Civic Quarter the first Canberra building to introduce a 'wellness' rating

Amalgamated Property Group’s Civic Quarter is set to be the first building in Canberra to measure health and wellbeing.

The building is the first in the ACT to seek a WELL rating from the International WELL Building Institute – an American-based company that is becoming a leading tool for “advancing health and wellbeing in buildings globally”.

Civic Quarter will be a 12-storey office building bordered by Northbourne Avenue and Mort Street. It is currently under construction.

APG general manager Phil O’Brien described the development as “an agile, 21st-century workplace designed to support flexible working and wellness programs”.

“For so many people a significant amount of time is spent indoors. The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features of the built environment that may impact on the health and wellbeing of its occupants,” he said.

A WELL rating measures seven categories related to overall wellbeing including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.

“The kind of factors the ratings can look at include a building or workspace’s light, comfort, air quality, even whether it encourages people to move rather than remaining sedentary all day,” said Colliers International director of office leasing Michael Ceacis.

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Colliers International associate director of office leasing Aaron Bruce predicted in the future Canberrans would be as familiar with wellness ratings as they were with energy efficiency.

“Our work environment impacts on our productivity. For example, going to work everyday in a freezing office can make us miserable, not to mention potentially sick; employee absenteeism is estimated to cost the Australian economy over $30 billion a year,” he said.

Mr Ceacis added: “Being able to demonstrate achievements in occupant health, comfort, and wellbeing will become increasingly expected.” 

“For building owners, having a wellness rating will make their building more competitive and attractive to the market.”

Civic Quarter is set to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Demolition of the existing site – which housed 30,000 square metres of office space across five buildings – was completed in February.

Office space is currently available for lease through Colliers International.