The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) announced
today the launch of the WELL Health-Safety Rating for all building and facility
types, an evidence-based, third-party verified rating focusing on operational
policies, maintenance protocols and design strategies to address a post
COVID-19 environment.
The WELL Health-Safety Rating is one of the earliest
outcomes of IWBI’s Task Force on COVID-19, a group of nearly 600 public health
experts, virologists, government officials, academics, business leaders,
architects, designers, building scientists and real estate professionals, which
was established in late March to help guide IWBI’s response to the pandemic.
The WELL Health-Safety Rating provides a centralized source
and governing body to validate efforts made by owners and operators. It
leverages insights drawn from the IWBI COVID-19 Task Force, in addition to
guidance on the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections developed
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization
(WHO), the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to the Occupational
Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
leading academic and research institutions, as well as core principles already
established by IWBI’s WELL Building Standard. Participation in the program
requires submission of policies, protocols and strategies for third-party
document review and annual verification.
“The WELL Health-Safety Rating is a sign of confidence that
measures have been enacted to help support the health and safety of people
entering spaces of all kinds, and that those measures have been mapped to
scientific evidence and verified through a third-party review process,” said
Rick Fedrizzi, chairman & CEO of IWBI.
“By drawing on the proven strategies in WELL, we’re working from the
best science available and that’s more important than it’s ever been.”
The WELL Health-Safety Rating will accept registrations in
June from all types of buildings and facility typologies, including offices,
restaurants, hotels, retail establishments, manufacturing plants, warehouses,
sports stadiums, arenas, theaters and other entertainment venues, schools,
multi-family housing, and many others. Current WELL-registered projects and
WELL Portfolio participants can earn the WELL Health-Safety Rating as part of
their already established certification efforts.
“Our buildings and the people who tend them are our first
line of defense for keeping us safe and healthy,” said Rachel Gutter, president
of IWBI, “and the current pandemic has confirmed that health is a material
economic consideration of the first order. These two simple truths stand at the
nexus of our work to date and will, along with the hard evidence that is
mounting, inform all our decisions about the critical need for better
buildings, more vibrant communities and stronger organizations going forward.”
The WELL Health-Safety Rating is the first of many
anticipated outcomes informed by the work of the IWBI COVID-19 Task Force that
will be introduced in the coming months. Members of the Task Force include 17th
Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Richard Carmona, former Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation President and CEO Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, UCLA’s Dr.
Jonathan Fielding, Harvard School of Public Health’s Joseph Allen, and
environmental scientist Allen Hershkowitz Ph.D., among others.
“The Task Force has received overwhelming support and input
from all over the world,” said Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the
United States. “People are learning that buildings themselves can be powerful
vehicles for protecting and improving public health. All of us individually have a responsibility
to the collective whole to use every tool, including our buildings and our
sense of community, to keep ourselves and those we care about safe.”
“The impacts of the virus have been many, but not the least
is the anxiety of uncertainty about where people feel safe,” said Despina
Katsikakis, Head of Occupier Business Performance at Cushman Wakefield and
member of IWBI’s COVID-19 Task Force. “Achieving this new WELL Health-Safety
Rating is a great way to increase confidence that evidence-based steps to do
the right thing have been taken to keep health front and center as the economy
reopens.”
Recently, IWBI released an interim Strategies from the WELL
Building Standard to Support in the Fight Against COVID-19, another key outcome
of the Task Force. Grounded in the foundation of WELL, these evidence-based
strategies provide an actionable framework for organizations and communities as
they advance a safer and healthier future. IWBI is expanding these strategies
into Guidelines for Preparedness and Prevention, Resilience and Recovery in
relation to COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. The Guidelines will
provide insight into how the current strategies have evolved, as well as
indicate areas where further work is required.
Since its inception, IWBI has been driving forward the
convergence of building science and health science. Registrations under the
WELL Building Standard, the premier standard for healthy real estate, have
already surpassed 550 million square feet across 62 countries. The WELL
Building movement has been further amplified by over 11,000 WELL Accredited
Professionals (APs) and registrants across the globe.
Gutter noted that upon achieving the designation, IWBI will
issue the project a WELL Health-Safety Rating seal. Register interest in the
WELL Health-Safety Rating here.
