Dive Brief:

• The International WELL Building Institute and BRE announced this week their plans to collaborate on the WELL and BREEAM standards to determine similarities between the two.
• The two organizations said that identifying areas of crossover between the two standards and then accepting them in their respective certification processes would save customers time and money, as well as help them meet both standards.
• Both standards focus on the wellbeing of individuals living and working in buildings, and both certification processes require extensive paperwork and onsite testing. The two organizations said the alignment should be complete in January 2017.

Dive Insight:

The U.K.-based BREEAM is a relative newcomer in the U.S. but has similar goals of tenant health and wellbeing as the WELL standard. In August, when BREEAM announced its foray into the U.S. existing commercial building market, it sold itself as the less expensive option to the pricey certification process and offered a DIY In-Use assessment tool that owners could use themselves in determining first steps toward certification. 

Last year, WELL officials said that people spend 90% of their time indoors, so the built environment should enhance health instead of harming it with potentially toxic interiors, poor access to healthy food, exercise-inhibiting office layouts and poor air quality. To that end, the organization has teamed up with the American Institute of Architects to educate and work with its members on educational programs around WELL and to encourage them to consider WELL in their designs.