1. Introduction to BREEAM Invest Northern Ireland
Colin King

2. Contents What makes a sustainable building? Credit examples
BREEAM aims
How BREEAM works
BREEAM growth
Welcome to BREEAM Offices half day seminar.
Today we are going to take you through:
Details of what BREEAM is and it’s aims.
We will then go through a workshop which will allow you to understand the technical issues that BREEAM addresses within the scheme
This will give you more of an understanding to carry out a Pre Assessment Estimator exercise – which is a simplified pre BREEAM assessment
We will then take you through some aspects of the assessment process – fees, statistics of number of assessors, costs of assessments and how to achieve a higher BREEAM rating.
We are often asked what are the increase in captial costs to build a sustainable building and we will take you through a piece of research we carried out looking at offices, a house and PFI health centre.
Finally we will go through an exemplar school case study highlighting some of the issues that BREEAM awards credits.

3. Global environmental issues?

4. Pictures missing

5. Local Issues?

6. Local issues
Pictures missing

7. BREEAM Issue Categories
Management
Energy
Water
Land Use & Ecology
Health & Wellbeing
Transport
Materials
Pollution
These are the eight categories we address within BREEAM and we will go into more detail about what credits are assessed within each section.

8. Examples of actual credits in 2 categories
Health and Wellbeing
Energy

9. Health and Wellbeing Typically 60m² per 30 children
Very high occupancy density
Typically 60m² per 30 children
Learning Environment
Use of computers and other ICT equipment
Easily distracted users
“Stop staring out of that window!”
“Noisy” rooms with quiet rooms adjacent
Acoustic design requirements

10. Health & Wellbeing – BREEAM Offices
HW01 Daylighting
HW02 View Out
HW03 Glare Control
HW04 High Frequency Lighting
HW05 Internal and External Lighting Levels
HW06 Lighting Zones
People spend on average 90% of their time in buildings
Major contribution to quality of life

11. Health & Wellbeing – BREEAM Offices
HW08 Potential for Natural Ventilation
HW09 Internal Air Pollution
HW11 Ventilation Rates
HW12 Smoking Policy
HW14 Thermal Comfort
People spend on average 90% of their time in buildings
Major contribution to quality of life

12. Health & Wellbeing – BREEAM Offices
HW15 Thermal Zoning
HW16 Microbial Contamination
HW17 Acoustic Performance
HW20 Carpet Cleaning
HW21 Occupant Satisfaction Feedback
HW22 Occupant Satisfaction Targeting
People spend on average 90% of their time in buildings
Major contribution to quality of life

13. Energy UK schools spend more on energy than on books – Carbon Trust
Lighting accounts for 28% of all energy costs in schools – Carbon Trust GPG 259

14. Energy – BREEAM Offices
E01 Reduction of CO2 Emissions
E02 Sub-metering of Substantial Energy
E03 Sub metering of areas/tenancy
E04 External Lighting

15. Energy – BREEAM Offices
E06 Maintenance Procedures
E07 Energy Policy
E08 Energy/CO2 Monitoring, Targeting and Reduction
E09 Energy Information Desemination

16. BREEAM - Scoring Management Health and Wellbeing Energy Transport
Water
Materials
Land Use
Ecology
Pollution
Assessment Credits
Environmental Weightings
Single Score
Issue Category Scores
BREEAM
Score
PASS
GOOD
VERY GOOD
EXCELLENT

17. Environmental Weightings
BREEAM - Weightings
Management
Health & W’being
Energy
Transport
Water
Materials
Land Use
Ecology
Pollution 15 25 5 10
Environmental Weightings
Each section has a weighting factor applied to it. These were derived through consensus based research with a number of different groups and organisations – government bodies, manufacturers, green lobbyists etc. This gives it a sense of importance to each issue – therefore you can see Energy and Transport were considered the most important issues because of the CO2 implications associated with them. At the time water wasn’t considered as important however today we are constantly provided with information to the contrary – droughts and floods appear to be a major problem within the UK. In line with the update of the GREEN Guide to Specification this exercise will be carried out again to establish the current importance of each issue.

