What you need to know...BREEAM UK New Construction V7 Update

The BREEAM UK New Construction V7 manual has been released and is the first major update for new-build non-residential buildings in several years.

The scheme document is currently available to view but projects cannot yet be registered against this version of the assessment. You can download the manual here:

BREEAM UK NC V7

The new scheme aims to align with industry objectives on decarbonisation which require reductions in operational, embodied, refrigerant, and transportation emissions addressing whole life carbon across the building lifecycle.

Is V7 harder to achieve than V6.1?

The simple answer is YES.

Until the scheme is open and the new BREEAM Platform is available we cannot say for certain, however, the BRE have undertaken a benchmarking exercise and have stated that they anticipate the average score reduction when comparing V7 with V6.1 to be around 5% (for UK projects).

Should I register upcoming projects against the current V6.1 scheme?

Again, the simple answer is YES.

Remember, you can always upgrade registrations to the new V7 but you will not be allowed to back-register to V6.1.

The BRE are yet to announce when registration will open for the V7 scheme and, subsequently, when registration against the previous V6.1 will close. We will provide an update as soon as we know more.

If you would like to ensure you beat the changes and register any upcoming projects with the current V6.1 please do not hesitate to contact Vicki at vicki.wilson@wilsonsustainability.com.

What are the Major Changes?

It's a big update!

There are several significant changes, including:

• New issues

• New credits

• New criteria

• Reconfigured credits

• Revised existing criteria and methodologies

• Revised rating benchmarks

• Revised category weightings

• New minimum standards

• Alignment with new standards, specifically with the EU Taxonomy

• New BREEAM platform which integrates all previously Excel-based calculator tools

• Removal of the BREEAM Bespoke requirements for up to 5 additional asset types.

Revised Rating Benchmarks

The rating benchmarks have been reduced for Pass and Good:

BREEAM Rating	V6.1 Overall Score %	V7 Overall Score %
Outstanding	≥85	≥85
Excellent	≥70	≥70
Very Good	≥55	≥55
Good	≥45	≥40
Pass	≥30	≥25
Unclassified	<30	<25

Revised Category Weightings

The weightings have been updated to increase the importance of embodied carbon, maintain the level for health and wellbeing and focus the weighting of energy and carbon on grid emissions factors, as BREEAM V7 pushes towards electrification of buildings. The updated ratings are as follows:

Category	Fully Fitted	Shell & Core	Shell Only
Management	11.00%	10.00%	12.50%
Health and Wellbeing	15.00%	10.00%	9.50%
Energy	16.50%	18.00%	8.00%
Transport	8.50%	9.00%	13.50%
Water	7.50%	8.00%	2.00%
Materials	16.00%	17.50%	22.00%
Waste	7.00%	7.00%	10.00%
Land Use and Ecology	10.50%	11.50%	16.50%
Pollution	8.00%	9.00%	6.00%
Innovation	10.00%	10.00%	10.00%

Revised Minimum Standards

The minimum standards have been revised to include new/additional mandatory requirements. These are shown in orange in the table below:

BREEAM Issue	Pass	Good	Very Good	Excellent	Outstanding
MAN 03				One credit	Two credits
MAN 04				One credit – Commissioning schedule & responsibilities
MAN 05				Criterion 12 – Building user guide
HEA 01					Criterion 1 – Natural light
HEA 04			Criterion 1 – Indoor air quality plan
ENE 01				Four credits	Six credits
ENE 02				Three credits for operation energy performance	Three credits for predictive energy modelling OR five credits for operation energy performance AND No fossil fuels combusted on-site
ENE 03			One credit – Energy monitoring by end use
WAT 01		One credit	Two credits
WAT 02		Criterion 1 – A water meter is installed
MAT 01				Criteria 1 to 6 Any project stage LCA and embodied carbon reporting	Five credits All project stage LCA and embodied carbon reporting
MAT 03	Criterion 1 – Legally harvested and traded timber
WST 01					One credit
WST 03				One credit
POL 01					One credit

What are the Major Technical Changes?

Summary of Changes by Category

• Management – Major change to MAN05 Aftercare otherwise minor changes to criteria.

• Health and Wellbeing – Major reconfiguration including new issues and new credits.

• Energy – Major reconfiguration including new issues and new credits.

• Transport – Minor changes to criteria and methodologies.

• Water – Major changes including new issue.

• Materials – Major change to MAT 01 LCA otherwise minor changes to methodologies.

• Waste – Minor changes to criteria and methodologies.

• Land Use and Ecology – Major methodology changes.

• Pollution – Major changes to some criteria.

Summary of Major Changes to Issues

• MAN 05 Aftercare

  • Previous exemplary credit removed

  • New exemplary credit to encourage Zero Carbon Transition Plans for projects that are not on track to be net zero carbon

• HEA 01 Natural Light

  • New issue – restructured from previous Visual Comfort issue

  • New credit recognising the importance of daylight in spaces used for residential purposes.

