Global Real Estate Leaders Prioritize Health to Drive Value, Improve ESG Performance, & Mitigate Risk from Climate Change

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Mar 21, 2024, 10:15 ET

Fitwel Announces 2024 Best in Building Health Awards defining excellence in real estate operations and design proven to enhance quality of life and maximize value

PGIM Real Estate, Blackstone Real Estate's ESG leadership, Green Matrix Consulting Company, Aldar, Harrison Street, Evolution Sustainability Group, and more are honored for their contributions

NEW YORK, March 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Fitwel, the world's leading certification system committed to building health for all, proudly announced the winners of the 2024 Best in Building Health Awards today. This prestigious annual recognition honors the most innovative real estate companies and individuals setting the standard for health and wellbeing in the built environment across the globe, leveraging the trusted Fitwel Standard to enhance quality of life and drive value through design and operational excellence.

Marking the 6th annual celebration of the Best in Building Health Awards, Fitwel continues to recognize industry and individual leaders, as well as top-scoring projects across asset types and regions globally, highlighting their unique endeavors, motivations, and successes. This year's winners, recognized for their achievements in 2023, span the globe from countries including Canada, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and the United States, among others.

In the wake of one of the most rapid periods of Fitwel adoption, 2023 witnessed an impressive 78% increase in square footage of buildings on the platform, representing 2.5 billion sq. ft., underscoring the growing recognition of the value of health-optimized built environments. Top performing sectors including industrial, student housing, multifamily housing, life sciences, office, and retail, are all embracing Fitwel Certification, signaling a widespread paradigm shift towards prioritizing people-centric design.

"This year's winners are true champions exemplifying Fitwel's global reach of bringing building health to all. Fitwel is empowering industry leaders to implement a framework that prioritizes stakeholder health and well-being, improves ESG performance, future-proofs asset value, and mitigates risk," said Joanna Frank, President & CEO of Fitwel. "With the recent introduction of Fitwel v3 for asset certification and phase 2 of Social Performance as an entity-wide certification pathway, we anticipate a transformative year ahead. The Standard, now providing 100% portfolio coverage, reflects the latest research on health, climate change, and value, positioning Fitwel as a catalyst for industry-wide change."

"Fitwel continues to expand globally, evidenced by the diversity of companies, countries, and assets in this year's Best in Building Health Award winners," said Zachary Flora, Executive Vice President of Growth at Fitwel. "As an organization committed to impacting health at scale and driving value by optimizing the built environment for people, it is incredible to see the adoption of Fitwel as an asset certification and also as a trusted source of social performance data used to strengthen ESG initiatives at scale. Through the new Fitwel v3 Standard and Social Performance metrics, we will continue to drive market transformation and set the bar for healthy buildings. Congratulations to our award winners who epitomize that transformation."

"Fitwel continues to help companies understand and act on a wide range of practical, impactful measures that can be taken to promote safety, physical, social, and mental health, and more broadly, a culture of engagement among the workforce," said Ari Frankel, a Principal at KKR Capstone, who is a member of the Center for Active Design's Board of Directors and who was also a founding member of the Fitwel Leadership Advisory Board while working with Alexandria Real Estate Equities. "This movement, which began to scale in commercial real estate, is poised for further adoption and growth across companies across a wide range of industries, sizes, and geographies."

2024 Best in Building Health Special Recognition honorees underscore Fitwel's significant growth and global impact, featuring those leading dominant market trends and driving transformation through social equity, health and well-being, and sustainability.

Best in Building Health® Leadership Awards | 2024
Special Recognition for Industry and Individual Leadership in 2023

Industry Leadership Award: Fitwel Champion Growth | PGIM Real Estate
Recognized for outstanding progress in registering and certifying projects across their global portfolio as a Fitwel Champion.
Industry Leadership Award: Regional Growth | Aldar
Recognized for being a Fitwel trailblazer, developing and managing healthy buildings that prioritize the well-being of end users across the Middle East, one of Fitwel's fastest-growing regions.
Individual Leadership Award: ESG Leadership | Eric Duchon, Global Head of ESG for Blackstone Real Estate, Dan Egan, Americas Head of ESG for Blackstone Real Estate
Recognized for their commitment to building resilient environments by integrating healthy buildings and Fitwel across their portfolio companies, strengthening properties and delivering long-term value to their investors.
Industry Leadership Award: Sector Leadership - Student Housing | Evolution Sustainability Group
Recognized for their commitment to expanding the healthy building movement through the Student Housing sector.

Special Recognition for All-Time Achievements

Fitwel Excellence Award: Most Certifications of All-Time
Harrison Street
Fitwel Impact Award: Highest Scoring Project of All-Time (Design)
Green Matrix Consulting Company, Five To The Tenth, Hung Kuo Group | Eco Utopia Community, Taiwan
Fitwel Impact Award: Highest Scoring Project of All-Time (Built)
Vesta Consulting, UAB, Bei Capital, UAB | BLC2, Lithuania

Fitwel also unveiled its second annual Top 20 Ambassadors List, an initiative launched in 2023 highlighting industry-leading professionals demonstrating exemplary engagement, leadership, and achievements as Fitwel Ambassadors. The honorees were selected out of over 4,500 professionals across 50+ countries for their success in project registrations and Fitwel certifications and the number of people impacted through those certifications. To see the full list of this year's Top 20 Ambassadors, visit Fitwel's website here.

