Quick Facts: WELL Building Standard v2
- Standard: WELL Building Standard v2 (WELL v2) — administered by International WELL Building Institute (IWBI)
- Focus: Human health and wellbeing in the built environment — distinct from energy/environmental certifications (LEED, GBI)
- Concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community, Innovation
- Certification Levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum
- Malaysia Context: WELL adoption is growing in KL’s premium office market — particularly among MNCs with global ESG reporting frameworks
- Relevant KL Buildings: Select Grade A buildings in KLCC, TRX and Bangsar South are pursuing or hold WELL certification — confirm with individual landlords
- Tenant Benefit: Measurable improvements in staff wellbeing, productivity and absenteeism — quantifiable return on premium workspace investment
Introduction
There is a question that most people have never consciously asked about their office building — but which the buildings themselves are answering every hour of every working day.
Does this space support the health of the people inside it?
Not its energy efficiency. Not its carbon footprint. Not its proximity to a train station or the quality of its lobby finishes. Just: does the air people breathe, the light they work under, the temperature they sit in, the water they drink, and the environment they occupy for eight or more hours every day actually support — or quietly undermine — their physical and mental wellbeing?
The WELL Building Standard was created to answer that question with rigour. Launched in 2014 by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), it is the world’s first building certification focused not on what a building does to the environment, but on what a building does to the people inside it. The second and current version of the standard — WELL v2 — has become the most comprehensive, research-based framework for healthy buildings in existence.
In December 2025, JLL Malaysia achieved WELL Certified Gold for its 10,635 sq ft headquarters at Menara IQ, TRX — becoming among the first professional services firms in Malaysia to secure both WELL Gold and LEED Gold certifications for the same workspace. It was the first JLL office in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve certification under WELL v2. That milestone did not create the Malaysian market for WELL certification, but it crystallised it — and every serious office occupier in KL should understand what it means.
What Is WELL Building Standard v2?
WELL v2 is a comprehensive, evidence-based standard that organises requirements for healthy buildings across ten core concepts. It is administered by IWBI and certified by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) — the same organisation that certifies LEED.
WELL v2 has 10 concept areas with 23 mandatory preconditions and an additional 97 possible optimizations — 120 features in total, individually numbered by category.
There are two types of features: preconditions (mandatory strategies) and optimizations (optional strategies with a weighted point value). All features and underlying parts marked as preconditions must be met to achieve a given concept. Preconditions define the minimum non-negotiable baseline of a healthy building. Optimizations are the choices a project team makes to push beyond that baseline — and those choices accumulate points toward higher certification levels.
Projects must earn a minimum of two points per concept (or at least four points combined in the case of the Air and Thermal Comfort concepts). Projects can pursue no more than 12 points per concept and no more than 100 points total across the ten concepts. An additional 10 points are available through the Innovation concept for features that go beyond the standard framework.
Certification is awarded at four levels: Bronze (40 points), Silver (50 points), Gold (60 points) and Platinum (80 points). Each level represents a meaningful step up in the breadth and quality of health interventions across the ten concepts. Platinum, the highest level, requires near-comprehensive implementation — it is not achievable by excelling in two or three concepts while neglecting the rest.
WELL v2 applies to virtually any building type — offices, hotels, schools, hospitals, residential buildings, retail spaces. But as NEAPOLI founder and WELL Accredited Professional Stellios Plainiotis, whose sustainability consultancy is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, explained to The Edge Malaysia in April 2026: “Globally, WELL is already mainstream, implemented in over 74,000 locations across 137-plus countries, covering over 5.87 billion sq ft of real estate. In practice, it has been most widely adopted in offices, which account for about 83% of WELL-certified projects.”
