Charting the Future of Investing for Health

Investing in health and wellbeing at work doesn’t just benefit individuals, it’s also good for the bottom line.

Businesses that prioritize health and safety are the ones positioned to succeed

Sometimes it takes a global crisis to inspire a widespread shift in ideology and set the world on a new path. Today, that catastrophe is the Covid-19 pandemic, which has proven to be far more than a health emergency: it triggered a global economic recession, illuminated the fragility of our educational and public health infrastructures and spotlighted longstanding systemic inequities. It’s laid bare just how closely intertwined human health is to the global economy.

From challenges, however, also come new opportunities – namely, a chance to build back better. And for corporations, it’s emphasized the need to prioritize the physical and mental health of employees. After all, in an economy in which knowledge work, service and experience are increasingly driving profit, people are an organization’s most valuable assets. And you can’t run a successful business over the long term if your people aren’t healthy or they don’t feel safe or supported.

The International WELL Building Institute’s (IWBI) mission is to transform human health and wellbeing with its people-first approach to buildings, organizations and communities. IWBI’s WELL Building Standard (WELL), a resource launched in 2014, is a performance-based system for measuring, verifying and monitoring features of buildings that impact the health and wellbeing of people who live and work in them. Companies all over the world – accounting for more than 2bn square feet of space across virtually every building typology – have used WELL offerings to create spaces that prioritize employee wellbeing. Strategies are grounded in 10 concepts that the science says can affect human health – air, water, sound, thermal comfort, light, materials, community, nourishment, movement and mind.

Learn more about the International WELL Building Institute's Investing for Health Initiative here and download their exlusive report below.