Using Data and Occupant Experience to Create Healthier, Safer and More Productive Offices and Workspaces.
DUBLIN, Ireland – Ethos, one of EMEA’s leading providers of Data Centre Mechanical and Electrical Design Consultancy, sustainable commercial and smart fit-out buildings, today announced it is the first business in the world to achieve the WELL Performance Rating through the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). IWBI is the global authority for transforming health and well-being with a people-first approach to buildings, organizations and communities.
International WELL Building Institute logo
This new, industry-leading benchmark is designed to help organisations leverage building performance data and occupant experience insights to shift business decisions and drive health and well-being outcomes. The WELL Performance Rating serves as a roadmap to implement best practices for continuous monitoring and performance across key indoor environmental quality (IEQ) metrics related to indoor air quality, water quality management, lighting measurements, thermal conditions, acoustic performance and occupant experience. The rating is comprised of features from the WELL Building Standard (WELL).
Projects must achieve 21 features to achieve the WELL Performance Rating– Ethos achieved 24 such features for its Living Lab initiative.
Ethos pioneered a Living Lab initiative using its own HQ in Sandyford, Dublin as a testing ground, installing several smart building technologies and sensors that significantly enhance the amount of information that a building can provide. These included sensors for Air Quality, People Counting, Desk Occupancy, Energy Metering and Acoustics. When combined, the data provided allowed the firm to regulate and manage the work environment, providing optimum levels of ventilation, space management and staff engagement.
The WELL Performance Rating was developed by IWBI and informed by collaboration with a host of industry leaders in smart building technologies and with input from the IWBI Performance Advisory, WELL Performance Testing Organizations (PTOs) and WELL Enterprise Providers (EPs). The rating was launched in April 2022.
Ethos founder and CEO Greg Hayden said: “We’ve witnessed a big cultural change in the past two years in terms of the world of work. We’re honoured to achieve this rating as it recognises our belief that offices and workplaces globally need to be healthy, safe, productive spaces that are very much people centric. My congratulations to Müge Karasahin, our Digital Sustainability and Wellness Lead for spearheading this rating initiative with Brian Coogan, Director, Digital Services (Smart Buildings) and the team at Ethos for participating.”
Ethos has now adapted its newly rated Living Lab experiment to become a new service offering for clients and building owners who want to reimagine their spaces as ones that are smarter, more connected and healthier.
As part of this suite of services, it also launched a tenant engagement mobile App that allows employees to interact with their building via their mobile phone, checking building information, room/ desk bookings, carpark bookings, providing touchless access to the building etc. – it’s the ultimate in back to the office planning / coordination in an efficient, safe manner.
Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) said: “By making the invisible visible, the WELL Performance Rating communicates to anyone entering a building that it meets or exceeds industry-recognized benchmarks for health. Congratulations to Ethos Engineering on its significant achievement of the WELL Performance Rating, signaling its commitment to put people first.”
Müge Karasahin, Digital Sustainability & Wellness Lead, Ethos, said: “Ireland’s Zero Carbon/Sustainability commitments for 2030-2050 are challenging without designing and embedding the correct digital interventions – (IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, analytics, intelligent automations etc.) She added: “Living Lab” is an initiative that matters now – as an industry leader with a progressive Sustainability and Innovation agenda, we’re not waiting for 2030 to happen – we want to be ahead of the curve, digitally transforming buildings to deliver verifiable sustainability and human health and wellness targets. Overall, this initiative allows us to demonstrate to clients how this approach can work when applied to their own buildings. It’s a way to get to the future we all hope for.”
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 the WELL Health-Safety Rating, management of the WELL AP credential, the pursuit of applicable research, the development of educational resources, and advocacy for policies that promote health and wellbeing everywhere. More information on WELL can be found here: https://www.wellcertified.com/.
