Key Trends for Health and Wellness in Development for 2025

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The Haven by Aldar | Photo courtesy of of Aldar

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As we jump into 2025, the Center for Active Design reflects on the key insights from 2024 –  research on the benefits of building certifications, debates on equitable policy, and intensifying climate concerns. As we look to 2025, we’re eager to highlight  the built environment’s evolving role in health and wellness. This year brings fresh opportunities to address critical issues like resilience, sustainability, and social connection, driving meaningful change for communities worldwide.

The Sunset Courtyard | Photo courtesy of Kilroy Realty

1. Continued climate resilience with a focus on biodiversity: While climate change has long been a core focus for built environment stakeholders, it remains an ongoing focal point heading into this year. This year began with unprecedented wildfires in Los Angeles, and heat continuing to melt and exhaust our buildings and cooling systems, making it clear that the consequences of climate change will remain unrelenting. Fitwel’s v3 update addresses climate challenges with strategies for Fire-Prone Zones and Heat Island Mitigation while also promoting biodiversity conservation. The protection of diverse ecosystems, from forests and wetlands to parks that host different flora, fauna, and animal habitats, can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the acceleration of climate change. Policymakers and regulators outside the scientific community are increasingly recognizing the potential of this impact, with GRESB including new biodiversity and nature metrics in their 2025 update and the majority of countries at COP 16 committing to national biodiversity targets. For building owners and operators, Fitwel’s updated standard offers a strategy to provide guidance on supporting biodiversity, and for everyday tenants and homeowners, daily practices such as water conservation, maintaining a garden, and limiting pesticide use, can stack up to make a big impact.

Photo courtesy of Crown Property Management

2. Improving air quality and energy efficiency: While climate change has brought energy efficiency to the forefront of issues faced by real estate owners and operators, COVID-19 simultaneously highlighted the importance of high quality air. Energy use and consumption by the built environment has been a significant contributor to emissions– up to almost 40% as of 2024- and as a result, energy efficiency has been a top priority for operators. However, a misconception in the industry has long been that quality indoor air requires increased levels of energy consumption, and therefore that high indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency cannot co-exist. Our team conducted our own research last year that reaffirmed this misunderstanding; in a survey of over 250 industry professionals, respondents reported difficulty balancing IAQ and energy efficiency, as well as challenges obtaining owner buy-in for prioritizing IAQ. This year, we aim to lead the way focusing on the ways in which IAQ and energy efficiency can work in tandem to unlock benefits for both building and occupant health. Energy efficiency can also support outdoor air quality, through the reduction of air pollution. Traffic congestion and wildfire smoke, both of which continue to be urban challenges as we head into 2025, are top contributors to outdoor air quality. Polluted outdoor air can strain HVAC systems, impacting not only energy consumption but also indoor air quality. Considering the climate challenges that lay ahead, it is vital to prioritize energy efficiency and air quality in tandem this year.

Photo courtesy of Harrison Street

3. Healthy foods for health and value: As many of us start off the new year with commitments to healthier diets and eating practices, January is a great time to address the diverse and holistic impacts of healthy food access. The past year has brought growing support for the ‘food as medicine’ movement— the notion that food and nutrition is often the first and best step in the direction of health and wellbeing. Increasing both physical and financial access to healthy foods is therefore essential in supporting health. Fitwel v3 recognizes this impact, with added strategies to address proximity to healthy foods, as well as equitable access to them, by ensuring stores accept government subsidies and vouchers. Beyond the vital health impacts, in Fitwel’s Health Drives Value in Real Estate report, the team analyzed Fitwel data across a variety of properties and discovered a statistically significant correlation between achievement of access to healthy food strategies, and increased net promoter score. Building environments that make it easier to stick to our new years resolutions have benefits for both occupants' health and an owner’s financial value.

Park Place, Irvine, California | Image Courtesy of LBA Realty

4. Promoting and protecting third spaces and social connection: One of the biggest lessons coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the importance of social connection for health and well-being. Highlighted by the Surgeon General in 2023, and reiterated by polling data in 2024, despite the reopening of spaces and companies returning to the office, loneliness remains a serious health concern. One way that the built environment can help to promote and support social connection is through the creation of third spaces– spaces that aren’t the home or the workplace that support gathering, relaxing, and connecting. From parks and playgrounds to libraries and community centers, creating opportunities for social interaction and relationship building has enormous benefits for social and mental health. Social interaction can create feelings of belonging and value, and people with stronger social bonds are more likely to live longer, healthier lives. Proximity to parks and plazas and support for the creation and preservation of civic resources are a few ways that building owners and operators as well as tenants and homeowners can support the protection of third spaces.

The built environment continues to hold immense potential to shape global health and well-being. The trends we’re tracking for 2025 reflect the diverse ways real estate drives positive change, from addressing climate change to enhancing food access and fostering social connection. These themes emphasize the industry’s role in creating healthier, more sustainable communities. By integrating these strategies, owners, operators, and developers can make a meaningful, long-term impact on both individual lives and the broader global community in the year ahead.

Contributed by Grace Dickinson, Skyler Chin, and the Center for Active Design Research Team.

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