18. What is BREEAM? Environmental Assessment Method Certification scheme
Voluntary
Independent & credible
Holistic
Customer focussed
Credits based
BREEAM is the Building Research Establishments Environmental Assessment Method.
It is a certification scheme, therefore once an assessment has been carried out and passed our quality assurance process a certificate is issued. We have now achieved compliance with UKAS and ISO9001, we will go through more information on this later.
The scheme is voluntary, however more organisations and government bodies are specifying BREEAM as with English Partnerships, Housing Association, DfES (we will talk more about this later) and soon possibly Code for Sustainable Homes.
The scheme is independent in that we train assessors who then purchase a license to carry out assessments on behalf of BRE. We ensure it is credible by consulting with various technical experts, our assessors and an independent sustainability board.
The assessment is holistic, it addresses a number of issues on the sustainability agenda, not just energy and carries weightings associated with the importance – we will go into more detail about this later.
The scheme is customer focused – assessors provide feedback to us from the industry on how to improve the scheme and what direction it should take.
The assessment is a credits based system.

19. Aims Improve environmental performance of buildings
Improve internal environment for occupants
Within BREEAM we are aiming to improve the overall environmental performance of buildings – in terms of energy, embodied energy, pollution, water etc.
However it is important to understand that the occupants using the building enjoy using the space and perform well within it – it is all very well having an environmentally efficient building but it needs to be well daylight, ventilated and thermally comfortable etc.

20. Mass market Number of buildings BREEAM Environmental Standards
Regulatory minimum
Minimal
BREEAM
Aspirational
This diagram gives an indication as to what BREEAM is trying to do with buildings in terms of environmental benchmarks.
We have the number of buildings on the Y axis and the environmental standards on the X axis. As we can see they are continually being pushed. Environmental standards are increasing with Building Regulations which is the regulatory minimum and as we can see from the diagram the number of buildings being built are only just achieving this level. What BREEAM is trying to do is move the mass market, the majority of buildings, towards achieving more sustainable and efficient buildings – rather than focus on improving the minority exemplar buildings.
Environmental Standards

21. Which building types can be assessed?
What is BREEAM?
Which building types can be assessed?
Offices
Homes
Shopping Malls
Light Industrial Buildings
Schools
Prison House Blocks 
Job Centres
Health Buildings
Heavy Industrial Buildings
Sports Facilities
Crown Courts
Garden Sheds        

22. Types of BREEAM Assessments
Scheme
D&P
PCR
M&O
Fit Out
Offices 
Schools
Retail
Industrial
Bespoke

23. Examples Both Design and Procurement New build and refurbishment
Management and Operation
Existing buildings
in operation
Examples
Construction
impacts
Brownfield site
Policies
EMS
Examples
Location
Building fabric
Services
Both

24. Assessment Process BRE structure Assessment Process
Annual Review process
Exemplar building – case study
Putting a Price on Sustainability

25. Assessment Process Issue Certificate Independent Licensed Assessors
Builder, Developer,
Owner, Occupier
Consensus
Standard
Quality
Control
Formal Assessment
Pre BREEAM
Advice
Quality Control
There is therefore a clear distinction between the role of the assessors and the role of BRE.
We work with clients in a marketing role and looking for them to address BREEAM and we set the standards – criteria and benchmarks.
We train assessors to carry out assessments for us they will provide consultancy advice and the assessment and we will quality control this and issue a final certificate to show the final BREEAM rating.
Issue Certificate

26. Assessment Process Require BREEAM Assessment
Employ BREEAM licensed assessor
BREEAM Consultancy
Assessment Registered
Information Gathering / Meeting
Draft Report
Final Report
BRE QA Check
BREEAM Certificate Issued

27. Annual review process Each scheme is reviewed annually
Currently ‘2006’ version
Review process drivers
Building Regulations
Change in legislation
Industry best practice
Change in common practice
Therefore a 2006 VERY GOOD is a higher standard than a 2005 VERY GOOD rating.

