Why you should take it, what it covers, and how to set yourself up for success.
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
Since its launch in 2014, The WELL Building Standard™ (WELL) has experienced exponential growth. According the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI), the entity that delivers WELL, as of November, 2021, there are approximately 30,500 WELL projects, constituting 2.93 Billion square feet, in 98 countries.¹ That’s nearly 3 Billion square feet in seven years.
To give you a sense of scale, the Empire State Building, one of the largest office buildings in the world, is 2.7 Million square feet.²
This growth in demand, along with other factors like improvements in technology, an increasingly sophisticated consumer and practitioner base, and shifts in the overall public awareness around healthy buildings, meant that it was time to update WELL. And after completion of a Beta phase in June, 2020, the second version of WELL — WELL v2 — graduated out of Pilot³ and into the marketplace.
This naturally created the need for an updated WELL Accredited Professional™ (WELL AP) exam to align with WELL v2.
I am very excited about the launch of this new exam, and in this article, I explain why.
Healthy buildings in context.
Explosive growth
If you’re thinking about getting the WELL AP credential, you should, for at least two reasons.
First you would be in good company. To date, IWBI reports nearly 11,000 WELL APs.⁴
Image courtesy of International WELL Building Institute
Second, healthier buildings are having a moment that is not expected to end any time soon. Here’s a more detailed visualization of the exponential growth WELL has experienced over the past seven years.
This chart really speaks to the growth of the healthy buildings industry, as well as the pandemic’s role. And the demand for healthy buildings will continue to grow as we learn how to manage the lasting impacts of the pandemic.
Healthy buildings are a key aspect of ESG
Additionally, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors will continue to increase the demand for both healthy buildings and professionals to advise project teams and support certification.
ESG metrics are quickly becoming standard business practice, and an increasing volume of industry research demonstrates that healthy buildings are a key factor in investment decisions.
For example, leading commercial real estate services and investment firm, CBRE, noted in its latest report — ESG & Real Estate: Top 10 Things Investors Need to Know — how “health & wellness is influencing building design and operation.”⁵ And there are many other examples of the demand for more sustainable, healthier buildings, and their role in larger ESG conversations.⁶
If you are looking for a new job, or considering a career transition, there are many opportunities in ESG, to the point where sustainability leaders have claimed there is a “war for ESG talent.”⁷ There are also significant opportunities: in June, 2021, accounting firm Price Waterhouse announced it would invest $12 Billion over the next five years to create 100,000 jobs in the ESG space.⁸
The intersection of ESG and healthy buildings presents significant opportunity. Now is the time to act on the significant investments that key stakeholders are making in ESG.
In fact, as climate risk becomes an increasing focus for investors, the industry’s attention to the role the built environment plays has steadily increased, raising questions of resilience, equity, energy, carbon and many more — all factors that can be tied back to healthier building strategies.⁹
One way to capture this demand for practitioners who can support design and development of healthier buildings, is to sit to the WELL AP exam.
What’s covered in the new WELL AP exam?
Whenever I need to study for an exam, I want to make sure I understand the universe of information that could potentially be covered.
Three documents contain the scope of information covered on the new WELL AP exam:
1.The WELL Building Standard, WELL V2 with Q4 2020 addenda (link below). All features except Beta Features are open to testing. Exam takers will need to know every Feature, how to achieve each Feature and the relevant measurements within that Feature (with exceptions contained in Embedded Content, as outlined below).
WELL v2 | Q4 2020
2. The WELL Certification Guidebook with Q3 — Q4 addenda (link below). Only processes related to WELL v2 are open to testing. Exam takers will need to demonstrate their understanding of the certification process, including pursuit of innovation Features, Alternative Adherence Paths, etc.
WELL Certification Guidebook | Q3-Q4 2020
3. WELL Portfolio Guidebook with Q4 2020 addenda (link below). Again, only processes related to WELL v2 are open to testing.
WELL Portfolio Guidebook | Q4 2020
All this information is covered in the document, “Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam,” which you should read carefully (link below). And there is additional information on this website, Everything you need to know about the WELL AP v2 beta exam.
Get To Know The New WELL AP Exam
Why is the new WELL AP exam “better?”
I am very excited about the format of the new exam because as both a WELL AP and educator, I know that good exams prepare practitioners to actually do the work. And better prepared practitioners can elevate an entire industry.
Moving away from memorization and towards application
In my experience, exams that simply test a student’s ability to memorize are generally not helpful in the real world. This is because in the real working world, we don’t just spit out a list of facts.
Imagine if your boss asked you a question and you just rattled off a list of somewhat-related facts. You would very likely be fired because you wouldn’t be doing your job.
