BREEAM – A sustainable built environment
This is the most widely used sustainability assessment method in infrastructure and buildings, applied in over 70 countries. Founded in 1990 by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) who have been going for over 100 years, this makes sure the performance of buildings from the design, construction, and operation, through to the life of the building, are sustainable to reduce the impact on the environment. It was updated in 1998 to include more types of buildings to grow with progress.
Independent licenced assessors will carry out an assessment evaluating against a range of categories which include:
Energy – Reduction of Carbon emissions.
Land use and ecology – Sustainable land use, habitat protection and creation.
Water – To reduce water demand through installation of energy efficient systems.
Health and Wellbeing – Improve the health and wellbeing of building users.
Pollution – Prevention and control of light, noise and air emission pollution.
Transport – Sustain and improve means of transport to amenities, public transport, reduction in car journeys to reduce congestion and CO2 emissions.
Materials – Sourced to have a low impact over the life of the building, including processing, manufacturing and recycling.
Waste – A waste stream which is a material/product recycling process.
Management – Encourages developers to adopt sustainable management throughout a building’s life cycle.
Each category focusses on the most important factors, including reduced carbon emissions, low impact design, ecological and biodiversity support and protection, adaption to climate change. A minimum rating must be met also called a ‘Green Building Rating’ to be awarded a BREEAM certificate.
Benefits of this include enhanced health and wellbeing on the community, lower design, construction, and maintenance costs, helping to limit developer risk in building for the future, making a building more attractive, allowing our plant and wildlife habitat to continue to thrive, reducing our carbon footprint.
BREEAM continues to evolve, and more and more clients and Local Authorities may stipulate the use of BREEAM in new developments or refurbishments. All in all, the aim is to create a sustainable built environment in which we can all enjoy a better and safer place to work and live in.
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