What is the BREEAM certificate all about?

BREEAM is short for Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method. The certificate is awarded by BRE, and includes several sub-certifications: Newly-Built, Refurbishment and In-Use. BREEAM looks at each building’s specifications in areas such as environmental sustainability and socio-economic sustainability, based on standards developed by BRE.

This process considers multiple categories of sustainability: management, energy, health and wellbeing, transportation, water, materials, waste, pollution, land use, and environmental friendliness. A building gets scored on each of these parameters, and all the scores are added up to produce the BREEAM certificate’s final score.

The certificate is (preliminarily) awarded to new developments under construction. At the end of the building stage, a Post-Construction or final certificate is awarded, and the project receives its final score.

BREEAM scores range from Acceptable (In-Use only) to Sufficient, Good, Very good, Excellent and Outstanding. The number of stars on the certificate represents the score obtained.