Fitwel in the News

Introducing Adai: A New Business Unit To Drive Implementation Of Fitwel At Scale

The Center for Active Design (CfAD) today announced the creation of Active Design Advisors, Inc., a new business unit designed to help grow and drive implementation of Fitwel®, its increasingly popular healthy building certification system. As demand for wellness real estate spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, so too did Fitwel registrations, which grew 190 percent in 2020, with Q4 registrations increasing by 644 percent over the same quarter in 2019.

CfAD President and CEO Joanna Frank said the formation of Adai will help the organization meet current and future demand and drive greater impact. "This is exactly the right moment for us to be launching Adai," she said. "Today Fitwel-certified projects improve the lives of more than a million people across the globe. But how do we get to 10 million, to 100 million? We want to invest in people and technology to meet the demands of the real estate industry for ESG-driven solutions. Not only will Adai help us grow our capacity to keep accelerating the healthy building movement, it will help us maintain the highest standards of customer service and expand our platform to ensure we truly are responding to our clients' needs."

BentallGreenOak Portfolio Scores Fitwel’s Viral Response Approval

BentallGreenOak has received Fitwel’s Viral Response Approval for 17 office buildings across the US. BGO says it is the largest commercial real estate portfolio in the country to have achieved this Viral Response Approved distinction to date. The buildings achieving the certification are in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Charlotte, Portland, Jersey City and Wellesley. BGO says these cities are among the first in the US to have commercial real estate buildings with third-party certification of their operations, policies and practices confirming their preparedness to mitigate the spread of infectious disease.

Announcing the Fitwel Senior Housing Scorecard

Fitwel announced the launch of a pilot program to establish a Senior Housing scorecard for assisted living, independent living, and memory care communities, helping owners to optimize these essential properties to promote the health and wellness of residents and employees. Participation has been secured from multiple senior housing industry leaders including

Emshih Developments, Willow Valley Communities, and Harrison Street, a leading investment management firm exclusively focused on alternative real assets and its associated operators of senior housing communities, including American Housing Senior Living/REDICO, Dial Senior Living, Engel Burman, Retirement Center Management (RCM), and The Springs Living.

Drawing from hundreds of academic studies as well as insights from pilot users, the Senior Housing scorecard is now available for widespread use.