To support the development of healthier building environments, WELL™ has developed a variety of healthy building certifications and standards to assist building owners and managers in providing the best conditions for their occupants/ employees.

Matthews Design Group uses the Health and Safety Rating (HSR) as a powerful option for buildings/ businesses to provide a roadmap for achieving health, wellness, and sustainability goals. By pursuing these healthy building objectives and other wellness improvements, building owners and operators can grow the momentum of the healthy building movement and demonstrate that their buildings are safer and more comfortable than non-certified buildings.

“Green, healthy buildings with a high standard of air quality tend to attract high-value tenants who lock up long-term leases, paying up to 7.7% more in rent.” — The Financial Impact of Healthy Buildings

The WELL™ Equity seal demonstrates your commitment to creating places where everyone feels welcome, seen and heard. Empowering organizations to take action and drive accountability toward their diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility goals, the WELL™ Equity Rating shows your community the type of organization that you truly want to be.

Globally focused calls for change are training society’s attention on the needs of the most vulnerable. From the international movement sparked by George Floyd’s murder to the healthcare crisis highlighted by global vaccine inequity, the path toward rectifying these longstanding issues takes different forms but speaks to a universal human need for equity. Organizations and communities are stronger when everyone is empowered. We all play a role in addressing the deep-rooted societal inequities the world faces today.

The WELL™ Equity Rating contains more than 40 features spanning six action areas:

• User Experience and Feedback (EE)
• Responsible Hiring and Labor Practices (EH)
• Inclusive Design (ED)
• Health Benefits and Services (EB)
• Supportive Programs and Spaces (ES)
• Community Engagement (EC)

The WELL™ Performance Rating is a roadmap for leveraging building performance and occupant experience data to shift business decisions and organizational culture. Informed by the WELL™ Building Standard, the WELL™ Performance Rating focuses on measurable building performance strategies that are verified through onsite testing and sensor technology. Performance measurements cover air, light and water quality as well as thermal and acoustic comfort. Occupant experience surveys connect building performance with the people inside, so organizations can make smarter decisions for their employees and business.

The WELL™ Performance Rating addresses seven themes related to performance including, indoor air quality, water quality management, lighting measurements, thermal conditions, acoustic performance, environmental monitoring and occupant experience. Upon achievement of the WELL™ Performance Rating, customers can expand their commitment to health and well-being by certifying the whole building or scaling their efforts across their entire organization. Strategies enacted through the WELL™ Performance Rating are automatically applied to a WELL™ Certification scorecard or WELL™ Score.

As organizations face the next stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WELL™ Performance Rating provides an efficient solution to monitor or meet specific performance thresholds related to indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Third-party verification and a visible seal upon achievement help communicate to anyone entering a building that it meets or exceeds industry recognized benchmarks for health.

ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. These are called pillars in ESG frameworks and represent the 3 main topic areas that companies are expected to report in. The goal of ESG Guidance is to capture all the non-financial risks and opportunities inherent to a company’s day to day activities.

Our world faces a number of global challenges: climate change, transitioning from a linear economy to a circular one, increasing inequality, balancing economic needs with societal needs. Investors, regulators, as well as consumers and employees are now increasingly demanding that companies should not only be good stewards of capital but also of natural and social capital and have the necessary governance framework in place to support this. More and more investors are incorporating ESG elements into their investment decision making process, making ESG increasingly important from the perspective of securing capital, both debt and equity.

WELL™ ESG Performance and Reporting is broadly thought of as a successful reporting framework, however originally it was a framework developed for evaluating the sustainability related disclosure of listed companies for investors. Now with demand for ESG related information on the rise, the ESG framework has become synonymous with reporting. There is no standard ESG framework (yet), only a broad consensus on the issues covered by it; there can be numerous differences at the data point level. For this reason, companies rely on sustainability reporting standards to determine how and what they report. Our job is to thoroughly teach you the importance of ESG for your organization and how to properly embrace the procedure.

Studies from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that office workers in certified green buildings had higher scores for cognitive function, better environmental perceptions, and fewer health symptoms than those in high-performing, noncertified buildings.

 

The WELL Health-Safety Rating helps buildings and organizations address the health, safety and well-being of their most valuable asset – their people. It’s a certified way to use a positive roadmap for organizations to anticipate what’s around the corner and put necessary plans and protocols in place for resilience and response.

Our team at Matthews Design Group has recently developed a training and education division that offers webinars and workshops for employers and business owners; under the umbrella of putting health and safety at the center of your business strategy.

We are excited to be able to provide you and your team with virtual and in-person workshops, sharing important industry education that puts you at the forefront of health, safety and well-being for all. Feel free to contact us today to schedule a time for us to take you and your team through the diverse benefits that the HSR can provide you.

Through assisting you in achieving your HSR certification, our goal is to have you stand out in your industry through: Bolstering your productivity and engagement, attracting and retaining top talent, driving financial returns and maximizing your ESG performance.

Wellness and Sustainability in the Workplace –

Matthews Design Group is certified to support organizations that are committed to third party verification of building and occupant health standards. We certify space under several different green building certification and rating systems including the the WELL™ Health and Safety Rating, WELL™ Building Standard, FITWEL™ certification, LEED™ certification, BREEAM™ certification, the RESET™ certification, LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE™ certification and the ACTIVESCORE™ certification, to name a few.