What the BREEAM assessment involves

BREEAM assessments registered after August 2008 consist of two stages:

The design stage or ‘interim’ assessment and a post construction review. The design stage assessment typically represents a buildings performance before operations on site and will ideally be carried out at scheme design or detailed design stages.

The post construction assessment and certification represents the as built performance of a building and will be carried out prior to occupation.

Within the assessments there are nine different sections, which each consisting of a number of issues. Each issue is scored and then each section is weighted. The weighting system has been devised by many years of discussion and research by BRE and other stakeholders in the construction industry and signifies the importance they deem each category to have. The table below shows the weightings for each category.

  Weighting (%)
BREEAM Section
 New builds, extension & major refurbishments Building fit-out only (where applicable to scheme)
Management
 12 13
Health & Wellbeing
 15 17
Energy
 19 21
Transport
 8 9
Water
 6 7
Materials
 12.5 14
Waste
 7.5 8
Land Use & Ecology
10 N/A
Pollution
 10 11

The individual credits are added up and then weighted in line with the table above to give a final BREEAM rating. Where a design can demonstrate a reduction in a building’s impact on the environment in an innovative way, extra ‘innovation’ credit can be applied for from the BRE. Design innovations can add a maximum of 10% onto the score.

The table below shows the percentage score required for each rating.

BREEAM Rating % Score
UNCLASSIFIED <30
PASS ≥30
GOOD ≥45
V. GOOD ≥55
EXCELLENT ≥70
OUSTANDING* ≥85

There are minimum requirements for a number of the credit issues, for example it is not possible to gain any BREEAM rating if high frequency ballasts have not been fitted to all luminaires or all water systems have not been designed in compliance with the measures outlined in the Health and Safety Executives “Legionnaires’ Disease- The control of legionella bacteria in water systems”. Approved Code of Practice and guidance, 2000. There are also minimum standards in the credit that deal with the reduction of CO2 emissions. This has been changed, as in the old schemes an Excellent rating could be achieved by buildings with the minimum (Part L) carbon emissions performance. The table overleaf shows how the number of credits achieved corresponds with the buildings CO2 index (EPC rating). For building to achieve a BREEAM rating of excellent it must achieve six credits for this issue, this equates to an EPC rating of ≤40.

Ene 1- Reduction of CO2 emissions

  CO2 Index (EPC Rating)
BREEAM Credits New Build Refurbishment
1 63 100
2 53 87
3 47 74
4 45 61
5 43 50
6 40 47
7 37 44
8 31 41
9 28 36
10 25 31
11 23 28
12 20 25
13 18 22
14 10 18
15 0 15
Exemplar Credit 1 <0 ≤0
Exemplar Credit 2 True Carbon Zero Building

 

Logos for various bodies