The growing demand for healthy places has resulted in increased development of products and solutions for the space. Victor Maningo shares his thoughts on the development.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a sharp rise of the global demand for healthy buildings. As fundamental building blocks of the built environment where people spend most of their time working, living, learning and playing, the products and solutions we put in our places are critical when it comes to making people healthier, happier and more productive.

At the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), the global authority on healthy buildings and healthy organisations, we work across numerous sectors, with people driving the global healthy building movement. We see the growing demand for health solutions in WELL projects – it now stands at 420 million square meters of real estate in 125 countries.

Building products and solutions around the world are rising to meet this growing demand.

As a result, today, product manufacturers, policymakers, building professionals and general occupiers are paying more attention to the potential health and environmental impacts of building products and solutions. Product transparency and third-party verification have become important guideposts for building professionals when creating healthier spaces.

To empower the exponential growth of WELL adoption and escalate the healthy building market transformation, in late 2022, IWBI started to offer a new ‘Works with WELL’ program in response to the long-standing industry demand for healthy building products and solutions.

Intended to simplify the implementation of WELL in the marketplace, the licensing program serves as a platform for commercially available products and solutions that have been verified to align with requirements or thresholds from the WELL Building Standard. Products or solutions that have met the alignment requirements are recognised for contributing to the achievement of targeted WELL strategies when implemented in projects.

To bring this program to life, leading organisations in the global manufacturing community and IWBI members from ten countries provided valuable industry input. These industry partners included representation from organisations such as: Panasonic, Johnson Controls, Teknion, Naava, Trane Technologies, Siemens, and View Inc.

Already in the marketplace, people can now find products and solutions displaying the ‘Works with WELL’ trademark. This mark, a visual demonstration that a product aligns with specific strategies in the WELL Standard, helps build credibility for manufacturers by validating their products’ alignment with certain WELL strategies. More importantly, the program helps increase market transparency on how a product works to contribute to achieving specific WELL requirements. It helps architects, designers, builders and integrators to make informed decisions when selecting products and solutions. Ultimately, the program supports global WELL users to navigate products and solutions to achieve their health goals.

Manufacturers and solution providers servicing the healthy building market are excited to leverage this new platform. Among the early applicants for the ‘Works with WELL’ program were organisations offering products or solutions related to indoor air quality, water quality, lighting, smart building technologies, furnishing, flooring, wall coverings, building materials, biophilic products, healthy food options and more.

As an example, Clear Inc., a Miami-based air and water purification solution company, recently announced the ‘Works with WELL’ alignment for one of its standalone air purification product and sensor technologies. Clear founder and chief executive Gil Blutrich called this alignment “a great accomplishment and recognition that we are on the right path to elevating health and well-being in our building communities.”

The ‘Works with WELL’ alignment can incorporate health features under each of the ten concepts within the WELL Building Standard, a library of holistic evidence-based building and organiscoloational strategies that, when implemented, can improve people’s health and well-being.

The ten WELL concepts comprising 100-plus health and well-being strategies include: Air, Water, Nourishment, Movement, Light, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, and Community.

Evidently, as the global healthy building market scales, transparency on products and solutions related to their health features will become even more critical. Global manufacturers and building solution makers are taking notice of this need while rallying to lead the market with transparency.

Victor Maningo is the vice president of global market development, Asia Pacific, International WELL Building Institute.