Spring 2011 Meeting

The Spring event was preceded by a half-day workshop focused on the ‘Next Generation BREEAM and the Future of Energy Assessment Tools’. The workshop began with a welcome and introduction by Peter Rebbeck (Construct IT chair) which then followed Peter Ball (BRE) welcoming delegates to BRE before giving an overview of BRE including how it fits into the research agenda and Construct IT.

Peter then outlined the industry issues and challenges of the need for new homes - 80% of which exist, 50% of CO2 emissions coming from buildings, the significant rise in single occupancy homes and an increasing population. This was followed by an overview of BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) which is an independent, holistic certification scheme that aims to improve the sustainability of building stock, performance of buildings, conditions for building occupants, and encourage community use. The assessment process was discussed consisting of a pre-assessment estimator tool that facilitates a formal assessment that is an iterative process carried out during the design stage and then at the construction stage by a licensed assessor, from which a score is generated and submitted to BRE for validation and the issuing of a certificate. In addition, Peter stated that there is also an optional Self-Assessment Tool - BREEAM In-use – and this enables existing building owners to go through the process and assess the sustainability of their own products. Peter explained the scoring and weighting system based on nine assessment criteria to which environmental weightings are applied to provide a single score.

Next, he discussed how to achieve the BREEAM ratings by highlighting the benefit of getting the whole supply chain early in the process, that it should be considered as an on-going process in continuingly improving the building, the potential for tools such as BIM facilitating this process during the early design stages through to certification, and the procurement approach to achieving the BREEAM ratings being a fundamental part of the design process enabled by such tools as BIM. The benefits of BREEAM were outlined in terms of social, environmental and economical that deliver a building which is better than fit for purpose. This was followed by Peter highlighting that BRE are focusing on the ‘real value’ of BREEAM and improving the product to make it more usable through its integration to a range of products and this would be a focus of the workshop. Peter raised the issue of clients’ concern with the cost of achieving a BREEAM excellent building which he emphasised goes beyond just the cost of the building in there being government targets to be met in relation to sustaining the planet. Finally, he proffered a number of questions to provoke discussion for the workshop such as how BREEAM has affected building design and construction and whether the drive towards sustainability is threatening the possible completion of some projects.

Peter then handed over to Paul Thistlethwaite ( BRE Global) to provide an overview of where BRE believe BREEAM is moving and their current thinking in relation to BIM along with highlighting the associated opportunities and issues as the focus of the workshop. He began by outlining the issues that will be on the agenda for the construction industry in the next 10 years including significant political drivers affecting UK construction, UK Low Carbon Transition Plan and Climate Change Act. Paul then discussed that the transformation in building is beginning to happen and this needs to be both in terms of performance and sustainability through a step change and the blending of goods and services. The Olympic site was highlighted as a good model of best practice before outlining that in the next 10 years the industry has to deliver more integrated working, improve the regulatory drivers, develop faster innovation cycles, and reduce costs of construction all of which will lead to new business opportunities, and that carbon will be a key driver.

Paul emphasised that in terms of the implications for BREEAM in a low carbon economy then sustainability should be seen as business as usual and it has to be driven by value. From consultation of what needs to be considered by BREAAM in the future, Paul discussed some of the key issues that have been raised in relation to its aim, scope, approach, foundations, and general application in terms of research and development, and uptake, education, and communication. Finally, Paul outlined where BREAAM is currently along with where BRE feel it should be moving. He discussed BREEAM is still fairly archaic in being a paper-based system with some supplementary assessment tools but with a manual reporting of the auditing and certification. On the other hand, there have been developments in developing the next level of BREAAM such as third party BREEAM project management software tools to facilitate the process, the integration of performance-based BREEAM issues into holistic design and decision tools, and faster product development based on feedback. Finally, some of the opportunities and barriers were discussed including integrating BREEAM into the design process, increasing efficiency, monitoring the accuracy of third party ‘black box’ tools, cost of access, legal implications, data ownership, decreased flexibility/reduced ability to recognise innovative approaches to compliance, and the potential of deskilling decision makers.

During the workshop a number of key issues were identified and discussed as being important to the next generation of BREEAM and its integration with BIM. Discussions focused around such issues as validation of the BIM model through key stages of the project, the need for a single system linked into IFCs or multi-platform solution, satisfying the operational needs at the design stage and the impact on the various people involved in the lifecycle, consideration of short-life buildings, international knowledge-base, transparent methods as BREAAM is considered as closed, how to get all parties involved via BIM, BIM for both professional and non-professional end-users, BIM facilitating feedback loops, the overlap between what BREEAM does and what BIM can offer, standardisation of BREEAM assessments, model and reality discrepancies, and deciding what the model is from all the models that are developed during the project ... more>