Fitwel Certification

1. Assess Eligibility: Confirm your project type is eligible — Fitwel covers workplaces, multifamily residential, retail, senior housing, community sites, and commercial/industrial sites, for both new construction and existing buildings.

1. Choose Your Scorecard: Select the appropriate Fitwel scorecard for your project type (e.g., Workplace, Multifamily Residential, Retail, Senior Housing, Community Site). Each scorecard is tailored to the specific health opportunities relevant to that building type.

1. Register on the Fitwel Platform: Pay the registration fee ($500 USD per project for Star Certification) to access the cloud-based Fitwel Platform, which provides an interactive scorecard, benchmarking tools, and performance data.

1. Benchmark Your Project: Use the platform to assess your building's current health strategies against the scorecard. Identify areas of strength and gaps to address before submission.

1. Implement Health Strategies: Work with your team (architects, facility managers, operations staff) to implement or document existing health-promoting strategies across applicable scorecard categories — covering areas like building access, outdoor spaces, entrances, stairs, indoor environments, and occupant services.

1. Compile and Submit Documentation: Gather required evidence (policies, floor plans, photographs, operational procedures) and submit through the Fitwel Platform. Ensure all supporting materials align with the chosen scorecard's requirements.

1. Await Certification Review: Fitwel's Certification Team reviews your submission. Standard review takes up to 16 weeks; Fitwel Champions and Ambassadors qualify for expedited review of as little as 12 weeks.

1. Receive Your Star Rating and Maintain Certification: Upon approval, receive your 1, 2, or 3-star rating (valid for 3 years). Plan for recertification before expiry to maintain your certified status and continue demonstrating commitment to building health.

Fitwel evaluates buildings against a set of evidence-based health strategies organized into scorecard categories that vary by building type. Each strategy is assigned a point value, and the total points accumulated determine the star rating: 1 star (lowest threshold), 2 stars (mid-range), or 3 stars (highest achievement). The scorecards are grounded in over 7,000 peer-reviewed public health and economic research studies.

For Workplace scorecards (covering multi-tenant base buildings, whole buildings, single-tenant buildings, and commercial interiors), key categories typically include: Building Location & Access (proximity to transit, walkability, active transportation infrastructure), Outdoor Spaces (green space, outdoor seating, air quality), Entrances & Ground Floor (active design features, wayfinding), Stairwells (visibility, aesthetics, signage encouraging stair use), Indoor Environments (air quality, lighting, thermal comfort, noise), Workspaces (ergonomics, sit-stand options, natural light), Shared Spaces (healthy food access, lactation rooms, fitness facilities), Water Supply (access to drinking water, water quality), Cafeterias & Prepared Food (healthy food options, labeling), Vending Machines & Snack Bars, and Emergency Procedures & Policies (health and safety protocols).

For Multifamily Residential scorecards, categories are adapted to resident health, covering building access, unit design, shared amenities, outdoor spaces, and community health programming. Retail and Senior Housing scorecards similarly tailor categories to the specific populations and use patterns of those building types. Community Site and Commercial & Industrial Site scorecards focus on site-level features such as active transportation infrastructure, green space, and community health resources.

The Design Certification pathway evaluates planned strategies based on design documentation for new construction or major renovations, while Built Certification assesses implemented strategies in occupied, operational buildings. Portfolio-Wide Strategies (PWS) allow organizations managing large portfolios to apply consistent policies across multiple assets simultaneously, streamlining the documentation process.

Fitwel has established itself as one of the two dominant healthy building certification standards globally, alongside the WELL Building Standard. Since its public launch in 2017, it has grown to certify over 2,900 assets across 60+ countries, with particular strength in commercial office and multifamily residential sectors. Its reputation is built on accessibility and affordability relative to WELL — Fitwel's documentation-based process and lower fee structure make it attractive to large portfolio owners seeking scalable certification. A 2025 Cambridge University study providing independent evidence of a 4.6–4.8% rental premium for Fitwel-certified office buildings has significantly bolstered its market credibility.

The program has strong traction among institutional real estate investors and asset managers, particularly those with ESG reporting obligations to investors and regulators. As ESG disclosure requirements tighten globally — including under the EU's SFDR and CSRD frameworks, and growing SEC climate disclosure rules in the US — healthy building certifications like Fitwel are increasingly used as evidence of the "S" (Social) component in ESG reporting. This positions Fitwel favorably in a market where social metrics have historically been harder to quantify than environmental ones. The program's annual Best in Building Health® Awards have helped build community and visibility among leading real estate firms.

Compared to WELL, Fitwel is generally perceived as faster to achieve, less prescriptive, and more cost-effective — making it the preferred choice for portfolio-scale certification. WELL tends to attract projects seeking deeper technical rigor and individual occupant health focus. LEED and BREEAM remain dominant for environmental performance but do not compete directly on health and well-being metrics. Demand for Fitwel is growing, driven by post-pandemic tenant expectations around healthy workplaces, increasing investor scrutiny of social impact, and the broader mainstreaming of ESG in real estate. Geographic diversification beyond North America is accelerating, with notable adoption growth in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Fitwel was originally developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the General Services Administration (GSA) starting around 2010, with the goal of creating an evidence-based tool to improve the health of federal building occupants. After years of research and pilot testing across federal facilities, the standard was transferred to the Center for Active Design (CfAD) — a New York-based nonprofit — which launched Fitwel publicly in 2017. CfAD was founded in 2013 to advance research-backed design and development policies that foster healthy and active communities, making it a natural steward for the standard.

Since its 2017 public launch, Fitwel has expanded rapidly from a U.S.-focused workplace tool into a global multi-sector platform. Key milestones include the development of additional scorecards for multifamily residential, retail, senior housing, and community sites; the launch of the cloud-based Fitwel Platform to streamline registration and submission; the introduction of Portfolio-Wide Strategies (PWS) to serve large institutional investors; and the creation of the Fitwel Champion and Ambassador programs to recognize and incentivize leading adopters. The annual Best in Building Health® Awards, launched to celebrate top-performing certified assets, have become a recognized industry event. By the mid-2020s, Fitwel had certified over 2,900 assets across 60+ countries, cementing its position as a leading global healthy building standard.