COMMENT: As the Christmas decorations come down and the chimes of the New Year begin to fade, many of us start back in 2018 with new resolutins to be healthier, says Heather Evans, head of SKA Consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall UK.
However, landlords and developers should perhaps be considering something similar for their assets as it could pay dividends.
Health and wellbeing has been big business for a long time with the UK market value increasing year-on-year to an estimated €24.7bn (£21.8bn) in 2017.
Although many developers and landlords might recognise the benefit of having a healthier environment, many still believe that the cost of making their buildings “healthier” outweighs the benefits.
Despite lack of government policy, public health teams are being embedded into local planning authorities and community health impact assessments are now an essential part of the planning process.
As more local authorities become developers in their own right by regenerating town centres for multi-use developments, including retail and residential, the health of their community is moving higher up the built environment agenda.
Rider Levett Bucknall has been working with planning consultancy Indigo to help developers and local authorities look at the health impact of their designs. But what is the real value of healthier communities?
In conjunction with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, RLB has developed the SKA environmental assessment method, a benchmark for non-domestic fit-outs, as well as working with clients to implement BREEAM and other sustainability requirements to their builds.
Helping landlords and developers assess projects against a set of sustainability good practice criteria, we have seen a huge “lettability” advantage for retail landlords, with developers seeing up to 35% uplift in footfall and relative customer spend on schemes with an environmental and health and wellness remit over the past year alone.
The UK Green Building Council’s report on health and wellbeing in retail demonstrated the significant commercial benefits that improved wellbeing can have.
A retail metrics framework has been developed to provide measureable improvements for health and wellbeing.
Daylighting has been shown to influence sales; with a study showing a 40% increase in sales following increased daylighting levels.
There are now various certifications detailing which methods to apply to ensure improved wellbeing, including the release of the WELL Building Standard, which links occupant health and wellbeing with the built environment.
Commercial and sustainable
However, far from simply being a trend in the retail built environment, at RLB we are seeing sustainability fast becoming a prerequisite in new developments and refits across the sectors, driven by good governance but also from higher expectations from clients.
An example of this is a CAT A office fit-out in Anchorage Quay, Manchester, where one of the landlord’s main requirements was a SKA Gold rating to ensure that the development could be marketed as a sustainable and healthy environment.
Not just a “nice to have” but driven by a demand from the end-user clients, and a way to make the property more desirable and ultimately more commercially viable.
Another SKA-rated project that RLB delivered in Manchester with a specific focus on enhancing sustainability and wellbeing resulted in 44% reduction in staff churn, again showing the connection between a space and the wellbeing of those working within it.
There is no doubt that health and wellbeing within the built environment needs to be more than just new year lip service.
Like any new regime, it is about embedding the ethos and the principles of your resolutions into your everyday life.
Consideration of health and wellbeing in the built environment is now a pre-requisite for developers, landlords and prospective tenants.
Those who adopt these practices and principles now will be the ones who see this reflected not only in the health of their buildings, but also the health of their P&Ls.
