WELL Health-Safety Rating
Oxford Investa Property Partnership (OIPP) received the globally recognized WELL Health-Safety Rating from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). The achievement demonstrates that our property team at Investa has gone above and beyond the relevant state regulation when it comes to safeguarding its customers upon re-entry.
The WELL Health-Safety Rating is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating for all new and existing buildings, focusing on operational policies, maintenance protocols, stakeholder engagement and emergency plans to address a post-pandemic environment now and into the future. Designed to empower owners to take the necessary steps to prioritize the health and safety of their staff, visitors and customers, the Rating helps to instill confidence in those who come through the buildings.
Strategies that are in practice and have been verified by IWBI, as part of the rating, include enhanced measures to optimize HVAC and water systems, regular indoor air quality and water testing, comprehensive cleaning practices, physical distancing measures, emergency preparedness, and ongoing health programming.
Other regions across Oxford’s global office portfolio are also targeting the stamp of approval for 2021.
Connecting to wellness online
In 2020, several of our on-site fitness facilities were closed for in-person workouts. It didn’t take long for the athletics teams to go digital to offer customers at-home fitness programs. Gym staff from across our global portfolio set up ongoing fitness challenges to keep our customers healthy and active while working from home. Challenges, such as Waterpark Place’s (Toronto, Canada) included a 4-week program with daily home workouts, recipes and mindfulness/meditation exercises sent to participants. Completion was tracked through a dedicated online website.
Following these initiatives, office buildings across the portfolio launched a group of online health and wellbeing platforms. Platforms such as Oxford Connects and the Crown Estate’s Online Bite Size program and wellbeing hub, aim to connect office customers with each other. The platforms offer a host of events, articles and videos designed to help improve health, wellbeing, and daily work life.
Optimizing indoor air quality
What is the quality of our indoor air? Questions like this rose to the forefront in 2020, putting our asset teams to the test. One might suspect a flurry of inquiries would cause a kerfuffle. Quite the contrary, Operations teams across the Oxford portfolio welcomed the conversations and were well-equipped to respond.
Oxford has a long-standing indoor air quality (IAQ) program. Building system maintenance, filtration and ventilation, climate control, and water and plumbing. Maximizing outdoor air, purging and extending system operations, and increasing frequency of MERV-13 filters are some examples of the measures taken to optimize IAQ.
Teams also test and monitor IAQ on a regular basis. Temperature, relative humidity, CO2, CO, total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and 10 are the types of parameters being tested, aligned with the levels required by the WELL Standard and Fitwel Certification, two globally recognized wellbeing certification programs.
The results have often been shared with customers and partners, but in response to the influx of questions, teams, such as those at Richmond Adelaide Centre (Toronto, Canada) and St. James’s Market (London, UK), developed quick and easy 1-page references to help customers feel safe and comfortable upon re-entry.
Riding into the office
How do you promote a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for your customers? This is what our asset teams regularly ask and then act upon. Property teams across our global portfolio, such as the one at Bow Valley Square look to provide amenities that are designed with health in mind and encourage customers to double-down on work-life balance. Its newest amenity, the city’s first executive cycle centre does just that.
The cycle centre features secured storage through beautifully designed FSC-certified wood storage lockers, including USB storage for personal device charging, bike lock mounts, coupled with maintenance on-the-go with a dedicated repair area and a wash station to keep bikes clean from weather elements while riding year-round. With sustainability in mind, a water refill station is available to reduce plastic waste and encourage bottle refill. After a bike ride into the office, or after lunch time, customers can also freshen up on the spot in state-of-the-art private shower and refresh facilities.
The cycle centre supports customers in living healthy and active lives, especially as the city sees a surge in commuters by bike with the recent addition of dedicated bike lanes, and the known benefits of increased overall wellbeing.
Overdelivering on a healthy promise
Delivering on Australia’s first ever WELL Core & Shell Pre-certification is no easy feat for a 23-story commercial office building. Exceeding expectations and achieving Platinum instead of the intended Gold certification…that’s unparalleled. Completed in 2018 and currently operated by our partner, Investa, Barrack Place proudly claims this title.
Some of the design features that brought Barrack Place up to Platinum include advanced air filtration to provide the highest level of indoor air quality, an ‘Organic Response’ lighting system that supports the body’s circadian rhythm throughout the day, direct access to mass sustainable transit, and achieving the highest Green Star Rating (6 Star) from the Australian Green Building Council.
Certainly, these design features are further paired with a host of operational activities that work to support the health, wellbeing and comfort of the people in the building. Examples include a world-class cleaning program, wellness education and amenities for customers and building staff, such as bicycle storage, fitness facilities, and nutritional offerings and messaging circulated throughout the building.
Barrack Place, along with the entire Australian office portfolio are currently striving for WELL portfolio certification. This globally recognized designation pushes the commercial building industry toward healthier thinking and investing.
Accessible water refilling stations
A simple solution to increase accessible drinking water while reducing the use of non-reusable bottles. That’s what the team at MetroCentre, a two-building complex located in Toronto, Canada, achieved by installing water bottle re-filling stations in the building’s common areas.
By creating a place for customers to refill their water bottles, the team took a strong step forward on sustainability and wellbeing. As part of the WELL building standard and Oxford’s internal wellbeing standards, installing accessible filtered drinking water promotes proper hydration and overall health.
As an added result, the team is also promoting the reduction of plastic water bottles that would otherwise get sent to landfill.
This proved to be a scalable and important measure to promote wellbeing among customers. Water refill stations can be found in lobbies and common areas across Oxford’s full property portfolio.