BREEAM’s relationship with the EU Taxonomy
BREEAM is the world’s leading science-based suite of validation and certification systems for sustainable built environment. Since 1990, its third-party certified standards have helped improve asset performance at every stage, from design through construction, to use and refurbishment. Millions of buildings across the world are certified against BREEAM standard and are using its holistic approach to achieve ESG, health and Net Zero carbon goals. BREEAM is owned by BRE - a profit-for-purpose organisation with over 100 years of building science and research background.
We believe
- Together we can achieve net zero carbon
- The built environment should play its role on greenwash, climate and beyond by minimising negative impacts and maximise positive change for people, climate and biodiversity
- Better data, measurement and reporting underpins and drives better decision making.
It is BRE’s credible science and research that provides the confidence that BREEAM is a framework you can trust. Through asset performance management, assurance, and validation it provides meaningful insights to enable informed decision making about the future of your assets.
A holistic, scientific, and robust international sustainability framework
BREEAM provides a holistic sustainability assessment framework, measuring sustainable value in a series of categories and validating performance with third-party certification. Each of these categories addresses influential factors, including low impact design and carbon emissions reduction; design durability
and resilience; adaption to climate change; and ecological value and biodiversity protection. Assessment categories vary between BREEAM schemes, ensuring that the assessment is relevant to the project and the lifecycle stage.
Assessment categories
Management
Resilience
Water
Land use & ecology
Energy
Pollution
Transport
Materials
Health & wellbeing
Waste
Resources
Innovation
A BREEAM certified rating reflects the performance level achieved by a project and its stakeholders, as measured against the BREEAM standard and its benchmarks. The rating enables comparability between projects and assures performance, quality and value of the asset.
The BREEAM ratings range from Acceptable (In-Use scheme only) to Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent to Outstanding (reflected in a series of stars on the BREEAM In Use certificate).
BREEAM rating
Outstanding
Exellent
Very good
Good
Pass
Unclassified
BREEAM % score
1. Whole life performance
The BREEAM suite of schemes enables consistent and comparable assessment and verification across the entire built environment lifecycle.
2. Third-party certification for verified data
BREEAM’s third-party certification involves validating the assessment by impartial experts known as BREEAM Assessors. BREEAM Assessors are qualified and licensed to ensure the assessment meets BREEAM quality and performance standards.
The assessment then undergoes a Quality Audit (QA) check from the accredited third-party independent and impartial certification body, BRE Global Ltd. The BREEAM certification mark provides an internationally recognised badge of assurance that the assessment of a project conforms to the requirements of the scheme. The certification mark can be showcased to demonstrate the quality, performance and sustainable credentials of the asset.
BRE Global Ltd is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) against BS EN ISO/IEC 17065:2012 – General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems for providing certification activities associated with the assessment of the environmental performance of:
- Masterplanning
- New construction of infrastructure & buildings
- Buildings in use
- Refurbishment of buildings
In addition, all BREEAM related activities are aligned to ISO 9001.
As an accredited certification body, BRE Global maintains an open and accountable governance structure that, amongst other things, safeguards impartiality. The Governing Body fulfils this role and provides guidance and advice to BRE Global through the wide knowledge and experience of the Governing Body members.
BREEAM Platform
The BREEAM Platform will host all BREEAM assessment data.
The BREEAM Platform is a user-friendly intuitive digital tool to revolutionise the capture and verification of environmental assessments. The platform provides whole lifecycle assessment and certification across all built environment asset types to positively impact the future of the built environment, associated investments, and their impact on the planet.
It does this by capturing reliable and verified data into net zero carbon, disclosures and reporting, biodiversity, circularity & resilience, and health & social impact.
The platform is where your BREEAM assessments will be undertaken. Through this process it unlocks valuable insights into asset performance management to constructors, developers, owners, operators, and investors.
Collaboration on taxonomy development internationally
BREEAM is actively engaging with leading external organisations to interpret the requirements and provide feedback.
Our team is also liaising with numerous financial institutions as part of a broader collaboration to understand how the market is reacting to the Taxonomy requirements and how BREEAM can support their needs.
New functionality in BREEAM USA In-Use now live!
A report is now available to customers which shows how their BREEAM building aligns to the EU Taxonomy criteria in BREEAM USA In-Use V6. Along with it, the EU Taxonomy report for International In-Use V6 has been updated based on the latest guidance documents and amendments published for Annexes 1 & 2. There is an option to download the report for certified assessment only.
Where BREEAM aligns to the EU Taxonomy, the report enables customers to easily see which areas of the EU Taxonomy have already been met, as well as highlighting opportunities to increase their EU Taxonomy alignment.
This update demonstrates how we can use data within BREEAM for a range of reporting purposes as we maximise the value provided to our customers as we respond more quickly to innovations and customer feedback.
