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000 Intro / Matt Morley
148 Plays5 years ago
- https://www.usgbc.org > LEED green building certification
- https://www.wellcertified.com/ > WELL healthy building certification
- https://gresb.com/ > GRESB ESG assessment
- www.biofit.io > green & healthy gyms
- www.biofilico.com > green & healthy interiors
- www.mattmorley.net > green & healthy ESG strategy
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Transcript
Introduction to Places Podcast
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the Places podcast with me, Matt Morley. In this series, we take a deep dive into the role of sustainability, wellness and community in the real estate and hospitality sectors. Each episode, we highlight a global benchmark or industry leader contributing to spaces and places that respect both people and planet.
Impact of Buildings on Environment
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The built environment
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is responsible for around two thirds of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings account for a third of all municipal waste output, a third of raw materials use and a third of energy use, as well as two thirds of all electricity consumption. In an increasingly urbanised population, many of us also spend 90% of our lives indoors, somewhere between our home, workplace, gym, university or a hotel.
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In other words, the built environment has a massive impact both on our own lives and that of the planet around us. So we've just got to get it right.
Eco-Friendly Certifications
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A green interior building or community, therefore, is designed to be deliberately more planet friendly. Typically, this means it is energy efficient, potentially net zero carbon. It consumes less water.
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prioritises sustainable natural materials and emits less greenhouse gases. Recognised green building certifications include the Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, as well as the likes of BRIAM in the UK and other regional specialists in Asia and Australia. A healthy space or place, on the other hand, is designed to be more people friendly.
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So delivering purified, toxin-free indoor air, access to high-quality light, improved levels of physical activity through active design strategies and the provision of on-site fitness facilities, as well as consideration for nutrition, hydration, mental well-being and overall user comfort. The two leading certifications that we'll look at here are the well-building standard
00:02:30
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Pretty stringent set of tests and protocols that require a degree of capex to do right, while the fitwell system is a slightly more lightweight but nonetheless worthy addition to the scene, focusing more on building opex, operational policies and expenditures.
Merging Green and Healthy Principles
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Now, while there's a fair degree of crossover between the two, many mixed use commercial or residential projects now opt for one or other well fit well, plus a green certification such as LEED or BRIAN. That's if they really mean business. Green building principles have generally had more time to make inroads into the real estate
00:03:12
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market and hotel market while healthy design principles are only really just starting to make an impact there, representing a huge area of growth over the coming years. Interestingly, both green and healthy building and their building certification systems reward and therefore promote the integration of nature into the spaces and places we inhabit. Primarily, that's through something called biophilia. Examples of that would include prioritizing access to daylight,
00:03:42
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the provision of green roof, indoor plant walls, maximising views onto nature or landscapes, indoor outdoor spaces where there's a tangible connection with the natural environment around us, the use of organic materials perhaps with the patina of age, or nature patterns or carpets or wallpapers for example. Now although one side might emphasise Biophilia for its environmental impact, the other
00:04:11
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perhaps more for its physical and mental health benefits, but both sides agree bringing the outside world in is a win-win, making this an especially promising area and one we will look at in detail over the course of this series.
Socially Conscious Real Estate
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Similarly, there is a new and increasingly urgent move to wider societal concerns within the real estate and hospitality sectors. Supporting social enterprises through ethical procurement policies
00:04:41
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enhancing the public realm to promote great integration with the local community, generating employment opportunities and the provision of local education initiatives. These are all now part and parcel of operating a market leading real estate or hospitality business with a social conscience. And that then takes us to the top of the tree, to investors that consider the environmental, social and governance performance
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of the assets they put their money into.
ESG and Investor Influence
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So real estate developers looking to attract investment now need to go through an annual ESG, Environmental Social and Governance Assessment, such as that offered by GRESP, G-R-E-S-B, that requires demonstrable proof of responsible business practices. Again, this is an area that we're going to dig into in the podcast. So to date, ESG has arguably had
00:05:36
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I'd say more of a top-down impact on real estate than on hospitality. In hospitality, I think there's more momentum, more energy around smaller boutique properties adopting ESG principles for themselves. That's more of a bottom-up approach. To that end, the Green and Healthy Places podcast will aim to connect with both independent business owners and corporate executives, as well as thought leaders around the world who are actively engaged in contributing
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to this collective mission.
Inspiration and Global Connections
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By looking at their principles, strategies and tactics, battles won and lost, the aim is to inspire and inform, to push forward this narrative of what is achievable, of what needs to happen to implement deep societal change through our built environment.
Matt Morley's Background and Vision
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A quick note on me. My personal background is, as you might expect, in the real estate and hospitality industries
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First as a specialist brand consultant for Hotelias, then as an in-house creative director for a master-planned mixed-use community development. In 2016, I went solo, setting up Nature-inspired gym business BioFit, designing green and healthy gyms, and wellness programs. Two years later,
00:06:59
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I established Biofilico, offering green and healthy interior design services, mostly in co-working spaces, corporate offices, and residential apartments. Most recently, I've moved off stream to work directly with real estate development funds and property developers on their ESG strategy. So basically, I'm all about green and healthy places, be that through interiors, buildings, master plan communities, or investment portfolios.
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This is what I do, it's who I am, and it's what I believe in. There's much to learn, however, and time, it seems, is increasingly against us. So let's get into it.
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A
Engagement and Feedback Invitation
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note on me and how you can contact me when I'm not out on the trails of the beach. You'll find me at home in Barcelona, Spain, and online at mountmorley.net. So reach out with any comments or suggestions. I hope you enjoy this podcast series and look forward to hearing from me.