Projects registered in countries other than the United States may find some challenges based on local regulations and standards that differ from those outlined in WELL.
IWBI invites projects to petition for the use of equivalent requirements that is more relevant to the country/region where a project is located, through an equivalency proposal (EP). An EP is a formal request submitted by a project to receive approval for the substitution of an equivalent standard, code or practice in place of WELL feature requirements, prior to final documentation review.
Each project can submit EPs at no additional cost.
EPs may be submitted before or after project registration.
An EP is appropriate for projects in a region of the world where it is a challenge to comply with existing feature requirements.
An EP is appropriate for projects that wish to propose an equivalent standard, code or practice to meet the feature intent.
The EP proposal must include clear, substantiated evidence of how the equivalency meets the intent of the feature, including any relevant background information or supporting documentation.
A formal ruling on the Equivalency Proposal will be provided within 20 to 25 business days. To determine whether submission of an EP is recommended, a project team may inquire with the project’s WELL coaching contact (or reach out via our contact page if the project is not registered).