Participating in an Alliance Aimed at Increasing the Number of Healthy, Comfortable Office Environments

Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) will participate in a global corporate alliance aimed at promoting the acquisition of the WELL certification created by Delos Living, LLC of the U.S. (hereafter, “Delos”). This certification evaluates buildings and their interior environments from the perspective of a healthy and comfortable office environment and our goal in promoting it is to increase the number of buildings with healthy and comfortable office environments.

The WELL certification system was created by Delos and is the world’s first system for evaluating buildings and their interior environments from the perspective of health and comfort. The system evaluates buildings and interior environments based on the seven core concepts of Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort, and Mind and hundreds of features. A building is then awarded a Platinum, Gold, or Silver certification, depending on the score level. The number of registered certifications has risen rapidly since certification first began in 2014, mainly in the U.S. Twenty buildings have been certified thus far, and applications for certification have been submitted for 347 buildings in 28 countries. We also expect the number of certifications to rise in Japan as the central role of companies in promoting health management to maintain and improve the health of employees is promoted.

Under the global corporate alliance, Shimizu will develop specialists in WELL certification with the assistance of Delos, work to promote the acquisition of certification by Shimizu’s facilities and customer facilities, and promote an increase in the number of office environments that contribute to health management. Investing in a healthy office environment is thought to promote health management, enhance the corporate brand, improve intellectual productivity, and help to reduce job turnover. Acquisition of WELL certification can be expected to increase the real estate value of the facility.

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Shimizu has been providing ecoBCP solutions to improve the energy conservation function in buildings and enhance business continuity planning (BCP). In the future, Shimizu will promote three points simultaneously, namely, ecology, BCP, and wellness (a healthy and comfortable environment), including assistance in acquiring WELL certification. We believe this will lead to growth in orders for high value-added buildings that take the health and comfort of users into consideration.