IWBI announces the practitioner portion of the peer review process for the WELL Building Standard®
New York, NY (August 27, 2014) – The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) today launched the second phase of the Peer Review process for the WELL Building Standard®. Phase two will consist of a comprehensive review of the Standard by leading building and design practitioners, including among the world’s foremost experts in the field of sustainable design.
The full Peer Review process includes three phases – a scientific, a practitioner, and a medical review – and will culminate in the public release of v1.0 of the WELL Building Standard at the inaugural 2014 WELL Building Symposium in New Orleans on October 20, 2014. During this phase, leading building practitioners from organizations including SERA Architects, Skanska, Gensler, and CBRE will review and respond specifically to design criteria set by the WELL Building Standard.
During this phase, WELL is also being reviewed by subject matter experts from the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) technical development team and the Green Building Certification Institute’s (GBCI) certification review team, which are responsible for the development and implementation of the LEED Green Building Rating System. Following its launch, the WELL Building Standard will be third-party certified by GBCI, the same organization that certifies LEED green buildings. Together, their work will enable green building practitioners to integrate human health and well-being harmoniously with sustainability, creating buildings that optimize occupant health as well as environmental outcomes.
The Peer Review process will be transparent and include a published roster of contributing physicians, researchers, and practitioners. In addition, aggregated comments from the Peer Review will be published online, together with how the WELL Building Standard evolved as a result of this input. The WELL Building Standard is an evidence-based standard created through six years of research and development working with researchers and physicians from leading medical institutions and expert practitioners from the building industry. Currently in pilot phase, the WELL Building Standard sets performance requirements in seven categories: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. Administered by the International WELL Building Institute and committed to third-party certification through GBCI, the WELL Building Standard applies to commercial and institutional projects. Potential pilot projects are encouraged to contact IWBI through www.WELLBuildingInstitute.com.
Current WELL pilot projects include the William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Named in honor of President Clinton, the children’s center and orphanage will be LEED Platinum and WELL certified. Another key pilot project includes CBRE Group’s new Global Corporate Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Unveiled in November 2013, CBRE’s new headquarters is the world’s first commercial office building to be both LEED Gold and WELL certified. Professional Peer Reviewers for phase two include the following:
U.S. Green Building Council WELL is being reviewed by experts from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) technical development team. For more information about USGBC, please visit www.usgbc.org.
Green Building Certification Institute WELL is being reviewed by experts from the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) certification review team. For more information about GBCI, please visit www.gbci.org.
Ms. Jennifer Berthelot-Jelovic ASAP Jennifer Berthelot-Jelovic is the President and CEO of A SustainAble Production, LLC (ASAP), a woman-owned, full-service sustainability and wellness consulting firm based in Los Angeles, CA. ASAP provides an array of sustainability consulting services including sustainable and regenerative design & construction; LEED certification; Corporate Social Responsibility Policies; eco-branding and marketing; sustainable lifestyles and events; and public speaking. As a sustainability and LEED Consultant, Jennifer has extensive experience with the USGBC’s various LEED rating systems including LEED for Homes, New Construction, Core & Shell, Commercial Interiors, LEED for Schools, Retail, LEED Volume and more. Jennifer is a Partner in the Ecological and Regenerative Design Collaborative (ERDC), a firm that implements innovative and regenerative projects all over the World. Many of these projects will be seeking Living Building Challenge certification or Petal recognition through the International Living Future Institute. Jennifer is a LEED AP BD+C, LEED AP Homes, as well as OSHA 30 certified. She is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the USGBC Los Angeles Chapter and is a member of the Chapter’s Green Schools Committee. Jennifer is also the Chair for the San Fernando Valley Branch of the USGBC-LA Chapter. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and a Masters in Applied Social Sciences from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Ms. Mary Davidge Google Mary has worked with major corporations in California’s Silicon Valley for more than 25 years, helping them to articulate and implement their vision for the built environment. Her experience in exploring the synergies between health, design and nature has created opportunities for engagement with key stakeholders, including corporations, academic researchers, advocacy groups, manufacturers and certification bodies. Over the past ten years, she has worked as a strategic partner with Google in developing strategies for health and environmental performance in the real estate portfolio. In addition to her consulting practice, Mary is a green building advocate and educator. She is a member of the USGBC LEED® Faculty, a Living Building Ambassador for the International Living Future Institute and was named a Living Building Hero in 2012. Mary also serves on the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Certification Standards Board and the Founding Board of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative.
