The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has announced the launch of its new WELL Homes Advisory, created to guide the institute in expanding evidence-based, third-party verified WELL offerings to address the design and construction of homes worldwide. The Advisory will help identify key challenges and opportunities for expanding the science-backed programs rooted in the WELL Building Standard (WELL) to include the single-family footprint as well as enhance the existing pathway for multi-family residences.

Co-chaired by experts from the home-building, architecture and real estate markets, the WELL Homes Advisory is bringing together leading builders and developers, architects and engineers, public health and building scientists, government officials and academics, and other real estate professionals to help develop and scale equitable strategies that address health and safety in the home environment, the place where we spend most of our time, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Co-chairs are joined by subject matter experts representing leading organizations in the homebuilding community including Christine Marvin, vice president of design strategy at Marvin.

“By taking a human-centered approach to design, building and innovation, we can enable better ways of living for people at home,” said Marvin. “We are inspired by the dedicated focus to not only advance the conversation around a healthy home, but the momentum to make meaningful change. Integrating evidence-based products and solutions inspired by how we live will help us redefine the traditional home and support the health and well-being of generations to come.”

The Advisory will providing industry insights and identifying emerging technologies and evidence-based best practices most applicable in a single-family residence to IWBI’s Standard Development team. The recommendations from the Advisory will help guide designers and developers as they contribute to the evolution of WELL’s work to codify design and performance strategies for home environments worldwide.

“The WELL Homes Advisory serves as an important vehicle to deliver IWBI’s commitment to advancing health and well-being to all people through every building typology,” said Rachel Hodgdon, president and CEO of International WELL Building Institute. “Our homes play an outsized role in supporting our health, safety and well-being and we need to make them the best they can be.”

She noted that multi-family residential buildings are already an integral part of the WELL Building Standard, work that has been reinforced in the recently launched WELL v2 and that the Advisory will help expand IWBI’s work on the healthy home front by including single-family homes.

“The work of the WELL Homes Advisory goes hand-in-hand with IWBI’s Health Equity Advisory by helping make healthier residences available and accessible to all,” Hodgdon added.

IWBI expects to add additional co-chairs and members to the Advisory to meet the growing industry interest in collaborating on the expansion of the WELL ecosystem to single-family residences. Click HERE for more information on the WELL Homes Advisory.