{"id":1992,"date":"2019-03-01T22:06:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T22:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imegcorp.com\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2023-01-26T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T15:46:30","slug":"imeg-office-the-design-budgeting-and-value-of-well-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imegcorp.com\/insights\/blog\/imeg-office-the-design-budgeting-and-value-of-well-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"IMEG Office: The design, budgeting, and value of WELL certification"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMEG is passionate about high-performance design<\/span>\u00a0and its ability to improve<\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>natural and work environments<\/span> while helping organizations succeed. Our WELL Building Standard Gold Certification for the renovation of our Denver office gave us the opportunity to practice what we preach.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The WELL Building Standard (WELL) is a building rating-system focused on improving the impacts of the built environment on human health and wellbeing. IMEG\u2019s Denver office was certified under version 1 of WELL (WELL v1), which consists of over 100 features (some are preconditions to certification and others are optimizations to pursue a higher rating) organized under the standard\u2019s seven \u201cConcepts\u201d: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort, and Mind. WELL has an advantage over many other rating systems because it is based on the actual performance of the project. Additionally, projects must be verified with onsite tests and inspections from a WELL Assessor and are required to recertify every three years to maintain certification.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why WELL?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"When our Denver office lease renewal was approaching, we knew it was a good opportunity to rethink how our space could help us live our mission and better support our staff. It was time to convert our traditional old-school corporate office into a next-generation workplace that would foster innovation and collaboration. We decided to focus on energy performance and include energy sub-metering for our space, but we also wanted to focus on the indoor environmental quality and look for ways to optimize the office for staff health, wellbeing, comfort and performance. For this reason, we decided to pursue WELL <\/span>c<\/span>ertification for our office renovation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The WELL Building Standard was something we were already advocating for and helping several clients pursue. It was clear we had to walk the talk and lead by example. We knew that a cost-effective, fully functioning WELL<\/span>–<\/span>certified office in the Denver market would be a great tool for educating clients and others in the industry. We also knew it would benefit our staff. Living in, and learning from, our own WELL office would further connect our staff with the company\u2019s purpose. The health and well<\/span>–<\/span>being benefits show we care about the lives of our people, who in turn benefit the company through improved retention and recruitment. IMEG\u2019s staff have high expectations of their own performance and value a workplace environment that intentionally promotes improved cognitive performance.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent research performed by Harvard, SUNY Upstate Medical University<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and Syracuse University<\/span>\u00a0(<\/span>known as \u201c<\/span>COGfx<\/span>\u201d<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0shows that superior air quality can, on average, double cognitive performance across many cognitive domains such as information usage, strategy, crisis response<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and focused activity levels. The\u00a0<\/span>COGfx<\/span>\u00a0research concludes that improving air quality over conventional, or code level, practices can improve employee performance by\u00a0<\/span>8<\/span>\u00a0percent on average, resulting in a $6,500 increase in employee productivity. We have continually tracked revenue per person as a key performance indicator for our business and plan to study the long-term trend in revenue per person in the WELL<\/span>-c<\/span>ertified office versus our previous office.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through this process, we were able to control our budget for the office renovation and show that we could achieve a WELL Gold level rating using smart design, not extra expense. Our added cost of construction and WELL\u00a0<\/span>c<\/span>ertification fees increased our construction and furniture cost by $1.46 per square foot \u2013 a small premium of less than 2 percent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Key WELL\u00a0strategies\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finding the right office building<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>We implemented many individual strategies in our leased office space to achieve WELL\u00a0<\/span>c<\/span>ertification, but one of the most important strategies was assessing potential office buildings against the WELL Standard while maintaining other priorities such as lease rate, TI allowance, location<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and amenities. While we originally anticipated moving, we found that our existing building best aligned with our office criteria, including our desire for WELL\u00a0<\/span>c<\/span>ertification. A few of the key WELL-related attributes of our existing office building include:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n