Can “Works with WELL” Make Product Selection Easier?

Product and material selection is one of the most time-consuming parts of achieving a green and healthy building certification like LEED, WELL, or (perhaps most famously) the Living Building Challenge. Project teams must sort through hundreds of products to find safer cleaning solutions, low-VOC furniture, or air purifiers that meet performance criteria. “Works with WELL,” a new program launched in November 2023 by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), could help project teams pursuing WELL certification sort through this clutter.

According to an email exchange with Jessica Cooper, chief product officer at IWBI, the organization has seen an increasing demand from WELL users for help identifying products that are compatible with the standard. “The professionals working on implementing WELL often turn to IWBI to understand which organizations offer products and services that support the achievement of specific WELL features,” she explained. And “manufacturers, including many IWBI members, are interested in validating how their products can contribute to WELL, and support health and well-being more broadly.”