The 10 Concepts of WELL v2
Understanding what WELL v2 actually measures is essential for occupiers who want to know whether a building’s certification is genuinely relevant to their employees’ daily experience. Here is what each concept covers:
1. Air
The Air concept contains more preconditions than any other WELL building concept, reflecting the fundamental importance of indoor air quality to occupant health. Requirements cover ventilation rates, filtration standards, particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, CO2 monitoring, total volatile organic compound (TVOC) limits, and prohibitions on certain contaminant sources. JLL Malaysia’s TRX headquarters, for example, installed five sensors tracking PM2.5, CO2, and TVOCs as part of its WELL Gold compliance — a form of continuous, verifiable air quality accountability that most conventional offices do not provide.
2. Water
The Water concept addresses the quality of water that building occupants drink and use. Requirements cover filtration standards, contaminant testing, chemical limits (including heavy metals and endocrine disruptors), and access to clean water throughout the building. In a country where tap water quality varies across the Klang Valley’s supply infrastructure, a WELL-certified water system provides a documented assurance that occupants’ daily drinking water meets evidence-based health standards.
3. Nourishment
The Nourishment concept addresses the food and beverage environment that a building and its occupying organisation creates. Preconditions cover access to whole foods, clear nutritional labelling, and restrictions on certain food additives. Optimizations reward the active promotion of healthy eating — fresh fruit and vegetable access, nutrition education, and the removal of barriers to healthy food choices. JLL Malaysia’s TRX office incorporated daily complimentary fresh fruits and vegetables for staff as part of its WELL certification strategy.
4. Light
The Light concept covers the quantity, quality, and spectrum of light across occupied spaces. Preconditions set minimum standards for visual acuity lighting and glare control. Optimizations address circadian health — the alignment of indoor light with the natural patterns of daylight that regulate sleep, energy, and mood. JLL Malaysia’s office used optimised lighting systems with low Unified Glare Rating (UGR 16) fixtures as part of its WELL certification, specifically chosen to reduce visual fatigue during extended working hours.
5. Movement
The Movement concept recognises that sedentary working patterns are among the most significant health risks associated with office occupancy. Requirements address ergonomics, standing desk provision, staircase accessibility and design, active transportation support, and opportunities for regular movement throughout the working day. JLL Malaysia incorporated 25% height-adjustable standing desks and ergonomic workstations with external monitors across its TRX headquarters as specific WELL Movement compliance measures.
6. Thermal Comfort
The Thermal Comfort concept sets requirements for temperature, humidity, and individual control within occupied spaces. In Malaysia’s tropical climate — where outdoor temperatures regularly exceed 32°C and conventional office air conditioning systems often overcorrect with excessively cold environments — thermal comfort is not a minor consideration. It has a direct impact on cognitive performance, productivity, and the willingness of employees to spend time in the office. WELL’s thermal comfort preconditions require documented thermal performance verification, while optimizations reward individual thermal control.
7. Sound
The Sound concept addresses acoustic quality in occupied spaces. This covers background noise levels, reverberation time, sound isolation between spaces, and the design of environments that support focused work without creating acoustic distress. In open-plan, activity-based working environments — increasingly the standard in KL’s premium offices — acoustic management is one of the most technically demanding design challenges and one of the most common failure points in poorly designed spaces.
8. Materials
The Materials concept restricts or regulates chemicals and substances that can off-gas into the indoor environment — in furniture, carpeting, wall finishes, adhesives, cleaning products, and building materials generally. This concept addresses the fact that a new building or newly fitted-out office is not automatically a healthy building: the materials used in construction and furnishing can introduce significant chemical loads into the air that occupants breathe for years after fitting out.
9. Mind
The Mind concept covers mental health, cognitive wellbeing, and the psychological environment of the workplace. Requirements address access to nature (biophilic design), mental health support programmes, spaces that support restorative experience, and policies that promote work-life balance. JLL Malaysia embedded mental health support through quarterly awareness programs, annual training initiatives, and workspace design that maximises natural light and nature connection — alongside biophilic design featuring abundant greenery throughout the office.
10. Community
The Community concept addresses equity, inclusivity, and the social fabric of the organisation occupying the building. Requirements cover DEI policies, emergency procedures, accessible design for people with disabilities, mother’s rooms and lactation facilities, and spaces that support community building within the workforce. JLL Malaysia’s office incorporated comprehensive DEI policies with transparent tracking, dedicated lactation facilities, and social spaces designed to encourage connection across teams.
