Covid in Context: The New WELL Health-Safety Rating

This last year has rocked our notions of human health and safety. Not only was the ongoing coronavirus pandemic front of mind, but so too was social equity, healthcare access, and personal wellbeing. One of the biggest takeaways we are seeing in our industry is the ever-increasing need for germicidal design, healthy materials, responsive operations, appropriate ventilation, and guiding policies. This applies to healthcare and hospitals of course, but also to our homes, offices, retail, and learning spaces.

With the new WELL Health Safety Rating, a QR code is included in your building’s seal which allows visitors to learn more about your work. This GIF and banner image (above) are courtesy of IWBI.

We are pleased to help promote what we believe will be a new standard of built environment health safety for all spaces. In addition to the LEED framework and best practice COVID-19 strategies, evolveEA is well versed in the new WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Backed by evidence-based research and input from over 600 experts on the Task Force on COVID-19, the WELL Health-Safety Rating helps building owners and operators safely return to business. The framework consists of  22 strategies to appropriately clean and sanitize spaces, assess air and water quality, prepare for emergencies, communicate health and safety efforts, and do these in an ongoing manner.

Cleveland Clinic for Functional Medicine. Photo by Daniel Kruk, Bostwick Design Partnership.

evolveEA’s team of WELL Accredited Professionals helped one of the first medical offices in the country to achieve WELL certification. As the WELL Administrator to the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, we successfully led the design and construction team in setting and achieving goals for the successful WELL certification of the space, along with protocols for ongoing monitoring and design of a suite of communications graphics.

While policies and recommendations are easy to come by, expertise is necessary in order to right-size and appropriately apply these.

evolveEA’s goal setting and frameworks comparison approach effectively assists building owners, operators and managers in discerning, applying and confirming strategies.

Human health is too important to not address in a strategic manner.

Let us know if we can assist in getting you the peace of mind that a safe space and building can provide, as well as the ability to communicate it. Perhaps the WELL Health-Safety Rating can be the right fit for you.