Green building certification systems: differences and peculiarities of Levels and WELL.

The dissertation presented below talks about differences and peculiarities of green rating systems, how they have changed during the last 10 years and how they work. This research describes a self-reporting program, Level(s), and a commercial green building system, WELL. The first one is a non-commercial framework that aims to sensitize all European countries towards sustainability and the concept of the “Life Cycle Assessment” and consequently the importance of those two ideas. On the other hand, Level(s) is compared with WELL (Well Building Standard), which belongs to a new generation of certification programs that stress the importance of occupant satisfaction while maintaining a high standard in design, sustainability and building processes. This analysis aims to explain when they were created, why, when they were firstly released and finally how they impact the market. The main scope is to highlight the steps that brought those certification programs to the shape they have nowadays and given that describe if they have become something more useful, more important, simpler to use and clearer for experts. With support of academic papers, websites and report from conferences, this work goes through the history and evolution of each system trying to understand if all the changes made enhanced comprehension and applicability of those programs. Project teams and professionals around the building environment, together with building owners, who desires to give healthier and more workable places for employees, are going to come up with a clearer idea on which is the solution that best fits their needs. From now on it is fundamental that all the people that belong to the construction field and not have his own awerness about the importance of these two concepts that are mandatory for people thrive: wellness and well-being.