WELL vs LEED vs GBI: What Is the Difference?
This question comes up constantly when Malaysian occupiers first encounter WELL — and the answer is simpler than many expect.
Compared with other building certifications such as LEED, GBI and GreenRE, that address the managing of resources in the building of the overall structure, WELL looks beyond the building. Their main purpose is to reduce environmental impact and resource use: energy and carbon, water, materials, waste and overall performance. They do cover indoor environmental quality, but as one part of a wider sustainability scorecard.
WELL, by contrast, focuses exclusively on the occupant. Every requirement in WELL v2 is justified by evidence linking a specific building intervention to a specific human health outcome. IWBI works with physicians, epidemiologists and public health professionals. When you see a WELL requirement around air quality thresholds or lighting levels, those numbers come from evidence on what actually affects health.
The practical implication for occupiers is this: LEED and GBI tell you about how efficiently a building uses energy and resources. WELL tells you whether the building is actively supporting the health of the people inside it. A building can be LEED Platinum and simultaneously have poor air quality, inadequate natural light, oppressive acoustic design, and no meaningful mental health infrastructure. WELL closes that gap.
The most sophisticated approach — and increasingly the standard among leading MNCs — is to pursue both. JLL Malaysia’s dual WELL Gold and LEED Gold certification at TRX is the clearest Malaysian example of this combined approach: a workspace that is both environmentally responsible and genuinely healthy for its occupants.
Image alt text suggestion: JLL Malaysia’s WELL Gold and LEED Gold certified office interior at Menara IQ, TRX, showing biophilic design elements, height-adjustable desks, and abundant natural greenery.
WELL in Malaysia: Where the Market Stands
Malaysia’s WELL certification market is early-stage but moving quickly — accelerated by a combination of MNC ESG reporting requirements, the post-pandemic awakening to indoor environment quality, and the arrival of landmark certified spaces like JLL Malaysia’s TRX office.
Malaysia’s first WELL project was at Novartis’ headquarters in Selangor, alongside LEED Gold. Currently, a technology headquarters in TRX is aiming for WELL Platinum.
JLL Malaysia’s WELL Gold certification was awarded in December 2025, making it among the first professional services firms in Malaysia to secure both WELL Gold and LEED Gold certifications for the same workspace. The WELL Gold certification was awarded under WELL Building Standard v2, making it the first JLL office in the APAC region to achieve certification under this framework.
The Edge Malaysia reported in April 2026 that the strongest driver of WELL adoption in Malaysia is multinational organisations that need a standard they can defend globally — not just locally — and that supports talent, brand and ESG expectations in prime developments. This framing is accurate and important: WELL in Malaysia is not being driven by regulatory mandate but by the voluntary commitments that MNCs make to their global employees, investors, and corporate sustainability frameworks.
The practical consequence is that WELL demand in Malaysia is concentrated in the same buildings and precincts where international ESG expectations are already highest: TRX, KLCC, and the premium end of Bangsar South. Companies establishing or renewing a Malaysian presence under global green building and workplace wellness commitments will increasingly find that WELL certification — at the tenant fit-out level, if not at the whole-building level — is a component of their corporate real estate brief, not an optional extra.
What Does WELL Certification Cost?
Understanding the cost structure of WELL certification is important for any occupier considering it — and the numbers are more accessible than many expect.
The cost of certification starts with an enrolment fee of about RM12,000. The main WELL fee is 35 to 70 sen per sq ft, depending on whether it is a tenant space or a multi-tenant base building. On top of that, budget tens of thousands of ringgit — often RM40,000-plus — for performance testing; more if the project is large or complex.
For a 10,000 sq ft office — a typical mid-sized corporate tenancy — the total WELL certification cost including enrolment, WELL fees, performance testing, and WELL Accredited Professional engagement might run RM80,000 to RM150,000 over the certification cycle. This is not a trivial sum, but it needs to be measured against the right comparator.
