Elemental

Welcome news in Building this morning that BREEAM is to be revamped in May (just in time for my return to the UK). The article states:

The new version of the 18-year-old BREEAM assessment tool will make post-construction reviews mandatory, set maximum levels for energy and water consumption and minimum requirements for material selection. It will also introduce an “outstanding” category to recognise buildings that surpass the “excellent” rating.

Given where CSH has gone, it should be no surprise that minimum standards have been reintroduced for energy and water. For those either not old enough to remember or those who didn’t come across BREEAM in the early nineties, the scheme used to have minimum levels for categories – so we are going full circle in a way. I welcome this, by the way. It is possible to pull off an “excellent” score by virtue of location and judicious spending with the current scheme without necessarily addressing carbon and water issues. Some might argue that this is making the scheme more prescriptive rather than the flexible scheme I dreamed of here . But I’m resigned to the fact that human nature being as it is, we’re stuck with checklists for the forseeable future. By the way, it’s worth checking out the comments on that post – some really good points from Matt Grace and David Strong amongst others.

PCR’s are also long overdue to become mandatory. As I have explained before, a D&P certificate at stage E is no guarantee that your building is still “sustainable” at completion after several rounds of “value engineering”.

The only issue I have with this announcement is the “Outstanding” label – it’s like awarding A* for GCSE’s. Why do we need to introduce a new level? The whole mantra of BREEAM over the past few years is that the goal posts shift from year to year. That is why certificates are dated and buildings should only be compared with their peers e.g. an office gaining “Excellent” in 2004 should only be compared with other offices in 2004 – it makes no sense to compare it with an office which gained an “Excellent” in 2007.

This aside it looks like Martin Townsend is settling into his new job. I have a couple more points I’d like to see added to the “to-do” list:

• Instead of listing only the assessor organisations , list the actual assessors and their normal location, so clients can gauge the suitability of the organisation they are employing. Something like CIBSE have done with Low Carbon Assessors would be ideal.

• My biggest wish is that the methodology becomes freely available on the website. As this is the default for CSH (pdf, 225 pages) , I’m hopeful BREEAM will follow suit. Currently, only pdf checklists for BREEAM for Offices are available (D&P here and M&O here , pdf 16 and 13 pages). As far as I know, BREEAM will form the Code for Sustainable Buildings, although I don’t know for certain that this will happen in May – can anyone confirm?

If anyone at BREEAM would like to send me an advance copy* for further review, I would be more than delighted ;o). My email address is to the right of the page…

edit: Claire Howe has an excellent piece up at edie.net covering the changes in more detail and echoing some of my thoughts above.  Any chance of starting a blog Claire ?

* as I’m not technically working for anyone at the minute, I’ve lost my BREEAM extranet privileges

mel starrs Opinion assessment tool, Claire Howe, David Strong, Energy, Martin Townsend, Matt Grace, United Kingdom

Looks like Matt Grace has moved to Enermodal Engineering (a Canadian company) in Calgary:

Leading UK Sustainability Expert Joins Enermodal Calgary: Matt Grace, B.Eng., M.Sc., C.Env.

Matt Grace brings to Enermodal 12 years of professional experience in sustainable building design and assessment, including work on office, institutional, industrial and housing developments, renewable energy and energy efficiency. He has conducted over 150 assessments of green buildings, developed BREEAM (the UK equivalent to LEED), and conducted building research for the International Energy Agency. Matt’s education includes degrees in both Engineering and Energy and the Environment, and he is a Chartered Environmentalist (UK). We look forward to the fresh perspective on green building design and rating that Matt brings to Enermodal.

Matt was last seen at Ferguson Brown, whose website is still under development some 8 months after I first reported it ‘coming soon’.  The Calgary office of Enermodal opened in November from what I can gather.

Good luck in Canada, Matt…

mel starrs Uncategorized Calgary, Canada, Energy Agency, energy efficiency, Enermodal Engineering, Ferguson Brown, Matt Grace, News, renewable energy, United Kingdom

I hate when blogs apologise for not having posted in a while, so I won’t. I’ve done a little housekeeping around the site – an upgrade to WordPress (my blogging tool) and a new RSS feed button (above and on my sidebar). If anything is broken, let me know. Now back to the regular posting:

A BREEAM flavoured post to set the week off.

I like to keep an eye on which companies offer BREEAM and what they offer. There has recently been a flurry of newcomers to the fold recently, including Robinsons Architects, Watkins Payne, Blackpool Council, Greenwich University, Brian Warwicker, Barton Wilmore and Ferguson Brown.

Ferguson Brown’s BREEAM is headed up by Matt Grace (ex-Scott Wilson and I believe ex-BRE) and they are offering Offices and Industrial. Located in London and Bristol, their website isn’t quite up and running yet and it looks like a fairly new company (incorporated at Companies House 6/3/06). I’m beginning to see more small independent companies offering BREEAM.

Incidentally Scott Wilson have a new website, and under ‘career’ have a section called ‘Joy of Engineering’. What exactly are they trying to say?
Others have extended their capabilities – generally adding schools to their offerings.

Interestingly, two contacts have been added for Gifford – they do appear still to have assessors in Southampton and Manchester. The bizarre sponsored link thing is still going on though.

BREEAM is becoming easier and easier for independent consultants to offer as a service. First the requirement for a second signature on reports was removed earlier this year (meaning the QA system was now more akin to EcoHomes). Secondly, it is now proposed that report templates will be mandatory by 1 November 2006. We have also been promised a new logo. The assessor meeting is at the beginning of October, so no doubt all this will be expanded on then.
The expansion is obviously being driven by the increasing number of authorities requiring BREEAM as a planning or other requisite. I am interested in investigating what the geographic location of each assessor currently is. The BRE spreadsheets are organised by company rather than assessor, so it can be hard to gauge where they are based. From both a competition and recruitment point of view, this information would be very useful. The geographic reach of most offices is generally within 50-100 miles, depending on local infrastructure (although I have personally ventured as far as the northernmost coast of Scotland). I’m investigating generating a google map using EditGrid but have run into some problems with postcode recognition. If I get it working I’ll publish it.

Finally, news that BREEAM is expanding into the Middle East – buildings in the region are not the most likely candidates for low energy exemplars given indulgences such as ‘The World’ at Dubai, but if any more proof was needed that sustainability is flavour of the month, look no further.

admin Accreditation Barton Wilmore, Blackpool Council, BREEAM, Brian Warwicker, Bristol, Dubai, Ferguson Brown, Gifford, Greenwich University, London, Manchester, Matt Grace, Middle East, Scott Wilson, Southampton