ASSOCIATION NEWS Green Business Certification Inc. and Canada Green Building Council join together to advance the WELL Building Standard Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) have announced a new agreement to promote and ad- vance the WELL Building Standard (WELL) in Canada. The WELL Building Standard is a performance-based system for meas- uring, certifying and monitoring fea- tures that impact human health and wellbeing, through air, water, nourish- ment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. It complements other green building rating systems such as LEED. “As GBCI and CaGBC come to- gether to advance WELL in Canada, we take an important next step in the development of better, healthy build- ings across the globe,” said GBCI president Mahesh Ramanujam. “Just as LEED has transformed the building sector to address environmental ac- countability, WELL will further that vi- sion by focusing deeply on the people in the buildings and providing devel- opers and owners with a new way to account for health and human occu- pancy challenges.” Grounded in a body of medical re- search that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend more than 90 per cent of our time and the health and wellness of the people in them, WELL measures attributes of the built environment by looking at seven concepts and more than 100 features that address behav- ior, design and operations. “The Canada Green Building Coun- cil is excited to be working with GBCI, our long-standing partner, to bring the WELL standard to Canada,” said CaGBC president and CEO Thomas Mueller. “We have made a commit- ment to improving the environmental performance of buildings and homes, and now we also want to ensure that buildings provide a healthy and pro- ductive environment for occupants. The WELL standard is a timely addi- tion to CaGBC’s programs, as health and wellness in the workplace is in- creasingly recognized as an important element in attracting and retaining employees.” WELL certification allows building owners and employers to know their space is performing as intended to support human health and wellness. WELL can be applied across all build- ing types and is currently optimized for commercial and institutional proj- ects. WELL is administered by the In- ternational WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI) and is third-party certified by GBCI. The new agreement between GBCI and the CaGBC will bolster the adop- tion of WELL in Canada by aligning the business and administrative processes used to implement WELL in the U.S. with the demands of the Canadian market. The CaGBC has a long-standing relationship with both USGBC and GBCI, the certification body for USGBC’s LEED green build- ing program, partnering to deliver LEED in Canada. To date, there are more than 5,300 LEED projects in Canada, amounting to more than 79 million gross square meters of space, making Canada the top producer of LEED projects outside of the U.S. “GBCI and CaGBC joining forces will help grow the healthy building movement by bringing health and wellness into Canada’s indoor environ- ments through the WELL Building Standard,” said IWBI founder Paul Scialla. “With this agreement, we see tremendous opportunity for the well- ness, sustainability, and real estate communities in Canada to come to- gether to support human health through the built environment.” As GBCI aims to introduce WELL in markets spanning the globe, CaGBC will provide additional capacity and support in one of the most important and promising arenas for high-perfor- mance building development. To learn more about the WELL Building Stan- dard, visit http://WELLcertified.com. Crane and Rigging Conference to focus on Canadian standards and competency issues The Crane and Rigging Conference (CRC) Canada has been scheduled for Nov. 9 and 10 in Edmonton. The Canadian Hoisting and Rigging Safety Council (CHRSC), based in Ot- tawa, works with crane industry stake- holders across Canada to facilitate harmonization of regulations between jurisdictions and is co-ordinating the conference. “The council looks forward to pro- viding crane and rigging stakeholders with an update of its efforts to facili- tate harmonization of standards, inter- national reciprocity for mobile crane and tower crane operator credentials, and development of national demon- stration of skills tests,” said CHRSC chair Tim Bennett. Bennett, also a vice-president with NCSG Crane and Heavy Haul Services, said the council “has supported CRC Canada since it launched five years ago as a forum for crane and rigging professionals from a variety of indus- tries to discuss safety, productivity, and personnel issues.” Sessions will focus on people, processes and productivity issues. For more information see www.craneandriggingconference.com. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — July-August 2015 – 15