When people account for roughly 90% of operating costs, even modest improvements in health and productivity can outweigh the certification spend. A half per cent productivity gain can deliver nearly 300% ROI.
The research behind this claim is not speculative. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Building and Environment tracked more than 1,300 people who moved from conventional offices into WELL-certified spaces. Satisfaction improved by 1.1 points on a 7-point scale. Perceived mental health rose from 41.7 to 51.7 while self-assessed productivity increased from 82.6 to 85.2.
For building owners and landlords, the economics look equally compelling. MIT research on healthy buildings found rent premiums in the range of roughly 4% to 8% in major US markets. In the Malaysian context, where WELL certification remains relatively rare and genuinely premium buildings already command meaningful premiums over the market average, the first-mover advantage for landlords who pursue WELL certification is potentially significant.
The WELL Certification Process: What to Expect
The process to becoming WELL certified can take between 10 and 18 months, and is done in five stages.
Stage 1: Registration. Sign up through WELL Online, define your project scope, and engage a WELL Accredited Professional (WELL AP) early — ideally before or during registration. The WELL AP understands the standard, knows the common failure points, and will steer you away from unnecessary spend. Bringing one in late usually costs more time and money than it saves.
Stage 2: Strategy, execution and documentation. Develop specific interventions across the 10 WELL concepts. This phase requires your architects, engineers and consultants to prepare documentation demonstrating how the project meets requirements. For existing occupied spaces or retrofits, the work becomes a mix of practical upgrades and operational discipline: ventilation and filtration strategy, water management, lighting and glare control, acoustics, thermal comfort tuning, materials and cleaning policies.
Stage 3: Documentation review. A third party evaluates all submissions through a preliminary and final review. Technical gaps result in feedback and an opportunity to resubmit — a quality control step that ensures the certification reflects genuine performance rather than paperwork compliance.
Stage 4: Performance verification. This is what distinguishes WELL from other certifications. A certified agent conducts a physical on-site inspection lasting one to three days, testing the actual space — air quality measurements, water samples, lighting levels, acoustic readings, and thermal comfort assessment. Documentation review and physical performance testing together provide a level of verification rigour that LEED and GBI do not routinely require at the same level of operational specificity.
Stage 5: Certification and recertification. Certification is awarded at Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Buildings must re-certify every three years, supported by annual reporting to ensure health standards are maintained — a feature that ensures WELL certification reflects ongoing operational commitment rather than a one-time achievement.
WELL Core: The Option for Multi-Tenant Buildings
A key practical detail for office tenants in multi-tenant buildings — which describes most of Greater KL’s commercial office stock — is the WELL Core certification pathway.
WELL Core is designed for multi-tenant buildings and focuses on the systems and spaces under the landlord’s control — the base building mechanical systems, common areas, building entrance and lobby, and shared amenity spaces. A WELL Core certification at the base building level does not require individual tenants to achieve WELL for their own fit-outs, but it provides a certified foundation of healthy building infrastructure that tenants can build on.
JLL Malaysia’s TRX headquarters operates within Menara IQ — itself a LEED Gold building. The WELL Gold certification JLL achieved covers its own 10,635 sq ft tenancy (a tenant-space certification) rather than the whole building. This is the most common pathway for corporate tenants who want WELL credentials for their specific workspace without requiring the entire building to certify.
For technology companies, financial institutions, and GBS operations establishing a Malaysian headquarters, the tenant-space WELL pathway is achievable within a standard fit-out budget and timeline — and delivers the same certification level as a whole-building approach, scoped to the space you actually control.
Why WELL Matters for KL Office Tenants Right Now
The convergence of several trends makes 2025 and 2026 the most important moment to understand WELL certification in Malaysia’s office market:
ESG reporting is tightening. MNCs reporting under TCFD, GRI, SASB, or their own published net zero commitments are increasingly required to demonstrate workplace wellbeing alongside environmental sustainability. WELL certification provides a documented, third-party verified credential for the people-side of ESG that LEED and GBI do not cover.
