WELL’s new Health-Safety Rating System may be the key to successful reopening

By Dominic Butler, Assistant Project Manager

COVID-19 disrupted many facets of our everyday lives. One of the most striking being our relationship to building spaces. Many office workers have moved to online work, retail stores have adjusted instore capacities, and restaurants have found new ways to serve customers. Individual businesses are taking time to come up with processes and procedures to keep their employees and garner trust from customers. WELL saw the fragmented approach some were taking to building safety and sought to create a certification system to establish a standard that could be used universally. The standard allows building operators and management to communicate that they’ve taken all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of building occupants. The rating system marries existing WELL credits with guidelines from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) Taskforce on COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO), United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), global emergency management agencies, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International), and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management is open to all new and existing buildings and facility types. The rating system is broken into 21 features across 6 core areas: Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures, Emergency Preparedness Programs, Health Service Resources, Air and Water Quality Management, Stakeholder Engagement and Communication, and Innovation. Of the 21 features, 15 need to be selected. There are no prerequisite features which gives building operators a lot of flexibility when developing a strategy that will work for each space.

Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures

This core area aims to address surface-based transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Sanitation is a critical area of concern as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can live on certain surfaces for up to 72 hours. The features in the category include: Support Handwashing, Reduce Surface Contact, Improve Cleaning Practices, Select Preferred Cleaning Products, and Reduce Respiratory Particle Exposure.

The Support Handwashing feature asks that building operators provide liquid soap dispensers, hand-drying apparatus (including paper towels, and hand dryers with HEPA filters), and signage displaying steps for proper hand washing. The feature aims to supply building users with the tools needed to effectively wash their hands to ultimately encourage positive behavior.

Improve Cleaning Practices aims to establish appropriate cleaning protocols and practices. The cleaning plan must outline: Extent and frequency of cleaning, responsibilities for cleaning staff, cleaning supplies available to occupants, which surfaces and areas need to be cleaned, types of cleaners used, PPE required for cleaning staff, etc. The feature formalizes the cleaning process and creates clear guidelines for how the space should be cared for and maintained to minimize risk for all.

Reduce Surface Contact looks at the high-touch surfaces within a space and seeks to reduce risk by implementing temporary or permanent measures that eliminate the frequency of touch. The feature can also be achieved by offering hands-free operation of 3 of the following: entry doors, elevators, water bottle filling stations/soap dispensers/water faucets, window blinds/ indoor lighting switches, or trash/recycling lids.

Emergency Preparedness Programs

Having a plan for emergencies is key to avoiding crisis and panic. COVID-19 preparedness should be treated like any other emergency occupants may see while in the building. Successful execution of emergency preparedness plans will help to ensure the safety of all stakeholders. Features in this core area include: Develop an Emergency Preparedness Plan, Create Business Continuity Plan, Plan for healthy re-entry, Provide Emergency Resources, and Bolster Emergency Resilience.

Develop Emergency Preparedness Plan, equips building owners with the tools to respond to emergency situations quickly and effectively. This begins with a risk assessment outlining assets (people and buildings, evaluating potential hazard impacts on assets, and determining planning priorities. Next in the planning process is developing procedure for natural, fire, health, technological, and human-caused disasters. The final portion of the planning process is educating building occupants on process and procedure.

Plan for Healthy Re-Entry, attempts to create protocols for building spaces following an emergency that required them to be vacant. This includes inspections of water, mechanical, electrical, ventilation, and life-safety systems. Communicating each step of the process to building inhabitants is also a key step for this feature.

Health Service Resources

The Health Service Resources core area highlights the importance of promoting inhabitant health. The specific features include: Provide Sick Leave, Provide Health Benefits, Support Mental Health Recovery, Promote Flu Vaccines, and Promote a Smoke-Free Environment.

Provide Sick Leave and Provide Health Benefits are institutional features that seek to reward spaces that provide these benefits to employees on the grounds that there is less pressure for employees to come to work sick thus reducing the risk of infection for other employees. Promote Flu Vaccines, requires building operators to provide an on-site flu vaccine or voucher along with a seasonal flu prevention campaign including signage about the availability of vaccine services.

Air and Water Quality Management

Lower Ventilation rates have been linked to the transmission of infectious airborne diseases. SARS-CoV-2 can remain airborne for up to 3 hours after being introduced into a space. The Air and Water Management core area aims to address transmission and exposure when occupying spaces for a prolonged period of time. Features in this core area include: Assess Ventilation, Assess and Maintain Air Treatment Systems, Develop Legionella Management Plan, Monitor Air and Water Quality, and Manage Mold and Moisture.

Assess Ventilation provides facilities engineers the opportunity to assess the current capabilities of the installed HVAC systems, look for areas of potential improvement (either operational or mechanical), and provide details on how this will effect energy use, thermal comfort, and maintenance.

Monitor Air and Water Quality, demands that the building space undergo air and water quality testing no less than once per year. The air quality assessment must include: PM 2.5 or PM 10, total VOCs or formaldehyde, Ozone, and Carbon Monoxide. The water quality assessment must include: turbidity, pH, residual (free) chlorine, total coliforms only if residual chlorine is under detection limits.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

One key factor to re-entry involves the establishment of trust between building inhabitants and facilities operators. One effective strategy to establishing trust is conveying a communicative and engaging presence showing that leadership is actively taking the necessary steps needed to ensure optimal health and safety. Features under this core area include: Promote Health and Wellness and Share Food Inspection Information.

Promote Health and Wellness tasks operators with creating a health -oriented mission for occupants. In addition, digital or physical signage describing features of the space and how they relate to the health-oriented mission, along with, quarterly communications for building occupants are both required to meet this feature.

Innovation

The Innovation core area serves as a catch-all feature to address any site-specific strategies used to promote health-safety within a space. The innovation strategies can either be feature proposals or IWBI preapproved strategies. Some of the preapproved Innovation strategies are: WELL AP, Design for WELL Health-Safety, and WELL Certification. Design for WELL Health-Safety takes some of the WELL v2 features for indoor air quality, water, thermal comfort, and community and brings them to the Health-Safety rating system if all feature requirements are met.

All in all, the rating system does a great job of formalizing many processes and procedures already employed by individual businesses. The rating system aims to address concerns occupants may have about re-entry, and provide the peace of mind that facilities leadership is making health a priority.  I hope to see the wide-spread adoption of the WELL Health-Safety rating system to help transition us into this new era of human-building interaction.

Argento/Graham’s WELL Accredited Professionals and Engineers can help guide your team through the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management process.