International. Recently the first Wellference took place in Spain, a professional day focused on the knowledge of the WELL certificate in the real estate, construction, facility management and human resources sectors. The meeting took place in Castellana 81, the first well-certified building in Spain.
An event that counted, for the first time in Spain, with the participation of Rick Fredizzi, CEO of WELL since 2016 and expert of sustainability worldwide, who stressed that "the proper use of the work environment can become a means to obtain better results in the face of hiring and retention of talent, to reduce absenteeism, improve happiness, satisfaction and, ultimately, employee productivity. In fact, the vast majority of WELL projects in Europe are led by companies looking to offer commercial buildings that appeal to those companies looking for healthy workspaces. But individual organizations also turn to WELL in an effort to foster this trend and be able to adapt to an ever-evolving work model."
The Technological Institute of Galicia (ITG) is the first official partner of IWBI (International Well Building Institute) to carry out official WELL certificate training in Spanish in Spain and Latin America. In addition, it is accredited to carry out the on-site verifications required by the certification. This was explained by Bieito Silva, director of the WELL certificate at ITG, "The Technological Institute of Galicia (ITG) is the first official partner entity of IWBI (International WELL Building Institute) that enables you to carry out official well certificate training in Spanish in Spain and South America. In addition, ITG is a Performance Testing Organization and has a Performance Testing Agent, which accredits it to perform the on-site verifications (performance verification) required by the certification."
The new version of the certificate, presented by Ann-Marie Aguilar, Head of Operations in Europe at IWBI, "includes 117 measures (in the previous version there were 100) that are organized into 10 categories: air, water, food, lighting, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community. Some of these measures focus on aspects related to the design and construction of the building and others focus on the use phase. All of them are based on scientific studies. This version reduces certification rates and provides greater flexibility, allowing a better adaptation to various types of project".
