Fitwel Best in Building Health Awards Celebrate the Certification's Highest Achievers, Spurring the Next Phase of the Healthy Building Movement

Best in Building HealthViral Response ModulePress & Media
Written By Marcos Reynaga

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Fitwel Best in Building Health Awards Celebrate the Certification's Highest Achievers, Spurring the Next Phase of the Healthy Building Movement

The Center for Active Design recognizes winners for their best-in-class innovations to enhance occupant health and well-being, particularly in light of COVID-19

NEW YORK, March 9, 2021 — The Center for Active Design (CfAD) today announced the 2021 winners of the Fitwel Best in Building Health Awards®, its flagship recognition program that identifies firms enhancing human health via Fitwel®, the world's leading certification system committed to building health for all. This year's winners were identified based on Fitwel's 2020 project data, which captured a year marked by unprecedented challenges due to the global pandemic, met with impressive agility and responsiveness by leaders of the global real estate industry.

Fitwel is a rigorous, third-party healthy building certification system operated by CfAD that sets the industry standard for evidence-based strategies to promote positive health outcomes for occupants and communities.

"This year's awards reflect the significant growth of Fitwel as our new and existing global users make progress implementing health-promoting strategies to meet the unique challenges of the moment," said Joanna Frank, president and CEO of CfAD. "We are entering a new era, one where health is a defining factor in real estate investment decisions. The rising use of Fitwel is creating more detailed and sophisticated property-specific data sets that our users can leverage to respond to shifting demands and remain at the forefront of the healthy building movement."

Each year, up to two winners are selected by CfAD for special recognition given their exceptional leadership in the field. This year's special recognition awards feature leaders who have risen to meet the challenges of COVID-19 by advancing the development and implementation of the Fitwel Viral Response (VR) Module.

  • Industry Thought Leadership: Fitwel's Viral Response Academic Advisory Group, a team of 12 health experts from leading institutions such as Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Queensland University of Technology, for their collaborative efforts to rapidly analyze scientific research and advise on the creation of Fitwel's VR module.

  • Industry-Leading Company: BentallGreenOak, for its leadership in applying Fitwel at scale, including rapid rollout of the Viral Response module. Within three months of the VR module's release, BGO received Fitwel Viral Response Certification for its entity-level policies and obtained Viral Response Approval for 17 properties across nine cities. BGO is also being recognized for its support and collaboration in exploring industry-wide investor sentiment about health and wellness trends.

Bon Ku, MD, Director, Health Design Lab, Thomas Jefferson University and a member of the Center for Active Design's Board of Directors, said, "COVID-19 thrust public health into the limelight, and increased awareness of how the spaces where we live, work, study, and socialize can impact our health and well-being. In a moment of pandemic crisis, health research became paramount—and the Fitwel Academic Advisory Groups rose to the challenge to craft a science-driven response using the best available data at hand. We are proud to have contributed to the pressing need to mitigate viral transmission in buildings, and we look forward to supporting the Center for Active Design's efforts to further evidence-based design now and into the future."

Best in Building Health winners are identified through rigorous analysis of every Fitwel project. The following awards recognize all-time achievements since Fitwel's public launch in 2017:

  • Fitwel Excellence Award: Kilroy Realty Corporation, for securing the most Fitwel certifications of all time, demonstrating how its real estate portfolio has been optimized for human health. This is the third year in a row that Kilroy has achieved this distinction by certifying its assets at scale—as well as proactively recertifying its projects.

  • Fitwel Promise Award: Wells Fargo, for the most Fitwel registrations of all time, reflecting its commitment to advancing health across its portfolio of assets. Wells Fargo is leading the financial industry in its efforts to quantify the impact of design and policy on the well-being of employees and customers.

  • Fitwel Impact Award: Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., for achieving the highest scoring project of all time with Alexandria LaunchLabs® at the Alexandria Center® in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is the second year in a row that Alexandria has held this distinction, demonstrating their unrivaled commitment to optimizing projects to advance health.

Richard Henderson, Head of Corporate Properties, Wells Fargo said, "Wells Fargo is committed to reducing our carbon footprint while continuing to design, build and operate spaces that add to the well-being of our employees and customers. We envision leveraging Fitwel to engage stakeholders to help drive continuous improvement, as well as raise awareness of the benefits of people-centric design and operations. Fitwel is well suited for this purpose due to its accessible language and ease of applicability over a large and diverse portfolio."

