WELL Certification Will Help Assure Graduates That MC Is Number One

Law firm Meredith Connell says its current and future staff can be assured they will be operating out of the best work environment in New Zealand.

The firm’s Chief Executive, Kylie Mooney, confirmed today that Meredith Connell is seeking to become New Zealand’s first professional services firm to achieve WELL v2 Certification when it moves to its new offices in Fanshaw Street in mid-2021.

It plans to be among the very first New Zealand businesses of any kind to achieve the standard.

The WELL v2 initiative is in addition to MC’s work to ensure it is a safe and welcoming place for people from all the communities of contemporary Tamaki Mākaurau, Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui and Aotearoa.

“MC has always understood we are in tough competition for talented people not just with other top New Zealand law firms but with the very best law firms in the world,” Kylie Mooney said.

“In a post-Covid world, we’re also competing with home, the local café and even the local park or beach as a place for people to meet their employment obligations in the professional services industries.

“Our current and future employees will rightly demand not just that we talk the talk about providing the best work environment in New Zealand but that we can prove to them that we are.

“WELL v2 certification will give everyone that assurance.”

WELL Certification is a global evidence-based programme administered by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), and WELL v2 is its very latest standard.

The requirements for certification cover the environmental and other features of MC’s new building, which will also have a six-star rating under the Green Star programme, but also all aspects of its operational protocols and policies to foster a culture of health and wellness.

For WELL v2, there are 108 different features against which certification is measured covering ten concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community.

Together, the concepts build a picture of how buildings and communities, and everything in them, can improve comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance health and wellbeing.

Each of WELL v2’s 108 features is based on the latest evidence and academic literature, as well as feedback and expertise from thousands of WELL users, practitioners, medical professionals, public health experts and building scientists around the world.

So far, only 355 projects have achieved WELL v2 certification globally, and none in New Zealand.

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