Celebrating 15 Years in Sustainability

I have been working as a sustainability consultant in the design and construction sector for over 15 years and it has been refreshing to witness a positive change during this time, particularly in relation to the client appetite and areas of focus. I was lucky enough to be working for an Architecture Studio in Canada at the time of the WELL Building Standard’s inception and my boss at the time, was on the review panel for the Standard. I remember when I first opened the rating system and marvelled at its robustness but also wondered how easy it would be to implement due to its cost and testing element. There was however a lot of excitement and anticipation for the future of the Standard and what it could bring to the design and operation of buildings. Before 2014, health and wellbeing design measures were addressed in other rating systems, such as BREEAM and LEED, however very little weight was placed on these and they often fell by the wayside. It has been good to see that this gap in the design and construction process has been addressed by the WELL Building Standard and also Fitwel later on.

I have now supported many clients on introducing and maximising the design intentions of WELL and Fitwel. WELL has been rapidly growing and especially after Covid-19 it has shifted from a nice to have, to a fundamental performance metric for post-occupancy evaluation. I have seen firsthand how the benefits of introducing the WELL and Fitwel methodology that include lighting, air quality, noise, materiality, thermal comfort and operational policy have a huge impact on how people feel in their environment. It is a particularly rewarding to see the vast impacts on staff productivity and absenteeism in office workspaces.

Beyond these clear benefits, investors are also starting to take notice. In the last few years, research has supported the ROI of such rating systems, meaning that there also financial gains to be had by introducing WELL principles. For example, one case study from February 2023, demonstrated a 300% ROI for workplace wellness programmes. Other benefits have been highlighted an 8% uptick in employee performance or 28% improvement in overall satisfaction in the workplace. This is the first time in my experience that I have seen such a positive investment in this space. I am looking forward to seeing how this will support the exponential growth in healthy buildings and benefit those who reap the rewards the most – the occupants.

My background is primarily in supporting organisations with their carbon footprint. I have seen this space develop tremendously over recent years, and the big thing I have noticed is the number of organisations being asked to report on and disclose their environmental impact. This has come from a variety of external pressures including government, investors, and consumers. It’s caused a seismic shift, as we can no longer rely on voluntary reporting of emissions and aim to move forward with realistic decarbonisation accomplishments.

The diverse nature of industries that are now starting to engage in the concepts of carbon footprinting and environmental reporting is also promising. Companies of all sizes and sectors now want to understand their carbon footprint and set robust and achievable carbon reduction targets. The issue I’ve seen however is there is still a lot of ambiguity in the market. The need for some form of third-party assurance and verification is clear (and indeed preferred by corporate reporting initiatives such as CDP, SBTi). I enjoy supporting organisations through this challenge and developing their carbon footprint assessments. This includes helping them understand their emissions hotspots and providing a certified strategy for them to reduce their environmental impact so that they can be confident in their approach. It will be exciting to see how the next few years unfold as more and more companies begin to participate and reach their near-term goals.

Appetite for BREEAM has increased massively since I started in 2017, driven by planning and policy requirements encouraging developers to adopt more sustainable practices. It is also encouraging to see the amount of developers who have adopted BREEAM as part of their sustainability or ESG strategy. I believe developers are seeing the benefits as BREEAM is embedded in design, and translates into buildings with improved energy efficiency, reduced embodied carbon and also healthier buildings for those who occupy them. Not only are we seeing an increase in adoption, but also ambition. There has been a noticeable uptake in developments targeting Outstanding, demonstrating developers desire to implement sustainability features within their buildings, but also understanding the value in the BREEAM and sustainability assessments.

This also seems to be the case for BREEAM In Use as asset managers seek to benchmark the sustainability performance of their developments in operation and use it as a tool to drive continuous improvement. This has become a powerful tool in supporting GRESB submissions, so it is no surprise that is being adopted to further demonstrate the sustainability performance of these assets. Looking forward, I am excited for the upcoming update to the BREEAM methodology as Version 7 is released in 2024 as it will drive Net Zero in the built environment with an improved focus on operational energy and also performance requirements set for embodied carbon.