At a time of fierce competition and shareholder drive for transparency is becoming increasingly important BREEAM is providing further evidence of its value and return on investment.
“Delivering Sustainable Buildings: Value of BREEAM to Retail in the UK” has been published at MIPIM and shows how retailers and developers can use BREEAM to help attract customers, increase operational effectiveness and manage costs and income.
The report is published by researchers at BREEAM and Currie & Brown, the leading international asset management and cost consultancy.
It draws upon on examples of the approaches and benefits seen by some of the UK’s largest and most experienced developers and retailers, and includes guidance for those aiming to get the most out of their investment in sustainable retail buildings, whatever their size or role in the sector.
“BREEAM certification, the assessment process and, importantly, meeting the performance standards stipulated under the various assessment areas can help retailers and developers to improve the performance of their buildings,” says Gavin Dunn, Director at BRE, the operators of BREEAM.
“In 2013, energy use and associated carbon cost the sector £3.3 billion. Adopting BREEAM performance standards brings valuable operational efficiencies associated with using a consistent industry standard method. It also acts as a spur to innovation and a tool to assist communications within project teams and other stakeholders.”
“This study illustrates the importance of the retail industry to life in the UK. It powerfully demonstrates the many ways that high sustainability standards help the sector get the most from its property, its largest operating cost after employment” says Adam Mactavish, Operations Director at Currie & Brown.
Examples quoted in the report include:
- Use of BREEAM by The Crown Estate, which set an aspiration to achieve BREEAM Excellent for major new retail developments. Their use of consistent methods, helping to set the organisation’s priorities and standards, helps to efficiently deliver their policy goals and maximises the potential to transfer lessons learnt across the industry.
- Investment in two BREEAM Excellent ‘Sustainable Learning Stores’ by Marks and Spencer, who monitored and evaluated the benefits of their sustainable features, importantly including an assessment of customer and staff perceptions.
The retail-specific value report for BREEAM follows on from publication of “The Value of BREEAM: A Review of Latest Thinking in the Commercial Building Sector” published at the end of 2016. Amongst the findings of this report were a 66% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for a typical BREEAM Outstanding rated building, with 32% reductions for BREEAM Excellent rated buildings.
BREEAM continues to drive value, as well as evolve the portfolio of schemes to drive all aspects of the built environment. This year there will be more exciting news on how BREEAM will continue to evolve to drive better buildings and reduce the performance gap.