Enhancements to WELL

The WELL Building Standard (WELL Standard) undergoes regular maintenance. During this process, IWBI publishes changes that clarify language, streamline processes or enable projects to achieve requirements via new pathways. These clarifications help our customers more easily interpret and apply the WELL Standard, ultimately, supporting the health and well-being of their people.

For a detailed overview of changes, please review the addenda table.

Q4 2023 Addenda Guide

Clarifications:

• Space Types for all programs: Introduced a new space type, “Guest Rooms”, to clarify feature applicability and requirements for these rooms within a hospitality project.

• Revised the introduction to the WELL Health-Safety Rating to align with the latest messaging and branding. These changes clarify that the rating is a roadmap for businesses to put health and safety at the center of their business strategy now and in the long term. This can now be leveraged in your conversations with clients and the market about the benefits and impact of the rating in addition to other sales and marketing tools. Read more in the digital standard.

• WELL v2 Feature A01.4 / WELL Performance Rating Feature PA09.1: Clarified that the radon testing applies to the lowest regularly occupied floor, rather than all spaces at or below grade.

• WELL v2 Feature N01.1: Clarified what constitutes a particular “food offering” for the purpose of counting different offerings with the term “individually selectable”.

• WELL v2 Feature S01.1 / WELL Equity Rating Feature ED7.1: Introduced a new zone category for sound mapping, “Not applicable zones,” to cover spaces that are not acoustically sensitive and do not have major sources of sound. Also, removed the requirement that the acoustic zone plan be made available to building occupants.

• WELL v2 Feature C05.3 / WELL Equity Rating Feature EE6.2: Streamlined feature language and documentation requirements. Now, projects only need to identify strategies to address occupant dissatisfaction after survey results are received and compared to aspirational targets. This is documented annually rather than preemptively at the point of initial documentation submission for certification.

• WELL v2 Feature A11.1:

  • For Dwelling Units and Guest Rooms: (1) Added requirement that bathrooms must have either an exhaust fan or operable window; (2) Clarified which kitchen appliances require exhaust fans.
  • For Commercial Kitchens: Simplified requirements and removed redundant language.

Reduced Scope or Added Pathways to Improve Feasibility:

• WELL v2 Feature A02.2 / WELL Health-Safety Rating Feature SH05.2: Simplified requirements regarding outdoor no-smoking signage and reduced areas where hazard signage is required.

• WELL v2 Feature C15.4 / WELL Health-Safety Rating Feature SE6.1: Reduced the scope of the feature to regular occupants which excludes visitors from vaccine/testing requirements.

• WELL Performance Rating Feature PA1: Added new pathways for projects in polluted regions to pursue less stringent thresholds for particulates to bring the
  WELL Performance Rating into alignment with WELL v2 Feature A01. Note that for WELL Certification, achievement of these pathways corresponds to a cap on certification regardless of optimization points achieved. These caps do not apply to rating projects.

• WELL v2 Feature A06.2: Expanded the pathways for personalized ventilation systems, allowing systems with individually-controllable overhead diffusers that can demonstrate high-ventilation effectiveness.

Increased Stringency:

• WELL v2 Feature X01.2: Added metal halide lamps to the scope of mercury restrictions.

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How can my project or organization use updated feature language?
If you’re looking to leverage newer language for a specific WELL feature, simply make a note in your documentation submission. To benefit from a more streamlined user experience and smoother documentation reviews, consider upgrading your entire account to a newer version. Explore our tutorial to get started or reach out to IWBI via your Support Tab in the WELL platform.

Questions?
Want to learn more about this quarter’s addenda? Contact our support team via your Support Tab in WELL Online. Customers who are not yet enrolled in WELL may contact us by filling out this form.