(HOUSTON) – Hines, the international real estate firm, today announced that the company has become a Founding Alliance Member of the Well Living Lab, joining other leading organizations such as the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) as Founding Alliance Members. The Well Living Lab, formed as a collaboration between Delos and Mayo Clinic, explores the connection between health and the indoor environment. As a founding member, Hines will support the Lab’s research in identifying and quantifying the key variables that improve health, well-being and productivity in indoor spaces. Hines also plans to work with the Lab to identify further needed research and to conduct studies in the Well Living Lab to advance this research.
Through the Alliance community, the Well Living Lab collaborates with companies, nonprofit organizations and industry experts who want to play a leadership role in understanding and creating indoor environments that enhance human health and well-being.
Hines Innovation Officer Charlie Kuntz said, “Healthy living and working spaces have long been a critical component in delivering and managing our buildings. By learning alongside the experts at the Well Living Lab, Hines can help deliver the most healthy, productive spaces in the world.”
Founded by a mechanical engineer with a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines has long been on the forefront of energy-conserving and quality-of-life initiatives, such as LEED® and ENERGY STAR® – each with a significant focus on improving the built environment and protecting the natural environment. This new involvement with the Well Living Lab will raise that focus to a new level with data the Lab generates in their research on understanding how the built environment affects inhabitants.
“We look forward to strengthening our work through the expertise that each alliance member brings,” says Dr. Brent Bauer, medical director of the Well Living Lab and Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine program. “Bringing alliance members together will advance our collective knowledge and ultimately benefit all industries that support the built environment by making the structures in which we live and work healthier.”
The Well Living Lab’s world-class research approach leverages and expands upon many scientific areas, including the principles of the International WELL Building Institute’s™ WELL Building Standard™ (WELL), which focuses on seven categories relevant to indoor health – air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. WELL is third-party certified through Green Business Certification Inc.
“We are excited to be joined by leading pioneers in real estate and other industries in our effort to help drive a research agenda that is centered around the effect that buildings have on the people inside these spaces. We spend nearly 90 percent of our time indoors, and Hines’ commitment to the research behind these principles is an exceptional demonstration of leadership,” said Rick Fedrizzi, IWBI Chairman and CEO.
The Well Living Lab Alliance aims to partner with companies that want to help generate new knowledge, and interact with Lab experts from a wide range of scientific, medical and technical backgrounds. A listing of Alliance Members can be found on www.welllivinglab.com.
View a narrated tour of the Well Living Lab here.
About the Well Living Lab
A collaboration of Delos and Mayo Clinic, the Well Living Lab is the first human-centered research facility dedicated to identifying how buildings—and everything that goes in them—impact human health and well-being. A world-class, multi-disciplinary research approach guides the work of the Well Living Lab. The Well Living Lab is unique in that research is conducted on real people, in real-world settings. This is made possible by the revolutionary infrastructure of the Well Living Lab, which features 7,500 square feet of sensor rich, reconfigurable space where researchers can monitor and test products and systems on human subjects in simulated, real-world, built environments. www.welllivinglab.com
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 189 cities in 20 countries. Hines has approximately $96.5 billion of assets under management, including $48.5 billion for which Hines provides fiduciary investment management services, and $48 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 114 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,206 properties, totaling over 390 million square feet. The firm’s current property and asset management portfolio includes 533 properties, representing over 213 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.
About the WELL Building Standard™ The WELL Building Standard™ (WELL) is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact the health and wellness of the people who live, work, and learn in the buildings. WELL focuses on seven categories of building performance: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. The WELL Building Standard is grounded in evidence-based research that demonstrates the connection between the buildings where people spend approximately 90 percent of their time and those buildings’ health and wellness impacts on those who use them. The WELL Building Standard is administered by the International WELL Building Institute™ and third party certified by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI). www.wellcertified.com
About the International WELL Building Institute™ The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) is a public benefit corporation whose mission is to improve human health and wellness through the built environment. Public benefit corporations like IWBI are an emerging U.S. structure for corporations committed to balancing public benefits with profitability – harnessing the power of private capital for greater good. IWBI administers the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL) – a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of buildings that impact the health and wellness of the people who live, work, and learn in them. It also supports the growing number of professionals who seek WELL accreditation, as administered by GBCI. www.wellcertified.com