“The most effective way to shape your future is to build it yourself.” — Abraham Lincoln
As the leading authority on advancing health and well-being across buildings, organizations, and communities, IWBI continues to champion its core mission: designing spaces that put people first. As we move into a new year, a range of promising developments and milestones will influence how and where we carry out this mission.

So, what will shape our work in 2026? And how will our global network collaborate in new ways? Here are insights from leaders across our organization:

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO
“The introduction of One WELL—the next evolution of the WELL Standard—marks a major step forward for our platform, helping accelerate the worldwide adoption of people-centered spaces at scale. This progress relies on the strong, independent guidance of the IWBI Governance Council. Their expertise in design, public health, and business ensures the WELL Standard remains credible, robust, and impactful globally. We deeply appreciate their continued dedication.”

Prateek Khanna, Chief Operating Officer
“In 2026, engaging with WELL and advancing along the certification journey will be more seamless and efficient than ever. As the market shifts from awareness to implementation, we’re investing in enhanced digital tools and stronger internal systems. Our goal is to make the WELL experience intuitive and user-friendly while preserving the rigor and trust that define the world’s premier health standard—across projects of all scales and geographies.”

Ann Marie Aguilar, Senior Vice President, EMEA
“Reaching 105 million square meters of WELL-certified space across EMEA provides a strong foundation for the year ahead. In 2026, we will transition from expanding reach to deepening impact—moving beyond flagship projects to making WELL a standard benchmark for healthy and sustainable design across key markets. We aim to boost adoption in fast-growing and underserved regions, integrate WELL into design workflows, and establish it as a practical framework for ESG, net-zero, and people-first outcomes across diverse developments.”

Dr. Whitney Austin Gray, Senior Vice President, Research
“Our ‘Investing in Health Pays Back’ initiative will continue to reshape how the industry views wellness-focused real estate. By demonstrating tangible financial, social, and personal returns from health-optimized environments, the conversation will shift from whether health investments pay off to how much value they generate. This movement will position buildings as active contributors to longevity and performance, not just physical assets.”

Jason Hartke, Head of Advocacy and Secretariat of the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air
“This year, the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air will undertake a landmark project: developing a Global Framework for Action. This comprehensive roadmap will address market transformation across awareness, innovation, policy, education, standards, and research. It will also serve as a foundation for customized national strategies, translating global alignment into actionable country-level guidance to accelerate progress.”

Kimberly Lewis Inkumsah, Executive Vice President, Equity and Engagement
“As Audre Lorde reminded us, struggles are interconnected because our lives are interconnected. In our field, well-being cannot exist without equity. Communities facing the greatest challenges often hold the most powerful insights for change. This year calls for investing in inclusive design—not as philanthropy, but as a strategic advantage and driver of systemic transformation.”

Jack Noonan, Senior Vice President, Head of Asia Pacific
“We’re seeing a shift in how high-performing buildings are defined. Greater emphasis on health resilience presents a major opportunity for organizations in Asia Pacific to prioritize verified indoor air quality. This focus must go beyond compliance and become a competitive differentiator, much like energy performance did in the past decade. Organizations will increasingly use air quality data, occupant feedback, and health metrics through certifications like WELL to demonstrate measurable commitments to well-being, driving market and regulatory change across the region.”

Karen Quintana, Senior Vice President, Digital Product
“By 2026, organizations will feel empowered to expand health initiatives from pilot projects to portfolio-wide strategies. Advances in AI and data processing are enabling teams to move faster and handle complex datasets. WELL serves as a unifying framework that consolidates insights into a single scorecard, simplifying tracking and performance measurement. Through partnerships with technology and sensor providers, we’re working to integrate WELL seamlessly into everyday operations.”

IWBI Social Sustainability and Sustainable Finance Team
Kelly Worden, Vice President, Social Sustainability
“The real estate sector is undergoing a major transformation in how value is defined and maintained. Capital access increasingly depends on building performance, while tenant expectations directly influence net operating income. Evidence is mounting that social factors—such as tenant satisfaction and community engagement—are as impactful as environmental metrics. This shift calls for integrated sustainability strategies that measure both environmental and social performance with equal rigor.”

