How to meet BREEAM standards

We explore what the BREEAM standards mean for your project, and how early engagement with our experienced BREEAM Assessors can help you achieve your target score.

What are BREEAM standards?

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for the built environment. The BREEAM standards provide a structured framework for assessing the environmental performance of buildings across their lifecycle – from construction through to operation.

Projects are assessed across a wide range of categories, including energy, health and wellbeing, water, materials, waste, transport, land use and ecology, pollution, and management. The credits you achieve within each category will contribute to an overall score, which determines your project’s final BREEAM rating: unclassified, pass, good, very good, excellent, or outstanding. The benchmark for best practice for many commercial and residential projects is typically seen as the BREEAM Excellent standard.

The importance of meeting BREEAM standards

Meeting BREEAM standards brings a whole host of benefits for your building project. From a commercial perspective, buildings that have higher BREEAM ratings will hold more value and are more appealing to both homeowners and investors. For occupiers, BREEAM-certified buildings are cheaper to operate and more comfortable to live in.

From a planning and policy standpoint, many local authorities now expect or require developments to meet specific BREEAM standards, particularly non-domestic buildings. Failing to address BREEAM requirements early on in your project could potentially cause planning delays or lead to costly retrofits later down the line.

You can read more about the benefits of BREEAM-certified buildings in our dedicated blog post.

As our Senior Sustainability Consultant, Nathan Kempson, points out: “To achieve a high rating, the BREEAM process and thinking needs to become part of the overall building process and not be treated as an afterthought, as many design criteria will be influenced with the pursuit of a BREEAM rating (such as layouts, materials, systems, and additional elements).”

Success is usually underpinned by:

1) Early integration

BREEAM is most effective when it’s embedded into your project brief and design process from the early stages. Making decisions around aspects like massing, orientation, servicing, and fabric performance early on will have a significant impact on which credits your project can achieve.

2) Informed design decisions

Understanding which credits will offer the greatest value for your specific project type will allow your teams to focus their efforts where it matters most. It’s important to remember that not all credits are equally weighted, so you’ll need to target the ones that are most relevant to your project.

3) Robust evidence and coordination

The gathering of robust and detailed evidence throughout the process is also paramount to achieving compliance with criteria. You’ll need to ensure that your architects, engineers, contractors, and other professionals are working closely together to avoid any gaps at the design or post-construction stages, which could be expensive to rectify later on.

4) Focus on real performance

You’ll need to show that your building will genuinely perform well in practice, rather than just meeting the minimum BREEAM standards on paper. This is particularly important for credits linked to energy use, carbon emissions, and occupant wellbeing, as they have a significant impact on the building’s running costs, emissions, and occupant wellbeing once in use.

An experienced BREEAM Assessor plays a key role in helping your project meet BREEAM standards in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Acting as both a technical advisor and independent assessor, they guide your project teams through every step of the assessment process, from feasibility through to certification.

At Encon Associates, our BREEAM Assessors will work with you from the early project stages, providing practical advice on how to obtain each specific credit. We’ll work closely with your design team to identify realistic targets, highlight opportunities and risks, and ensure that your sustainability goals are aligned with your schedule and budget.  

We support projects across a wide range of BREEAM schemes, providing:

• Pre-assessment advice to help you establish achievable BREEAM standards
• Clear score tracking and strategies to obtain the maximum credits available
• Ongoing coordination with your wider design team to ensure you remain on-track
• Evidence review and report submission to the BRE on your behalf

Contact us to discover how we can help your upcoming project meet or exceed BREEAM standards.