Ms. Beth Heider SKANSKA As Chief Sustainability Officer, Beth translates Skanska’s commitment to sustainability into action, catalyzing organizational, incremental and transformational leadership across all four of Skanska’s US business units, shining a light on Skanska’s past accomplishments while inspiring a vision of the future. She supports a company of exceptional talent and admirable values in building a more sustainable world and a more profitable business. She serves on Skanska USA’s Management Team. Her 35-year career encompasses all phases of design and construction from master planning through project closeout as architect, construction manager, cost manager and value management facilitator. She has presented papers on cost, value, eco-efficient building, and program management at some 150 international conferences. In 2005, she founded Skanska USA’s Green Council, which marshals all of Skanska’s sustainable preconstruction and construction capabilities nationwide. She remains involved at the project level, on projects ranging from the Energy Optimization Curriculum for the United Nations School to studies for NRDC and the District of Columbia that explore the cost and benefits and attendant policy necessary to create more sustainable cities. One of ten women named “pioneer in green building” by the Green Economy Post, Heider served for six years on USGBC’s national Board of Directors which she chaired in 2012. In 2013, she received Skanska’s global achievement award for green market making. From 1999 to 2004, she was an Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America. She is an alumna of The University of Virginia and its Graduate Program in Venice, Italy.
Mr. Thomas Knittel HOK Thomas Knittel is a practicing architect with 30 years of experience in a broad range of project types and scales. He is currently a vice president and senior design principal with HOK, a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm, with projects in the U.S, Asia, Brazil, the Middle East and Haiti. His work in biomimicry—taking inspiration from natural systems in order to solve human problems—focuses on integrating models from nature into the design of buildings, communities and cities. He holds a Master of Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has received over 30 design awards including a GSA Design excellence award and COTE Top Ten Green for KAUST. Thomas donates his time as HOK’s design leader for The William Jefferson Clinton Children’s Center in Port au Prince , a new family learning center and orphanage funded by the USGBC, designed to LEED Platinum and net-zero standards. He is married to bioethicist Erika Blacksher and lives in Los Angeles.
Ms. Lisa Pettersonl SERA Architects For the past 25 years, Lisa has focused her work on the development of green building projects, with specialties in lighting and daylighting design. She was instrumental in making SERA a leader in sustainable design, guiding the development of climate metrics and early design tools to more deeply integrate data-driven design into SERA’s work. Cofounder of SERA’s Sustainability Resources Group (SuRG), Lisa served as the technical lead for both Edith Green Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and the Oregon Sustainability Center. In addition to practice, Lisa also teaches at the University of Oregon and was the lead researcher for three studies on Living Buildings.
Mr. Richard Piacentini Phipps Conservatory Since 1994, Richard V. Piacentini has led the green transformation of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, constructing the first LEED® Platinum greenhouses; the world’s most energy-efficient conservatory; and the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, a net-zero energy/water facility designed to achieve Living Building Challenge™, LEED Platinum and Four Stars SITES™ certification. A registered pharmacist, Piacentini continues to explore the important connections between people and plants, particularly as it relates to human and environmental wellness. He serves on the International Living Future Institute™ (ILFI) board, received ILFI and U.S. Green Building Council leadership awards, and is an American Public Gardens Association past-president.
Mr. Dave Pogue CBRE As Global Director of Corporate Responsibility, Dave Pogue oversees CBRE’s development, implementation and reporting for all aspects of corporate social responsibility, including environmental stewardship, community engagement and corporate giving. Prior to his current role, Pogue led sustainability programs for CBRE’s property and facilities management portfolio around the globe, managing the development, introduction and implementation of a wide-ranging platform of sustainable practices and policies. His leadership in this area produced an award-winning sustainability platform leveraging thought leadership, service delivery and industry associations to raise worldwide green building standards. Program achievements included development of CBRE’s $1 million Real Green Research Challenge; aggressive endorsement of the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR® program; introduction of the Green Knights program; delivery of co-branded BOMA BEEP training to more than 15,000 attendees; and recognition as the first manager of commercial property to certify more than 300 buildings in the LEED® for Existing Buildings rating system. Prior to leading sustainability programs, Pogue was a Senior Managing Director of Asset Services in the Western Region, responsible for overseeing service delivery for office, retail and industrial real estate properties totaling more than 250 MSF. Pogue also served as Executive Vice President, Ownership Services, for Insignia/ESG in the Western Region and joined CBRE with the company’s acquisition of that firm in 2003. Before joining Insignia, he was Director of Management Services for CB Commercial in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, he was a Regional Partner and Senior Vice President with the Koll Company in San Jose. During more than a dozen years with Koll, he was credited with establishing the Asset Management Division for both the San Jose and Pleasanton regions.
