BREEAM is the world's leading environmental rating and sustainability assessment method for buildings. At Stroma, we help clients achieve "Excellent" and "Outstanding" BREEAM ratings and have certified over 450 building projects.
Supporting sectors such as education, industrial, multi-residential, retail, government, and healthcare - we have experience in undertaking BREEAM assessments for all building types, including domestic buildings, offices, and refurbishments.
What Is BREEAM Certification?
BREEAM stands for the "Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method". It is an internationally recognised sustainability assessment framework for buildings, master planning, and infrastructure.
The BREEAM assessment considers various environmental factors, such as energy use, water consumption, materials used, and waste management systems.
Achieving BREEAM certification enables you to provide clear evidence of a building's sustainability performance. It can also help inform design decisions that reduce the environmental impact of construction projects before they commence.
Is BREEAM Certification a Planning Requirement?
BREEAM assessments are not a mandatory requirement for all buildings in the UK. However, many Local Authorities now request BREEAM certification and a specific BREEAM rating for planning permission to reduce environmental impact and protect public health.
You can get a BREEAM assessment at any stage of the development process, even if the finished building has been in use for some time. We recommend bringing in a qualified assessor as early as possible to avoid costly changes during construction.
Additionally, by meeting relevant compliance standards, you may be eligible for financial incentives or rewards.
Our BREEAM Assessment & Consultancy Services
Stroma can support your project from early design stages to completion. We will assign a dedicated assessor to work with your design team, who will advise on sustainable design and environmental performance factors to achieve your desired rating.
What to expect from our services:
- Consultancy: Initial guidance & advice from our experts.
- Pre-Assessment: An appraisal of elements to be incorporated into the design & cost plan.
- Design Stage: We assess the project against the criteria & issue a certificate based on evidence supplied by your design team.
- Post-Construction: After a site inspection & final assessment, we present the report & certificate to document your achieved rating.
BREEAM Rating
BREEAM ratings are the industry standard for demonstrating your commitment to a better built environment - whether you receive "Pass", "Good", "Very Good", "Excellent", or "Outstanding".
Your assessor will award credits in each BREEAM assessment area and total these to produce a final rating. A higher BREEAM rating will indicate better environmental performance, or that you have implemented sustainable design initiatives.
Achieving a higher BREEAM rating will help you:
- Increase your development’s marketability
- Meet the highest standards of sustainability
- Reduce your running costs
- Enhance your reputation
Other BREEAM Services
At Stroma, we offer a comprehensive suite of energy performance services to support your BREEAM certification - helping you optimise building quality, costs, and energy efficiency. You can also use these to demonstrate compliance with planning applications for Local Authorities.
Our complementary services include:
- Life Cycling Costing (LCC): To analyse the construction, maintenance, operation & replacement costs for the whole life of the building.
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): To detail the full carbon debt for a proposed scheme (a review can be made between key construction elements to limit the embodied carbon within the building).
Services procured during early RIBA stages, such as air quality assessments, BREEAM pre-assessments, and life cycle costing, can deliver significant savings. For example, credits earned in pre-planning cost an average of £760, compared to £14,000 during the construction and handover phases.
Maximise BREEAM Assessment Credits
To help you earn more credits and achieve a higher BREEAM rating, we can provide several add-on services for various categories. These are available at a discounted rate when you choose to complete more than one of the following:
- Management - BREEAM Accredited Professional (AP) & thermography
- Health & Wellbeing - daylight calculations, air quality assessments, thermal modelling & acoustics
- Energy - SBEM/DSM/SAP, air tightness testing & LZC feasibility study
- Transport - desktop studies
- Water - water efficiency calculations
- Materials - life cycle assessment for Mat 21 credits
- Land Use & Ecology - contaminated land investigation, including site investigation & risk assessment
- Pollution - noise impact assessment
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a BREEAM assessor do?
The role of a BREEAM assessor is to advise and guide the project manager's design team on best practices for sustainability and environmental performance. At the same time, they will assess the scheme for compliance against the BREEAM methodology.
How long is a BREEAM certification valid?
BREEAM certifications for new buildings are valid for the building's lifetime. Certifications for buildings that are already in use are valid for 3 years. After this period, they must be renewed.
What is a good BREEAM score?
An acceptable BREEAM rating is a "Pass" (30%) or above.
"Outstanding" is the highest achievable BREEAM rating, with a score of more than or equal to 85%. "Unclassified" is the lowest, with a score of less than 30%, and demonstrates non-compliance with BREEAM.