By submitting your email, you gain access to hundreds of BuildingGreen articles about green building and innovations and agree that BuildingGreen may send you communications with updates about sustainable design and construction. You may unsubscribe at any time. Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy apply.
Your email address is safe with us
Thousands of architects, designers, and engineers trust our research and advice... you can trust us with your email address.
BuildingGreen will never share or sell your contact information.
Your email address is safe with us
Thousands of LEED professionals trust our research and advice... you can trust us with your email address.
LEEDuser will never share or sell your contact information.
Loading, please wait a moment...
destination: /, mode: buy
You already have a BuildingGreen account — please enter your password:
Your reset password email has been sent.
Click here to send a password reset link to
Loading...
You are already entitled to BuildingGreen premium access through .
To get started, create a personal profile. This will give you full access to BuildingGreen Premium through .To get the free reports, please create a personal profile
Loading...
Create your account to join
The most trusted voice in sustainable architecture and design
For more than 25 years BuildingGreen has never accepted ads or sponsorship, making us an unbiased resource you can count on.
“I’ve relied on BuildingGreen for over a decade—it’s one of the most reputable sources for cutting edge green building news & product research.’
—Mara Baum, Sustainability Director, HOK
Thank you for signing up for BuildingGreen
IMPORTANT: Please check your email to verify your account.
You are now part of ’s group.
Watch your email for tips from our experts on getting the most from BuildingGreen.com.
Here are three special reports you can use today:
Can We Replace Foam Insulation? – There are a lot of reasons to avoid foam, but its high performance can make it a hard habit to kick, as designers are finding out.
How WELL Got Green Building’s Groove Back – WELL is the hottest four-letter word in sustainable design. But will it work to the benefit or the detriment of green building?
20 Ways to Advance Sustainability in the Next Four Years – In this age of political revolution and environmental urgency, it’s time to step back and take a look at priorities, challenges, and opportunities. Here’s our founder Alex Wilson’s take on the best ways to advance sustainability.
Perkins+Will has become a Fitwel Champion and is certifying all its North American offices, including this one in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Photo courtesy Perkins+Will Hospital lighting can cause stress. It can also reduce it. Home location can encourage inactivity and poor diet, or it can provide exercise opportunities and access to fresh veggies. A newly renovated office can contribute to asthma or supply better air than we breathe outdoors. From phthalates to fresh air to fitness rooms, we have plenty of hints about how our buildings can influence our well-being.
But very few people have the expertise and time to evaluate scads and scads of scientific evidence relating to buildings and health. And even if we could, it still wouldn’t be easy to prioritize so much information to create wellness-promoting spaces. Let’s say we did, though. How could we be sure to get all the health stuff right without forgetting other green building priorities in the process? This is getting complicated. And probably expensive.
Enter certification programs.
Rating systems for health
From old standbys like LEED and the Living Building Challenge to newer and narrower programs like the WELL Building Standard and Fitwel, rating systems are designed to simplify and incentivize health-related priorities.
Whole-building rating systems tend to emphasize wellness features that are also related to energy, water, and waste: done right, daylighting boosts well-being and saves energy. Other times, they provide checks and balances to health-promoting systems that threaten to compromise other sustainability goals: you don’t want to kill your energy performance with enhanced ventilation, so incentivizing both can lead to better outcomes for both health and environmental impact.
Health-only programs can mesh well with whole-building systems: active design ties closely with a location in a walkable neighborhood, for example. But they tend not to provide checks and balances, which is why WELL and Fitwel are both designed to align with whole-building rating systems—and why you will hear their proponents suggesting dual certification with LEED or LBC.
WELL, Fitwel, and beyond
In this special series on green buildings and human health, we take an in-depth look at:
To read the full article, subscribe now to BuildingGreen Premium
For full access, sign up now for LEEDuser Premium
LEEDuser tip sheets, written by our team of LEED experts, fill gaps in knowledge we’ve observed between the LEED Reference Guide, LEED Online, and LEED Interpretations. We update them regularly so that our members get the most relevant guidance for current issues on their projects.
( does not provide premium access to BuildingGreen)
Melton, P. (2020, March 5). Programming Buildings for Health: WELL, Fitwel, and Beyond . Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/programming-buildings-health-well-fitwel-and-beyond
