Green Building Standards Integration

Leveraging Informed™ to Achieve Healthy Material Priorities

Informed offers an efficient and impactful way to achieve healthy material priorities while satisfying the requirements of leading third-party green building standards including WELL, Enterprise Green Communities, and LEED. With actionable product guidance and tools for benchmarking and assessment, Informed provides insights and analysis that can streamline material selection and documentation. Below are details on the specific requirements of how Informed integrates into each rating system.

Informed is integrated into the 2025-26 MN Overlay to the 2020 Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, which encourages optional points for education, benchmarking, and the selection of healthier products. Three main options specific to healthy material selection are:

  1. Criteria 1.8: Education on Actionable Solutions for Healthier Material Selection (Optional 4 points)
    1. This is a new criterion under Category 1: Integrative Design. The criterion requires project team members to attend training offered by Habitable and include Informed Product Guidance in key documents, including specifications.
    2. Training is now available as a webinar recording. Watch the video and complete the quiz linked at the end to receive a certificate of completion, to be used as documentation of meeting this credit.
  2. Criteria 6.4: Healthy Material Selection (Optional 15 points Maximum)
    1. Option 1: Healthy Materials Benchmarking (Optional 5 points)
      This criterion requires teams to generate a project benchmark to understand current material health performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Criteria 1.8 is mandatory for projects pursuing Criteria 6.4. To benchmark, download and use the Informed Assessment Form.
    2. Option 2: Healthier Material Selection (Optional 10 Points)
      This criterion requires project teams to eliminate red-ranked product types and prefer those ranked yellow and green, which are healthier options.

Under the WELL for residential program updated in February 2026, project teams can earn 1-2 points toward Part 1: Utilize Integrative Design to Inform Building Product Selection, by using Informed product guidance, under the R-X02 New Materials Selection Feature. To be eligible, projects must be either new construction or refinishing at least 50% of interiors AND intends to install or apply products in at least three of the following six product categories: Paints, Flooring, Cabinetry, Drywall, Countertops, or Insulation.

To achieve this feature, using the Informed Assessment Form, meet at least 1 of the 2 requirements below to earn up to 2 points:

  1. Conduct an assessment of all product types intended to be installed in the applicable product categories. (Optional 1 point), OR
  2. Select only product types that are not red ranked in the applicable categories and document selections using the Informed Assessment Form. (Optional 2 points)

Visit the WELL for residential Guidebook for more details about the feature and its implementation.

Informed is integrated into the 2026 Green Communities Criteria for material health screening, helping project teams set themselves up for success in healthier material selection.

Through the new 2026 criterion, 6.1 Product Category Screening, project teams can achieve an optional 4 points by performing both a material health and an embodied carbon screening. Use Informed to meet the following material health screening requirements:

  • During the concept or schematic design phase, use the Informed Assessment Form to screen at least three of the following categories for material health impacts: Wet-applied interior adhesives and sealants; Exterior wall cladding; Flooring; Insulation; Interior paint; Composite wood.
  • Document the results in the EGC 6.1 Materials Screening Template, and identify opportunities to reduce impacts by avoiding or reducing the use of red-ranked product types or further preferring yellow and green.
  • Share the results with team members, including designers, general contractor, relevant trades, and sustainability consultants for consideration when selecting products, writing specifications, and procuring products and materials.

The Informed Assessment Form output can also provide guidance to help teams ensure they can meet mandatory criteria and optional points in 6.4 Advanced Material Selection, which offers up to 31 points.

NYC Overlay Note: In addition to meeting the mandatory criteria in 6.4, the NYC Overlay requires teams to earn a minimum of 4 optional points from this criterion.

For resources related to the 2020 version of Green Communities, see Meeting 2020 Green Communities Criteria with Informed.

Habitable is currently piloting a materials-focused innovation credit with LEED that includes an integrative design approach to selecting and specifying healthier materials. Contact to learn more details about the credit.

Informed product guidance uses semantic versioning to better support projects in progress while allowing updates to our guidance over time as the market changes and our research uncovers more information. Major version releases (e.g. v3 compared to v2) include substantive changes to the assessment form and guidance such as new product types, new color rankings, or additional categories. Habitable recommends using a single Major release version throughout a given project. The most recent version is shown by default, but you can select prior versions when you download an assessment form and at the upper right of each product guidance category page. Note that a single version number applies to all product guidance categories. Not all product categories are updated in each version.