healthy building certification, and uses an online portal instead of onsite building inspection.
THE UTOPI IMPACT
Utopi are proud partners of Fitwel, and our partners at ESG Europe also specialise in assisting obtaining FItwel Certfication. Utopi can offer a range of solutions to measure and assist in proving and improving the current health status of assets. If you would like to learn more about achieving Healthy Building Certfication or benchmarking your assets/portfolio you can get in touch with our sustainable certifications partners at ESG Europe.
See our next piece in this series on LEED!