Major Plans Announced For BREEAM Sustainable Building Standards
In advance of CLG's consultation on carbon reduction in new non-domestic buildings, BRE Global will be launching BREEAM Energy Star in the Autumn.
BREEAM Energy Star is the latest addition to the BREEAM family of sustainable building standards, which are continually updated to make new and existing buildings more sustainable and cost effective from cradle to grave.
Martin Townsend, the new director of BREEAM, says that BREEAM Energy Star will encourage the design innovation necessary to achieve the Chancellor's policy objective of zero carbon non-domestic buildings by 2019.
"The BREEAM family of sustainability standards we are developing also includes BREEAM Communities for urban developments - developed jointly with the RDAs and leading international urban planners - and BREEAM In-Use, designed to reduce costs and improve the sustainability of a building's operation. The aim of the BREEAM family is to provide a comprehensive set of sustainable building standards that cover buildings that are based on robust scientific evidence and developed through consultation with industry and with strong market engagement" says Townsend.
Setting out the shape of things to come, Townsend described other aspects of the multi-faceted BREEAM family which will soon include :
- the launch of BREEAM International this Autumn as an ‘open source' standard, with its first derivative in the form of BREEAM Emirates, with BREEAM Europe not far behind
- schemes for Responsible Sourcing developed with major manufacturers and the Construction Products Association
- an LCA toolkit
- standards to cover new building types such as Further Education Colleges and Olympic venues
Chairman of the BRE Trust, Sir Neville Simms, commented "So much progress in such a short time reflects our strength in depth and breadth, which is built on the success of our rapidly growing existing schemes that have enabled developers and constructors to independently demonstrate their commitment to building a more sustainable future".
"The BREEAM approach has been copied worldwide because it works, is based on sound evidence, is independent of sectoral interests and can be adapted to different markets and climates. With the new Energy Star and expanded family of standards, we are setting a cracking pace".
