Briefing: BREEAM—making what is important measurable

Environmental effects from building stock in the UK are extremely high. For example, approximately 50% of UK CO₂ emissions results from the operation of buildings1 such as homes, offices, schools, shops and leisure facilities. This figure alone is significant but rises to 75% if CO₂ emissions from the manufacture and transport of construction materials and transport CO₂ emissions (usually taking us from one building to another) are also included. This means that three quarters of the UK CO₂ emissions are attributable in one way or another to the building industry.

This is just one reason why the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (EPBD) is essential. However, while energy is a critical part of the sustainability debate, it is not the whole picture. The impact of water, natural resources, embodied energy, land use, ecology, other emissions and even the internal building environment should also be considered. This is the view of a number of key construction industry clients such as the Office of Government Commerce, the Housing Corporation, the Welsh Development Agency/Welsh Assembly Government, English Partnerships and an increasing number of regional development agencies and local authorities, all of which now specify the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for their new buildings or buildings on their land to allow developers to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability as part of the planning process.

BREEAM was created in 1990 to assess the environmental performance of office buildings. It has since been expanded to assess a number of different building types including homes, industrial units, retail outlets, schools, courts and prisons and looks at new build, refurbishment and existing buildings. It is regarded by the UK's construction and property sectors as the measure for best practice in environmental design and management and this is increasingly becoming the international view. Using a bespoke method (tailored to match the circumstances of the building or the climate), BREEAM can be used to assess buildings anywhere in the world. The New Building, European Investment Bank in Luxembourg and the Van der Kamp Bakery Building in Los Angeles City College, California have BREEAM ratings and clients in India, Dubai, Qatar and Spain (among others) have also expressed interest in using the scheme. In 2005 BREEAM won the coveted Best Program Award at the 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference held in Tokyo. The award was given in recognition of BREEAM's status as the most successfully executed programme for promoting sustainable building practices and influencing other initiatives worldwide.

The rapid expansion and interest in environmental assessment tools such as BREEAM, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, used in the USA and Canada) and HQE (Haute Qualité Environnementale, used in France) can be attributed to a number of reasons. Certainly the political climate is right and sustainability is high on media and political agendas. These, however, are not the only reasons and it would have been easy for BREEAM to fall by the wayside had it not been robust, easy to adopt and forward thinking in its approach.

BREEAM is a credits-based system. Each building is awarded credits for achieving particular performance targets within the following areas

• management

• health and well being

• energy

• transport

• water

• materials and waste

• land use and ecology

• pollution.

The scores in each of the sections above are weighted and then summed together to provide a single score that is reflected as a BREEAM rating of pass, good, very good or excellent.

Some credits are cost effective and easy to achieve if given some thought at the design stage (e.g. low flush toilets, low water use appliances). Others are slightly more difficult to implement (e.g. the use of certified timber) and some push the boundaries of best practice (e.g. a sliding scale for operational energy with the highest marks awarded to a carbon neutral building).

The scheme is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that the requirements are ahead of regulations and in line with best practice. Therefore the 2006 very good rating is a higher standard than the 2005 very good rating. The 2006 version of BREEAM, launched in April this year, reflects the changes to the new Building Regulations Part L, in addition to a standard review of all credits.

While some of the easier targets within BREEAM have been criticised as ‘not going far enough’ it is important to remember that BREEAM is aimed at moving the mass building market higher up the scale of environmental performance. While exemplar and showcase buildings score well if assessed under BREEAM, BREEAM was not developed to encourage such types of buildings to improve performance. Exemplars are likely to perform well whether BREEAM exists or not. The range of performance levels required by BREEAM has allowed the method to penetrate the mainstream building industry, encouraging a large number of buildings to improve their environmental standards.

Current building standards can result in

• high defects and low reliability

• high usage of energy, water, waste, materials

• poor conditions and low user satisfaction.

A BREEAM assessed development can mean

• functionality, flexibility, maintainability, durability

• minimised sum of embodied and operational impacts

• high user satisfaction, quality and control.

