Established in 1990, BREEAM is the world’s longest-established method for rating, assessing, and certifying sustainability for domestic, commercial, industrial, and public buildings.
BREEAM certifications make up almost 80% of the global sustainability assessment market, with approximately 550,000 BREEAM-certified developments worldwide across 70 countries.
What is BREEAM?
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) assesses a building’s environmental performance.
A successful BREEAM certification ensures that buildings comply with sustainable construction, operation, and design.
How does BREEAM work?
BREEAM assessments ensure clients that their project adopts the highest environmental practice standard. They are conducted on standard commercial projects such as offices, retail, education, and healthcare, but also offer bespoke schemes for non-standard projects.
Licensed auditors carry out the assessment based on the nine criteria, which must meet a minimum standard.
The criteria focuses on the lifecycle value of;
- Transport
- Health and wellbeing
- Energy,
- Water use
- Materials
- Ecology and biodiversity,
- Waste management,
- Pollution
Each criterion is weighted slightly differently and broken down to have its aim, target, and benchmark.
A total score is calculated once the whole building has been assessed, giving an overall BREEAM rating for the project.
The BREEAM rating system awards applicants a grade of unclassified, pass, good, very good, excellent, or outstanding.
What is the BREEAM certification process?
There are five stages in the standard BREEAM certification process:
STAGE 1: BREEAM Pre-Assessment
A BREEAM assessor is appointed to you to conduct the pre-assessment.
The BREEAM pre-assessment outlines which BREEAM rating your project will likely achieve and how to improve certain areas to reach your desired rating.
STAGE 2: Design Assessment
To ensure all BREEAM criteria are clearly understood, your BREEAM assessor will hold a workshop with the project team.
At the end of the design stage, an interim BREEAM certificate is issued.
STAGE 3: Construction Safety Assessment
To submit your final assessment to the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the BREEAM team will need to collect evidence to prove the design has been implemented as planned.
STAGE 4: Third-Party Assessment
Once BRE has received the final assessment submission, they will evaluate the project’s findings for quality control.
STAGE 5: Certification
Depending on whether your project passes the quality control, BRE will issue an official BREEAM certificate which you can then display and market. BRE will also list the project on their publicly accessible BREEAM database.
BREEAM Accreditation for office refurbishment and fit-out
The BREEAM Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit-Out scheme was developed in 2014 specifically to accommodate the rise in demand for a reliable and thorough way to assess and improve the sustainability of refurbishment and fit-out projects.
This scheme includes a four-part approach, which means you can be assessed for all, one, or a few of the following groups depending on relevancy.
The certification groups:
- Building, fabric, and structure
- Project’s core services
- Local services
- Interior design
The BREEAM Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit-Out scheme focuses on criteria aimed at making existing buildings fit for the future, with some parts highlighting climate change resilience and a building’s functional adaptability.
Why is BREEAM important?
Although primarily a voluntary measure taken by contractors and developers, for many local authorities in the UK, BREEAM accreditations are becoming a requirement.
The demand for sustainable buildings and refurbishments is increasing, which means that buildings or developments with a high BREEAM rating are more desirable and could potentially increase property value.
Besides bricks and mortar, internal energy-saving considerations highlighted in the BREEAM assessment, such as efficient heating systems and energy-efficient lighting, could also reduce property running costs.
More comprehensive social and environmental benefits to working with BREEAM are the impacts BREEAM have already made on the efforts to minimise construction waste, finding ways to reduce CO2 emissions, and improve the environment for wildlife in surrounding areas.
BREEAM standards continue to develop with the industry and external sustainability requirements to remain in the top spot for credibility.
Working with Arke in accordance to BREEAM
As office design specialists, we work with you to create high-quality, sustainable office interiors to suit your needs.
If you choose to go through the BREEAM accreditation process, we work alongside your BREEAM assessor to ensure the scheme is aligned to achieve your desired BREEAM rating.
If you’re looking to work with a team experienced in BREEAM-accredited office design company, speak to our team today by calling (0)208 057 7077
