IWBI and BBI Join Forces to Advance Healthy Buildings in the Netherlands
THE HAGUE, April 18, 2018 /3BL Media/ – The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) and the Blue Building Institute (BBI) announced a new agreement to accelerate market transformation toward healthy buildings and communities in the Netherlands.
The organizations will work collaboratively to promote the successful adoption of the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL™) and WELL Community Standard™, performance-based systems for measuring, certifying and monitoring features of buildings and communities that impact the health and wellness of the people who live, work, and learn in them.
Building on a two-year collaboration, IWBI and BBI will identify opportunities to provide localized customer and technical support for WELL Certification, develop events and education offerings, and promote building design, construction and operations practices that improve people’s health and well-being. BBI will focus on enhancing capacity building among its stakeholders, including real estate owners and developers, investors, occupiers and sustainability professionals.
“We are extremely pleased to work with the Blue Building Institute to facilitate the market transformation toward human health and wellness in the Netherlands,” said IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. “With BBI as our Dutch market partner, we see tremendous opportunity to elevate the focus on human performance and the contributions better buildings make towards helping humans thrive.”
“As early adopters of the wellness agenda in The Netherlands, we’re delighted to announce our alliance with the International WELL Building Institute today to jointly grow the health and wellness movement in the built environment and create opportunities for our stakeholders,” said Lara Muller, CEO and Co Founder of BBI, together with Co Founders Alexandra Boot and Francesco Franchimon. “We firmly believe this partnership will allow us to build capacity, create tremendous opportunities and further knowledge around what we consider to be the new era in the sustainability movement in The Netherlands and globally.”
Already one of the leading European markets in the rapid expansion of WELL, the Netherlands is poised to embrace healthier people through better buildings with features such as high quality air, water and light, and promotion of physical activity, nutrition, mental health, and acoustic and thermal comfort. Currently 19 projects encompassing 1.7 million square feet (160,000 sm) are registered to pursue WELL Certification in the country and 37 industry professionals have earned their WELL APÔ (Accredited Professional) credential or serve as WELL Faculty members.
To kickstart the collaboration, IWBI and BBI will team up to showcase the benefits of building WELL at PROVADA, the Netherlands’ premier annual exhibition for the real estate industry. This year’s event will be held in Amsterdam’s RAI venue on June 5-7.
About the International WELL Building Institute™
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. IWBI delivers the cutting-edge WELL Building Standard, the first to be focused exclusively on the ways that buildings, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness. Its work extends to advancing health through design for entire neighborhoods through the WELL Community Standard™ Pilot, and convening and mobilizing the wellness community through management of the WELL AP credential.
www.wellcertified.com
About Blue Building Institute
The Blue Building Institute (BBI) is a mission driven knowledge institute, platform, incubator and advocate of a human centric approach to the built environment. Together with a growing group of forward looking investors, real estate owners, real estate developers, occupiers, consulting firms and academic institutions as its partners, BBI strives to drive the health and wellness movement in buildings by creating a market for buildings and communities that impact human sustainability.
www.bluebuildinginstitute.eu
IWBI Contact:
Ms Kristen Coco
Kristen.coco@wellcertified.com
+44 (0)7377 815 047
BBI Contact:
Ms Jitske Zitman
jitske.zitman@bluebuildinginstitute.eu
+31 85 130 2165
