NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Launched today worldwide and celebrated with fanfare in New York, Beijing, London and Sydney, the International WELL Building InstituteTM (IWBITM) unveiled the WELL v2™ pilot, the next version of its pioneering WELL Building StandardTM, 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 commitment 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 33 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 TM 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 all market sectors.”
Asia has been a market leader for WELL global adoption under WELL v1. Today, there are 236 projects registered to pursue WELL, 18 of which have been WELL Certified. Total registered space in Asia is 58 million square feet with China being a top performing country.
“WELL has been attracting projects across all sectors to pursue certification in China in the past three years," said Wuzhao Qiu, Head of Product Research and Development at Poly Real Estate Group. "Poly's commitment to building green for the sustainability of the planet and human health is perfectly aligned with WELL's human health-centric philosophy." Poly was one of China's early adopters of WELL with five projects totaling over 500,000 square feet in space pursuing WELL v1 Certification. Qiu said Poly is excited to evolve with WELL and commits more of its projects for WELL Certification under v2.
“WELL has seen tremendous growth momentum in Asia since its debut in 2015,” said Xue Ya, President of IWBI Asia. “We are humbled to hear amazing testimonials on a daily basis from project teams and the many people who get to work, live, learn and entertain in these WELL Certified spaces, and, we are proud to share what is yet to come in WELL v2.” At the WELL v2 launch event in Beijing, Xue Ya and her team noted that they anticipate an even broader adoption of WELL as the market is now more ready to tune into this global movement.
“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: 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.