IWBI Launches WELL v2™

Launched today worldwide and celebrated with fanfare in New York, Beijing, London and Sydney, the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) unveiled the WELL v2™ pilot, the next version of its pioneering WELL Building Standard™, the first rating system to focus exclusively on the impacts of buildings on human health and wellness.

This second iteration includes a full suite of enhancements that advance IWBI’s global aim to build a healthier future for all. WELL v2 is informed by key lessons learned from the nearly 1,000 projects that are registered or certified in 34 countries across the world. Users can register for WELL v2 starting today.

“Since our launch in 2014, we’ve learned a lot from the thousands of WELL users, practitioners and researchers who have embraced WELL as a tool for making buildings mechanisms to deliver health and wellness benefits for all,” said IWBI Chief Product Officer Rachel Gutter. “WELL v2 is our effort to consolidate the latest knowledge, leading research, new technology and advanced building practice to extend the benefits of WELL buildings to more people in more places.”

A truly global rating system, the intent behind WELL v2 is to empower project teams to pursue the interventions that matter most to their project and their community without sacrificing WELL’s comprehensive and evidence-based approach and commitment to performance verification. Refinements and enhancements to the rating system include:

• A new feature set with fewer preconditions and weighted optimizations.
• A consolidation of multiple pilots into one WELL, and improvements to the “All Projects In” approach introduced last year.
• New pathways to achieve intents, with a laser focus on feasibility for existing buildings and commercial interiors.
• An optional early phase review for projects wishing to earn a WELL D&O™ designation that affirms and celebrates progress toward WELL Certification.
• A new approach to performance verification allowing projects to contract local providers.
• A commitment to equity through market- and sector-specific pricing, a focus on localization and the introduction of a dynamic scorecard.
• A comprehensive and significant adjustment to pricing, including a new subscription option.

“The IWBI team has worked tirelessly to aggregate the expert contributions of our worldwide community of users, researchers and thought leaders whose hands-on engagement with WELL v2 is evident throughout,” said IWBI CEO and Chairman Rick Fedrizzi. “The result is a rating system that’s simpler, clearer, focused on the aspects that have the greatest impact, and designed for improved return across every metric. I’m especially excited about the significant cost efficiencies that have been built in, which will help spur uptake and increase accessibility to WELL for more market sectors.”

In Europe, WELL has spurred innovations across the building, design and construction industries, providing projects with customizable approaches to address geographical and cultural health concerns. Nearly 200 projects across 14 countries are engaged with WELL, representing a quarter of global WELL project square footage. The strong growth of WELL over the past year has been led by early adopter markets, notably France, United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands – as well as rapid new expansion in Poland, Sweden and Ireland. Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Norway have registered their first projects, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia markets are being driven by strong local industry leaders.

“With these changes, WELL v2 sharpens our ability to drive far-reaching change to buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive,” said Fedrizzi. “We’re looking forward to the market’s feedback as we move through this pilot phase.”

For more information about WELL v2, visit us at https://v2.wellcertified.com.

About IWBI

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. The WELL v2 pilot is a recently launched version of its popular WELL Building Standard, which will continue to be offered to the market, and the WELL Community Standard pilot, a district scale rating system that sets a new global benchmark for healthy communities. WELL is focused exclusively on the ways that buildings and communities, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness. IWBI convenes and mobilizes the wellness community through management of the WELL AP credential, the pursuit of applicable research, the development of educational resources, and advocacy for policies that promote health and wellness everywhere.

ADDENDUM – Europe:

Virginie Scaglia at HRO France, said: “WELL Certification provides an excellent platform to communicate our commitment to providing a healthy workplace and upholding the highest environmental standards in building design, construction and operations. As we began our journey, we knew we wanted SCENEO to be at the forefront of cutting-edge building science and technology. WELL Certification has helped us to gain a competitive edge in Paris’s real estate market, highlight our leadership in the sustainability movement, and, most importantly, improve the health and well-being of tenants and employees. WELL was a natural fit for us.”

“When we moved to our new workplace in central London, we were determined that the experience for our staff would be markedly different from before. We used WELL as part of a broader strategy to create an environment that promotes health, facilitates physical activity and increases collaboration. What emerged was an organisational transformation that has helped to improve employee satisfaction and productivity and deliver on our sustainability commitments. As a result, our Landsec workplace is the first commercial office in the world to achieve both WELL Certified Silver and BREEAM Outstanding, setting a global benchmark for healthy, sustainable office space,” said Ed Dixon, Sustainability Insights Director, Landsec.

Chris Hiatt, Landid director, said: “As the first building in the UK to achieve WELL Core & Shell Certification, The Porter Building sets a new bar for the design and development of offices. The workspace will positively impact business performance, through staff retention and attraction, well-being and productivity and will meet the aspirations of the very best talent. Wellness has become an increasingly important part of workplace strategies in recent years, reflecting a wider cultural shift towards greater healthier lifestyles. We expect that in five years’ time all new office buildings will be seeking WELL Certification, in the same way that new buildings today are expected to adhere to the highest sustainability standards. Well-being will simply become part of the language of office design and we are very proud to be playing a leading role in that transformation.”

"Here in the Nordics we have the purest outdoor air and nature combined with an active lifestyle. However, we have shut the door on them indoors where we spend 22 hours a day. As the first WELL Certified office in the Nordics, we at Green Building Partners want to lead the way in the Nordics and show that it's important to design indoor spaces that are not only environmentally and energy-friendly but also human-friendly. The strength of the WELL Building Standard is that it's holistic. The concepts helped us to design an office and ways to work that comprehensively improve our employees' well-being, creativity and productivity," said Konsta Tuokko, Senior Consultant at Green Building Partners.

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Contact information

IWBI (Europe)
Kristen Coco, +44 (0) 7377 815 047
kristen.coco@wellcertified.com
or
IWBI (North America)
Callie Stanton, 646-654-3438
cstanton@nikecomm.com