Better buildings to help people thrive

Preconditions define the fundamental components of a WELL space and serve as the foundation of a healthy building. WELL v2 offers a universal set of preconditions for all projects. All preconditions are mandatory for certification. All parts in preconditions are mandatory.

Optimizations are optional pathways for projects to demonstrate additional achievement in WELL. Project teams choose the optimizations that matter most for their project and community. Further, projects may choose which parts to pursue within optimizations up to the point maximum established for the optimization.

WELL v2 operates on a points-based system, with a total of 100 points available to each project, plus 10 innovation points. All optimizations have maximum point values. The point-value of a feature is determined by its potential for impact. This is defined as the extent to which a feature addresses a specific health and wellness concern or opportunity for health promotion, and the potential impact of effective intervention.

All parts of WELL v2 are designated for specific space types. Space types in WELL refer to spaces within a project. These space types do not refer to the project as a whole. Many parts in WELL are denoted for “all spaces”, which indicates that the part must be applied to all spaces within the project, for all project types.

There are 10 concepts in WELL v2: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community. Each concept is comprised of features with distinct health and well-being intents. Features are either preconditions or optimizations.

WELL Precertification, available to all buildings, is an official designation of achievement that projects can utilize to communicate an interim achievement in the journey toward WELL Certification.

WELL Core Certification is a distinct pathway of achievement for core and shell buildings seeking to implement fundamental features in the base building for the benefit of tenants. All building types can pursue WELL Core Certification provided that the owner occupies 25% or less of the gross floor area of the project, with the remainder of the space occupied by tenants.

Projects must achieve all preconditions, as well as a certain number of points to earn different levels of certification:

• WELL Certification Silver: 50 points.
• WELL Certification Gold: 60 points.
• WELL Certification Platinum: 80 points.

Projects must earn a minimum of two points per concept. Projects may earn no more than 12 points per concept.

WELL Core projects must achieve all preconditions as well as a certain number of points to earn different levels of certification:

• WELL Core Bronze Certification: 40 points.
• WELL Core Silver Certification: 50 points.
• WELL Core Gold Certification: 60 points.
• WELL Core Platinum Certification: 80 points.

For WELL Core Certification, projects must earn a minimum of one point per concept. Projects may earn no more than 12 points per concept.

Continuous monitoring, both through sensors to measure building performance, as well as surveys to assess the human experience, is the next step in the advancement of healthy, high performing buildings. WELL v2 asks the market to take incremental steps toward this goal of understanding real-time building performance through the collection and reporting of performance data.