Matt Dillon
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has launched the WELL Health-Safety Rating for all building and facility types. The tool is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating system focusing on operational policies, maintenance protocols and design strategies to address a post-COVID-19 environment.
The WELL Health-Safety Rating is one of the earliest outcomes of IWBI’s Task Force on COVID-19. The Task Force is a group of almost 600 public health experts, representing a wide variety of fields. It was established in late March to help guide the IWBI’s response to the pandemic.
“The WELL Health-Safety Rating is a sign of confidence that measures have been enacted to help support the health and safety of people entering spaces of all kinds, and that those measures have been mapped to scientific evidence and verified through a third-party review process,” says IWBI chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. “By drawing on the proven strategies in WELL, we’re working from the best science available, and that’s more important than it’s ever been.”
The IWBI says the WELL Health-Safety Rating provides a centralised source and governing body to validate efforts made by owners and operators.
In addition to insights drawn from the IWBI COVID-19 Task Force, the WELL Health-Safety Rating has had input from external organisations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WELL Health-Safety Rating is accepting registrations from all types of buildings and facility typologies. And current WELL-registered projects and WELL Portfolio participants can earn the WELL Health-Safety Rating as part of their already established certification efforts.
“Our buildings and the people who tend them are our first line of defence for keeping us safe and healthy,” says IWBI President Rachel Gutter. “And the current pandemic has confirmed that health is a material economic consideration of the first order. These two simple truths stand at the nexus of our work to date and will, along with the hard evidence that is mounting, inform all our decisions about the critical need for better buildings, more vibrant communities and stronger organisations.”
The IWBI has also announced that more than 25 extra leaders from the sports and entertainment industries have joined the WELL Advisory for Sports and Entertainment Venues to help advance the completion of the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management specific to these venues.
Among the new voices are Melbourne Cricket Club, Tennis Australia and FIFA.
For more information, see wellcertified.com
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