Special Recognition Ambassador Awards

2024 Ambassador of the Year
Madison Dorman, Director of Certifications | Verdani Partners
Ambassador With the Highest Scoring Project
Chia Ming Huang, Founder & Principal | Green Matrix Consulting Company
Company with the Most Ambassadors and Most New Ambassadors
Gensler

Below is the full list of 2024 Best in Building Health winners, which can also be found here.

Best in Building Health® Awards | 2024
Recognition Categories and Award Winners for Achievements in 2023

Distinctions | 2024
For Achievements in 2023

Highest-Scoring Project (Built)
Certification Project Team: Frasers Property UK
Project: Winnersh Triangle
Location: Reading, England
Highest Scoring Project (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Green Matrix Consulting Company, Five To The Tenth, Hung Kuo Group
Project: Eco Utopia Community
Location: Taiwan
Greatest Number of Certifications (Consultant)
Company: UL Solutions
Greatest Number of Certifications (Owner)
Company: Harrison Street
Greatest Number of Certifications (Tenant)
Company: Amgen
Greatest Number of Registered Projects
Company: BGIS
Most People Impacted Across Building Scorecards
Company: RXR
Most People Impacted Across Site Scorecards
Company: Oracle, Inc.
Highest Square Footage
Company: RXR
Highest Acreage
Company: Aldar

Highest Scoring Projects | 2024
For Achievements in 2023

Commercial Interior Space v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Team: QuadReal Property Group
Project: QuadReal Head Office at Park Place
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Commercial Interior Space v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Team: PGIM Real Estate
Project: NJ-Tower-14 PGIM Real Estate
Location: Newark, NJ
Single-Tenant Building v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Teams: Africus Co., Ltd., Thai Health Promotion Foundation
Project: Thai Health Promotion Foundation
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Single-Tenant Building v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Samskara Studio, Lincoln Property Company, Arrowstreet, Studio ENEE, Soden Sustainability
Project: Seaport Circle: Pavilion
Location: Boston, MA
Multi-Tenant Base Building v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Team: Paramount Group
Project: 111 Sutter Street
Location: San Francisco, CA
Multi-Tenant Base Building v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Team: Credit Suisse Asset Management, CBRE Ltd.
Project: 3 Rivergate
Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
Multi-Tenant Whole Building v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Team: Beacon Capital Partners, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL
Project: AMA Plaza / 330 N. Wabash
Location: Chicago, IL
Multi-Tenant Whole Building v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Team: UBS Asset Management - Euroinvest, Cushman & Wakefield, EVORA Global
Project: WTC Barcelona Almeda Park Phase 1 Building #3
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Multifamily Residential v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Teams: ESG Europe, Elkstone Partners, Hatch Student Living
Project: Copley Court
Location: Cork, Ireland
Multifamily Residential v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Harrison Street, DLC Europe
Project: Compass, UK
Location: Birmingham, UK
Retail v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Teams: Brightworks Sustainability, Halekulani Corporation
Project: Halepuna Waikiki
Location: Honolulu, HI
Retail v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Tishman Speyer, Arup
Project: Enterprise Research Campus – Hotel Component
Location: Boston, MA
Community v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Teams: UL Solutions, Savills Property Service (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Project: Central Park
Location: Beijing, China
Community v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Green Matrix Consulting Company, Five To The Tenth, Hung Kuo Group
Project: Eco Utopia Community
Location: Taiwan
Commercial Industrial Site v2.1 (Built)
Certification Project Team: Frasers Property UK
Project: Winnersh Triangle
Location: Reading, England
Commercial Industrial Site v2.1 (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Beijing Central Business District Administration Committee, Beijing Yintai Business Management Group Co., Ltd., China Academy of Building Research
Project: Public Green Plaza in Beijing CBD Core Area
Location: Beijing, China
Senior Housing vbeta (Built)
Certification Project Teams: Green Courte Partners, MA Design
Project: Verena at Hilliard
Location: Hilliard, OH
Senior Housing vbeta (Design)
Certification Project Teams: Pennrose, LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc., DiMella Shaffer, Thornton Tomasetti, NEI
Project: The Pryde
Location: Hyde Park, MA

About Fitwel
Fitwel is the world's leading certification system committed to building health for all. Generated by expert analysis of 7,000+ academic research studies, Fitwel is implementing a vision for a healthier future where all buildings and communities are enhanced to strengthen health and well-being. Fitwel was originally created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and U.S. General Services Administration. The CDC remains the research and evaluation partner for Fitwel. The Center for Active Design (CfAD), a global not-for-profit organization, maintains the Fitwel standard and conducts objective third-party assessments that lead to certified projects. CfAD's new business unit, Adai (pronounced "a-DAY"), is charged with expanding Fitwel to the global market, administering the program while providing best-in-class customer service and technical support. To learn more about Fitwel, please visit: www.fitwel.org

Media Contact:
Kate Laursen
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SOURCE Fitwel