CCAC would like to thank Pat Cermak, President & COO of Wight & Company, for hosting the July membership meeting from the rooftop of the University Club of Chicago.  While overlooking Millennium Park and Lake Michigan, the membership heard from John Mlade, Senior Project Manager for Sustainable and Health Environments at Wight & Company, about the benefits to occupants and owners of buildings that include sustainable design features.  

According to Mlade, “Air quality is one of those issues we like to ignore because of its risk, but addressing it can actually helps mitigate that risk.”  The room nodded in agreement when he also mentioned that many developers are offering a wide array of amenities to their tenants and residents to remain competitive, but now offer so many features residents cannot possibly use them all.  Mlade suggested that developers may be able to differentiate their buildings through consideration of comprehensive “health and wellness” amenities that all occupants, by nature of being in the building, can benefit.  

Mlade explained that less than 1% of a company’s annual expenses are typically  for energy, but about 90% are on its people, so it makes sense to include the health and wellness of its workforce when designing the work space to keep employees healthy and productive.  He explained that according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), our physical environment is the largest influence on our health, which Mlade interpreted to mean there is a great opportunity for buildings to better impact the health of occupants.  

Moreover, Mlade explained that investors, and the millennial generation in particular, are looking to invest in Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria options, creating an investment opportunity for innovation to provide more sustainable products.  Mlade then explained four different building frameworks and rating systems that measure the impact that a building has on the health and well-being of occupants.

First, the WELL building standard holistically measures building design, construction, operations, and organization policy, and their respective impact on occupant wellness.  WELL includes on-site performance verification which creates huge value and confidence in the data.  The City of Chicago was the first city in the world to include the WELL Building Standard as a contributing option for compliance with a municipal ordinance (City of Chicago Sustainable Development Policy). 

Second, FITWEL was designed by the federal government to assess baseline health and wellness of federal government office buildings in support of a more productive workforce. Its biggest benefit is its low cost and ease of use, which can largely be completed by an office administrator.  Third, the RESET AIR Standard measures and provides verification of air quality, and is very popular in China which has tremendous air-quality issues.  It can be used for single tenant fit-outs or entire buildings and also has a comparatively low cost for registration. This standard even helps to provide recommendations on when to open and close building windows.  Finally, GRESB is a transparency tool used by building portfolio and infrastructure owners and investors to understand the material risk and operations in the real-estate assets within their portfolio investments. After a successful trial period, GRESB now has a mandatory health module that must be completed – a recognition of the importance and relevancy of understanding the health and wellness of real assets.

Mlade closed his remarks by saying, “When we  think about return on investment in buildings, we have to think beyond energy and water, or even employee productivity...Upstream value propositions include attracting more tenants, attracting investment, reducing risk, and more opportunity that has yet to be explored.”

CCAC is partnering with World Business Chicago (the City's public private partnership organization for economic development) to lead a corridor revitalization effort that includes local community organizations.  CCAC has assigned separate teams to consult on five commercial corridors throughout the City that includes the following:

The five neighborhoods and their corresponding community organizations identified by World Business Chicago include:

Members of The Burnham Council met on Thursday, July 25 for a networking happy hour at Bernie’s Supper Club in River North. Thank you to Matt Cermak, Commercial Account Manager, Chicago Title Insurance Company for helping to organize and Joe Gregoire, Senior Vice President, Wintrust Financial Corporation, for sponsoring the evening. 

The Burnham Council will meet on Thursday, August 29 from 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. at The Revival Café Bar located at the Revival Food Hall at 125 S. Clark St. for coffee and networking.  The new monthly meet-ups are being organized by CCAC/Burnham Council member, Matt Cermak, Commercial Account Manager, Chicago Title Insurance Company. 

Members are encouraged to let Matt know if they plan to attend by e-mailing matt.cermak@ctt.com but there is no formal registration.

The Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (see above) is an outgrowth of the "Catalytic Economic Initiatives" section of this white paper. 

Since the release of CCAC's Central City Strategy in May, CCAC leadership has been briefing elected officials and opinion leaders on ways that success in the City's core can leverage success in the City's neighborhoods.  CCAC members are invited to share the briefing documents with their network, and contact Kelly O'Brien at kobrien@ccac.org if you would like to schedule a detailed briefing.

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