What is WELL?
WELL™ is the world’s first international building certification that focuses exclusively on human health and wellness. Developed by the International Well Building Institute (IWBI), the standard allows building projects to achieve high levels of occupant health, wellbeing, and productivity.
Getting WELL-certified means that your building will adhere to the best standards in active design, air and water quality, optimal day-lighting, physical comfort, accessibility, stress-reducing and calming aesthetics, and injury prevention, among many other aspects of building design, construction, and operation.
Get WELL through IGNITE
As part of our commitment to health and wellness, Ignite is partnering with Alpin Limited, a regional expert in sustainability in the built environment, to provide expert consultancy to facilitate the WELL certification to institutions seeking the best solutions to promote and implement health in their daily operations.
The main concepts of WELL v1 are the following: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Comfort, Mind, Fitness, and Innovation; the standard was further developed and enhanced to its second version, WELL v2.
What is a WELL-rating?
Another important consideration in the certification process is the level of rating that is feasible for the project. A WELL Accredited Professional can suggest a level after taking a look at the project, or tell you whether the level you are aiming to pursue is feasible.
Points are awarded for the features pursued during the certification process; these features include pre-conditions (the minimum requirements) and optimizations. The optimization features chosen are dependent on each project, and the high level of flexibility WELL allows makes every WELL project unique, but always more healthy.
THREE MAIN LEVELS OF SCORING:
How does WELL work?
Since it is not a requirement to certify a whole building, it is also possible to certify a space that only occupies a portion of a building, such as an office space,or an entire existing building that is not undergoing major renovation. Projects that were already WELL certified at the Core and Shell stage may have already fulfilled many WELL features, making certification that much easier.
Naturally, whole buildings allow for the greatest number of WELL features to be implemented. This project type addresses the complete scope of project design and construction, and certain aspects of building operations as well.
WELL Core and Shell makes it easier for building owners to pursue WELL Certification for their interior spaces, by incorporating the most fundamental WELL features into the base building design and operations.Why get WELL-certified?
According to the IWBI, WELL certification has resulted in 73% positive impact on building lease rate, 62% positive impact on building value, and 79% positive impact on occupant satisfaction. There are positive changes occupants in WELL-certified spaces will immediately recognize, such as better lighting, ergonomic furniture, improved indoor air quality, improvements in noise levels, healthier options of food, and general aesthetic upgrades that comes along with meeting the certification requirements.
Take a look at some actual project results reported by our partner Alpin:
reported a drop in absenteeism
drop in staff turnover
of employees felt an increase in productivity
felt increased levels of collaboration and socialization
felt in satisfaction with air quality
increase in satisfaction with lighting
Being a relatively new international standard, the WELL certification does not explicitly have recognition from local governmental authorities. However, it ties in directly with the Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure facet of the UAE 2021 Vision. Sustainability in the built environment is also a key priority in the visions of specific emirates, e.g. Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 and Dubai Plan 2021.
Once a space has achieved its WELL certification, the certification is valid for 3 years. To get re-certified, the project team must re-apply for performance verification and if all requirements are met, subsequently receive a recertification for the next 3 years.
