Comments on: A rough guide to BREEAM 2008

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:06:11 +0000

Clever the way BRE tie their standards and other products together innit?

Like use of the proprietary Green Guide in not only BREEAM but the quasi legal Code for Sustainable Homes, and making BREEAM in Use a requirement to achieve the Outstanding rating.

By: jimmy

jimmy — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:02:31 +0000

what qualifications do you need to become a breeam assessor and what would it cost re training course ect cheers jimmy

By: mel starrs

mel starrs — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:48:58 +0000

Melissa – thanks for pointing this out. EPC’s for housing are the reverse of non-domestic buildings. A rating for non-domestic is an EPC of 0-24, B rating is 25-49 and C rating 50-74, etc. Housing is the other way around. Confusing, eh?

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:24:30 +0000

When you say (above) that a building much achieve an EPC of 40 or less what do you mean? EPC as I know it is for Energy perforamnce Certificate and a rating of 40 or less is bad (Grade E, F, and G). COuld you please clarify what this EPC 40 is? Thanks!

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:58:37 +0000

Great review Mel, very concise

I doubt that Outstanding will become the new Premier League tho bearing in mind the highest BREEAM score ever is only 87% (Office building in Leeds finished last year but assessed under BREEAM 2005). Given that the majority of buildings only ever have around 90% of credits available for one reason or another (not contaminated, not refurbishment etc etc) 85% is a big ask. Excellent is indeed becoming the new Gold Standard at least that’s what I’m seeing in the South West and Wales but It’ll only be one-off exemplar buildings that get outstanding (as intended).

With regards to the Code for Sustainable Buildings, I would expect it to not be too different to BREEAM 08.

By: mel starrs

mel starrs — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:24:18 +0000

Good point Martin – a Good has just become League Two if Outstanding is the Premier League and Excellent is the Championship (and yes, I had to look that up – football is not my forte).

And Andrew – I think you have a good point re: training. With an eye to the future (a possible Code for Sustainable Buildings based on BREEAM), I would expect the market to follow that of CSH after EcoHomes and open up more (not quite the same model, maybe). Which is a massive difference to LEED which is a standalone model unlikely to be tied into regs in the quite the same way as CSH has to EPC’s.

By: martin

martin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:29:07 +0000

Excellent review Mel.

Speaking to a leading developer a week or so ago, they informed me they were uping their requirements from VG to Ex, as that was where their market (tenants) was going. (ie top end retail, corporates etc). Interestingly, the chap I was chatting too wasnt too clear on the new outstanding category – but maybe once the market place is willing to pay more for outstanding then…

And on a same theme, who would now lease / buy / commission a G or VG project now? Oh, OK the UK goverment on schools maybe

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:34:24 +0000

Its good news the manuals are now publically accessible, which will avoid confusion about what needs to be complied with.

It will be interesting to see how the innovation credits work in practice. This is a bit of a u turn by the BRE.

When we asked them about including such criteria ina bespoke scheme two years ago their reply was that they had no intention to do so. It was intimated that it would be too onerous for them to check/ assess. Perhaps this is just playing catch up with LEED?

However, I think there is still a big gap in the market to provide training and qualifications, not for those seeking to be assessors, but for us poor souls that have to comply with the requirements.