Talent expectations have shifted permanently. The hybrid work model has given employees the experience of working in genuinely comfortable home environments — and has raised their expectations for what coming into the office should feel like. Buildings that cannot deliver on air quality, thermal comfort, natural light, and acoustic design will face continued resistance to in-office attendance regardless of how attractive their address is.
The market is still early. The first-mover advantage for occupiers who certify in Malaysia is real. Being among the first companies in your sector to demonstrate WELL certification in Malaysia carries meaningful brand value with employees, clients, and investors — a value that will diminish as the standard becomes more widely adopted.
WELL and LEED together are becoming the new baseline. JLL Malaysia’s dual Gold certification at TRX has set a market reference point. As more companies pursue this combination, the building that offers only LEED or only GBI — without any wellness certification — will increasingly be seen as offering an incomplete ESG story.
FAQ
Is WELL Building Standard v2 different from the original WELL?
Yes. WELL v2 increased the number of concepts from 7 to 10, introduced a points-based scoring system similar to LEED, raised certification levels from 3 to 4 (adding Bronze), and reduced mandatory preconditions while expanding optional optimizations — giving project teams more flexibility to customise their certification path. It also consolidated previous pilot versions into a single unified standard applicable to all building types.
How long does WELL certification take?
The process typically takes between 10 and 18 months from registration to certification. For tenant-space certifications in an existing fit-out, the timeline can be compressed at the lower end of this range with an experienced WELL Accredited Professional guiding the project from the outset.
Can a tenant achieve WELL certification in a building that is not WELL certified?
Yes. Tenant-space WELL certification is entirely separate from the building’s base certification. A tenant can pursue and achieve WELL Gold for its own fit-out regardless of whether the building holds any WELL certification. The tenant’s WELL scope covers the systems and design elements within the leased space — air quality monitoring, lighting, ergonomics, materials, mental health policies, and community features — rather than the building’s central systems.
What is the difference between WELL Core and WELL for a tenant space?
WELL Core is the certification pathway for landlords and building owners, covering the base building systems and common areas under their control. Tenant-space WELL covers the individual fit-out and operational policies within a specific tenancy. The two can coexist in the same building — a WELL Core base building with individual tenants achieving their own WELL certifications — providing the most comprehensive wellness credentials available.
Which buildings in KL currently have WELL certification?
As of June 2026, JLL Malaysia’s headquarters at Menara IQ, TRX holds WELL Gold certification (achieved December 2025), making it the first JLL office in APAC certified under WELL v2 and among the first dual WELL Gold and LEED Gold certified professional services workspaces in Malaysia. Novartis Malaysia’s headquarters in Selangor was Malaysia’s first WELL certified project. A technology company in TRX is reported to be pursuing WELL Platinum — which, if achieved, would be the highest WELL certification in Malaysia to date.
Does WELL certification require a new building or can existing offices be certified?
WELL can be applied to any space — new builds, existing offices, retrofit projects, and even tenant fit-outs within existing buildings. Many WELL certifications are achieved in existing occupied spaces through a mix of operational upgrades (air quality monitoring, water filtration, cleaning protocols), design interventions (lighting, ergonomic furniture, biophilic elements), and policy changes (mental health programmes, nutrition initiatives). The WELL AP coordinates the work and ensures the evidence is properly documented.
Conclusion
WELL Building Standard v2 represents something genuinely new in Malaysia’s commercial real estate conversation — a certification system that asks not how efficiently a building uses energy, but whether it is actively good for the people who spend most of their working hours inside it.
For office tenants, the standard provides a structured, evidence-based framework for making a health and wellbeing commitment to your workforce that goes beyond marketing language and can be independently verified. For landlords, it offers a rent premium pathway and a future-proofing credential that resonates with the most demanding MNC and ESG-conscious occupiers in the market. For investors, it provides a quality signal in a market where distinguishing genuinely healthy buildings from those that merely claim to be is increasingly important to asset value.
