Market demand for BREEAM leads to new international standard

BRE has launched its new standard for the overseas market - BREEAM International New Construction 2013 - which will be used to assess commercial and residential buildings worldwide.

The standard combines two previous international standards BREEAM Europe Commercial and BREEAM International Bespoke and is the first BREEAM scheme for the certification of residential buildings outside the UK.  

It has been developed in response to increased market demand for a single science-based standard that delivers triple fold benefits – not only reduced environmental impact buildings that are higher value assets with reduced running costs but ultimately well-designed  buildings and homes are great to live and work in.

Like all schemes in the BREEAM family, the new standard enables clients to deliver best environmental practice in an efficient, cost effective way,and acts as a driver for innovation in building design and construction at a local level. The technical criteria of the standard also takes into account the feedback from hundreds of customers and clients of BREEAM from around the world.

BREEAM International New Construction 2013:

• sets new benchmarks for energy efficiency and operational carbon emissions, including rewards for ‘carbon negative’ buildings
• introduces new requirements on sustainable procurement and post-construction operational after-care
• adds new reporting requirements on building life cycle CO2 emissions, construction and operational water consumption, construction waste  and VOC emissions
• allows for adaption to the local environment
• introduces credits for appointing a BREEAM Accredited Professional and credits for a building technology, feature, design or construction method or process recognised as ‘innovative.

BREEAM Director Gavin Dunn said: “In the last 4 years BREEAM has become very international and few countries remain in the world where there is not a BREEAM assessment. The new standard allows for better local adaption and recognises the need for the scheme to work alongside local standards.

“We expect it to make a significant impact in countries like China where we are active on a number of important projects in Beijing and Shanghai with large state and private developers Franshion and Vanke.”

The Technical Manual for BREEAM International New Construction 2013 is now publicly available via the BREEAM website.