Wellbeing & sustainability consultant for real estate & hospitality

A boutique advisory led by Matt Aspiotis Morley specializing in wellness real estate, healthy buildings and hotel sustainability.

Contact Us

Montoya, Carrer d’Avila 32, Barcelona 08005, ESPANA

TEDx - Designing green healthy buildings like a good ancestor

SECTORS

  • Previous clients: Singita safari lodges, Melia Hotels, ZEL Hotels, Guesthouse Hotels, Fritton Lake Hotel, Sani Resort, Ikos Resorts

    Development of new wellness concepts to add value to the guest experience, create marketing narratives, enhance brand value and align with sustainability objectives.

    Delivery of boutique hotel sustainability plans in line with leading certification systems such as Green Key, Green Globe and EarthCheck.

    Aligning hotels and resorts with environmental health, green building concepts through green spaces and healthy indoor spaces using sustainable design.

  • Previous clients: Porto Montenegro, Black Mountain Partners

    Implementation of site-wide wellbeing and sustainability programs, from initial product definition and space allocation in the masterplan, to wellness concept development, integration into urban planning decisions, management of external sustainability consultants and eventual certification with WELL (community) or EarthCheck (destination).

    Key concerns are ventilation rates of fresh air, equitable access, thermal health, water quality, reducing disease transmission, controlling use of hazardous chemicals in HVAC systems and facilities management policies, improving mental health of building occupants and promoting active lifestyles.

  • Previous clients: Porto Montenegro, Fusion Students, Alpine Start Developments, Qatari Royal family

    Delivery of residential and coliving wellbeing strategies across facilities and content, spaces and experiences, for physical and mental health benefits. All backed up by solid Standard Operating Procedures and consideration for giving back to the local community.

    We look at health materials; indoor air quality; lighting; sleep environments; water quality, fitness spaces / content; mental wellness spaces / content; acoustical comfort and more.

  • Previous clients: Bolton Group, Porto Montenegro, Hero Group

    Delivery of workplace wellbeing strategies to promote employee happiness, reduce stress levels, foster community and facilitate the attraction / retention of top talent while feeding into company-wide sustainability or ESG plans.

    These include biophilia (bringing the outside world in); ergonomic furniture, active design; Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ); lighting; healthy non-toxic materials; acoustic comfort, fitness facilities / programs, nutrition, hydration and mental wellbeing.

Trend Report :

Biophilic Design Part 1

Biophilic design has reached maturity, extending its wings into ever more corners of the real estate and hospitality industry. Here we look at the residential real estate, architecture studios, mixed-use developments and workplaces pushing biophilia to new heights.

Shunryu Suzuki

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, few.

SERVICES

Wellbeing strategy consultants

A human health and wellbeing strategy is no longer an optional extra for real estate developers in the residential and office sectors; the same can be said for operators such as coliving and employer brands.

Developing, implementing and reporting annually on a wellbeing strategy is now a fundamental part of any Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) plan at corporate level (in particular, the ‘S’ component).

We are experts in such wellness real estate strategies, working with developers and operators as trusted external advisors from initial planning through to fit-out and launch.

Healthy building plans

At the root of any healthy building plan is the concept of ‘salutogenesis’ - the promotion of health, rather than the avoidance of disease.

Just as we want to avoid Sick Building Syndrome, so we aim to enhance the productivity, concentration and sense of vitality of building occupants, while reducing stress, anxiety, absenteeism.

We do that by improving the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ, thermal health, lighting, ventilation rates, noise pollution, dust and pests, cleaning protocols, water quality, moisture, biophilic design to bring the outside world in and active design to stimulate healthy habits.

We align projects with WELL Building, FITWEL, Active Score, RESET and The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building protocols.

Wellness real estate consultants

Wellness real estate leverages the scientifically proven health benefits of healthy building strategies such as biophilic design, active design, enhanced indoor air quality, promotion of physical activity, considerations for mindfulness and occupant mental health, lighting, nutrition and hydration, sustainable materials, as well as acoustic and thermal comfort to create not just buildings but potentially entire mixed-use communities geared for wellbeing.

As wellness real estate consultants, we advise developers and funds on how to integrate this concept into their destinations.

Hotel sustainability plans

We act as advisors for new build green, beginning with a sustainable site selection process and ensuring the sustainability strategy positively influences the architecture, interiors & fit-out to reduce environmental impact, primarily focused on energy, water and waste.

We also act as advisors for development teams once a hotel property is in its operational phase, again here opportunities exist to improve carbon impact, energy efficiency, waste management and water efficiency, as well as supply chain policies, a biodiversity plan, employee wellbeing and more.

We currently work with Green Key, EarthCheck and the Green Globe hotel certification systems.

Trend Report :

Biophilic Design Part 2

Here we look at how biophilic design has impacted retail, hospitality, resident al developments and rstaurant interiors.

