Delivering on People-first Places: Introducing IWBI’s 2023 Annual Report
Report highlights significant progress advancing healthy buildings and organizations, including the global impact and continued momentum of WELL
NEW YORK, March 28, 2024 /3BL/ - The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the global authority for driving market transformation through healthy buildings, organizations and communities, today released IWBI’s 2023 Annual Report: Our Movement is Growing, offering an in-depth view of the organization’s leading work to advance people-first places, including progress and milestones in WELL adoption, innovation and research, strategic initiatives and advocacy and policy.
“As I look back over 2023, it’s clear that organizations everywhere are embracing the idea that healthier buildings make healthier businesses that lead to healthier bottom lines,” said Rachel Hodgdon, IWBI President and CEO. “This profound transformation underscores the breadth and depth of our growing movement and gives me great confidence in the power of WELL to change practice and change lives.”
As a testament to the dedicated and ever-expanding global community that works to support this ecosystem, there is continued rapid global adoption of WELL strategies. The WELL footprint grew by nearly 1 billion square feet by year’s end, reaching nearly 5 billion total square feet, adopted by thousands of organizations, including over 150 companies in the Global 500 and Fortune 500. As of February 2024, WELL is now being used across more than 5 billion square feet of space in 130 countries, signaling its rapid and widespread adoption as the leading healthy building standard in the world.
IWBI’s achievements in 2023 also spanned to connection and critical calls to action, including urging policymakers to rethink all future building policy to support positive health outcomes. IWBI held numerous in-person events around the world, from the WELL Salon series to the WELL Summit, and deepened partnerships with key coalition builders, including the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Enterprise Green Communities.
As human health is increasingly recognized as material to the bottom line, WELL’s holistic and research-driven approach provided a roadmap for organizations to leverage the increased interest in social sustainability performance as an organizational differentiator, enhancing their ESG strategy and reporting. As a result, many leading companies are committing to WELL at scale, extending WELL’s benefits to not only promote the health and well-being of their people, but also laying the foundation for stronger, more resilient organizations.
Coming up on 10 years, WELL has seen rapid adoption across nearly every sector, including financial services, building design and construction (AECD), real estate (including retail and residential), healthcare, hospitality, education, energy and utility, manufacturing, transportation, professional services, sports and entertainment, and the public and non-profit sectors. WELL adoption has also experienced a significant increase in its global presence in every region of the world.
Read IWBI’s 2023 Annual Report: Our Movement is Growing.
About the International WELL Building Institute
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is a public benefit corporation and the world’s leading organization focused on deploying people first places to advance a global culture of health. IWBI mobilizes its community through the administration of the WELL Building Standard (WELL) and its WELL ratings, management of the WELL AP credential, the pursuit of applicable research, the development of educational resources, and advocacy for policies that promote health and well-being everywhere. More information on WELL can be found here.
International WELL Building Institute, IWBI, the WELL Building Standard, WELL v2, WELL Certified, WELL AP, WELL EP, WELL Score, The WELL Conference, We Are WELL, the WELL Community Standard, WELL Health-Safety Rated, WELL Performance Rated, WELL Equity Rated, WELL Equity, WELL Residence, Works with WELL, WELL and others, and their related logos are trademarks or certification marks of International WELL Building Institute pbc in the United States and other countries.
