24 March 2004
Is achieving green office design getting harder?
Scott Baird of Buro Happold sets out the BRE’s new BREEAM targets and describes what firms have to do to achieve the highest rating.
BREEAM 2004 was launched in November 2003 by the Building Research Establishment and all new assessments have to be carried out under this scheme. Scott Baird of Buro Happold has analysed the new scheme and found that changes to the targets will make it harder to achieve the highest BREEAM ratings.
The change of targets shows that the standards for a green office are continually rising and environmental building designs have to be increasingly innovative just to keep up. From 2004, BREEAM for Offices will be updated every year to ensure that BREEAM keeps ahead of best practice.
Our analysis shows an assessment using BREEAM 2004 will achieve up to 15% less than the previous BREEAM 2003 scheme. Given that most buildings only achieve the Excellent rating by a few percent, the majority of buildings assessed as Excellent under previous BREEAM (1998, 2002, 2003) would not achieve their Excellent Rating if assessed under the 2004 scheme. This means that organisations need to seek high-quality advice early in the design process of a new building project to ensure that they achieve the optimum rating for their buildings. This is especially important if the client wants to ensure that a building achieves Excellent at the completion of construction, since the contractor will need to be advised on how to maintain the BREEAM credits to which a commitment was made at the design stage.
What is BREEAM?
The Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) is the world’s leading system for assessing the range of environmental impacts associated with buildings. BREEAM is used by owners, users and designers to demonstrate their environmental commitment and to reduce the impact that their buildings have on the environment. Buildings are assessed against performance criteria set by the BRE and awarded ‘credits’ based on their level of performance. The performance is then rated as Pass, Good, Very Good or Excellent as shown in Figure 1.
Why do people use BREEAM?
BREEAM is used by our clients for a number of reasons:
In support of a wider corporate strategy or as a stand alone contribution
To help get planning permission when a Local Authority requires a minimum BREEAM Rating
To create a better place for people to work and live
As a selling point to potential tenants or customers
To achieve higher rental incomes and increased building efficiency
To provide a thorough checklist or tool for comparing buildings
Responding to the requirements of the users
The key changes
Figure 2 illustrates the historic data from the last three years of assessment, and shows that 32% of buildings achieved the Excellent rating. As current best practice catches up with BREEAM 1998, 2002 and 2003, regular revision ensures that only the buildings with the best environmental performance will achieve the Excellent rating in future. For example, there is now a universal ban on halons for fire-fighting equipment, which means that there is no longer a need to reward building design that avoids halon gas.
The key changes, set out in Figure 3, reflect the environmental impacts that the BRE considered most important. The eight sections listed in the table each contain a number of specific criteria that have to be achieved. Each of the criteria are weighted according to their environmental impact and contribute to the total score. The figures on the right side of the table show the percentages of points that are lost compared to the BREEAM 2003 scheme. It is evident from this that a building assessed under the old BREEAM criteria will lose up to 15% of its score under BREEAM 2003. Given that it gets increasingly difficult to score points as you approach the 70% target for Excellent and that most buildings only achieve the Excellent rating by a few percent, this 15% will become critical when trying to achieve the optimum rating.
How to achieve an Excellent rating
The most valuable and cost-effective way to ensure a high BREEAM rating is to introduce the main issues at an early stage in the design process, to form a focus for the discussion of the environmental impacts of the building. Input will be needed from a wide range of people. Although the architect and building services designers have the largest share, the project manager, structural engineer and contractors all have a part to play.
The role of the BREEAM assessor or environmental co-ordinator is to pull the input of the team together, and to track the development of ideas over time. The most straightforward way of ensuring a certain BREEAM rating is to appoint a Project Environmental or Sustainability Co-ordinator to the project as early as possible. The scope of this work in this trans-disciplinary role will include:
Initial advice about BREEAM to the entire project team before outline design stage.
Regular meetings with the entire project team during the design phase.
Specialist advice on the specification of products to achieve particular BREEAM credits.
Monitoring changes to design and specification through to project completion to identify any effects on the BREEAM rating.
