What’s inside counts – lifting logistics space from functional to humancentric design
There is a new standard of certification available for logistics real estate today – WELL Certified™ Gold. Our Prologis DC5 facility, in Tilburg, the Netherlands has become the first fully-fitted warehouse worldwide to achieve WELL Certification at Gold Level. In fact, it is only one of two logistics buildings to have achieved WELL certification so far.
While many building rating systems focus on environmental performance, the WELL Building standard focuses on social-sustainability through building design and management - all with the goal to enhance the health and quality of life of those in the built environment. In other words, we are committed from the start to putting people at the center of industrial design thinking.
More than four walls and a roof
Tilburg DC5 is a flagship, 25,800 square meter build-to-suit facility, developed for our long-term and international customer Pantos Logistics. The interior and exterior have carefully been developed as a single whole, with communal areas and shared amenities for all staff. Each design aspect has also rigorously undergone a stringent performance based assessment, making certification by the International Well Building Institute (IWBI) a true seal of quality.
Prologis worked closely with the IWBI on this pilot project, to define the necessary accreditation criteria for industrial real estate. Gold-level certification is achieved by meeting all the WELL preconditions, as well as 40 percent or more of the optimization features. We have also signed on to IWBI’s WELL Portfolio pilot pathway, to integrate WELL across our logistics real estate portfolio as a further example of our unwavering environmental stewardship and firm sense of social responsibility.
Adding value for customers
Incorporating health and wellbeing into building design is a strong example of our long-term focus and innovative approach to sustainability and how it is integrated fully into our customer-focused business strategy. By creating a balanced and healthy work environment, we are able to provide a unique added value for our customers’ most important resource – their employees.
Our latest study on labour retention in warehouses, by Prologis Research, highlights labour supply as one of our customers’ biggest concerns. One of the advantages of our global scale is that we have the scope to test ideas and explore new thinking. Together, with a laser-focus on alleviating customer pain points, we continuously look to provide meaningful initiatives, like improving employee health and wellbeing, to keep our customers’ businesses ahead of what’s next.
Pilot projects, like the introduction of a WELL standard for logistics real estate, is another step towards building the warehouse of the future. Tilburg DC5 again moves the needle on sustainable development, not only focusing on environmental impact, but by setting out a guideline for social impact as well.