What is BREEAM
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's longest established and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings.
It sets the standards for best practice in sustainable development and demonstrates a level of achievement.
It has become the defacto measure of a building's environmental performance. Created by BRE (Building Research Establishment) BREEAM is a tried and tested system both in terms of its robust technical standards and its commercial delivery, especially the independence of its licensing, quality assurance and certification process.
In the UK there are over 100,000 commercial buildings certified and nearly 700,000 homes currently registered for assessment. BREEAM certification is undertaken by licensed assessors, ensuring that assessment services are offered competitively by assessors working within a rigorous quality assurance framework.
BRE Global trains examines and licenses organisations and individuals to carry out the assessment process and work with the design team. The BREEAM approval has provided the framework for derivative methodologies in many countries.
What are the benefits of BREEAM?
Traditional building methods can result in high energy usage, large quantities of waste, poor occupancy comfort and low user satisfaction.
BREEAM can address these environmental impacts and offer a range of benefits to all involved with buildings.
A BREEAM assessed development can mean:
* Enhanced functionality, flexibility, maintainability and durability
* Lower embodied and operational environmental impacts
* High user satisfaction, quality and control
BREEAM buildings bring environmental, economic and social benefits including:
* Demonstrating compliance with the environmental requirements from occupiers, planners, development agencies and developers
* Supporting a corporate environmental strategy
* Creating better workplaces, homes or leisure facilities
* Increasing the marketability of a development both in terms of desirability and rentals
* Demonstrating good and best practice
How does BREEAM work?
BREEAM assesses the performance of buildings in the following areas:
* Management: overall management policy, commissioning site management and procedural issues
* Energy use: operational energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) issues
* Health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health and well being
* Pollution: air and water pollution issues
* Transport: transport-related CO2 and location-related factors
* Land use: green and brownfield sites
* Ecology: ecological value conservation and enhancement of the site
* Materials: environmental implication of building materials, including life-cycle impacts
* Water: consumption and water efficiency
Credits are awarded in each area according to performance. A set of environmental weightings then enables the credits to be added together to produce a single overall score. The building is then rated on a scale of PASS, GOOD, VERY GOOD or EXCELLENT.
NG Bailey has recently completed a number of BREEAM 'Excellent' rated projects for clients. These include The Scottish National Heritage building in Inverness, which achieved a rating of 84 per cent, which at the time of completion was the highest rated Excellent BREEAM building in the UK.
The Home Offices' Vulcan House in Sheffield, which has also achieved an 'Excellent' rating from BREEAM - the first for any building in Sheffield, it will operate as a HFC-free environment with no ozone-depleting gases. This development is considered a benchmark in sustainability and energy management.