Sustainable Homes & BREEAM

Code for Sustainable Homes & BREEAM …

BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and is considered as one of the longest established and most widely used method of assessing, rating and certifying the sustainability of buildings. It is a government owned national standard intended to encourage continuous improvement in sustainable home building and promotes low carbon and low impact design.

BREEAM assessments cover a range of building types including schools, prisons, healthcare buildings and industrial buildings.  The method by which new housing is assessed is known as the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH), formerly known as EcoHomes.

The BREEAM and CfSH assessment methods work by assigning credit points under a number of different categories such as energy, water, transport and ecology.  Each development project is assessed against each of these categories and an overall rating is awarded; the overall rating is dependent on the total number of credit points successfully achieved.

A number of credit points are available under the Ecology category (for BREEAM and CfSH) and these should be granted by a Suitably Qualified Ecologist (SQE); please note that some credits are only available following a site visit.

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