10 Ways to Achieve BREEAM Excellence Without Extra Cost
- Vicki Wilson
- Mar 25
- 4 min read
Achieving BREEAM excellence is a prestigious goal for any building project, reflecting a commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. However, many developers and design teams worry that pursuing such high standards will inevitably lead to increased costs. Fortunately, this doesn't have to be the case. By integrating sustainable practices early in the design process and leveraging cost-effective strategies, it's possible to achieve BREEAM excellence without breaking the bank.
In this article, we explore ten practical ways to maximise BREEAM points while minimising additional expenses, ensuring that your project not only meets but exceeds sustainability expectations without compromising on budget.
1. Start thinking about BREEAM early
The earlier you appoint a BREEAM Advisory Professional (AP) to advise on compliance, the easier and smoother the process will be. As soon as you have a project in mind, get in touch! The BREEAM AP will be able to advise on necessary appointments and design measures required to maximise your score for minimum cost.
A number of credits have time restrictions related to them and so addressing them early is the only way to ensure that there is potential to achieve all available credits. If you miss the timing, those credits will no longer be available and in some cases, this can affect the maximum rating that could be achieved.
In addition to this, incorporating BREEAM measures into the design early on, will reduce costs and time by negating the need for redesigns and late additions.
2. Set clear goals and objectives
Want to achieve BREEAM Outstanding? Make it a goal from day one so that everyone is aware, costs can be allowed for and measures can be incorporated. It is much easier for everyone involved to set a single target rating and aspire to achieve it.
3. Design for compliance, don’t leave it as a bolt-on
Did you forget the recyclable waste storage area or perhaps forgot to sub-meter cooling? These can be costly mistakes, especially if only realised at the post-construction stage site inspection. Ensure you have a good dialogue with your BREEAM AP and BREEAM assessor from the early stages so that designs and proposals can be reviewed and anything missing can be added in before designs are complete and buildings are built – especially anything that relates to those mandatory criteria and minimum standards!
4. Take into account the credit weightings
Each category has a different weighting and these vary depending upon the fit-out scope of an assessment. It is important to pay attention to these weightings, especially when trying to reduce costs, as they can give you an indication of which credits have a greater impact on the overall score. So if you need to increase your score, it may be cheaper to implement one heavier-weighted credit than 2 or 3 credits with low weightings.
5. Ensure the minimum standards are met
If you don’t meet the minimum standards for a specific rating, even if you achieve over the required score, you will not be able to achieve that rating. These are crucial to achieving an assessment and must not be forgotten about.
The good news is that the majority of the mandatory criteria and minimum standards are fairly easy to achieve but make sure you keep an eye on the minimum energy credits for the higher ratings.
6. Consider site selection
The ideal BREEAM development site that would achieve maximum credits would be a contaminated brown field site, requiring remediation, located in a low flood risk area where there is potential to increase the biodiversity and ecological value, yet located in a city centre where there are excellent transport links and local amenities. Impossible? Maybe! But when purchasing sites try to consider the limitations that may be imposed by the selection. A greenfield site that has never been anything other than farmland will automatically mean that a number of credits are impossible to achieve.
7. Assign clear roles and responsibilities
Ensure all the designers, consultants and contractors required are appointed in a timely manner and ensure that all roles and responsibilities are defined clearly and early on. BREEAM does require additional work to the standard design and may require the production of additional documents. To avoid added on costs make sure the additional work and the extra consultants are allowed for from the beginning, especially when it’s something specially related to sustainability such as a life cycle assessment or life cycle costing.
8. Be clear about what is expected from the main contractor and their sub-contractors
It is crucial to ensure that your main contractor and their sub-contractors have bought into the scheme and committed to achieving the desired BREEAM rating. Ultimately, they are responsible for turning the design stage assessment score into a final assessment rating. Consider adding responsible construction requirements and demolition/construction waste benchmarks into prelims or having them sign up to a sustainable procurement plan.
9. Develop sustainable policies
Whether you are an Investor, a Developer or a Contractor, it is always beneficial to establish a standard set of principles that outline your minimum approach to sustainability benchmarks. If you have a company policy that is applied to all projects, it will reduce the need to produce documents for every project and will also make the design and construction team aware of the expectations from day one. Consider establishing the following as a minimum:
Sustainable procurement plan
Responsible construction management targets
Construction waste targets
Minimum sustainability specifications, for example energy targets, daylighting factors, EVC points.
10. Don’t forget about innovation
The innovation category is rarely used but could be a way to achieve additional credits, perhaps for something you are already planning on doing. The innovation category is worth 10% overall and the maximum credits achievable is 10 (even though there are more than 10 available), therefore each credit is worth 1%.
There are 2 ways to achieve innovation credits, the first is to meet the exemplary performance targets for the standard credits.
The second way is to develop a unique and innovative idea that goes above and beyond the standard criteria. This would need to be submitted to the BRE for approval but can earn you additional innovation credits. Interested to see what has been previously approved? Take a look here:
Are you considering a BREEAM assessment for your new development or perhaps you need a hand outlining a sustainability specification?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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