JLL Malaysia’s WELL Gold at TRX in December 2025 was not a symbolic gesture. It was the opening of a new chapter in how Kuala Lumpur’s best occupiers and landlords will think about what a Grade A office building is actually for — and what it genuinely owes to the people inside it.
Internal Links
- → Guide to Green-Certified Office Buildings in Kuala Lumpur
- → KLCC vs TRX: Which Office Address Is Right for Your Business?
- → Understanding Hybrid Work and Office Design in KL
- → Premium Grade A Office Space in KLCC
- → Office Listings: TRX and Jalan Tun Razak Corridor
Related Articles
- GBI Certified Office Buildings in Kuala Lumpur
- ESG Office Buildings in Kuala Lumpur
- Grade A vs Grade B Office Performance in Malaysia
- TRX vs Merdeka 118: KL’s Two New Icons
- Integra Tower — LEED Platinum & GBI Platinum Guide
- KL Office Market Outlook 2026
References
- International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) — WELL Certification v2 Official Page
https://www.wellcertified.com/certification/v2/ - IWBI — WELL v2 Architecture: Preconditions and Optimizations
https://support.wellcertified.com/hc/en-us/articles/25652808225687-Understand-the-architecture-of-WELL-v2 - JLL Malaysia — JLL Malaysia Achieves WELL Certified Gold for New KL Headquarters (December 12, 2025)
https://www.jll.com/en-sea/newsroom/jll-malaysia-achieves-well-certifiedtm-gold-for-new-kuala-lumpur-headquarters - The Edge Malaysia — Know Your Stuff: WELL Certification (April 27, 2026)
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/800304 - EdgeProp.my — JLL Malaysia KL HQ Gains WELL Gold Following LEED Gold (December 13, 2025)
https://www.edgeprop.my/content/1914757/jll-malaysia-kl-hq-gains-well-gold-following-leed-gold - Consulting-Specifying Engineer — Understanding WELL v2 Certification
https://www.csemag.com/understanding-well-v2-certification/ - Ongreening — WELL Rating System: 5-Minute Guide
https://ongreening.com/well-rating-system-5-minute-guide/ - US Green Building Council / IWBI — WELL v2 Official Standard Document
https://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/WELL%20Building%20Standard.pdf - The Edge Malaysia — The Next Property Trend: Building for Wellness (2019)
https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/next-property-trend-building-wellness
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Why Tenants Should Care About WELL
- Measurable staff productivity: WELL-certified buildings demonstrate measurable improvements in cognitive performance, sleep quality, and reduced absenteeism — translating to quantifiable productivity gains.
- ESG reporting value: Multinational occupiers with parent-company ESG commitments can credibly report workplace wellbeing performance through WELL’s standardised metrics.
- Talent attraction and retention: Premium wellbeing environments are increasingly a differentiator in competitive talent markets — particularly for knowledge-worker employers.
- Client perception: Hosting clients in a WELL-certified environment makes a statement about company values and the quality of the working environment that traditional Grade A specification alone cannot.
Limitations and Considerations
- Rent premium: WELL-certified buildings typically command rent premiums — occupiers should quantify the productivity and wellbeing returns against the additional cost.
- Limited supply in KL: WELL certification remains uncommon in the Malaysian market — the universe of certified buildings is small, limiting choice for occupiers specifically seeking WELL premises.
- Certification maintenance: WELL certification requires ongoing performance and annual reporting — buildings need active management commitment to maintain standards over time.
- WELL vs. operational realities: Certification measures building performance under standard conditions — actual occupier experience depends on how the building is managed and how tenants use the space.
Who Should Prioritise WELL-Certified Buildings
- Multinational corporations with global ESG and workplace wellbeing reporting commitments
- Financial institutions and professional services firms using office quality as a talent differentiation strategy
- Technology companies competing for knowledge workers who have multiple employer options
- Healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences firms for whom staff wellbeing aligns with company purpose
- Any organisation where reducing absenteeism and improving cognitive performance delivers measurable financial return
