WELL Tip: WELL v2 Pilot Nourishment Applicability

In 2010, nutritional deficiencies contributed more than 1.2 billion disability adjusted life years (DALYs) to the global burden of disease. For this reason, the Nourishment concept of the WELL Building Standard aims to empower practitioners and HR professionals to be architects of choice by making the healthiest options the easiest options.

Whether a project has a full service cafeteria, only provides snacks or doesn’t provide food at all, it can support healthy eating habits by nudging occupants towards healthier choices. Below is a summary of the Nourishment features projects can pursue based on the type of food offered.

To start, it’s important to note that all projects, regardless of project type, must earn a minimum of two points under the Nourishment concept to be considered for certification (one point for core projects). This means, even if a project does not provide or sell food on a daily basis (defined as the majority of days of the operating week) and may consider some preconditions not applicable, a project is still responsible for earning optimization points.

No food or beverages provided: if a project does not provide any food or any beverages, or if a project only provides coffee, tea, and milk, the project falls under the “no food or beverages provided” category.

• N04: Food Advertising
• N07: Nutrition Education
• N08: Mindful Eating
• N10: Food Preparation
• N12: Food Production
• N13: Local Food Environment

Catering provided at least once a month: if a project provides a full catered or prepared meal at least once a month, it can be considered here. Does your project provide food for monthly “Lunch and Learns”? Or perhaps for large team meetings that occur once per month? This counts, and projects should consider looking into the features below.

• N04: Food Advertising
• N07: Nutrition Education
• N08: Mindful Eating
• N09: Special Diets
• N10: Food Preparation
• N12: Food Production
• N13: Local Food Environment

Snacks provided on a daily basis: projects in this category typically provide fruits, vegetables and other snacks (often packaged and not considered a complete meal). Food available every day, even if not purchased every day, may be considered “provided on a daily basis”. For example, a project may have a food delivery service deliver snacks on a Monday, which are available to occupants throughout the week. Typically, projects that provide snacks on a daily basis have an employee break room or kitchenette.

• N03: Refined Ingredients
• N04: Food Advertising
• N05: Artificial Ingredients
• N07: Nutrition Education
• N08: Mindful Eating
• N10: Food Preparation
• N11 Responsible Food Sourcing
• N12: Food Production
• N13: Local Food Environment

Full-service dining and/or on-site food preparation: projects that fall under this category typically have a full-service kitchen for cooking, a restaurant/cafeteria, or a buffet-style dining option.

• N03: Refined Ingredients
• N04: Food Advertising
• N05: Artificial Ingredients
• N06: Portion Sizes
• N07: Nutrition Education
• N08: Mindful Eating
• N09: Special Diets
• N10: Food Preparation
• N11 Responsible Food Sourcing
• N12: Food Production
• N13: Local Food Environment

Projects having a difficult time earning points within their immediate project boundary should look to the below features which can earn a project points despite being outside the project boundary:

• N08 Mindful Eating Spaces: allows for mindful eating spaces to be within the project boundary or within 200 meter of the project boundary
• N12 Food Production and N13 Local Food Environments can also be within the project boundary or within 800 meters of the project boundary.

Special Cases: Core projects
WELL Core projects with food service tenants may use this tenant space to earn Nourishment optimizations so long as the Nourishment Preconditions are also met within that space.

Special Cases: Feature N02: Nutritional Transparency
When considering precondition N02: Nutritional Transparency Part 2: Implement Ingredient Labelling, be reminded that items provided or offered for less than a total of 60 days per calendar year are exempt from ingredient labelling. Additionally, Raw fruits and vegetables, plain unsweetened coffee and tea (including coffee beans and tea leaves), and spices and condiment-type dehydrated vegetables are exempt from N02 Part 2. However, milk and dairy products must still comply with the ingredient and food allergen labeling requirements of Part 2.

If you have further questions regarding the nourishment features, be sure to check out the FAQ tab and the Strategies tab at the feature level of the digital standard. Answers to common questions and examples of alternative adherence pathways are housed here. Reference the image below for directions on how to navigate to these tabs.

Registered projects can reach out for WELL coaching support via the support tab of their WELL digital platform account and all others can contact us here.