Minjia Yang, Vice President and Head of Sustainable Finance
“The fastest progress in sustainability is occurring where regulation and capital meet. As policies and finance frameworks increasingly recognize health, well-being, and social sustainability—often referencing the WELL Standard—market expectations are evolving rapidly. Incorporating WELL and people-centered metrics is strengthening sustainable finance and creating a powerful feedback loop between policy, investment, and real-world practice.”

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has unveiled the second edition of its influential report, Investing in Health Pays Back: The Business Case for Healthy Buildings and Healthy Organizations. This updated publication serves as a comprehensive resource, presenting the most extensive body of research to date that connects health and well-being investments with measurable financial returns.

The latest edition expands significantly on the original, with more than double the research references. It combines academic findings, industry data, and case studies to address a central question for today’s practitioners: how can future projects be designed to improve human health while generating substantial economic value? The evidence also makes a strong appeal to policymakers, investors, and real estate leaders that prioritizing people’s health is not only ethical but also a sound financial strategy.

“We’ve consolidated the most compelling global evidence linking healthier buildings to improved well-being and performance into a single, practical resource,” said Rachel Hodgdon, IWBI’s President and CEO. “Whether you’re an investor, developer, architect, or advocate, this report provides the data and insights needed to advance healthier environments and strengthen the value of WELL.”

Key Insights from the Report

“With this research, we’re giving IWBI’s global community the evidence they need to accelerate the adoption of healthier building strategies,” said Dr. Jason Hartke, IWBI’s Executive Vice President for External Affairs and Global Advocacy. “The results show that prioritizing health directly benefits productivity, retention, property value, and operational strength.”

The report also highlights the growing significance of social sustainability. It documents how health-focused metrics are increasingly shaping sustainable finance mechanisms such as green, social, and sustainability-linked bonds. WELL has already been included in 13 types of financial tools and integrated into sustainability frameworks, regulations, and case studies across 29 countries on five continents.

Expert Perspectives

The International WELL Building Institute’s (IWBI) WELL Building Standard has now been adopted across more than 6 billion square feet (over 557 million square meters) of property in nearly 100,000 sites throughout 137 countries. This remarkable milestone showcases a strong global movement toward designing spaces that prioritize human health and well-being. Widely recognized as the premier framework for healthy buildings and organizations, WELL is currently embraced by over 180 Fortune and Global 500 companies and is positively impacting an estimated 30 million people.

Since early 2020, WELL’s footprint has expanded twelvefold, reflecting a major financial commitment by the real estate sector and beyond to embed health and wellness into workplace strategy. This rapid growth is estimated to represent over $2 trillion in managed assets, underscoring WELL’s value as both a health initiative and a strategic investment.

“This achievement marks a pivotal shift: investing in health is not an expense—it’s a strategic advantage,” stated IWBI President and CEO Rachel Hodgdon. “By keeping human well-being at the center, WELL-certified spaces are driving better health outcomes, greater financial returns, and more effective, satisfied teams. The scale is astonishing—our 6-billion-square-foot portfolio nearly rivals the total commercial space of the United Kingdom.”

Since its inception in 2014, thousands of organizations have used WELL as a scientifically validated guide to implement health-focused strategies in their offices, facilities, and communities. A wide range of global corporations are engaging in IWBI’s WELL at scale program to roll out these standards organization-wide. These include major names such as Barclays, Bloomberg, Cisco, Citi, Deloitte, EY, GSK, JLL, Johnson Controls, Lendlease, PwC Italy, SAP, T-Mobile, Uber, and Warner Brothers Discovery, among many others.

“WELL is revolutionizing commercial real estate, touching the lives of millions by ensuring their environments support both physical and mental health in tangible, measurable ways,” said IWBI COO Prateek Khanna. “By tracking metrics like air and water quality, lighting, and comfort, WELL enables spaces that help people truly thrive.”

Today’s employers are increasingly focused on fostering environments that support well-being to boost employee satisfaction and talent retention. Research has shown that WELL-certified buildings outperform their conventional and even green-certified counterparts in numerous ways:

“Companies that invest in the health and performance of their workforce are setting themselves up for long-term success,” Hodgdon added. “Healthy, valued, and engaged employees take fewer sick days, cost less in healthcare, are less likely to leave, and contribute more.”

