Set the WELL ambition and project scope.
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is the organisation behind the WELL Building Standard and related programmes. WELL gives project teams a framework for improving how buildings and organisational practices support health and well-being. For a technology appointment, the first task is to identify the achievement being pursued and the spaces it covers. IWBI explains its programmes and the Operations Rating.
- WELL Certification: broad coverage across Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind and Community. WELL v2 combines mandatory preconditions with selected optimisations, supported by documentation and independent verification. Certification overview.
- WELL Performance Rating: a focused route using environmental measurements and occupant experience. Evidence can involve on-site testing, permanent monitoring and surveys. It can be pursued independently or alongside Certification. Performance Rating overview.
- WELL Operations Rating: a distinct focus on base-building operations, maintenance, indoor environmental quality, resilience and tenant experience.
Record the registered programme, version and applicable addenda. Define the spaces, access rights and responsibilities covered by the brief, including any differences between landlord-controlled areas and tenant workplaces. Give suppliers that scope before they propose a solution.
Turn the ambition into information requirements.
Turn “show indoor conditions to occupants” into a clear requirement. Define the conditions, measurement sources, spaces covered and information people need to understand the readings. Agree the review records and the owner who will keep them current.
Trace one measurement from source through integration, storage, display and operating response. Preserve its location, unit, timestamp and validity at each step. Check room names against the installation records and confirm that exports retain the measurement period.
This is a useful starting point for integration and information planning. It also gives procurement a practical question: can each supplier demonstrate the complete information path within the proposed scope?
Specify monitoring and occupant information separately.
The published Operations strategy list illustrates why a single “WELL dashboard” requirement needs more detail. Its WELL v2 references distinguish installing indoor air monitors, A08.1, from promoting air-quality awareness, A08.2. The recorded verification categories differ:
| Example | Evidence identified in the list | Briefing implication |
|---|---|---|
| A08.1: monitoring | Site photographs, engineer assurance and an ongoing maintenance report. | Allocate installation records, technical responsibility and continuing maintenance. |
| A08.2: awareness | Site photographs and owner assurance. | Define the occupant information route and who maintains it. |
Use the official Operations strategy list to organise the plan, then check the complete requirements for the selected version. Specify the monitoring and occupant communication evidence as distinct deliverables.
Give surveys and ongoing operation an owner.
The same Operations list pairs C04.1, survey selection, with C04.2, annual administration and reporting. For survey selection, it records a policy or operating schedule, a shareable technical document and owner assurance. Annual administration and reporting call for a shareable technical document and an ongoing data report. A survey invitation is one activity within that wider responsibility.
Agree who selects the instrument, confirms the intended respondents, manages access, analyses results and records the response. Where an approved survey is appropriate, confirm the exact instrument and approval scope. Keep survey responses within the agreed privacy and reporting arrangements.
Give monitoring a clear operating owner. Assign missing-data investigation, sensor-location changes, display approval and record retention. Include the tasks in the operating scope and budget, then check that the handover equips the team to carry them out.
Work through an office example.
Hypothetical office example: an occupier is refurbishing two floors within a multi-tenant building. The owner is considering the Operations Rating. The occupier wants staff to see useful air-quality information, and a proposed workplace platform can display readings from existing sensors.
The first review identifies three priorities: reconcile old room names, confirm missing sensor locations and assign data investigation within the support scope. Record each gap, its owner and the decision needed to resolve it.
The property team confirms the proposed boundary and the areas it controls. The engineer reviews whether the installed arrangement and available records suit the selected requirements. The integrator maps sensor identifiers to the agreed space register and demonstrates that units, times and missing readings survive an export. The operator agrees how an interruption will be investigated.
A sample occupant view is then reviewed with the client. It identifies the space, measurement time and meaning of the information. The team checks access from the actual workplace and agrees how an unavailable reading appears. Screenshots are retained alongside the underlying sample records.
The client can then decide whether to proceed with the defined integration, obtain further engineering evidence or revise the brief. Carry the agreed scope and open actions into procurement, with a traceable evidence package for review.
Allocate review, testing and operating roles.
WELL Certification includes independent documentation review and performance verification. Its on-site verification follows the programme's authorised testing arrangements and is distinct from ordinary building commissioning. Confirm the applicable review and testing route with the project's WELL team. IWBI describes the certification process.
Good Buildings supports WELL ambitions by developing the technology brief, coordinating supplier interfaces, assigning evidence responsibilities and reviewing delivery against the agreed requirements. We work with the appointed engineers, survey specialists, operators and authorised reviewers, who retain their technical and verification roles.
Set these boundaries in the appointment. Our guide to what a smart building consultant should deliver provides a practical starting point for agreeing outputs and review gates.
Reuse evidence within the published rules.
IWBI distinguishes technical crosswalks from strategic alignments. A crosswalk can permit specified evidence to be reused where requirements are equivalent. BREEAM-to-WELL and the available LEED pathways need checks of direction, version, feature and project scope. SmartScore is an informational alignment; it does not streamline the WELL documentation requirement. IWBI's crosswalk guidance explains the distinction.
Our companion article on SmartScore evidence and readiness explains how to keep the technology work useful across a coordinated project. Its comparison of BREEAM, NABERS UK and LEED scoring sets out the weighted-credit, measured-energy and points-based approaches, including the distinction between design targets and operational results. Use that context to allocate evidence work alongside WELL’s health and wellbeing requirements.
Works with WELL concerns product and service alignments. When considering a listed solution, examine its approved scope and the product or service version. Its alignment can inform selection; the project still needs to demonstrate its own requirements. IWBI publishes a compatibility table for potential alignments.
Prepare a brief the team can deliver.
Start with one priority outcome or feature. Record the scheme and version, scope, data source, accountable owner, verification route, gaps and next decision. Review the record with the people who will provide and use the evidence, then apply the agreed approach across the building.
Download the editable WELL evidence brief (Word). It includes a blank structure and a hypothetical air-information example, ready to adapt to the client's scope.
Download the WELL evidence checklist (Excel). Assign owners, record evidence and track the actions needed for review.
Good Buildings can help carry that brief into technology selection, procurement and delivery assurance and operational readiness. If a platform is being considered, first establish the information and responsibilities it must support. Before you buy a platform develops that decision in more detail.
Sources and further reading.
- IWBI — WELL Certification overview. Preconditions, optimisations, documentation review and performance verification.
- IWBI — WELL Performance Rating overview. Environmental measurements, monitoring and occupant experience.
- IWBI — programme expansion and the WELL Operations Rating. The base-building operations focus.
- IWBI — WELL Operations Rating strategy lists. The WELL v2 feature references and evidence categories discussed in this article.
- IWBI — how to use crosswalks. Technical crosswalks, strategic alignments and evidence reuse.
- IWBI — Works with WELL feature compatibility list. Product and service alignments.