Making sense of the standards
The main standards fall into two families: those that measure how a building treats the people inside it, and those that measure how the building itself performs.
WELL
focuses on the people inside, across ten concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community. Thorough, and priced for corporate budgets.
What it costs
Around €2,500 to enrol, then about €1.50 per m² with a floor of roughly €7,000, plus on-site performance testing from about €13,000. For a 1,500 m² office that comes to somewhere near €22,000 in scheme fees. IWBI members and projects in emerging markets pay less. (International WELL Building Institute)
Fitwel
The more accessible health certification: no mandatory preconditions, no on-site testing, and review within sixteen weeks.
What it costs
Around €450 to register, then a flat fee of about €6,500 for any workplace under 4,600 m², which means a 1,500 m² office pays the same as one three times the size. (Center for Active Design)
BREEAM
Measures the building's environmental performance: energy, water, materials, waste. Across Europe, and in the Netherlands in particular, it has become the effective baseline for a new building.
What it costs
A €600 deposit at registration, set against a certification fee of €0.88 per m² for a new build or renovation under 5,000 m², so roughly €1,300 for a 1,500 m² office. For an existing building of that size, BREEAM-NL In-Use costs €2,550. DGBC partners pay about a quarter less. The BREEAM Expert and Assessor are engaged and paid separately. (BREEAM-NL, tariff schedule 2026)
LEED
The US-born rating, concerned like BREEAM with how the building performs; widely used on international projects.
What it costs
€1,496 to register, or €1,188 for USGBC members, then a combined design and construction review from €2,222 for an interior fit-out. At 1,500 m² an office pays that review minimum rather than the per-m² rate, so call it around €3,700 in total. (US Green Building Council)
NOTE: Fees are given for a mid-range office of around 1,500 m², at standard non-member rates. WELL and Fitwel bill in US dollars; their euro figures here are rounded conversions at the time of writing (€1 = $1.1614).
The case, in numbers
It isn't just a gut feeling. The case for future-fitting is backed by research too.
+61% / +101%
In a controlled study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 24 participants scored 61 per cent higher on cognitive-function tests in simulated green building conditions than in conventional ones, and 101 per cent higher in green conditions with enhanced ventilation. (COGfx Study 1, 2016)
+15% / +6%
The Human Spaces study of 7,600 employees across 16 countries, including the Netherlands, found that workers in offices with natural elements such as greenery and daylight report 15 per cent higher wellbeing and are 6 per cent more productive than those in workplaces without them.
~90%
The World Green Building Council puts staff, salaries and benefits at around 90 per cent of a typical business’s operating costs, against roughly 9 per cent on rent and 1 per cent on energy, which is why even a modest gain in how well people work outweighs what a healthier building costs to build in.
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