WELL APs are required to complete 30 hours of continuing education, at least 6 hours of which must be WELL-specific, every two years in order to maintain their credential.

You are responsible for maintaining your credential every 2 years through professional activities, starting when the credential is earned (based on exam date) and ending 2 years minus 1 day from the start date. For example, if you sat your exam on January 1, 2021, you would be up for renewal on December 31, 2022. The purpose of credential maintenance is to encourage learning experiences that demonstrate continued competency and up-to-date industry knowledge. Check your WELL AP Dashboard to see when your credential is up for renewal!

You can earn continuing education hours through the following activities:

Continuing Education (unlimited)

Education for general CE hours (relevant to green building, environmental sustainability and human health and wellness) can come from learning activities that are approved by GBCI, or from non-approved courses. Examples include:

• College and university courses
• Simulated project participation 
• Workshops 
• Courses 
• Conference events

Courses can only be counted towards credential maintenance once, and the same course cannot be reported in multiple reporting periods. WELL-specific credit can only be achieved through GBCI-approved education designated as such. Here are some ways to find recommended CE courses:

• Explore IWBI’s courses, trainings and recorded webcasts on the WELL Forum’s Education and training collection for WELL-specific and general continuing education content.
• Search for courses via Education @USGBC. There will likely be a charge for these courses, although you can occasionally find free courses.
• Check out Expand your knowledge and earn free CE hours on USGBC.org which has a listing of free courses that are eligible for CE hours.
• Register for an upcoming webcast or tune into an archived webcast. These webcasts are free and they provide you with one CE hour each. Many of them qualify as WELL-specific CEs.

If you're interested in creating content for CE units, check out the GBCI Continuing Education Course Criteria and reach out to GBCI for approval.

Project Participation (unlimited)

Work on a project* registered for LEED, SITES and WELL certification counts for 1 rating system-specific CE hour per credit or feature for credential holders working on projects certified under the system or standard related to their credential. Project administrators can claim an additional 2 CE hours per project. 

*The intent of project participation is to work on projects that are intended to be implemented. This excludes LEED project participation provided through education programs. 

Authorship (unlimited)

Authorship is an accredited contribution to a print or digital publication and is worth 3 CE hours per published article and 10 CE hours per published book. WELL-specific hours are designated for authoring that is directly related to WELL technical content.

You can also author a post in the WELL Forum to earn up to 0.5 CE per contribution. When reporting in your WELL AP dashboard you must include the URL of your post to receive credit. This activity must be self-reported. Qualifying contributions must be at least 100 words and meet at least one of the following requirements:

• Subject matter must relate to the WELL Building Standard, general green building concepts such as environmental sustainability, human health, resiliency, the circular economy or similar.
• Personal anecdotes about your WELL journey.
• Discoveries on any building rating system project experience or work in the built environment.
• Provide WELL AP exam tips and best practices or initiate and lead a study group.

Volunteering (no more than 50% of total CE hours)

Volunteering includes participation in leadership positions, steering committees, or working groups, LEED, SITES, or WELL credential exam development and maintenance activities, or local USGBC community boards and committees or other volunteer organizations that support the LEED and SITES systems, or the WELL Building Standard.

Volunteers can claim 1 hour per hour of participation. LEED-specific hours are designated for volunteering that is directly related to LEED technical content. WELL-specific hours are designated for volunteering that is directly related to WELL technical content. SITES-specific hours are designated for volunteering that is directly related to SITES.

Submit your CE hours

Once you've completed an activity, learn how to submit CE hours. Once you have reported all of your required General and WELL-specific CE hours, a button will appear on your dashboard which will allow you to pay the renewal fee and renew your credential.

To learn more about maintaining your WELL AP Credentials, please refer to our WELL AP Candidate Handbook.