28. Cost of sustainability
‘Putting a price on sustainability’ BRE Trust (BRE & Cyril Sweett), 2005
Covers :
Housing
Naturally ventilated office
Air conditioned office
PFI health centre
Capital cost implications of achieving the different BREEAM / EcoHomes ratings
Available from BRE bookshop £9 / £22.50

29. Results – worst case scenarios
% Increase in capital cost to achieve a BREEAM rating:
Location
Pass
Good
Very Good
Excellent
Poor
upto 0.1%
upto 0.9%
upto 5.7% -
Typical 0%
upto 0.4%
upto 1.7%
upto 7%
upto 1.3%
upto 4.2%
This study looked at the worst case scenario for each location.
Compared three locations: poor-bad transport links and greenfield site – achieve no transport and LU&E credits, typical scored some and Good location scored all site specific credits.
As we can see the increase in capital costs in a poor location is up to 5.7% to achieve a Very Good rating. Therefore you can still achieve the requirements set by DfES in a worst case location for small extra costs. Excellent couldn’t be costed as this included credits that were site specific and could not be allocated a general cost such as recycled aggregate.
Why did DfES not ask for Excellent?
Because there was no increase to the allowed cost per square metre for new schools, that BRE advised DfES to require a “VERY GOOD” rating rather than the “EXCELLENT” standard set by the OGC. From the schools used to pilot BREEAM Schools it was felt that achieving a “VERY GOOD” rating would be possible within the current budget constraints of £1050/m2. It was also felt that this would allow schools such as St Francis of Assisi (with a sustainability specialism) to demonstrate their environmental credentials by exceeding the required minimum level of “VERY GOOD”.
BUT It is worth noting the earlier in the design process that BREEAM is considered, the easier and cheaper it will be to get a higher BREEAM rating and therefore achieve an Excellent rating and a more sustainable school.
‘Putting a price on sustainability’

30. Growth of BREEAM
Growth

31. BREEAM Awards Response to request from assessors and clients
Presented at BRE annual conference
Awards in each scheme
Highest performing building
We’ve also introduced the BREEAM awards this year. This is partly in response to the comment that there is no incentive for people to go just beyond the 70% for an excellent rating, but also to raise the BREEAM profile, and also the profile of high performing buildings. Thereby demonstrating and rewarding excellence.
There are awards in each BREEAM version, and they are simply awarded based on the highest BREEAM score. The awards will be presented annually at the BRE conference and you can see last years winners in the photograph here, (a couple of the winners are also shown on the next slide.)

32. Offices Winner - Scottish National Heritage HQ
Overview
Occupant control for lighting, heating and ventilation
Proximity detection for the water supply to all urinals and WCs
Enhancement of the ecological value of the site
Extensive use of FSC certified timber
Re-use of a site that was previously contaminated
These are two of the winners

33. Who is specifying BREEAM and EcoHomes?
English Partnerships
‘VERY GOOD’ and ‘EXCELLENT’
Office of Government Commerce (OGC)
‘EXCELLENT’ (new buildings from March 2003)
Housing Corporation
EcoHomes ‘VERY GOOD’ from April 2006
Welsh Assembly Government
EcoHomes GOOD from May 2006 for all social housing
‘VERY GOOD’ on all land sold by WA
‘EXCELLENT’ for high profile developments
Specifiers – self explanatory?

34. Who is specifying BREEAM and EcoHomes?
Local Authorities
Oxford
Ashford
Buckinghamshire
Brighton
Others?
Regional Development Agencies
Private Developers
Main drivers are planning process and the social housing sector
NGO’s
WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature)
One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH)
Campaigning for at least EcoHomes ‘VERY GOOD’ to be set as the CSB standard
Again self explanatory, although Local authorities this is just a small list, we know others are interested and working to specify BREEAM in different ways, we are forming a LA group to understand how BRE can better help them specify BREEAM to meet their needs.

35. More information EcoHomes and BREEAM Offices
Phone :
Post : BRE, Garston, Watford,
WD25 9XX