In the real world, practitioners are generally asked to apply what they know to different circumstances and contexts, by calling on their training and past experience, conducing research, and recalling some of the frequently-used facts that they hold in their brains.
Yet, we often test in a way that really only tests the ability to memorize.
As an example, in addition to my work in sustainability and education (I’ve taught sustainable development to graduate and undergraduate students), I’m also a lawyer, which means that I took (and passed) the Washington State Bar Examination, back in 2006. At that time, this two and a half day (closed book) exam largely tested a student’s ability to memorize certain basic legal concepts across a variety of topic areas.
This was so ineffective that there was a saying going around that, “the LSAT is nothing like law school; law school is nothing like the bar exam; and the bar exam is nothing like practicing law.”
I personally found this adage to be very accurate. And, among other challenges, it made for a very difficult learning curve as a new lawyer.
Tests that are nothing like the actual work, or that do not test a student’s ability to apply necessary skills, are really just testing the skill of memorization.
That’s a problem because if I practiced law from memory, without consulting the latest resources, checking for relevant updates, and applying this information to new contexts, I would be working well below the relevant standard of care. My ability to memorize had very, very little to do with my ability to effectively practice law, yet that’s what I was tested on — there was a real disconnect.
And in many ways I feel like the extensive amount of time I spent studying, and money I spent on a test preparation course, was just to check a box, not to help me in my future career.
High-value study time
Time spent studying for exams that test practical skills, including a student’s ability to apply those skills to real world scenarios, is far much more valuable than time spent memorizing. This is because studying for practical, skills-based exams looks much more like actual practice.
This type of preparation and exam structure also helps get past the vicious cycle of “how do you get experience without any experience?”
You do that by creating study materials and tests that more closely align with what practitioners will be expected to do in the real world. This type of exam — that moves away from memorization and towards skill development and application — produces practitioners who are better able to do the actual work, from Day 1.
What’s different about the new WELL AP exam?
There are two key differences in the second iteration of the exam, and both are designed to move away from memorization and towards testing application and analytical skills.
Reference materials available during the exam
Unlike the prior structure, during the new exam students will have access to two resources.
Project Scenario. A short “Project Scenario,” relevant to some of the application and analysis questions, will pop up and be available for review during the exam. Exam takers will be presented with one of two available Project Scenarios they can reference during the exam. However, the Project Scenarios will not be available prior to the exam.¹⁰
Embedded Content. A summary of some key facts and figures, referred to as “Embedded Content,” will also be available for reference during the exam. Candidates will not need to memorize Embedded Content, but they will be tested on their ability to analyze project scenarios and apply the Embedded Content to answer some of the questions.
Knowing what you do not have to memorize will save you time and make your study time more valuable, so let’s look more closely at what’s in the Embedded Content.
The Embedded Content is outlined on pages 8–14 of “Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam” (linked above). Pay close attention to the “Content Exclusions” to make sure you know what information will be available during the exam.
Below is a summary of what is and is not included:
Summary of Embedded Content
WELL v2 Concepts and Features — Note that only Concepts and Features are listed; the Feature intents and whether a Feature is a Precondition or Optimization is not included in the Embedded Content, but may be tested. Beta features are not tested.
Scoring and Certification Levels — the total points, minimum points per concept and level of certification for WELL Certification and WELL Core Certification. Additional information regarding limits on points per concept, total points, and opportunities for Innovation points are also included in the Embedded Content.
Table displaying the thresholds that appear in A01 Air Quality: Parts 1–4 (p. 12–14 of WELL v2; Part 5 is not included).
Filtration levels table in A12 Air Filtration: Part 1 (p. 39 of WELL v2).
Table displaying thresholds that appear in W02 Drinking Water Quality: Parts 1–2 (p. 50–51 of WELL v2).
Artificial ingredients table in N05 Artificial Ingredients: Part 1 (p. 82–83 of WELL v2).
Note that, consistent with a focus on application as opposed to memorization, for A01, A12, W02 and N05, only the Tables are included, other related information, including the Intent, Summary, Issue and Solutions; Titles / Descriptors; Notes; and WELL Core Guidance are not included in the Embedded Content but can be tested.
Again, the Embedded Content is outlined on pages 8–14 of “Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam” (linked above), and a more detailed summary chart is to the left.
Knowledge Domains
Additionally, and particularly helpful for busy exam-takers, IWBI created Exam Specifications which outline the knowledge and skills that WELL APs will need for each of the 10 Concepts (Air, Water, etc.), plus WELL Certification and WELL Portfolio. This information is on pages 3–7 of the Get to Know the WELL AP Exam document.
Exam takers can think of these skills and knowledge domains as learning objectives, and use them to structure their study, as they outline the key skills, organized by topic and heading.
