**14. Sustainable building standards and criteria (modification and update for certification programs)**

Reviewed literature on this matter indicated proposals to health-promoting strategies in the design and operation of the built environment to combat pandemics, simultaneously to address other chronic conditions [9, 31, 43, 45]. A thesis report titled "How Can Architecture Make Communities and Urban Environments More Resilient to Disease? September 2020" by Jeffrey A. Garofalo supports these suggestions through a proposal certification program named Dr. Wellbe. This proposed new certification program takes into consideration the role that airflow, light, spatial design, nature, and the treatment of materials can play in infection control by promoting design standards that are more resilient than the current market and that can protect the public during a pandemic [9]. Also, other reviewed literature showed that architectural certifications such as BREAM, LEED, and similar others programs may need to implement similar guidelines for public health [31].

BREAM, LEED, Fitwel, and other initiatives led by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and General Services Administration (GSA) do take into consideration health and wellbeing, with topics such as daylighting, outdoor view, glare control, indoor air quality plan, indoor air quality ventilation, thermal comfort, internal and external lighting, indoor pollutants, and quality views or acoustic performance in their guidelines criteria. But these guideline criteria for certification do not address or assess virus transmission [31].

Therefore, the authors suggest including within LEED and other similar programs criteria clauses on healthy buildings; this will encourage architects, developers, design teams, and building managers to design and retrofit spaces with health-giving attributes as well as enhance the existing standards for ventilation and IAQ across all of the building certification programs.
