EPCAS offer BREEAM services for the following schemes:

BREEAM

BREEAM In-Use is a new assessment scheme, joining other well-established members of the BREEAM ‘family’. It is designed to help property investors; owners, landlords, managers measure environmental performance and plan & implement refurbishment improvements.

 

It consists of a BRE standard, a 9-category BREEAM assessment methodology and a 3rd party audited certification process to measure & improve sustainability

Many national & local companies have decided to introduce company environmental policies and see real benefits of BREEAM In-Use in promoting these policies for the benefit of their community and staff. They cover the environmental performance of the building design, the way staff and materials arrive at the workplace; how the building is operated for best energy efficiency, through to ecology, pollution & waste handling. The importance and value of extending the scope of other BREEAM schemes into the actual operational phase of completed buildings is seen by the impressive take-up of this new scheme. As of 1 March 2010 BRE has 10,000 buildings registered on the scheme and is conducting 55 Trials in 10 other EU countries.

The Three Areas identified by Breeam-In-Use

1 - Asset
This area refers to the environmental performance characteristics of the building, based on its designed construction and M&E Services parameters.

2 - Building Management (Operational)
The Building Management policies, procedures and practices related to building operation; the consumption of key resources such as energy and water and the environmental impacts such as carbon and waste generation.

3 - Organisational
This area refers to the implementation of management policies. In practice this is how the management’s policy is working, the understanding of this policy, staff engagement and delivery of its key outputs.

Benchmarking standards

BREEAM In-Use provides detailed benchmarking on individual aspects of ASSET, BUILDING MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL performance. It will establish environmental performance ratings across a range of building types & occupation patterns as well as the potential impact of any proposed improvements, thus reducing operating costs.

As the BREEAM In-Use national database grows with each new subscriber, detailed benchmarks will be available for the first time. This will allow comparisons with other buildings not simply in terms of the overall rating but on individual questions. These comparisons will also be much fairer and informative than ever before as they can take into account other factors such as type, age and location of the building. In the longer term it will be possible to compare and benchmark against others in the databank. This will be facilitated by joining a membership club of likeminded organizations who are themselves using BREEAM In-Use as a tool for improvement.

BREEAM In-Use provides a major opportunity to move the Environmental Performance of buildings beyond the limited performance indicators of either Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs, which measure the Asset energy performance), or Display Energy Certificates (DEC’s, which measure the building's actual Operational performance)

BREEAM-AP (Accredited Professional)

There is increasing client demand for high BREEAM ratings for both new build and refurbishment projects. Professionals with specialist knowledge of sustainability and environmental design are taking the lead in helping design teams meet these client expectations.

BREEAM AP’s provide the design team with expert advice on built environmental design and environmental assessment. They will facilitate the team’s efforts to successfully schedule activities, set priorities and negotiate the trade-offs required to achieve a target BREEAM rating when the design is formally assessed.

The incentive to appointing a BREEAM-AP professional to the Design Team from the outset of the project is seen in that 2 additional credits can be awarded to the BREEAM rating.

EPCAS are fully trained and registered for BREEAM-AP services to complement other Design Team professionals and add project value. (Registration No. BREEAMAP0219).

BREEAM Assessment Criteria         

Please contact us for further details of our BREEAM services.

Telephone 01242 500151 or email info@epcas.co.uk

Links

Main BREEAM website:  www.breeam.org
BREEAM-In-Use sub-site:  www.breeaminuse.org.uk
BSRIA feature:  www.bsria.co.uk/news/breeam-in-use
Green book live (Breeam-In-Use): www.greenbooklive.com
Green book live (Breeam-AP): www.greenbooklive.com