Ms. Kristen Ritchie Gensler Kirsten Ritchie joined Gensler in November 2006 after serving as Director of Environmental Claims Certification at Scientific Certification Systems, now SCS Global Services. At Gensler, a global architecture and design firm, Kirsten serves as one of the firms leading sustainability ambassadors, engaging staff, clients and the public on innovative and high performance design, construction and operations. A recognized expert in green product standards and sustainability rating systems (including LEED and CHPS), Kirsten is a leading advocate for science based approaches to assess performance of both products and buildings. She played a pivotal role in the development of SCS Indoor Advantage(TM), Floorscore®, level(TM), NSF/ANSI 140 and 332, and ANSI/BIFMA e3, M7.1 and x7.1 standards and certification programs which have led to transformational changes in the flooring and furniture industries. She is also actively involved the development and implementation of standards and guidelines at the organizational level, focused on improving the sustainability performance of global real estate portfolios. Ms. Ritchie is a licensed Professional Engineer and LEED® AP+ (O+M), with over 30 years of experience across manufacturing, office, retail, hospitality, education, transportation, aviation and infrastructure sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from California State University, San Jose. She serves as a Director of the Green Electronics Council and the Ecological Building Network, is a member of the Material and Resources Technical Advisory Group (MR-TAG) of the US Green Building Council, and serves as an advisor to the Health Product Collaborative.
Mr. Eric Soladay Integral Group Eric brings a calm and reliable creativity to the art of engineering the built environment. With a focus on building occupants and end users, and a team approach to executing complex projects, Eric’s work embodies the principles of integrated design through firsthand experience with the Nation’s largest commercial project to utilize the integrated project delivery method, the Google Bay View Campus. With a heightened awareness of the opportunities which exist within this method, Eric has a talent for streamlining communication between disciplines to deliver collaborative, efficient, and innovative designs on all of his projects. Eric has led several significant projects, including the first LEED Platinum certified retrofit of an historical laboratory building for the Linde+Robinson Lab for Environmental Science at Caltech, the most energy efficient data center in North America for the Energy Systems Integration Facility at the National Renewable Energy Lab, and the Net Zero Energy Headquarters for the Packard Foundation. Eric has managed projects for such clients as: Apple, Pixar, Google, Jet Propulsion Lab, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Caltech, Stanford University (SLAC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and various University of California campuses.
Ms. Amanda Sturgeon International Living Future Institute Amanda Sturgeon became the Executive Director of the International Living Future Institute in August 2014, after being with The Institute for four years, most recently as the Vice President of the Living Building Challenge. Amanda is an award-winning architect in the northwest United States, where she has practiced since 1998. Her projects include pioneering green building projects such as Islandwood on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Amanda was a founding board member of the Cascadia Green Building Council from 2000-2002 and was instrumental in passing the first State LEED legislation in Washington State in 2003. She has served on many boards and committees and has taught at the University of Washington as well as Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She lectures widely with a focus on Biophilia as a pathway to a restorative future. Amanda was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and made a LEED Fellow in 2013 in recognition of her pioneering commitment to advancing sustainability through advocacy, policy and practice. Amanda was born in the UK, educated in Australia and now calls Bainbridge Island, Washington her home.
Mr. Ted Van Der Linden DPR Construction Ted van der Linden is the Director of Sustainability at DPR Construction. Having been with DPR for over 17 years, he worked initially as a Sr. Preconstruction Manager, helping clients on the evaluation of cost, schedule and strategy for the construction of numerous types of commercial construction projects. In 1998, he led the preconstruction effort on a first of its kind “green” project designed by William McDonough + Partners for Aspect Communications in San Jose, CA. This project forever altered his passion in the industry, and today, he works tirelessly to encourage our industry to build better buildings with a focus on energy efficiency & high performance systems. Today, he continues to work closely with the industry in driving the market towards darker green projects with a renewed emphasis on process improvement, innovation, technology and education. Ted was first elected to a Contractor/Builder seat on the U.S. Green Building Council’s National Board of Directors in 1999 and recently completed his third term as a Director. Ted is a founding Member of the Northern California Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, where he served as initial Membership Chair while an At-Large Chapter Board Member. Ted is a LEED AP BD+C and has spearheaded DPR’s green building program since 1998. DPR Construction now has over 450 LEED AP’s and typically generates more than 75% of DPR’s annual volume of new projects focusing on LEED Certifications.
