What is BREEAM?

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings; since it was first launched in 1990, over 200,000 buildings have certified BREEAM assessment ratings and over a million have been registered for assessment.

BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance.

A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.

A Certificated BREEAM assessment is delivered by a licensed organisation, using assessors trained under a UKAS accredited competent person scheme, at various stages in a buildings life cycle. This provides clients, developers, designers, planners and others with:

• Market recognition for low environmental impact buildings
• Confidence that tried and tested environmental practice is incorporated in the building
• Inspiration to find innovative solutions that minimise the environmental impact
• A benchmark that is higher than regulation
• A system to help reduce running costs, improve working and living environments
• A standard that demonstrates progress towards corporate and organisational environmental objectives

What does BREEAM DO?

BREEAM addresses wide-ranging environmental and sustainability issues and enables developers, designers and building managers to demonstrate the environmental credentials of their buildings to clients, planners and other interested parties.

BREEAM:

• Uses a straightforward scoring system that is transparent, flexible, easy to understand and supported by evidence-based science and research,
• Has a positive influence on the design, construction and management of buildings,
• Defines and maintains a robust technical standard with rigorous quality assurance and certification.

BREEAM 2011

Until recently the latest version of BREEAM was 2008, but this has now been replaced by BREEAM 2011. However, whereas in previous versions of BREEAM there was a separate scheme for each type of non domestic development, BREEAM 2011 brings the complete range of building types into a single scheme. This includes:

Offices
Industrial units
Retail
Schools
Healthcare
Further Education
Higher Education
Multi-residential
Prisons
Courts
Other Building Types

Although BREEAM is primarily non domestic, BREEAM 2011 can be applied to buildings containing ‘rooms for residential purposes’ and/or self-contained dwellings with communal facilities such as catering, leisure, communal lounges and other communal spaces (as defined in the 2010 Building Regulations, see below). The Code and EcoHomes schemes can only be used to assess self-contained dwellings and cannot be used for assessing ‘rooms for residential purposes’ or any communal/non-domestic spaces outside of a self-contained dwelling.

Examples of multi-residential building types that can be assessed under BREEAM New Construction 2011 as multi-residential building types include (but not exhaustive):

• Residential care home
• Sheltered accommodation
• Residential college/school (halls of residence)
• Local authority secure residential accommodation
• Military barracks

The scope of BREEAM 2011 will initially exclude the recently released data centres scheme (re-launched in May 2010), which will remain as a 2010 version for the time being.

To ensure alignment with the BRE Global Code for a Sustainable Built Environment the BREEAM 2011 version has become and is now referred to as the BREEAM ‘New Construction’ scheme.

What is BREEAM New Construction

BREEAM New Construction is a performance based assessment method and certification scheme for new buildings. The primary aim of BREEAM New Construction is to mitigate the life cycle impacts of new buildings on the environment in a robust and cost effective manner. This is achieved through integration and use of the scheme by clients and their project teams at key stages in the design and procurement process. This enables the client, through the BREEAM Assessor and the BRE Global certification process, to measure, evaluate and reflect the performance of their building against best practice in an independent and robust manner. This performance is quantified by a number of individual measures and associated criteria stretching across a range of environmental issues.

Timing the engagement with and use of BREEAM via the BREEAM Assessor is essential for ensuring seamless integration of the methodology in the procurement process. Without this, the ability to cost effectively optimise the building’s environmental performance and achieve the desired rating will be compromised. Appointing a BREEAM Assessor early in the project will help in achieving the target rating without undue impacts on the flexibility of design decisions, budgets and potential solutions.

It is important to recognise that BREEAM reflects the overall performance of the building rather than the opportunities or limitations placed on specific stakeholders involved in the procurement process. This means that the client, design team, principal contractor and BREEAM Assessor, as well as other specialist disciplines, have an important role to play if the desired performance level is to be achieved and reflected through the certified BREEAM rating. However, the onus of orientating the brief towards sustainability needs to come first and foremost from the client. To facilitate this BRE Global recommends that clients and their project teams engage with a BREEAM Assessor no later than RIBA stage B and ideally sooner. This will ensure that realistic targets are set and can be met, appropriate responsibilities can be defined and understood and low or no cost solutions to environmental impacts can be sought and applied wherever possible.

Under the 2011 version, there are no longer separate individual ‘assessor guidance manuals’ for each building/sector type (as was the case under BREEAM 2008). BREEAM 2011 consists of a single, consolidated scheme document containing all ‘new construction’ assessment issues and criteria relevant to the range of non domestic building types assessed using BREEAM in the UK. BREEAM continues to maintain assessment criteria specific to the range of building functions, sector stakeholders and end-users covered by its scope. This makes the scheme more flexible for use on mixed use buildings and aids clarity and consistency in the implementation of the method.

As the scope of BREEAM 2011 has shifted to new construction only, the 2011 version has not been designed specifically for the assessment of refurbishment and fit-out projects (as was the case under BREEAM 2008 via refurbishment/fit out specific benchmarks and criteria). If you have a refurbishment requirement, let us know and we will help to determine the correct method to use.