Designing for Health and Wellbeing

Designing for Health and Wellbeing: An Introduction to the WELL Building Standard

Over the past two decades, many certifications have emerged to meet the growing environmental and social demands within the design and construction sector. Such certifications are becoming essential in showcasing a company’s sustainability credentials to tenants and investors alike, yet the sheer number now on offer means it can be a challenge to decide which is right for you.

Here, we’ll take a look at the WELL Building Standard, a certification scheme that focuses on occupant health and wellbeing. Read on to learn how the WELL Building Standard could benefit your company or building and how it stands out from other certifications.

The WELL Building Standard (WELL), launched in 2014 by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), is an established framework for incorporating human-centric design principles that prioritise the health and wellbeing of building users. Certification demonstrates that a project was built with its users in mind and allows the client to identify low-cost changes that will have a long-term impact.

What does WELL involve?

The basis of WELL consists of ten sustainability ‘concepts’, each of which targets a different aspect of the social or built environment: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, and Community.

Each concept contains a list of ‘features’ that a project can integrate to improve the end user experience. These features can either be ‘preconditions’ or ‘optimisations’:

• Preconditions are all mandatory features that a project must achieve for certification; there are 24 preconditions that are required for each project.

• Optimisations are optional features that a project may choose to achieve in order to gain a higher certification level; there are 84 optimisations that are available for each project to achieve.

Air

The ‘Air’ concept aims for projects to achieve good indoor air quality to minimise the impacts of air pollutants, including PM2.5, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Carbon Monoxide, Ozone, and Radon. Examples of features under this concept include banning on-site smoking, providing adequate ventilation, and air quality monitoring.

Water

The ‘Water’ concept has two themes: water for building users and water in the building itself. Regarding building users, projects can achieve features by providing safe water supply and encouraging hydration and good sanitation. Regarding buildings, projects must minimise indoor contaminants, such as legionella in cooling systems and hot tubs and mould growth. Each of these is achieved through effective filtration and regular water source testing.

Nourishment

The ‘Nourishment’ concept is all about encouraging a balanced and nutritional diet for building users. This can simply be through increasing the availability of fruits and vegetables, providing nutritional information, and minimising processed ingredients. But it can also be through subtle but impactful design measures, including placing food and vegetables at eye-level and providing welcoming eating areas.

Light

The ‘Light’ concept considers both natural daylight and artificial lighting. Example features include good building design that meets minimum daylight levels and comfortable electrical lighting that minimises flicker, improves colour rendering, and allows for occupant control. Such design measures are essential to improving the mood and sleep quality of residents.

Movement

Office-based jobs are inherently sedentary, as they require people to sit in chairs on their laptop or in meetings for much of their working day. The ‘Movement’ concept encourages physical activity for building users, both during and outside their working day. Physical activity can be promoted through design, such as ergonomic chairs and desks, intentional stair placement and design, and shower and locker facilities. Physical activity can also be promoted through policies, such as offering free gym facilities and workout classes on- or off-site or a smartwatch/wearable device for employees to monitor their exercise.

Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort is one of the highest contributing factors to overall satisfaction for building users. The ‘Thermal Comfort’ concept aims to provide a thermally regulated environment for building users by staying within a comfortable temperature threshold throughout the year. Projects will need to monitor temperature and humidity and carry out thermal comfort surveys to ensure occupants are satisfied. Furthermore, projects can implement more simple measures, such as a flexible dress code for building occupants to dress accordingly throughout the seasons.

Sound

Building users are constantly subjected to multiple noise sources throughout their day-to-day lives, including from outside traffic, HVAC equipment, and other occupants. The ‘Sound’ concept aims to mitigate noise throughout the building to reduce stress and anxiety and increase productivity for building users. Example features include designing acoustic zones, sound insulation, and specifying materials to reduce reverberation time [1]. It also includes incorporating designs that foster one’s ability to concentrate and effectively communicate.

