by Brianna Crandall — May 18, 2022 — The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) recently announced the launch of the WELL Performance Rating, a new rating that recognizes building owners and operators for achieving excellence in healthy building performance aimed to enhance the well-being and experience of the people inside. The announcement was made during the WELL Summit, with IWBI leading partner organizations driving a movement for people-first places forward through application of WELL at scale.
Image courtesy of IWBI
Developed in collaboration with a host of industry leaders in smart building technologies and with input from IWBI Performance Advisory, WELL Performance Testing Organizations (PTOs) and WELL Enterprise Providers (EPs), the rating provides a roadmap for organizations to demonstrate excellence in occupant experience and building performance across key indoor environmental quality (IEQ) indicators related to air quality, water quality, thermal comfort, acoustics and lighting.
Rachel Hodgdon, president and CEO, IWBI, stated:
The WELL Performance Rating puts us on an accelerated path to make buildings smarter for human health, unlocking the use of new technologies and more intelligent approaches to improve and enhance well-being and performance. Thanks to the contributions of our collaborators from across the globe, the rating will connect building performance with the experience of the people inside, allowing organizations to make actionable what was once invisible through data and occupant insights.
Through the achievement of the rating, organizations can garner intelligence to drive better business performance and strengthen organizational culture through the use of sensor networks, onsite tests and surveys that assess employee perceptions of their health, well-being and performance while in the building.
Recognizing the many world-class experts and leading companies involved, such as Carrier, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Panasonic, Schneider Electric, SGS and Trane Technologies, Hodgdon added:
The creation of this rating has been a deeply collaborative effort. The top players in the industry united around a common set of performance thresholds for healthy buildings and best practices for continuous monitoring through the installation of sensor networks to advance human health and experience.
Leaders from Cyclone Energy Group, Delos, EY, Honeywell, StrongLED Smart Lighting, View and WELL Living Lab China joined Hodgdon on stage at the WELL Summit to celebrate the launch and to signal their commitments to be among the first to pursue the WELL Performance Rating. “I am excited to stand with organizations on the leading edge of this work, who see the importance of creating people-first places for everyone, everywhere,” Hodgdon said.
Demonstrating a commitment to optimizing the health of the people inside the buildings, the following organizations have enrolled in the WELL Performance Rating:
- Cyclone Energy Group
- Delos
- Environmental Charter School (ECS)
- Edge Technologies
- Ernst & Young (EY)
- Ethos Engineering
- GreenJump Sustainability
- Honeywell
- International Commerce Centre (ICC)
- Laguna
- Nucleus Office Park
- StrongLED Smart Lighting
- View Inc.
- WELL Living Lab Beijing
Organizations currently enrolled in the WELL Performance Rating span all industries and building types, signaling the rating’s substantial impact across sectors.
The WELL Performance Rating consists of features drawn from the WELL Building Standard (WELL) along with new strategies and features that call for specific leadership thresholds, and can be earned as a standalone designation or a milestone toward a single-building certification or enterprise commitment. IWBI first announced plans for developing the new rating system in July 2021, tapping the expertise of a global network of advisors as well as a diverse group of organizational and industry leaders, including Aircuity, BSI, Carrier, CETEC, Cognian Technologies, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Kaiterra, LeGrand, Lennox International, Panasonic, Schneider Electric, SGS, Thornton Tomasetti, Trane Technologies and WSP.
Since 2021, IWBI has engaged stakeholders in a series of sessions to further the integrity and use of the rating, including educating individuals on how the rating works and what to prepare for. In March, IWBI’s Governance Council, the leadership body tasked with upholding the integrity of WELL through rigorous standard development criteria, ratified the rating in a unanimous vote. The Governance Council includes public health icons such as Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey of the University of Pennsylvania and former president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the 17th U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Richard Carmona; and Nancy Roman, president and CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America.
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a subsidiary of Delos Living LLC, is a public benefit corporation focused on deploying people-first places to advance a global culture of health. IWBI administers the WELL Building Standard (WELL) and the WELL Health-Safety Rating, and manages the WELL AP credential.
Learn more about the new WELL Performance Rating on the IWBI website.