CLIENTS

Bolton Group, Italy

Healthy building , workplace wellness and sustainable interiors advisory for a multi-national FMCG conglomerate’s headquarters (2023)

Melia Hotels, Spain

Biophilic design brand guidelines for ZEL Hotels inspired by the Mediterranean lifestyle (2023)

Qatari Royal Residence, Qatar

Healthy indoor environment report for new build luxury residence (2022)

Guesthouse Hotels, UK

Boutique hotel group sustainability strategy and annual action plan (2022)

Beyond Apartments & Aparthotels, UK

Sustainable wellness brand strategy for aparthotel brand (2024)

Hero Group, Switzerland

Workplace wellbeing and biophilic design advisory for a multinational foods conglomerate (2018-2019)

The HVN, UK

Healthy, sustainable indoor environment advisory for eco-luxury medi-spa (2022)

Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar

Integrating sustainability and wellness design in a range of student spaces for tutorials, studying, exercising, and relaxation (2024)

EcoWorld Ballymore, UK

Biophilic real estate and interiors research study (2016)

Fusion Students, UK

Wellbeing spaces for student coliving brand with sites in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Loughborough (2023-onwards)

Black Mountain Partners, UK

Wellbeing, ESG & placemaking strategy for a real estate investment fund (2019-2022)

PODCAST

Latest episode: 082 Longevity, Healthspan and Medical Wellness Clinics.

View on Zencastr

Green Healthy Places podcast: wellbeing and sustainability in the built environment

Tadao Ando

There should be a harmony between the artificial world, the natural environment, and human beings.

Trend Report :

Recovery & biohacking studios

Recovery studios, biohacking studios and longevity studios are changing the spa game forever. A new generation of high-tech wellness concepts, with touches of ancestral health influences, are currently where it’s at in the spa world.

FAQs

  • Sustainable hotel design and green hotel construction combines environmentally friendly architecture and development practices alongside a long-term vision of sustainable hotel operations policies to fight climate change.

    A new build construction or refurbishment often provides a wider range of opportunities than a refurb or an operational hotel, but even the latter can with commitment and collaboration, implement a slew of changes to reduce its environmental impact and align with the United National Sustainable Development Goals. This requires a combination of architecture, engineering, facilities managers, operations and interior design policies and procedures.

  • Buildings that promote health effectively incorporate considerations for the well-being of inhabitants into the architectural design, interior spaces, and ideally, the real estate development process from the beginning, alongside eco-friendly and sustainable building principles.

    The definition of a health-focused building has a positive influence on the emotional and physical health of its occupants, whether it's a workplace, residence, wellness center, or educational setting.

  • There are now several health-centric building standards available that provide third-party certification.

    As advocates for real estate well-being, we collaborate with the WELL Building Standard, FITWEL, RESET, and Active Score, either to obtain formal certification or simply to ensure your project aligns with these guidelines.

    Pursuing a formal healthy building certification such as the WELL certification is becoming more and more popular, with good reason.

    The WELL standard continues to lead the pack with its extensive science-backed research approach, adding the all-important substance needed for real estate developers to commit funding to wellbeing initiatives.

    We anticipate a second wave of such sub-categorization incoming for the healthy building industry, at least until WELL offer a ‘light’ version of their own program for smaller real estate projects with more modest budgets.

    The Joseph Allen Harvard team have a 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building model of note too.

  • Hotel sustainability plans ideally start in the site selection and pre-design phase in order to incorporate renewable energy solutions; water efficiency and carbon reduction measures into the project’s DNA from day one, for example via energy, thermal envelope and daylight modelling.

    During the design phase (architecture and interiors) a new suite of opportunities present themselves to integrate a market-leading sustainable plan into the facilities, interior design and fit-out process.

    A fully operation hotel would focus on generating efficiencies across carbon, energy, waste and water use as well as enhancing their biodiversity policy, community outreach, sustainable supply chain (products and services), guest wellbeing programs, eco cleaning protocols, Social Equity policies and so on.

  • An increasingly common term referring to residential real estate developers; hotel and resort brands, and employer brands implementing a human health and wellbeing strategy which informs a plan of actions to deliver resident, guest or employee wellness benefits.

    Establishing a health and wellbeing program based on the World Health Organization's recommendations, accompanied by a concrete plan of action outlining how, when are where these various wellbeing initiatives will be implemented, can play a fundamental role in the ‘Social’ component of a real estate ESG strategy.

  • Wellness real estate leverages the scientifically established benefits of healthy building strategies like biophilic design; active design; improved indoor air quality; physical exercise; mindfulness and mental health considerations; intelligent lighting; nutrition; acoustic and thermal comfort and eco-friendly materials to create a differentiated market proposition based around health and wellbeing.

    As consultants in the wellness real estate sector, our role is to guide developers and investment funds in integrating these concept into their mixed-use projects and communities.

    We achieve this by employing a blend of engineering, architecture, interior design, and facilities management tactics., meaning it is a highly collaborative proces.

  • In the world of health offices and healthy coworking spaces, the role of a comprehensive wellbeing programme aimed at employee engagement, the promotion of physical wellbeing and a plan to target poor mental health issues amongst the workforce is best thought of as a combination of HR policies and interior design interventions in the built environment.

    Effective workplace wellbeing strategies include fostering positive relationships amongst colleagues, ongoing efforts to boost employee morale by business leaders with internal community building and health promotion initiatives. Besides reducing the risk of mental illness, ensuring adequate levels of fresh air in the office, equitable access and engagement with building owners to ensure worker time indoors is as positive an experience as possible, we need to be monitoring for higher levels of CO2, PM2.5, PM10 in indoor air on an ongoing basis.