EPISODE460 - Rachel Gutter - What is a WELL Building Standard?

This week on IAQ Radio we welcome Rachel Gutter, Chief Product Officer for the International WELL Building Institute. Ms. Gutter joined the International WELL Building Institute in late 2016 as senior vice president, bringing with her a wealth of cross-cutting experience in safer, healthier environments where they matter the most: in school rooms across the globe. She joins IWBI after a nine-year career at the U.S. Green Building Council, where she founded the Center for Green Schools, convening and collaborating with a diverse group of partners, including teachers unions, the National PTA, the Department of Education, the Princeton Review, executives from Fortune 100 companies, and green building councils around the world. Under her direction, the Center published more than 1,000 pages of technical guides and original research, mobilized more than $275 billion in investments in LEED certified educational facilities, and deployed more than half a million volunteers to contribute $50 million in donated time to transform schools and campuses on every continent. In her current role she is helping the International WELL Building Institute continue their development and implementation of the WELL Building Standards. According to the Institute this is the first standard of its kind that focuses solely on the health and wellness of building occupants. WELL identifies 100 performance metrics, design strategies, and policies that can be implemented by the owners, designers, engineers, contractors, users and operators of a building. It is based on a thorough review of the existing research on the effects of spaces on individuals and has been advanced through a thorough scientific and technical review. In order to achieve the requirements of the WELL Building Standard, the space must undergo a process that includes an on-site assessment and performance testing by a third party. Overall, the WELL Building Standard is designed to comprehensively cover the various individual needs of building occupants while also building a common foundation for measuring wellness in the built environment.