BREEAM – What’s your opinion?

BSRIA recently held an event as part of our Building Environmental Assessment Network to discuss opinions on BREEAM.  This is always a hot topic with lots of views, and this event was no different.

For those new to the world of environmental assessment, BREEAM (the BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is a criteria based assessment of the sustainability of a building.  Developed by the BRE in 1990, it is now the UK’s most used environmental assessment method, and is often a requirement of planning.  More details can be found at www.breeam.org.

The aim of the event was to see if the 2011 changes were sitting well with the industry or needed changing.  It was also a chance to give BRE feedback directly for future changes, or problems that have been encountered.

Particular issues raised were:

• The transparency of some of the calculation methods
• Getting feedback or answers to queries from BRE
• Issues with the energy credits in the 2011 version, especially when dealing with CHP units. 
• Some refrigeration related credits appear impossible to get

Questions raised in the presentations were:

• Is the value of each credit appropriate?
• Is the industry ready for all the changes made in 2011?
• Is the qualification route for assessors and BREEAM APs appropriate?
• Is there need for more information for the industry?

The presentations given on the day are available from: http://www.bsria.co.uk/services/membership/networks/building-assessment-network/

So do you have an opinion on BREEAM?  What works well and what needs some adjustment?  Of particular interest would be your experience of the latest version of BREEAM, i.e. 2011.