Air Concept Intent: Aims to achieve high indoor air quality levels across a building's lifetime through diverse strategies, including source elimination or reduction, active and passive building design and operation strategies, and human behavior interventions.

Water Concept Intent: Covers aspects of the quality, distribution, and control of liquid water in a building. It includes features that address drinking water's availability and contaminant thresholds, as well as features targeting water management to avoid damage to building materials and environmental conditions.

Nourishment Concept Intent: Requires the availability of fruits and vegetables and nutritional transparency. It encourages the creation of food environments where the healthiest choice is the easiest choice.

Light Concept Intent: Promotes exposure to light and aims to create lighting environments that promote visual, mental, and biological health.

Movement Concept Intent: Promotes physical activity in everyday life through environmental design, policies, and programs to ensure that movement opportunities are integrated into the fabric of our culture, buildings, and communities.

Thermal Comfort Concept Intent: Aims to promote human productivity and provide maximum thermal comfort among all building users through improved HVAC system design and control and by meeting individual thermal preferences.

Sound Concept Intent: Aims to bolster occupant health and well-being by identifying and mitigating acoustical comfort parameters that shape occupant experiences in the built environment.

Materials Concept Intent: Aims to reduce human exposure, whether direct or through environmental contamination, to chemicals that may impact health during building construction, remodeling, furnishing, and operation.

Mind Concept Intent: Promotes mental health through policy, program, and design strategies that seek to address the diverse factors that influence cognitive and emotional well-being.

Community Concept Intent: Aims to support access to essential healthcare, build a culture of health that accommodates diverse population needs, and establish an inclusive, engaged occupant community.

How Building Certification Is Achieved: Building certification is achieved by earning a certain number of points. Certification can be achieved at the levels of Bronze (40 points, no minimum points per concept), Silver (50 points, minimum one point per concept), Gold (60 points, minimum two points per concept), and Platinum (80 points, minimum 3 points per concept). The complete Standard can be accessed online at www.v2.wellcertified.com.

According to WELL documents, certification requires several phases³:

Documentation and Tracking: Each project team must submit documentation of their efforts, which a third party evaluates. Documents are submitted directly within the project workspace and sent to the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) for review. There are two rounds of documentation review: preliminary and final. If documentation is not approved during the initial review, the reviewer identifies areas that require adjustment. Projects should address the feedback and resubmit for a final review.

Verifying and Validating: WELL is a performance-based system. Therefore, every WELL project must be verified through onsite testing. These measurements determine various air and water quality parameters, as well as sound and light levels. The process differs from traditional building commissioning and assures that the space performs as intended, according to WELL requirements.

Performance Verification: An authorized WELL Performance Testing Agent completes this authorization. This professional typically spends one to three days in the building to validate the project's documentation and complete a series of performance tests, spot-checks, and measurements covering all WELL concepts. After certification, a physical onsite plaque can be ordered and installed to acknowledge the building's status as a certified healthy space.

Recertification: WELL Certification requires projects to monitor real-time building performance by collecting ongoing performance data. WELL-certified projects must undergo recertification every three years. The verification process for recertification is similar to certification, including documentation submission and performance verification for certain features.

WORKS WITH WELL OFFERS A DIRECTORY OF ALIGNED PRODUCTS

A directory of products that align with WELL values helps streamline the process of choosing products for projects seeking WELL certification.

As the Excel management and design team worked through the WELL certification process, they became aware of the Works with Well program, and Excel products are now listed. As stated by the standard: Works with WELL is a licensing program for manufacturers to serve the growing demand for healthy building solutions by demonstrating how their products fit into the WELL philosophy. This demonstrates leadership in an evolving landscape of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) priorities.

To get into the Works with Well program, manufacturers undergo a review and then confirm the alignment of their products with specific features in the WELL Standard. A customized QR code and product page on the WELL platform, along with a link to the manufacturer's website, aids specifiers in finding products compatible with WELL standards.

Accredited Professionals Like LEED, individuals can achieve the title of WELL Accredited Professional, or AP, to help guide projects through certification. This credential requires testing and completion of annual continuing education units. There are currently more than 23,000 WELL APs.

How WELL Aligns With LEED: An estimated 30 percent of WELL priorities overlap with LEED priorities. Teams can pursue the two certifications concurrently, and a collaboration between IWBI and USGBC has produced streamlined software to make documenting the two standards easier.

Photo courtesy of Excel Dryer

Custom-designed, illuminated, solid-surface reception desk that incorporates branding.

PROJECT FOCUS: FEATURES AND PRODUCTS HELPING EARN WELL CERTIFICATION

The renovation and addition of Excel Dryer's corporate campus involved scores of products and decisions to create a healthier workspace. A 360-degree video at the end of the course shows the entire project. These are some of the strategies pursued as Excel management and architect Katherine Brekka moved toward achieving WELL certification:

Living Walls

Of all the features in the new office space, the dual-sided living wall made of plants gets the most positive attention. The impact on occupants and visitors is visceral, with overhead skylights illuminating the lush green expanses. "We wanted to bring in natural materials to create a biophilic design inspired by nature," Brekka said, "bringing in plant life with a living wall to bring in as much direct connection to nature as well as indirect wherever possible."

WELL Concepts and Features–Mind
WELL Concept: Mind
WELL Feature: MO2 Nature and Place
Summary: Requires the integration of nature throughout the project and design strategies that celebrate the project's unique identity and inspire human delight.

Relevant LEED Credits
Designing with Nature, Biophilic Design for the Indoor Environment: Projects must implement a biophilic design plan that includes at least five distinct strategies related to biophilic design.

"In short, this office space makes me feel happy,” one employee said. “My favorite parts are the living walls in the conference room and behind the reception deck. Since two of the four walls of our conference room are glass, it allows all of us to enjoy that sensation of being close to nature all day. Because of that, I don’t have the feeling of being stuck inside. I actually feel good being in the office.”

Movable Glass Partition Wall

The movable glass wall provides many benefits. It allows views of the conference room's green living wall to radiate throughout the adjacent office space. Plus, it creates an expandable space to accommodate larger meetings and office functions. The glass is engineered for enhanced acoustical separation and heat management. According to Brekka: "The client's main goals for this project were to ensure that we had a flexible space. There are limitations on the site for future expansions here, so we wanted to make sure that we got this project right. We incorporated a flexible design. They also wanted to ensure that the space would foster collaboration and innovation to support the type of work that they do here."

Photo courtesy of Excel Dryer

Sliding glass walls provide privacy in the conference area while still providing views of the living wall to employees and visitors.