London – March 29, 2023 – Henrietta House, the UK HQ of global real estate advisor CBRE, has been awarded a prestigious rating following extensive remodelling to promote wellbeing in employees.

The building, in Henrietta Place, Marylebone, has achieved WELL Certification at the Platinum level by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). It was completely redesigned and upgraded internally with the core focus being to create an inspiring and energising workplace which promotes wellbeing, sustainability and productivity, allows collaboration to thrive and empowers teams.

Henrietta House is the second largest building in the UK to achieve Platinum standard, the largest being 280 Bishopsgate, London.

Ciaran Bird, CBRE’s Divisional President, Advisory Services, CEO UK and Ireland, said: “This is truly a fantastic achievement, WELL is the premier building standard to focus on enhancing people’s health and wellbeing, and the team worked tirelessly to achieve this accreditation.

“The working world has changed dramatically over the past three years and organisations need to respond with deeper insight and attention to employee welfare, connectivity, collaboration and sustainability. We’re proud to have created an optimum workplace experience which sharpens our competitive edge, enables our people to thrive and ensures we can achieve optimum delivery for our clients.”

The prestigious distinction was awarded through IWBI’s WELL v2 pilot and completes the building’s dual certification aspiration following the achievement of BREEAM Excellent in summer 2022.

Both certifications fit within CBRE UK’s ESG strategy which aims to achieve the following by 2030:

• Net zero carbon business and an exemplar to employees, suppliers and clients​
• Create an inclusive, innovative and engaging culture, where employees realise their full potential
• Continually improve business practices to benefit the value-chain, including suppliers and communities

Ann Marie Aguilar, IWBI Senior Vice President, who leads operations for the EMEA region, said: “We are excited to congratulate CBRE for achieving WELL Certification at the Platinum level for its Henrietta House office in London.

“CBRE has demonstrated outstanding leadership by supporting healthier people through better buildings and organisations across the globe and is inspiring others to strengthen their own ESG performance through WELL.”

Created through seven years of rigorous research and development working with leading physicians, scientists, and industry professionals, the WELL Building Standard is a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based scientific research.

Henrietta House earned the rare and hard-to-achieve distinction based on ten categories of building performance — Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community — and achieved a Platinum level rating. IWBI is the leading authority for transforming health and well-being with its people-first approach to buildings, organisations and communities. The scheme was delivered in collaboration with landlord Lazari, Investments Ltd and architects MoriSmith.

Project features that helped the building achieve its WELL Certified Platinum rating include:

• A new visible staircase at the building entrance to add connectivity
• Space for a gym, family room and a multifaith room
• Biophilic elements incorporation with over 3,000 potted plants within the building and a new green wall on the building’s cafe terrace
• A thorough air quality and thermal comfort sensors strategy for occupants’ comfort
• Review of welfare policies and practices: i.e. carer policy, vaccination support, shared parental leave, developed with the support of internal employees networks
• Operation of the building to maintain its levels of wellbeing performance achieved with the design i.e. building cleanliness and canteen healthy food provision.

WELL is grounded in evidence-based research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend approximately 90 percent of our time, and the health and well-being impacts on the people inside these buildings. To be awarded WELL Certification by IWBI, Henrietta House underwent rigorous testing and a final evaluation carried out by third parties to ensure it met all WELL Certified Platinum performance requirements.

Almost 10 years ago (November, 2013) CBRE’s Los Angeles office became the first building in the world to become WELL Certified.