The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges of our time. While the planet heats up rapidly, the pace of sustainability efforts is far too slow. It’s time for a radical change in behavior. But how? By addressing the problem at its root. Meet Healthy Workers! 

What Healthy Workers is all about

Guus and Jonatan founded Healthy Workers to make one of the largest CO2 polluters, real estate, more sustainable. From the start, they have been a strong team—Guus as the commercial strategist and Jonatan leading product and operations.

The goal: make all buildings sustainable, while improving property value at the same time. Let's have a look at the story of Healthy Workers and how we can make an impact together. ‍

Making an impact with sustainability data

With their building optimization platform, Guus and Jonatan are making buildings smart, sustainable, and healthy—ready for the future. It’s an ambitious goal that both entrepreneurs are fully committed to.

"The world is burning," says Guus. "Everyone is working incredibly hard, yet problems only seem to multiply. I don’t want to sit back and wait; I want to help put out the fire. That’s why I believe in our concept. With Healthy Workers, we are at the beginning of a fundamental shift in the real estate industry."

A healthy work environment contributes to better business results

Many companies they visited didn’t realize yet that healthy buildings lead to improved business results. There's quite a logic explanation for it. It's not measurable which was an opportunity for Guus and Jonatan.

Guus: "Once we could prove that investing in your workplace pays off, we had a strong business case. We also noticed that many employee complaints were related to the indoor climate. That was reason enough to take action."

From pollution to sustainability

Next to the well-being of employees, sustainability plays a key role in what we do at Healthy Workers.

"By 2050, real estate must be climate neutral," says Guus.

Time is moving faster than you think. Globally, buildings in use are responsible for about 28% of CO2 emissions. If we continue doing things the way we always have, a zero-emission future is far away. What we’re doing now as a society to achieve that goal is not enough. It’s time for a new approach before the problem gets out of hand.

Sustainability in buildings is not happening fast enough or smart enough.

Jonatan: "That’s why I do this work—I see that it can be done better. It’s no secret that achieving zero emissions in real estate is one of the biggest challenges. The problem is that sustainability efforts often don’t get off the ground unless there’s a positive business case—especially in real estate."

The question is: how can you use sustainability to immediately add value to your organization and profitability? That’s where Healthy Workers leads the way. In the first year, 97% of our buildings had a positive ROI. - Jonatan Roose, Co-Founder Healthy Workers

Never waste a good crisis - a shift in audience

In early 2021, we shifted our focus from tenants to investors. "The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to take a hard look at our proposition," says Guus. "We were dealing with a health crisis, so the health of buildings suddenly became much more important. Additionally, more companies were developing ESG strategies."

Sustainable real estate became a must-have instead of a nice-to-have. As a result, the new Healthy Worker's product now focuses on buildings rather than individuals, with real estate investors as new customers.

"This shift accelerated our business: 2021 was a record year for Healthy Workers, and we’ve been growing rapidly ever since." - Guus Meulendijks, Co-Founder Healthy Workers

Full-service from energy monitoring to optimizing building management systems

"Our approach is different because we offer a full-service solution," says Jonatan. At Healthy Workers we don't just tackle on problem. We cover the whole spectrum, from energy monitoring to optimizing building management systems.

It' more than just measuring and analyzing. We identify what actually works in your favor and don't have to do it alone. Our team helps you to decipher all the data. Customer excellence is our strenght.

Guus: "If we push technology too fast or too much, we risk losing customers. We’re actually very easy to use because we think from the perspective of the owner and property management, not from a technical standpoint."

With this focus we always get to the core. What are you looking for, what do you want to know and when? 

What's next for Healthy Workers?

We are very happy and proud to contribute to a green future in our own way. It all started a few years ago with a vision and a god idea. Now, step by step we're making it happen.

Jonatan: "We now manage about 1.2 million square meters of assets and have added many great clients to our portfolio, including Schroders Capital, PPF, and Equity Estate."

Our goals for the near future are clear. We want to grow to 4 million square meters and become the market leader in the Netherlands. Looking further ahead, let's say five or ten years, we aim to be in the top five in Europe.