Joanna Frank

While Joanna Frank might not be a dealmaker, as head of both the Center for Active Design, a nonprofit that operates the Fitwel healthy building certification, and Active Design Advisors, a for-profit created in March to bring on investors, she works with many real estate rainmakers.

Before COVID-19, Frank said health was a “nice-to-have” feature of a building. Now, with health events viewed as potential risks for properties, owners are doing everything they can to optimize the healthfulness of their buildings.

That’s where the Fitwel certification comes in, along with the Fitwel Viral Response Module, which Frank and her team launched in 2020 amid COVID, as a subset of strategies for mitigating the effects of infections respiratory disease. 

In the last year, there has been a 350 percent increase in Fitwel certifications. The previous year saw a similar increase. 

“So what we are seeing from the market-wide perspective is that there is obviously demand for property owners, investors and tenants — interestingly — that you have to be able to demonstrate how you are promoting and protecting the health of the occupants of your building,” said Frank, whose clients are primarily institutional investors. “Before COVID, there was some demand from individuals on the workplace side, almost none on the residential side. Now … it’s basically the highest priority.”

Companies are much more comfortable talking about their investment in the health of their buildings. One validating aspect for Frank and her team was the ability to announce that noteworthy Fitwel users Meta and Microsoft were clients. Their names were released in February when the Center for Active Design announced the winners of the Fitwel Best in Building Health leadership awards, a recognition program that identifies people and companies enhancing human health via Fitwel.