Our Path to Defining Excellence in Building Health | Reflections from Our President & CEO

From the CEO
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"Investing in people's health is real estate's biggest opportunity." — Joanna Frank

As 2023 wraps up, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on our collective achievements and thank you for your unwavering support. We are grateful for every project team’s commitment to the healthy building movement. Even during a difficult real estate market we have seen continued expansion of our global community of Champions, Partners, Providers, Ambassadors, Best in Building Health winners, and peers. Together, we are transforming the built environment by doubling down on human-centric practices for a healthier, more equitable future — one rooted in our shared pledge to strengthen buildings and communities for generations to come.

This summer, we welcomed a strong cohort of leading insurance, real estate, financial services, and sustainability companies that have committed to health at scale as Fitwel Champions, Partners, and Providers. We were also energized by new strategic investment partners, Band Venture Partners and Triovest, joining Quadreal Property Group in expanding our impact on Building Health. These ongoing cross-sector commitments signal the intensifying race for quality to meet the demand for healthy buildings.

The past year showed us that Building Health remains real estate's biggest opportunity. Today, the industry knows that prioritizing health is a business imperative for generating value, mitigating risk, and complying with emerging ESG rules, regulations, and taxonomies, especially given climate change’s many threats, from environmental degradation to health impacts and equity implications.

The record-breaking temperatures in 2023 served as a scalding reminder of the inextricable link between climate change and health. The headlines from COP28 reinforce the imperative that the true cost of climate change is best calculated when looked at through a public health lens. Going forward, we know that the real estate industry must play the dual function of reducing carbon emissions while adapting our built environment to be resilient to climate change’s many threats, including mitigating flood risk and heat island effect.

Mitigating climate change risk will shape real estate investment decisions across all asset types going forward. Of course, only what gets measured can be managed. In the race to net-zero, measuring and reporting environmental factors like carbon emissions has matured, but the ‘S’ component of ESG lacks a standardized, quantifiable framework and reliable data. This is certainly a challenge, yet it also presents an opportunity for our work to support the industry. 

Over the last two years, we’ve responded to this industry demand by examining the financial impact of prioritizing stakeholder health. We’ve combined the economic research with the public health research to determine which Fitwel strategies have a demonstrable impact on value and risk mitigation. In partnership with EVORA Global, we’re responding to your demand for a consistent set of ‘S’ metrics for use at scale across the real estate sector: Certified Metrics. This tech-enabled tool validates real estate data and addresses the growing need for a rigorous and standardized approach to integrating ‘Social,’ including health and well-being, into ESG reporting. It is currently being piloted by some of the most dominant pioneers in real estate and ESG today. I look forward to sharing this game-changing opportunity with the market next year.

We believe that social reporting will become as commonplace as environmental reporting in the coming years, and we’re committed to accelerating this transformation. In 2024 and beyond, our aim is to fill a glaring gap by providing a standardized, validated way to quantify, understand, and report on ‘S’, by learning from the precedent set by environmental reporting.

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together this year and while we eagerly await next year, the Fitwel and Center for Active Design teams are taking a week to rest, relax, and rejuvenate before January. On behalf of all of us, we hope the holidays bring you and your loved ones good health and joy, and we wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Joanna Frank, President & CEO, Active Design Advisors, Inc. (Adai) and Center for Active Design (CfAD)

Joanna Frank
President & CEO
Active Design Advisors, Inc. (Adai) and Center for Active Design (CfAD)

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