BREEAM Europe Commercial is an assessment method that can be used at the design, construction, initial occupation and refurbishment stages of a building’s lifecycle. The assessment method enables developers to evaluate, improve and demonstrate the environmental credentials of their building in a consistent way in different countries across Europe.
The BREEAM Europe Commercial scheme can be used to assess office, retail and industrial buildings in Europe and EU Member states.
The scheme provides a stimulus for national construction industries to improve their performance over and above the local building regulations. A key feature of BREEAM Europe Commercial is the capacity to recognise local context and issues, and to give the opportunity to design teams in each country to have their local best practice codes and standards recognised. Country specific reference sheets are available as an appendix to the BREEAM Europe Commercial manual to indicate which local standards are recognised within BREEAM. The BREEAM Assessor and the design team can add to the country specifc reference sheets by proposing local best practice construction codes not yet recognised.
The BREEAM Europe Commercial scheme includes:
- The ten BREEAM categories of Management, Health and Wellbeing, Energy, Transport, Materials, Waste, Water, Land Use and Ecology, Pollution and Innovation,
- Minimum standards which must be met in order to achieve a BREEAM rating,
- Exemplary level requirements,
- Madatory Post Construction Stage Assessment,
- Guidance for a shell only approach to an assessment.
The assessment method provides an independent means of assessing key environmental impacts associated with construction projects. Within the ten BREEAM categories (e.g. Management, Energy) credits are awarded according to the performance of the development. The score achieved in each category is then weighted to reflect the importance of each category as an environmental issue in Europe. The weighted scores are combined and the final score translated into a rating of Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding.
For further information and case studies on the BREEAM Europe Commercial Scheme Documents please refere the BRE BREEAM Europe pages.
BREEAM Europe Commercial is not appropriate for assessing the environmental impact of existing buildings in use. For information on the assessment of existing buildings please go to the BREEAM In-Use page using the ‘Schemes’ link at the top of this page.