Undertaking preliminary BREEAM assessments to assess the predicted rating.
Regular reports for the client and project team, including an environmental sustainability report for inclusion with submission for planning consent.
Buro Happold has enabled many clients to achieve Excellent or Very Good BREEAM ratings by being involved from the beginning of the design process and carrying the targets right through the project to the end of the construction stage. The company is licensed by the BRE to carry out formal assessment reviews, prepare assessment reports and offer related consultancy services under the BREEAM label.
Rod Manson, Partner of the Glasgow Office commented ‘ We are finding now that most of our Clients have a sustainability agenda and one of the challenges for the holistic designer is to tease out the key issues during the design process. We have found that BREEAM is an excellent tool to develop the brief and assist the design process’.
Illustrations
Figure 1: How the BREAAM ratings are split Very Good
Figure 2: How buildings have scored under BREEAM for the last three years
Figure 3: Key changes incorporated into BREEAM 2004
More onerous consideration of commissioning, including a new credit for seasonal commissioning and a new credit for the commitment to using sustainable sources for temporary timber. Consideration of recycle material source is now more onerous. Limitation of Waste in new floor finishes is introduced requirements must now be followed for contaminated land. New emphasis on the impact of the term Biodiversity. Higher Standards required for Pollution Control from equipment, refridgerants and insulants. New consideration for the use of renewable energy.Background information for editors:
Scott Baird BSc (Hons) BEng is a building services consultant and BREEAM Assessor based in Buro Happold’s Glasgow office.
Email -:scott.baird@burohappold.com Scott.Baird@burohappold.com
Rod Manson BSc (Hons) CEng is the Partner responsible for Buro Happold’s Glasgow office.
Email -:rod.manson@burohappold.com">rod.manson@burohappold.com
All Buro Happold offices can offer this BREEAM service with additional, more specialist Sustainability input and advice available from the Engineering Sustainability Group in Buro Happold’s London Office.
What is BREEAM?
Clients can use BREEAM as a means of assessing the environmental impact of buildings in a way that is quick, comprehensive and visible in the marketplace. Letting agents can use BREEAM to promote the environmental credentials and benefits of a building to potential clients whilst design teams can use BREEAM as a tool to improve the performance of the buildings and their own experience and knowledge of environmental aspects of sustainability.
A BREEAM Office assessment comprises three parts: a core assessment of the building fabric and services plus two optional parts dealing with the quality of the design and procurement, and management and operating procedures, which are included as appropriate. Pre-assessment design support can also be provided by the licensed assessors. The 1998 assessment was arranged under eight headings.
This part of the assessment looks at management structures that achieve maximum benefits and minimum environmental impacts through the correct commissioning of the building. The aim is to ensure that practical steps are taken to minimise the negative effects of a building on the occupants and those of its neighbours in terms of their health and well being. The energy used in buildings is obviously an important part of the environmental impact. This section rewards those who have taken steps in terms of the building fabric and systems, and in planning for future monitoring of energy use. The energy used to transport staff to an office is often roughly the same as that used to run it. It is therefore important to consider transport use in any assessment. For reasons of increasing usage and concern over changing rainfall patterns, the supply of water is of growing concern. This section addresses the main issues and rewards good design. The materials in a building represent a significant part of the impact of the construction process, with an estimated 10% of energy use annually associated with their production, together with a range of land use, bio-diversity and pollution issues. The largest benefits can be achieved at the design stage. With growing concern about the use of land in the United Kingdom, there is strong preference for the re-use of land.This section is related to the land use issues and directly affects the variety of species on the site. The aim is to minimise the impact of development on the natural life on the site, and ideally to enhance the species variety. The final section relates to a range of pollutants which are produced by or for buildings. The main issues are the ozone depleting chemicals, with NOx and water courses also covered.
BREEAM for Offices is intended for use on offices only. Using similar assessment methodology BRE have developed assessments for retail, industrial and residential (Ecohomes) schemes. Bespoke assessments can be developed by BRE for projects not specific to the categories noted above.
Background information for editors:
Press office and practice information
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
