From Climate Resilience to ROI: 5 Essential Takeaways from the Updated Fitwel Ambassador Course

Research InsightsStrategies & SolutionsFeatured
Written By Janelle Decarreau

2025 Best in Building Health Winner: Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok, Thailand | Photo Courtesy of BDMS WELLNESS RESORT COMPANY LIMITED

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Over the past four years, both public health and the built environment have undergone tremendous changes. The COVID-19 pandemic has reignited our appreciation for open spaces, the importance of high quality indoor environments, and forced many of us to redefine the boundaries between home and office. The acceleration of climate change has forced many of us to grapple with whether or not the homes and communities we live in are safe or healthy places to build a future. As this landscape has shifted, our team has explored the new and emerging research around how health-conscious design and operations, and Fitwel’s global certification, can contribute to the development of a safe, equitable, and sustainable world. All of this new research, as well as the many ways it has been integrated into the new and existing Fitwel product line, is a part of the newly launched ambassador course. While there are many reasons this new course may be of interest or exciting, we’ve highlighted five key takeaways that make it a can’t miss learning opportunity.

2025 Best in Building Health Winner: Republic London, England | Photo Courtesy of Trilogy Real Estate LLP

  1. Explore climate change as a public health issue. While natural disasters and climate change have long been a concern for the real estate industry from a physical risk perspective, in recent years climate change has become a clear and concerning public health issue. The updated ambassador course highlights not only the physical risk concerns that the real estate owners and operators have long been aware of, but also the various public health concerns that come with climate change. With climate change impacting more buildings and communities each year, real estate has a unique opportunity to support resilience and health. Buildings also contribute around 40% of global emissions, creating what some may argue an obligation for the industry to act. Buildings and communities play a pivotal role in advancing both climate resilience and human health. From enhancing air quality by promoting active transportation, to mitigating urban heat through preserved green spaces, and strengthening flood defenses with permeable surfaces and on-site stormwater systems—many of the strategies featured in the new Ambassador Course demonstrate how the built environment can be a powerful tool in addressing today’s most urgent climate and public health challenges. 

  2. An inside look at Fitwel v3: new Standard, new research. The new ambassador course also provides an inside look at the new research that is explored in the recently launched Fitwel v3 Standard. Since the release of v2.1, a wave of new research has emerged—particularly around climate resilience, equity, workplace safety, and indoor environmental quality—and our team has worked diligently to integrate these findings into the updated Standard. This ensures that Fitwel continues to reflect the most current, evidence-based strategies for advancing health and sustainability across the built environment. Fitwel’s new and updated climate strategies around heat island mitigation, stormwater management, and support of biodiversity target key resiliency and health issues building owners and communities face across the globe. The team also worked to incorporate the latest research around improved equity, an area of work that has grown immensely in recent years. New research supports the role that internet access plays as a “super determinant” of health, as well as demonstrates that individuals with stronger social bonds have an increased likelihood of survival and job satisfaction than those with fewer social connections. This research, touched on in our ambassador course, is featured in the new v3 strategies on provision of internet access, support for civic engagement and social support groups, and more that help assets pursuing Fitwel make a stronger impact on equity.

  3. The business case for health in real estate. Fitwel has always been, and will always be, a global standard with health at its core. However, over the past few years, the team has been working hard to add another layer of research to the Standard, working to answer, how do these inherently healthy or health-promoting strategies and interventions impact financial value? This research process led to the creation of our newly launched Fitwel Scale Certification, or FSP, a truncated version of Fitwel’s asset certification strategy list that includes only the strategies with the strongest connection to financial value. The ambassador course highlights the key research behind the strategies included in this new product, such as that high-performing office buildings boost productivity, retention, and wellness, generating an extra $3,395 per employee, or that increasing ventilation rates in offices can improve performance by 8%, or roughly $6,500 per employee, and that optimizing daylight and views in United States offices could generate $352 billion in additional productivity. This data and more, explored in the course and the cornerstone of the FSP product, highlights the “how” in the business case for health. 

  4. Fitwel product integration: how FSP and asset certification differ and align. Our team is thrilled to be able to offer FSP in conjunction with our traditional, full-scale asset certification, and our ambassador course offers an in depth look at how these products work together. While only some assets may have the capacity to achieve the 90 point Fitwel threshold for asset certification, we believe all assets should be optimized for health, and all occupants deserve to live in healthy environments. As a product without a minimum achievement threshold, FSP allows for all assets within a portfolio to optimize health, even if only a portion can exceed that 90 point threshold and others need to  focus their efforts on supporting active transportation or indoor environmental quality as a starting point. These products in tandem allow a portfolio, and Fitwel user, to fully integrate and prioritize health. The new ambassador course explores how a user can assess their portfolio, select the best Fitwel product asset-by-asset, and provides insights along the way as to how and why optimizing for health and value can work in tandem.

  5. Fitwel platform walk through. In addition to updating to our v3 Standard, our engineering team behind the scenes has been working hard to update the Fitwel Platform to be smarter, sleeker, and easier to navigate. The Ambassador course includes step-by-step videos covering core platform tasks—like project registration and reviewing strategy requirements—alongside walkthroughs of newer features such as the scorecard selection wizard, portfolio sharing permissions, and your personalized certification timeline. Both longtime Fitwel users and those new to the Standard will find something to support their work on the platform in the tutorials featured in the new course, reducing user’s time spent doing admin work and freeing up more time to strategize. 

2025 Best in Building Health Winner: The Green at 9 & 90, 1610 Worcester Road Framingham, MA | Photo Courtesy of Kayne Anderson Real Estate

The Fitwel updated ambassador course offers users both insights on health and value, amassed from a review of hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, as well as insights on the Fitwel Standard. In our effort to promote architecture and urban planning solutions to improve public health, a cornerstone of our work is to educate the industry on the importance and value of health. Whether builders and designers consider it or not in the planning process, all design and operations decisions for buildings and communities will inevitably impact health. The ambassador course explores the pathways for this impact, as well as how Fitwel can support these efforts. Apart from the five key takeaways highlighted above, completing the ambassador course allows participants to join a community of likeminded individuals, ambassadorship grants users expedited response times from our Help Center team, as well as access to additional videos and resources. We’re excited about the launch of this new course, and hope these takeaways highlight key reasons Fitwel users, and those interested in the healthy building movement, should become an Ambassador today– click here to get started.

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Janelle Decarreau
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The Race to Wellness: Health is Core Business for Real Estate in 2025