  • New exemplary credit recognising the use of numerical analysis to provide a more robust glare control assessment.

  • Improvement to the daylight methodology encouraging the use of computer-based design modelling.

  • New additional route to compliance for view out based on new methodology.

• HEA 02 Artificial Light

  • New issue – restructured from previous Visual Comfort issue

  • New prerequisite on managing flicker and stroboscopic effects.

  • New single credit for lighting zones and occupant control.

  • New exemplary credit on lighting control of dimming range and colour tuning.

• HEA 03 Non-Visual Effects of Light

  • New issue – focussed on the benefit of light supporting a healthy circadian rhythm.

• HEA 04 Indoor Air Quality

  • New credit for an indoor air quality plan (previously a pre-requisite)

• HEA 07 Safe and Accessible Design

  • New issue name

• ENE 01 Energy and Carbon Performance for Regulated Energy Uses

  • Reconfiguration and clarification of requirements.

  • Added a flexible weighting scale for the three metrics. The weighting for demand will now be proportional to the relative size of heating and cooling energy consumption within the building’s total regulated energy.

• ENE 02 Prediction of Operational Energy and Carbon

  • Major reconfiguration and clarification of methodology for predicting operational energy use.

  • New credit – Third party verification of energy model

  • New credit – Predicted energy performance compared to benchmarks.

• ENE 04 Low Carbon Design

  • Passive design separated out into building form analysis and building fabric performance.

  • New credits for achieving performance targets set for building fabric performance (up to 2 credits) and LZC technologies (1 credit).

• ENE 05 Energy Efficient Equipment

  • Now up to 5 credits available

  • Credits available reflects the amount of energy using equipment included in the project.

  • Credits awarded based on the proportion of energy use by energy using equipment that is efficient.

• ENE 06 Energy Efficient Systems

  • Combines previous ENE 03, ENE 05, ENE 06 and ENE 07 issues.

  • Up to 10 credits available.

  • Credits available reflects the amount of energy use by systems included in the project.

  • Credits awarded based on the proportion of energy use by energy using systems that is efficient.

• ENE 07 Flexible Demand Response

  • New issue

  • One standard and one exemplary credit

  • Credits available reflects the scope for flexible demand side response capabilities.

  • Credits awarded based on the proportion of those systems that have flexible demand side response capabilities.

• ENE 08 Installed Controls

  • New issue – recognises installed controls that enable building servicing systems to respond more efficiently to the demand for energy services.

  • Two standard and one exemplary credit

  • Credits available is determined by the building services installed.

  • Credits awarded based on the functionality of the installed controls for the installed services.

• WAT 01 Water Consumption

  • Major simplification of the WAT 01 calculator and benchmarks

• WAT 04 Water Efficient Equipment and Systems

  • Up to 5 credits available.

  • Major reconfiguration of criteria, and methodology.

  • Credits available reflect the amount of water using systems included in the project.

  • Credits awarded based on the proportion of water use that is by water efficient systems.

• WAT 05 Prediction of Operational Water Consumption

  • New issue.

  • New credit for predicting water consumption.

  • New credit for setting an in-use water consumption target.

  • New credit for committing to measure water consumption in use.

• MAT 01 Building Life Cycle Assessment

  • Issue completely rewritten.

  • Concept-design LCA and embodied carbon reporting – 2 credits

  • Technical-design LCA and embodied carbon reporting – 1 credit

  • Post-construction LCA and embodied carbon reporting – 2 credits

  • Comparison against the embodied carbon benchmark – Up to 2 credits and 1 exemplary credit

  • Submit embodied carbon data to a public database – 1 exemplary credit.

• LE 02 Ecological Risks and Opportunities

  • Removed pre-requisite relating to legislation.

  • Major update to methodology – more onus on ecologist’s knowledge and expertise.

• LE 03 Managing Impacts on Ecology

  • Removed pre-requisite relating to legislation.

  • Credit changes – two credits are now available for the ‘implementation of measures of site’ for both routes and one credit available for ‘no net loss’.

  • Major update to methodology.

• LE 04 Ecological Change and Enhancement

  • Removed pre-requisite relating to legislation.

  • Benchmarks aligned with English Biodiversity Net Gain law.

  • Major update to methodology.

• LE 05 Long Term Ecology Management and Maintenance

  • Removed pre-requisite relating to legislation.

• POL 01 Impact of Refrigerants

  • Pre-requisite for all refrigerant gases to have zero ozone depletion potential.

• POL 02 Local Air Quality

  • Criteria now relate to NOx only.

• POL 05 Reduction of Noise Pollution

  • Criteria now specify that the noise level must be at least 5 dB lower than the background noise throughout the day and night.

Want to know more about the BREEAM UK New Construction V7 Update?

If you would like a copy of our Summary of Changes document or would like to arrange a training session to run through the major changes then please do not hesitate to contact Vicki at vicki.wilson@wilsonsustainability.com.