Ms. Gail Vittori Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems For more than three decades, Ms. Vittori has been a catalyst for local, state and national initiatives advancing green building protocols, policies and prototypes through her programmatic initiatives as Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, based in Austin, Texas. She is the 2014 Chair of the Green Building Certification Institute Board of Directors and is a founding board member of the Health Production Declaration Collaborative Board. She was the 2009 Chair of the U.S. Green Building Board of Directors, and served on the Board from 2002 to 2010. In 2001, Ms. Vittori convened the Green Guide for Health Care, helping to catalyze a revolution in healthcare design, construction and operations, and was the Founding Chair of the LEED for Healthcare core committee. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, was featured as an Innovator: Building a Greener World in TIME, and is co-author with Robin Guenther of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture, 2nd edition, published in 2013 by Wiley.
Ms. Kathy Wardle Perkins and Will As Associate Principal and Director of Research, Kathy plays an instrumental role in the development of high-performance green building projects, such as Dockside Green, UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) and VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre. In addition to her involvement in project work, Kathy directs the Vancouver office’s research and sustainable design advisory team, where she facilitates sustainability charrettes and the use of the Integrated Design Process, manages applications for the LEED Green Building Rating System and Living Building Challenge, and is responsible for the procurement of funding for green initiatives for the firm’s projects. On a firm-wide level, Kathy helped author, implement and direct Perkins+Will’s Sustainable Design Initiative, which examines the firm’s internal operations across its 23 offices and offers strategic planning to position the firm as the leading green high design firm in North America. Through this national leadership role between 2004-2011, Kathy managed a network of firm-wide green team leaders, a corporate budget, and was responsible for establishing strategic direction for the firm—helping to position Perkins+Will internationally as a recognized leader in the sustainable design movement. In addition to her leadership position within Perkins+Will, Kathy is an active member of the Vancouver green building community. She has served as a faculty member for the Living Building Challenge and the Sustainable Building Advisor program. Kathy recently served as a board member of the Cascadia Green Building Council for four years and acted as the organization’s Chair in 2007.
Ms. Lauren Yarmuth YRG Lauren Yarmuth is Co-Founder and Principal of YR&G. With over 13 years of experience spearheading the sustainability industry, she is a recognized leader skilled at helping people, companies, buildings, and communities to implement and benefit from sustainability-focused solutions. An architect by training, Lauren applies her diverse project experience and whole-systems perspective to enable teams of people to develop creative approaches to realize greater success in their work. This process draws upon Lauren’s skills of teaching, facilitating an integrative process, and inspiring people to engage with their work and surroundings in more meaningful ways. Lauren is also a celebrated presenter, educator, and facilitator. She is LEED Faculty for USGBC, and she teaches at various colleges and universities including as adjunct faculty at Columbia University. Lauren has worked with the LEED Rating System since its inception, including supporting hundreds of projects nationally and internationally to earn LEED certification, and as a technical consultant to USGBC/ GBCI for project certification reviews, credit interpretation (CIR) responses, Reference Guide content development, and training curriculum.
About the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) is a public benefit organization whose mission is to improve human health and wellbeing through the built environment. IWBI administers the WELL Building Standard, which was initially developed by Delos. Public benefit corporations like IWBI are a new U.S. corporate structure for organizations that are committed to harnessing the power of private capital for public benefit. About the WELL Building Standard The WELL Building Standard is a performance-focused system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and wellbeing, including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. The WELL Building Standard is grounded in evidence-based medical research that demonstrates the connection between the buildings where we spend more than 90 percent of our time and the health and wellness impacts on us as occupants. On-site post-occupancy audit of features including air and water quality are required for WELL certification, and re-auditing every three years is required to maintain certification. Developed through consultation with leading medical researchers and building industry practitioners and committed to third-party certification through GBCI, the WELL Building Standard is currently in pilot. ### Press Contact IWBI Callie Shumaker 646.654.3438 cshumaker@nikecomm.com