This major update was announced at IWBI’s second annual Social Sustainability Summit in Amsterdam, which convened industry leaders from across real estate, finance, policy, and corporate sectors to examine the growing importance of social sustainability in business strategy. Sessions focused on themes such as “Driving performance in real estate” and “Investing in health pays back.”

From an investment standpoint, Hodgdon emphasized, “Organizations that care for their workers, their supply chains, and their communities are increasingly seen as lower-risk and more promising investments. Data from WELL implementations is helping institutional investors make smarter, more resilient choices.”

WELL now ranks as the third most widely used certification in the GRESB real estate assessment, accounting for 9% of total certified and rated floor area. Since the close of 2024, it has been included in 12 types of financial instruments—ranging from green and social bonds to sustainability-linked loans—and has been integrated into frameworks and guidance documents across 24 countries on five continents.

Developed over a decade and grounded in the latest scientific insights, WELL offers a roadmap covering ten key domains: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, and Community. Its offerings include multiple pathways like WELL Certification, the WELL Health-Safety Rating, WELL Performance Rating, WELL Equity Rating, WELL Coworking Rating, WELL Community Standard, and the WELL for residential pilot. Together, these form a holistic, evidence-based system to promote health in buildings and communities.

The global WELL movement is supported by more than 28,000 accredited WELL APs, over 300 WELL Faculty members, and 30+ WELL Enterprise Providers—all working to embed wellness principles into the places people live and work.

Endorsements from IWBI Governance Council Members:

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a leading global authority on promoting healthier environments in buildings, organizations, and communities, has revealed the recipients of its 2024 IWBI Organizational Awards. These accolades celebrate organizations that have demonstrated outstanding leadership and wide-reaching impact through their involvement with the WELL program—covering more than one billion square feet of space.
This year’s distinguished awardees include several major global and Fortune 500 companies such as Citi Global, Enel, GSK, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., alongside renowned real estate portfolios like Embassy REIT, Empire State Realty Trust, and Lendlease.

“Progress in the WELL movement is driven by visionary organizations around the globe,” said Rachel Hodgdon, IWBI’s President and CEO. “This year’s winners have deeply impressed us through their commitment to creating people-first spaces and advancing global well-being. We are deeply grateful for their leadership and dedication.”

Citi stood out with multiple honors, particularly for its strategic implementation of the WELL Health-Safety Rating on a global scale. This achievement earned them the Health and Safety Leadership Award. “The global application of the WELL Health-Safety Rating aligns with our commitment to supporting healthy, fulfilling lives,” said Karinna Carrillo, Global Sustainability and Wellness Operations Analyst at Citi. “It validates our long-standing efforts and reinforces our global workforce strategy through a research-backed framework.”

The 2024 IWBI Organizational Award winners include:

This year’s awards highlight the accelerating global adoption of WELL’s evidence-based strategies to improve occupant health, performance, and well-being. WELL’s impact has expanded tenfold in the past five years, now encompassing nearly six billion square feet globally.

Most recognized organizations are scaling WELL across large property portfolios, allowing for measurable improvements in organizational health outcomes. Between 2023 and 2024, WELL’s influence grew significantly: participant-reported reach increased by 72%, WELL Certifications rose by 42%, and Platinum-level certifications jumped by 73%. The WELL Equity Rating also saw exponential growth—up nearly ninefold from the previous year.

Oceania topped regional performance rankings based on WELL Scores, followed by Europe. Lendlease, based in Australia, received multiple awards for leadership and concept excellence in categories such as Sound, Nourishment, Materials, Mind, Community, and Innovation.

"Lendlease is honored to lead the way in advancing well-being in the built environment,” said Vanessa Orth, Managing Director at Lendlease Investment Management Australia. “Being the first globally to secure a WELL Portfolio Score shows the power of WELL strategies at scale. Our collaboration with IWBI has been pivotal in promoting healthier, more sustainable workplaces worldwide.”

As WELL becomes an integral part of ESG and annual reporting initiatives, IWBI also recognized leaders in health investment. HB Reavis, for example, was acknowledged for embedding WELL standards into its sustainable finance strategy. “Earning the Sustainable Finance Award highlights how we’re aligning WELL certification goals with financial KPIs,” said Abhishek Parmar, Head of Sustainable Development at HB Reavis.

All award recipients will be celebrated at WELL 2025, a global event series hosted by IWBI, with summits taking place across major cities around the world.

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