BREEAM Assessment

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What Is BREEAM?

BREEAM stands for Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology. To masterplan projects, infrastructure, and buildings, the Environmental Assessment Method is employed. Learn more about BREEAM, including what it measures, the benefits it provides, how popular it is, and what to expect in the future.

The BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is a method for assessing the sustainability of projects, infrastructure, and buildings. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) established the Green Building Council in 1990 to create standards for the environmental performance of buildings during the design, specification, construction, and operation phases. These standards can be applied to new developments or refurbishment projects.

Certified BREEAM Assessors

BREEAM Assessment is the technique used to evaluate the design and the building specification of your construction. This can include your energy, water usage, management process and even the materials waste and ecology.

BREEAM is the industry standard for best practice in sustainable building designs, and our team of highly experienced assessors understand the BREEAM ratings that you need to meet.

Why use BREEAM?

BREEAM works by addressing a wide range of issues and this allows designers and developers to demonstrate the various credentials of their building to other parties that may be involved.

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What Is BREEAM And Why Should You Use It?

BREEAM is the international standard for assessing the sustainability of the built environment. BREEAM places at high amount of emphasis on how materials and methods used in construction can be cost-effective, and be beneficial to the people occupying the building. 

BREEAM works by addressing a wide range of issues and this allows designers and developers to demonstrate the various credentials of their building to other parties that may be involved.

BREEAM Assessments can be broken down into the following categories:

Energy

This encourages the construction of energy-efficient buildings whose operations are supported for sustainable development and zero-emission targets.

Health and Wellbeing 

This category is focused on ensuring the maximum quality of life for the occupant of the building and those who live in the vicinity

Innovation

The BREEAM Assessments rewards innovations in building design and development.

Materials

Reduce the environmental impact of materials used through the construction phase of the building project. 

Pollution 

This category looks to ensure that the pollution caused by the building’s construction and use is kept to a minimum. As well as air pollution, this part of the BREEAM Assessment looks into the noise and light pollution that comes front he building.

Waste 

The category of the BREEAM Assessment addresses the amount of waste materials used during the construction process and in the future building maintenance.

Water 

This focuses on reducing the water wasted during the building’s operation, often through leaks. 

Land use

This category looks into the sustainability of the land that the building sits on and the effects on the local environment and habitats surrounding the building.

Management

This category encourages sustainable management practices during the building’s design, development, and ongoing maintenance.

How Do BREEAM Assessments Work?

A BREEAM Assessment can take place at any stage of the building process, from the planning stage to the construction phase, and even for refurbishment or renovations

BREEAM Assessments are calculated with a 5-star ratings that judges a building project as either Acceptable, Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding.

Public Sector Requirements For BREEAM Assessments

Since 2008, there are a large number of government departments and various other public sector bodies that encourage or require BREEAM. This includes the NHS, Social Services and more.

There is also a BREEAM requirements that are set for schools that depend on whether or not you are having a refurbishment or a new build.

BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment

BREEAM domestic refurbishment was previously known as being EcoHomes and it launched in June 2012. We were one of the first licensed organisations to take part in this in the United Kingdom. All of our assessors have a very high level of involvement when it comes to pilot case studies and we have worked on pre-assessments in the past as well so as you can see, BREEAM refurbishment really is one of our strong points. Our BREEAM 2008 for fit-out and refurbishment assessors are friendly, experienced and they love what they do as well so you know you won’t have any problems there.

BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment – What is it?

The assessment evaluates the credentials of the project and this is all based on the standard of quality that is present for over 200,000 buildings across the world. This is otherwise known as the BREEAM certification scheme but there is a difference. Domestic refurbishments deal with existing buildings and the new scheme allows you to show your environmental credentials as well as helping you to offer a higher level of confidence to your clients.

What Does BREEAM Do?

The scheme helps homeowners to save on operating costs as well as helping them to reduce the impact of the refurbishment in general.

Who Can Use It?

The scheme allows Green Deal advisors, developers and even designers to promote a better design. It can also help those who manage assets to set up certain standards when it comes to refurbishment and it keeps it on a higher level of quality as well.

Why Use It?

The UK is completely committed to lowering Co2 emissions and this needs to be done by over 80% by the year 2050. It is also stated that 78% of the UK buildings will still be in operation by this time so it is now more important than ever for you to maintain a high standard of performance in all of your buildings.

How Does It Work?

The BREEAM scheme helps you by providing you with a methodology and a certification for those who are responsible for delivering refurbishment projects. It can be used for a lot more as well and this includes situations where alterations are made and domestic conversions as well. So as you can see, BREEAM is used for a wide range of applications and it is very important for you to have someone who can work with you to get the very best result from your planning so you can avoid any problems in the future. We can help you with that, and we are more than capable of meeting the required standards the first time around.