Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) have announced a new agreement to promote and advance the WELL Building Standard (WELL) in Canada.
The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features that impact human health and wellbeing, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. It complements other green building rating systems such as LEED.
“As GBCI and CaGBC come together to advance WELL in Canada, we take an important next step in the development of better, healthy buildings across the globe,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president of GBCI. “Just as LEED has transformed the building sector to address environmental accountability, WELL will further that vision by focusing deeply on the people in the buildings and providing developers and owners with a new way to account for health and human occupancy challenges.”
Grounded in a body of medical research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend more than 90 percent of our time and the health and wellness of the people in them, WELL measures attributes of the built environment by looking at seven concepts and over 100 features that address behaviour, design and operations.
“We have made a commitment to improving the environmental performance of buildings and homes, and now we also want to ensure that buildings provide a healthy and productive environment for occupants. The WELL Building Standard is a timely addition to CaGBC’s programs, as health and wellness in the workplace is increasingly recognized as an important element in attracting and retaining employees,” said Thomas Mueller, CaGBC president and CEO.
The new agreement between GBCI and the CaGBC will bolster the adoption of WELL in Canada by aligning the business and administrative processes used to implement WELL in the U.S. with the demands of the Canadian market. To learn more about the WELL Building Standard, visit WELLcertified.com.