This year's full list of winners reflects growing geographic diversity—including projects from China, Australia and Brazil—confirming the rapid expansion of Fitwel's global reach. Fitwel data shows a global real estate sector increasingly eager to demonstrate its health and well-being credentials to build trust among building occupants and positively impact human health. Third-party studies are reinforcing the importance of these initiatives, with a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology report finding that healthy buildings generate rental premiums of 4.4 to 7.7 percent, on average, as compared with their non-health-promoting peers.

The complete list of Fitwel Best in Building Health 2021 Winners is provided below. Best in Building Health winners will be honored at a virtual event on March 25 that will showcase data and trends in the healthy building movement and feature key speakers from winning companies focused on the increasing role of health and wellness in real estate investment, design, and operations.

Fitwel Best in Building Health® 2021
Recognition Categories and Award Winners

Special Recognition for Leadership

Industry Leading Company: BentallGreenOak
Thought Leadership: Academic Advisory for the Fitwel Viral Response module

All-Time Achievements

Fitwel Excellence Award
Most Certifications of All-Time: Kilroy Realty Corporation

Fitwel Promise Award
Most Registrations of All-Time: Wells Fargo

Fitwel Impact Award
All-Time Highest Scoring Project: Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
Alexandria LaunchLabs® at the Alexandria Center® at One Kendall Square; Cambridge, MA, United States

2020 Distinctions

Greatest Number of Certifications
Consultant: NORESCO
Building Owner: Beacon Capital Partners, Hudson Pacific Properties (tie)
Tenant: Anthem, Inc.

Greatest Number of Registrations
Consultant: JLL
Building Owner: QuadReal Property Group
Tenant: Wells Fargo

Greatest Impact on Building Health
Most People Impacted across Building Scorecards: Beacon Capital Partners
Most People Impacted across Site Scorecards: Lincoln Property Company / Ampajen Solutions, LLC
Highest Square Footage: RXR Realty / NORESCO
Highest Acreage: Lincoln Property Company / Ampajen Solutions, LLC
Lionstone Investments (tie)

Greatest Impact on Viral Response
Highest Scoring Module: The Meridian Group / Paladino & Company | The Meridian Group Portfolio
Most Approved Assets: BentallGreenOak

2020 Highest Scoring Projects

Commercial Interior Space v2.0
M Moser Associates | M Moser Hong Kong

Commercial Interior Space v2.1
Built: AMP | AMP 1MQ, Melbourne, Australia
Design: CBRE | CBRE Shanghai Office, Shanghai, China*

Single-Tenant v2.1
Built: Sansiri Public Company Limited / Atelier Ten | Siri Campus, Bangkok, Thailand
Design: iFood / CTE - Centro de Tecnologia de Edificações | iFood Care, Saõ Paulo, Brazil

Multi-Tenant Base Building v2.0
STANTEC | Manulife Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Multi-Tenant Base Building v2.1
Built: PGIM Real Estate / Verdani Partners | Regions Plaza, Atlanta, GA
Design: American Physical Therapy Association | APTA Centennial Center, Alexandria, VA

Multi-Tenant Whole Building v2.0
BentallGreenOak | 150 King Street West, Toronto, Canada

Multi-Tenant Whole Building v2.1
Built: Beacon Capital Partners | AMA Plaza / 330 N. Wabash, Chicago, IL
Design: Brookfield Asset Management / CBRE | One East, Shanghai, China*

Multifamily Residential v2.0
Built: LaSalle Investment Management | The Penfield, St. Paul, MN
Design: The Green Cities Company | Fenway Center, Boston, MA

Multifamily Residential v2.1
Built: DLC Europe | Clifford House, Exeter, SW England
Design: Forte Desenvolvimento Sustentável | AGE 360, Curitiba, Paraná

Retail v2.1
Built: Touchwood / Workman LLP | Touchwood Shopping Centre, Solihull, England
Design: San Francisco International Airport / Gensler | San Francisco International Airport,  Harvey Milk Terminal 1 Center, San Francisco, CA

Fitwel Community v2.1
Design: BentallGreenOak | Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA

Fitwel Commercial Site v2.1
Built: Hudson Pacific Properties | Bentall Centre, Vancouver, Canada

About Fitwel and the Center for Active Design
Fitwel is the world's leading certification system committed to building health for all®. Generated by expert analysis of 5,600+ academic research studies, Fitwel is implementing a vision for a healthier future where all buildings and communities are enhanced to strengthen health and well-being. Fitwel was originally created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and U.S. General Services Administration. The CDC remains the research and evaluation partner for Fitwel. The Center for Active Design, a global not-for-profit organization, was selected as the licensed operator of Fitwel, charged with expanding Fitwel to the global market. To learn more about Fitwel, please visit: www.fitwel.org. 

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Marcos Reynaga
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