Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 2, 2015
With the price of energy declining and the increased frequency and severity of illnesses, allergies, and chronic diseases, the focus on health and well-being of building occupants is becoming more and more mainstream. The growth rate of chronic diseases is trending upward. Four factors cause 75 percent of chronic diseases – stress, physical inactivity, food choices and tobacco. Chronic disease management represents 67 percent of health care costs for individuals under 65 years of age. Officially released in October 2014, prior to Greenbuild, the WELL Building Standard is the first of its kind with a focus on improving human health and wellbeing and reducing the health care costs associated with chronic diseases. The WELL Building Standard focuses on the environmental conditions within buildings that the typical American spends 90 percent of their time. Ambient Energy is providing energy, commissioning and/ or sustainability consulting on several projects utilizing the WELL Building Standard, including two office buildings and one luxury condominium in the Denver metro area. In an effort to learn more about WELL, I attended the inaugural WELL Building Symposium kickoff in New Orleans and the first two-day WELL Building Standard training for future WELL Accredited Professionals at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. As an energy consultant for over 17 years, my first impression was that the WELL Building Standard sounds like a comprehensive and vigorous rating system, but “what is the true impact on energy and the environment?” This article describes my interpretation of the energy usage and environmental impacts of select WELL Building Standard Preconditions and Optimizations in order to help design teams pursuing WELL maximum energy savings and minimize energy penalties. The WELL Building Standard for New Construction is based on 102 Features, which are either Preconditions required for WELL Certification or Optimizations for designated levels of award. Required documentation includes specific design and construction information, letters of assurance and on-site verification of performance features. An Accredited WELL Assessor assigned by GBCI will evaluate each building, take air and water samples, light measurements, acoustical readings and provide a WELL Report. Recertification is required every three years to maintain the same high level of design, maintenance and operations over time. A Wellness score of 5 indicates that all Precondition Features have been met, and is the minimum passing score. Scores of 5-6 earn Silver, 7-8 earn Gold and 9-10 earn Platinum, and the score is calculated based on Optimizations awarded out of the total Optimizations possible for the project. In addition to the overall Wellness score, each Concept is awarded a score Silver to Platinum, so the building occupants can see how each Concept scores individually. Energy and productivity case study. To determine the effect that the WELL Building Standard has on energy usage, consider the particular type and usage of the building, its climate zone, and if the health benefits outweigh the energy cost of a particular Precondition or Optimization. For a typical office building for example, the cost of employees’ salaries far outweigh the utility costs. Take a 250,000-square-foot office building with 1,000 employees each earning on average $50,000 per year. Energy savings for high-performance buildings range from 30 to 50 percent compared with a code-compliant building. According to Jason McLennan, founder of the International Living Future Institute, temperature can cause a drop in productivity by up to 9 percent, poor air quality by 6 to 9 percent, and noisy work places by up to 20 percent. On average, productivity gains from healthy and buildings range from 1 to 20 percent compared with employee costs without a healthy building or wellness program. Assuming the low end of savings on both spectrums, 30 percent energy savings and 1 percent productivity gain, the annual cost savings from productivity are over 4 times that of energy cost savings (Table 1). Energy impact. Of the 102 Preconditions and Optimizations, five Preconditions and 18 Optimizations have energy impacts. Table 2 and Table 3 summarize the relative energy impact of credits unique to WELL for Preconditions and Optimizations. I have not included the energy impact of the credits that have the same impact as LEED or that are already in the ASHRAE 90.1- 2013 energy standard (soon to be adopted as building code per IECC 2015 in Denver). The following summarizes each Precondition and Optimization and its impact on energy usage. More specifics on each Precondition and Optimization are available within the standard, which can be downloaded at www.wellcertified.com/standard. Of the five Preconditions with an energy impact, all have an overall energy savings, which is beneficial. Design teams can then determine which Optimizations to select based on the health and energy impacts. Of the 18 Optimizations with energy impacts, seven have an energy penalty, seven save energy and four will vary depending on option selected or particular building type or climate zone. Overall, the WELL Building Standard will significantly contribute to the quality of our buildings and improve the productivity, mental and physical health of employees.