Equivalencies are used by teams that wish to use standards, codes or regulations more appropriate to their local market than those explicitly referenced in a WELL feature.

Equivalency may be established based on closeness of technical requirements or closeness in the level of leadership demonstrated by compliance with the proposed equivalency compared to the level of leadership demonstrated by compliance with the reference in WELL.

If there is any superseded law, regulation, standard or guideline either written as part of the feature language or approved as an equivalency, the document that supersedes the former is automatically accepted. Projects do not need to submit equivalencies to use the most recent versions of such documents.

If IWBI approves a proposed reference as an equivalency, the reference and any additional requirements or caveats will be published online and made available to other projects as an alternative means to satisfy the feature.

Locate features

To locate features that may be eligible for an alternative equivalent program, code or standard, look for phrases such as:

• "One or more of the following design criteria"
• "One of the following lighting reference guidelines"
• "One of the following standards and/or regulations"
• "A green building rating system approved by IWBI"

For I04: Gateways to Well-being, I05: Green Building Rating Systems and SI4: Gateways to Health-Safety, ensure your program meets the requirements established in the respective Innovation features.