The BREEAM method is also designed to be flexible. None of the credits are mandatory but the overall score across all credits determines the final rating. This approach has resulted in significant ‘buy in’ from the industry, allowing companies to familiarise themselves with the requirements and adapt their approach accordingly without significantly raising client costs or disregarding BREEAM as unworkable and unrealistic. This flexibility also allows, for example, clients in the south east to specify a BREEAM very good rating in addition to achieving ‘at least 50% of the water credits’, but does not insist that this is also appropriate for clients in the Scottish Highlands. While this ‘flexible’ approach has been praised by some parties it has, however, been criticised by others. As a consequence of this feedback BRE is considering how minimum standards could be set while still maintaining the relevance of BREEAM in all regions and without upsetting the economic third of the sustainability equation.

BREEAM is popular with clients because it is easy to specify a performance standard (pass, good, very good, excellent). Furthermore, it is a third-party certification scheme making the assessment independent (BRE owns and maintains the method and trains consultants, engineers, architects, local authorities and many other construction professionals to carry out the assessments). It is popular within the industry because it sets tangible targets that are easy to understand and provides all parties with a mechanism of reflecting and recognising good environmental performance. BREEAM therefore allows design teams, planners, development agencies, managers and developers to specify the sustainability performance of their buildings in a way that is quick, comprehensive and visible in the marketplace.

2005 saw the debut of the annual BREEAM awards, recognising the highest performing building that year under each of the main BREEAM schemes. The BREEAM team have high hopes that the industry will follow in the footsteps of the winners.

The Scottish Natural Heritage Headquarters is situated in Westercraig, Inverness (Fig. 1). The architect on this build was Keppie Design and the lead contractor was Robertson Property Ltd. The credits awarded to the building are shown in Table 1.

The main part of the headquarters is a three-storey office providing open-plan office spaces and meeting rooms. It has an atrium running along the western side housing the reception, a display area and other amenities. This atrium links to two other main parts of the building, an oval library section and a courtyard with ancillary buildings (meeting rooms, IT support etc). The key features of this build are

• comfortable and efficient internal environment, lighting, heating and ventilation

• low water use due to appropriate fittings, leak-detection and proximity-detection facilities

• enhancement of the ecological value of the site

• extensive use of certified timber

• re-use of a site that was previously contaminated

• effective stakeholder consultation

• good commissioning procedures.

This modern development near Rugby, Warwickshire (Fig. 2) boasts many environmentally friendly features that place it significantly ahead of the norm. The credits awarded to the developer Redrow Homes for the project are shown in Table 2. Key features of this development are

• brownfield site

• good insulation

• cycle storage to encourage alternatives to the private car

• use of 100% certified timber

• use of water-efficient WCs, taps and showers

• provision of water butts to irrigate communal landscape areas

• large positive improvement in the ecological value of the site.

The Mills Building, in Weybridge (Fig. 3), was developed by DEFRA and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency with architect Architon LLP. This development was purpose built to house the 25 staff that form the Animal Services Unit of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. It is a two-storey L-shaped building with naturally ventilated and daylit office spaces, a training space, a small veterinary surgery and laundry. The credits gained for this building are shown in Table 3. The key features of The Mills Building are

• effective construction management

• excellent energy efficiency measures (insulation and airtightness)

• solar panels provide hot water

• efficient boiler systems and controls

• low NOx emitting boilers

• design minimises night time light pollution

• attenuation of surface water run off

• refrigerant with low global warming and ozone depleting potential

• comfortable indoor environment.

The developers of the Allerton Bywater Network Centre (Fig. 4) in Leeds were Network Space, Langtree Group Plc and English Partnerships. Table 4 shows the credits awarded to the project. The development consists of 17 units split across four blocks. The units are steel portal frame construction incorporating cladding and block work to the external envelope. The units consist of office space and a factory floor. The key features of this project are

• brownfield site

• good transport links

• low NOx emission boilers

• good energy efficiency measures such as airtightness, insulation and draught strips on all openings

• high daylighting levels

• use of sustainable materials and materials with a high recycled content

• effective occupant control in occupied spaces.

If you would like further information or are interested in becoming a licensed BREEAM Assessor, visit the BREEAM website at www.breeam.org.uk or email breeam@bre.co.uk.