Spartanburg, S.C.—Milliken’s Chicago Showroom, located inside the Chicago Merchandise Mart, has been awarded WELL Certification at the Platinum level by the International WELL Building InstituteTM (IWBITM). The prestigious distinction was awarded through IWBI’s WELL Building StandardTM (WELL), which is the premier building standard to focus on enhancing people’s health and wellness through the buildings where we live, work and play. With this certification, Milliken becomes the 100th WELL Certified project in the world. It is also the first showroom in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart to receive WELL Certification along with being the first WELL Certified Platinum space in Chicago.
Created through seven years of rigorous research and development working with leading physicians, scientists and industry professionals, the WELL Building StandardTM is a performance-based certification system that marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based scientific research. Milliken’s showroom on the 11th floor of the Chicago Merchandise Mart earned the distinction based on seven categories of building performance: Air, Water, Light, Nourishment, Fitness, Comfort and Mind. Milliken’s showroom incorporated all 26 preconditions and 43 of the 51 available optimizations to achieve WELL Certified Platinum status.
“The health and well-being of our employees has been something Milliken has been focused on for a very long time,” said Jim McCallum, division president, Milliken Floor Covering. “WELL has given us a vocabulary and a set of guidelines to ensure we’re optimizing everything we can in the built environment, while also addressing behavioral and internal policy changes to maximize the health and well-being of our customers and employees. But it’s even more than that—it’s a mindset.”
This was celebrated in a plaque ceremony in the Milliken Showroom during this year’s NeoCon show, one of the largest commercial design events in North America.
“This milestone achievement not only marks the 100th certified project, but is an example of commitment to improving health and well-being at scale,” said IWBI chairman and CEO, Rick Fedrizzi. “The growth of WELL is advanced by projects like Milliken, who are going above and beyond by improving not just the health and well-being of their employees, but supporting their clients and customers as well.”