Healthy and sustainable construction became a trillion-dollar industry in 2016, and it’s doubling every three years. But while sustainable design is fairly backed by data supporting its impact and ROI, wellness is much more intangible, and workplace experts don’t agree on the so-called proof behind it.
“Anyone who says they can give you specific data proving that a given wellness measure works — I’d be skeptical,” said Nina Charnotskaia, who leads all of CBRE’s workplace research efforts in the Americas. Ask a room full of architects, developers, workplace strategists or HR heads where well-being fits into the built environment, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single one who thinks wellness isn’t a valuable strategy. But likewise, few believe all wellness practices have tangible benefits.