Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The air, water, light, and sound inside a building shape the health of everyone who uses it. WELL certification is the leading way to measure and verify how well a building supports the people inside.
Adoption is climbing fast. As of July 2025, more than 6 billion square feet across 137 countries was engaged with WELL, including more than 180 companies from the Fortune 500 and Global 500. Here is what the standard covers, what it costs, and how to earn it.
What is WELL certification?
WELL is a performance-based rating system administered by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Energy standards measure how a building performs for the environment. WELL measures how it performs for the human body. The current version, WELL v2, is organized around ten concepts. Performance-based is the key phrase: many requirements are confirmed by on-site measurement rather than design drawings, so a building has to prove its air, water, light, and acoustic conditions meet set thresholds.
The 10 WELL concepts
WELL v2 groups its requirements into ten concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, and Community. Air, Water, Light, Thermal Comfort, and Sound are the concepts most often confirmed through physical testing, which is why measurement capability matters to the result.
How WELL scoring and certification levels work
WELL v2 contains 110 features split into preconditions, which are mandatory, and optimizations, which earn points. Projects can score up to 100 points across the ten concepts plus 10 innovation points. Certification is awarded at four levels based on total points:
| Level | Points |
|---|---|
| Bronze | 40 (available for WELL Core projects) |
| Silver | 50 |
| Gold | 60 |
| Platinum | 80 |
Gold and Platinum are the most common results among certified projects.
Does WELL certification pay off?
Most of a building’s cost is its people. Under the widely cited 3-30-300 rule, a company spends about $3 per square foot on utilities, $30 on rent, and $300 on staff, so small gains in health and focus outweigh nearly everything else. The data backs it up. A peer-reviewed study of more than 1,300 responses from six North American companies (Zhang et al., Building and Environment, 2022) found that after WELL certification, occupant satisfaction rose from 42 percent to 70 percent and self-reported productivity climbed from 82.6 to 85.2 on a 100-point scale. Separately, Harvard researchers recorded 26.4 percent higher cognitive scores for people in green-certified buildings compared with high-performing conventional ones. These are the same air, light, and comfort factors WELL measures and testing can verify.
What does WELL certification cost?
Enrollment runs from about $1,500 to $10,000 depending on project type and size. The certification fee starts near $4,000 and scales with floor area, roughly $0.08 to $0.23 per square foot, plus a separate performance testing fee. Because totals depend heavily on building size and the work required to meet the standard, an early gap assessment is the most reliable way to forecast the cost.
How to get WELL certified
The path runs in five steps:
- Register the project with IWBI and choose the rating type that fits.
- Assess the gap between current conditions and the preconditions and optimizations you plan to pursue.
- Implement changes to ventilation, water, lighting, and policies.
- Complete performance testing of air, water, light, thermal, and acoustic conditions on site.
- Submit for review and earn Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, then recertify on schedule.
Testing is where projects stumble most. A space can look ready on paper and still miss a ventilation rate or water threshold when the meters come out, and catching that early is far cheaper than repeating a failed verification.
How A-Tech helps you reach WELL certification
A-Tech Consulting supports WELL projects on both fronts that decide the outcome. On testing, A-Tech’s industrial hygiene and indoor environmental quality work maps directly to WELL’s measurable concepts, from particulate, volatile organic compound, carbon dioxide, and formaldehyde sampling for Air to drinking water testing, thermal comfort, lighting, and acoustics. On advisory, A-Tech assesses current conditions against WELL preconditions, identifies realistic optimizations, and prepares documentation, with California requirements factored in so a WELL effort works alongside existing compliance. The result is a clearer, lower-risk route to Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
Frequently asked questions
Is WELL the same as LEED?
No. LEED measures a building’s environmental performance, such as energy and water efficiency. WELL measures human health inside the building. Many projects pursue both.
Does WELL certification expire?
WELL is maintained through recertification on a set cycle, which keeps a building accountable to current conditions and to updates in the standard.
Do you have to test the building to get certified?
Yes. WELL is performance-based, so many requirements are confirmed through on-site measurement of factors like air quality, water quality, light, and sound rather than documentation alone.
Considering WELL certification for your building or workplace?
Start with a free gap assessment. A-Tech Consulting will assess where your space stands today and map a practical, lower-risk route to Silver, Gold, or Platinum, including the air, water, light, and acoustic testing WELL requires.
Request your assessment
or call 800-434-1025
