WELL Health-Safety Rating

1. Assess your building's readiness: Review the WELL Health-Safety Rating feature list (available at wellcertified.com) and conduct an internal gap analysis across the five categories: cleaning and sanitization, emergency preparedness, health service resources, air and water quality management, and stakeholder engagement.

1. Register your project: Create an account on the WELL digital platform (wellcertified.com) and register your building or portfolio. Select the appropriate building type (office, retail, hospitality, multifamily, etc.) and pay the registration/application fee.

1. Assemble your team: Identify internal stakeholders — facility managers, building engineers, HR, and communications leads — who will own each feature category. Consider engaging a WELL AP (Accredited Professional) consultant to guide documentation and streamline the process.

1. Implement required features: Work through the mandatory and elective features for your building type. This may involve updating cleaning protocols, establishing emergency response plans, improving HVAC filtration, ensuring access to health services, and creating occupant communication programs.

1. Compile documentation: Gather evidence for each feature — policies, maintenance logs, vendor contracts, inspection records, and communication materials — and upload them to the WELL digital platform.

1. Submit for third-party review: Submit your documentation package to GBCI (Green Business Certification Inc.) for third-party verification. GBCI reviewers will assess your submissions and may request clarifications or additional evidence.

1. Receive your rating: Once GBCI approves your submission, your building is awarded the WELL Health-Safety Rating. You will receive the official seal, access to the IWBI online registry listing, and marketing toolkit resources.

1. Plan for annual renewal: Begin tracking ongoing compliance immediately, as the rating must be renewed annually with updated documentation and renewal fees submitted through the WELL platform.

The WELL Health-Safety Rating evaluates buildings across five core feature categories, each addressing a distinct dimension of occupant health and safety:

1. Cleaning and Sanitization Procedures: This category assesses whether the building has documented, evidence-based cleaning protocols for high-touch surfaces, restrooms, and common areas. It evaluates the use of EPA-approved disinfectants, cleaning frequency schedules, and staff training on sanitation procedures. Buildings must demonstrate that cleaning practices meet or exceed public health guidance.

2. Emergency Preparedness Programs: Buildings are evaluated on their readiness to respond to health emergencies, including pandemic preparedness plans, business continuity protocols, and communication strategies for occupants during crises. This includes evidence of documented emergency response plans and staff training.

3. Health Service Resources: This category examines whether occupants have access to health-related resources, including mental health support, first aid provisions, and information about local healthcare services. Buildings may also demonstrate access to on-site health screenings or telehealth resources.

4. Air and Water Quality Management: A significant portion of the assessment focuses on indoor environmental quality. For air, this includes HVAC maintenance records, filtration standards (MERV ratings), ventilation rates, and air quality monitoring. For water, it covers legionella management plans, water testing records, and plumbing maintenance protocols.

5. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication: Buildings must demonstrate that health and safety information is actively communicated to occupants, visitors, and staff. This includes signage, digital communications, occupant feedback mechanisms, and transparency about building health practices.

Features are classified as either required (mandatory for all building types) or elective (chosen from a menu to meet the program's threshold). The rating is binary — buildings either achieve the rating or do not — based on meeting the required feature threshold for their building type.

The WELL Health-Safety Rating emerged in 2020 as one of the fastest-adopted building certifications in history, driven by the urgent need for credible, third-party-verified health and safety signals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within its first year, IWBI reported tens of thousands of locations registered across more than 90 countries, making it one of the most geographically widespread building health programs ever launched. Major global corporations — including JPMorgan Chase, Uber, Cushman & Wakefield, and hundreds of others — adopted it as a standard for their real estate portfolios, lending it significant institutional credibility.

In the competitive landscape of healthy building certifications, the WELL Health-Safety Rating occupies a distinct niche: it is more accessible and faster to achieve than full WELL Certification, while offering more rigorous third-party verification than self-reported frameworks. Its primary competitors include FITWEL (operated by the Center for Active Design), RESET Air, and BREEAM In-Use, but none launched with the same pandemic-era urgency or achieved comparable adoption speed. The rating is particularly dominant in the commercial office, hospitality, and retail sectors, where demonstrating occupant safety to returning employees and customers became a business imperative.

As the acute phase of the pandemic has receded, the WELL Health-Safety Rating has faced questions about sustained relevance. IWBI has responded by broadening the program's framing beyond COVID-19 to encompass ongoing occupant wellness, indoor air quality, and climate resilience — themes that remain highly relevant in post-pandemic real estate. Demand for the rating has moderated from its 2020–2021 peak but remains strong in markets with health-conscious tenants, ESG-focused institutional investors, and regulatory environments that incentivize healthy building standards. The annual renewal requirement ensures a recurring revenue stream for IWBI and keeps certified buildings continuously engaged with the standard.

The WELL Health-Safety Rating was created by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and launched in June 2020, making it one of the first major building certification programs developed explicitly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. IWBI, which had already established the WELL Building Standard as the leading framework for human health and wellness in the built environment, recognized that building owners and operators needed a faster, more accessible credential to signal safe operations to occupants, employees, and customers. The rating was developed with input from a broad coalition of public health experts, medical professionals, government agencies, and industry stakeholders, and was designed to be achievable within weeks rather than the years typically required for full WELL Certification.

The program launched with extraordinary momentum: within months, thousands of locations across more than 90 countries had registered, and major corporations began adopting it as a portfolio-wide standard. IWBI subsequently expanded the program's scope beyond its initial pandemic focus, updating the feature set to address broader occupant health concerns including mental health, air quality resilience, and long-term emergency preparedness. The rating is administered in partnership with GBCI (Green Business Certification Inc.), the same third-party verification body that administers LEED and full WELL Certification, ensuring consistent and credible review processes. By 2021, IWBI reported that the WELL Health-Safety Rating had become one of the most widely adopted building health programs globally, with representation across commercial, residential, hospitality, healthcare, and educational building types.