INTERNATIONAL WELL BUILDING INSTITUTE’S WELL COMMUNITY STANDARD IS POISED FOR LAUNCH
–Water Street Tampa Development Credited for Inspiring the New Standard
(NEW YORK – August 31, 2017) – The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) will launch the WELL Community Standard™ pilot on September 5, 2017, adding a district-scale companion to its global WELL Building Standard™ (WELL™).
When registration opens, leading the innovation will be Water Street Tampa, the development whose early vision led to the standard’s creation. Strategic Property Partners, LLC (SPP), the developer of Water Street Tampa, is pursuing both WELL and LEED building certifications on individual buildings in the development’s footprint, and Water Street Tampa intends to be the world’s first WELL Certified™ community under the WELL Community Standard. In September 2015, SPP joined President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative to make a commitment towards integrating wellness and sustainability into the project and has since worked with IWBI to keep that commitment and help bring the new standard to fruition.
According to IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi, “We envision that a WELL Community will function in a way that protects health and well-being across all aspects and areas of community life. It will be inclusive, integrated and resilient, with a shared identity and goals, high levels of social interaction and civic engagement. The WELL Community Standard will guide how a community’s resources — natural, human and technological — are used effectively, equitably and responsibly to encourage health and wellness among all community members.” WELL Certified communities will implement design and technology strategies to improve concepts of air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, sound, mind, temperature, materials, and community.
Fedrizzi noted that Water Street Tampa was the first adopter of WELL’s approach for a community founded on health and wellness as part of its core development principles. “Water Street Tampa was first to be an active participant and has provided its deep expertise as the standard has been shaped. As we open registration for formal participation in the rating system on September 5, 2017, all the organizations, in addition to Water Street Tampa, who register to participate in the pilot that day will become part of a special class of projects who can proudly claim that they were among the first to participate in making this vision a reality, and every community that comes behind them will be in their debt.”
“When our team first learned about the idea of WELL and the impact it can have on improving the lives of the people through the built environment, we were tremendously inspired, and continue to be,” said James Nozar, CEO of SPP. “Throughout our planning process for Water Street Tampa, we have challenged ourselves to rethink how to implement the best practices in wellness and sustainability both within the buildings themselves and in the public realm. In partnership with IWBI, we are planning for a holistic approach to wellness, including having a supermarket for easy access to healthy food, water bottle refilling stations, and wide sidewalks for a walkable neighborhood.”
“We’ve had a lot of people working like crazy,” said IWBI Founder Paul Scialla, “to use what we were learning about how buildings are an underutilized public health intervention tool and apply these learnings at a community scale. Next week’s launch of the WELL Community Standard pilot is the culmination of that work, and SPP continues to be at the forefront of helping us evolve this global standard. I know many communities will want to use this benchmark to validate the intentional decisions that are made with the health and wellbeing of people in mind.”
About Water Street Tampa
Located in the heart of downtown Tampa, Water Street Tampa will become a mixed-use neighborhood developed by Strategic Property Partners, LLC, the real estate joint venture between Cascade Investment, LLC and Jeff Vinik. The phased development project intends to revitalize the surrounding area and create an urban, mixed-use waterfront district consisting of over 9 million square feet of new commercial, residential, hospitality, cultural, entertainment, education, and retail uses, totaling approximately $3 billion of private investment. Integrating design and planning principals focused on walkability, sustainability, connectivity, and wellness, SPP intends to create a world-class development in downtown Tampa.
About WELL Standards
The WELL Building Standard™ (WELL™) is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of buildings around the globe that impact the health and wellness of people. It 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 Community Standard™ is a district-scale rating system that takes into account the interconnectivity between buildings and their surroundings and the overall impact on human health. The WELL Building Standard and the WELL Community Standard are 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 that is leading the movement to promote health and wellness in buildings and communities everywhere. IWBI delivers the cutting-edge WELL Building Standard™ and the 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. It also supports the growing number of professionals who seek WELL accreditation, as administered by GBCI. www.wellcertified.com