Materials

The ‘Materials’ concept encourages projects to reduce the exposure to chemicals that may impact the health of building users during the construction, remodelling, furnishing, and the operation of the building. Chemicals include lead, asbestos, mercury, chromated copper arsenate (CCA), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and VOCs. Exposure to these toxins and pollutants can be minimised or eliminated by implementing hazardous materials management strategies and specifying materials with chemical restrictions.

Mind

The ‘Mind’ concept is all about supporting the mental health of building users. Projects can achieve the features in this concept through building design, such as incorporating biophilic design principles i.e., plants, water features, and access to nature throughout the building. Features within this concept also include programs, policies, and resources, such as free mental health services, workplace support, and promoting a healthy work-life balance.

Community

The ‘Community’ concept aims to tackle health and social inequalities within the workplace. This is addressed predominantly through policies and procedures rather than building design, such as healthcare benefits for employees and their families, adequate parental support, diversity and inclusion programs, and employee surveys.

Innovation

‘Innovation’ is an additional concept that provides projects the opportunity to implement health and wellbeing strategies not already included in WELL features and be awarded for them.

How do I know my project is suitable for WELL?

There are several project types that qualify under WELL:

• Owner-occupied – Projects where the building is mainly occupied by the project owner.

• Interiors – A type of owner-occupied project where the project owner rents a space within a larger building, known as the ‘base building’.

• WELL Core - The project owner occupies a small portion of the building and rents most of the space to one or more tenants.

The WELL certification is typically for commercial projects, including offices, retail, and restaurants. Although, it is not limited to commercial buildings; projects that contain a minimum of 5 dwelling units e.g., apartments, condominiums, townhouses and other residential complexes within a single building, can qualify under WELL.

How long does the certification last?

Projects can register for a single-cycle certification that lasts 3 years. Alternatively, projects can apply for 3- or 5-year subscriptions, for a higher fee, which include a mid-cycle review and recertification. Projects can be awarded the WELL Certification at the Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum level.

Projects must meet all preconditions to achieve, as well as the following number of points to achieve a certain certification level:

• Bronze: All preconditions + 40 points

• Silver: All preconditions + 50 points

• Gold: All preconditions + 60 points

• Platinum: All preconditions + 80 points

How does WELL compare to other certifications?

Other available building certifications have a large focus on energy efficiency, minimising carbon emissions, and the overall environmental impact of a building. These include certifications such as BREEAM, NABERS, and SKA.

However, WELL is one of the few certifications that focus solely on protecting building users and enhancing their overall experience. Despite this different focus, many WELL features are considered to have knock-on environmental benefits, such as prioritising locally-sourced produce and minimising commuting by car.

WELL is not the only certification that does focus on the health and wellbeing on building users. The Fitwel standard is a similar certification scheme, also founded in the U.S., that was established shortly after WELL in 2016.

The key difference between the two schemes is that WELL is far more rigorous with the evidence required to achieve each feature. Additionally on-site testing, known as Performance Verification, is mandatory to receive any level of certification. Performance Verification is required to assess air quality, water quality, lighting, thermal comfort, and acoustic before certification. Moreover, the ongoing monitoring of aforementioned environmental parameters are mandatory to maintain the certification throughout the 3-year period.

Although this results in higher costs and longer overall certification time, this has established WELL as a highly regarded certification scheme that demonstrates a project has undergone all necessary due diligence to maximise the health and wellbeing of its building users.

How can Love Design Studio help achieve a WELL Certification for your project?

Love Design Studio have WELL Accredited Professionals (WELL APs) within our team who can help guide projects to successful certifications. If appointed, our WELL AP would apply their understanding of the frameworks of WELL to certify your project and achieve as many features as possible.

Additionally, appointing a WELL AP allows the project to achieve the pre-approved innovation feature in WELL.

Whether you choose WELL and/or other building certification schemes for your projects depends on a variety of factors. Cost and time are large indicators, but also what benefits you would like your project to prioritise. If you’re looking to ensure your building and organisation achieve the top industry standards of building and occupant health, WELL may be the right pathway for you.

To learn more about how Love Design Studio can maximise health and wellbeing within your project, get in touch today.

Shreya Kapur WELL AP

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