For example, for Domain 8: Materials, the knowledge needed to become a WELL AP includes:
Impacts of materials and environmental contamination on human health and wellbeing.
Regulations and restrictions of hazardous material ingredients.
Compounds and chemical classes.¹¹
And the skills needed to become a WELL AP include (among others):
Assessing product documentation to ensure compliance with material requirements.
Providing guidance on implementing third-party assessments of project environment and site.
Recommending strategies for managing hazardous waste.¹²
Again, all of this information is available in Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam, linked above.
Current status, plan forward and study materials
The Beta exam process
As of the date of this article, (November 2021), the WELL AP exam is currently in its Beta phase. During this phase, the exam is 150 questions and exam takers have 3 hours to complete the test. The WELL AP exam is predicted to leave its Beta phase and be republished in early 2022. When it is republished, it will consist of 115 questions and exam takers will have 2.5 hours to complete the test.¹³ With an increased focused on application-based questions, exam takers should have sufficient time to think through their answers.
All Beta exams have to be scored before the exam can graduate, which is why Beta test takers will not receive results until 2022.¹⁴ When the exam is republished, exam takers will receive their scores immediately.
This type of Beta process is normal and provides test developers with critical information. For example, if a very high number of candidates answer a question incorrectly, IWBI may revisit that question or exclude it from the final version.
How to plan your studying
The above information and linked resources provides the tools and structure you need to prepare for the exam.
While the amount of study time needed is different for everyone, a good starting point is budgeting 2–3 hours per week over a three month period; or accelerating the timeline to 6 hours per week over a four week period.
Of course, the quality of study time and each individual’s baseline knowledge and skill level will heavily influence the time required to properly prepare for the exam.
There are also several LinkedIn groups for folks studying for the WELL AP exam and IWBI has indicated they plan to develop a knowledge base, update existing articles and FAQs, and develop a forum where current and future WELL APs can create community, answer questions and provide mutual support.¹⁵
Now, go register for the WELL AP Exam and become a part of this growing industry! And if you need exam prep support, check out our latest course!
This article was current as of November, 2021.
Want to learn more and sign up for our study materials? Follow this link to learn more about our Accelerated WELL AP Exam Prep Course!
Sources and Resources:
[1] Data tracked and updated at the bottom of this website, https://www.wellcertified.com/ (this data is frequently updated, but current as of the publishing of this article [ADD DATE]).
[2] https://www.esbnyc.com/sites/default/files/esb_fact_sheet_4_9_14_4.pdf (A Billion is one thousand Million)
[3] https://www.wellcertified.com/certification/v2/governance
[4] Data tracked and updated at the bottom of this website, https://www.wellcertified.com/ (this data is frequently updated, but current as of the publishing of this article [ADD DATE])
[5] ESG & Real Estate: Top 10 Things Investors Need to Know, CBRE Research, October 2021
[6] See, IWBI, Driving Better Investment Decisions, https://resources.wellcertified.com/tools/driving-better-investment-decisions/; IWBI Press Release, IWBI and GRESB Deliver Report Demonstrating Alignment Between WELL and GRESB 2020 (July 30, 2020), https://resources.wellcertified.com/press-releases/iwbi-and-gresb-deliver-report-demonstrating-alignment-between-well-and-gresb; The New York Times, “As Risks of Climate Change Risk, Investors Seek Greener Buildings,” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/business/climate-change-sustainable-real-estate.html; even insurance carriers are recognizing the tangible, risk-reduction benefits of robust ESG frameworks, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211025005276/en/Marsh-to-Recognize-Clients-with-Robust-ESG-Frameworks
[7] https://www.greenbiz.com/article/inside-war-esg-talent
[9] See, IWBI, Driving Better Investment Decisions, https://resources.wellcertified.com/tools/driving-better-investment-decisions/
[10] See, WELL AP Candidate Handbook p. 7, available here https://resources.wellcertified.com/tools/well-ap-candidate-handbook/
[11]Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam, page 6, https://resources.wellcertified.com/tools/get-to-know-the-new-well-ap-exam/
[12] Get to Know the New WELL AP Exam, Page 6, https://resources.wellcertified.com/tools/get-to-know-the-new-well-ap-exam/ (the Materials Domain contains several additional skills, three examples were selected for this article).
[13] Webcast, “WELL AP: Olympian Dana Vollmer-Grant,” https://resources.wellcertified.com/webcasts/meet-a-well-ap-olympian-dana-vollmer-grant/; https://resources.wellcertified.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-well-ap-beta-exam/
[15] Webcast, “WELL AP: Olympian Dana Vollmer-Grant,” https://resources.wellcertified.com/webcasts/meet-a-well-ap-olympian-dana-vollmer-grant