Sep 24 2007
The 2007 BREEAM Awards have been announced as part of the BRE Annual Conference at the Emirates Stadium.
BREEAM is the world's leading environmental assessment method for buildings with almost 100,000 buildings certified and over half a million registered. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure of a building's environmental performance.
The Awards were introduced and presented by BBC Business Correspondent Nils Blythe and Chief Executive of BRE Global Carol Atkinson in front of an audience of leading industry representatives.
Unlike many construction awards, the BREEAM awards are not subjectively judged but reward the developments that have been independently assessed and certified as scoring the highest number of credits in the relevant year. The pre-requirements are that the development must score an EXCELLENT and have been certified to a recent BREEAM version (2005 onwards).
The three developments highlighted this year for their outstanding achievement in environmental design and management are:
Bespoke BREEAM
Swindon Central Library, Swindon
Developer & Architect : Swindon Borough Council
BREEAM Score: 72.51%
EcoHomes
Plots 1-19, Block 6, Site B, Upton, Northampton
Developer : Cornhill Estates Ltd
Architects : Working Group, Porphyrios Associates,
|Gale and Snowden
BREEAM Score: 80.25%
BREEAM Offices
Innovate Green Office, Thorpe Park, Leeds
Developer: Innovate Property Ltd.
Architect: Rio Architects
BREEAM Score: 87.55%
Carol Atkinson, Chief Executive of BRE Global, commented "As the number of buildings receiving BREEAM Certificates grows rapidly every year, competition to be the best scoring development gets stiffer. These three developments are superb exemplars that the construction industry can use as inspiration and show how effective a standard like BREEAM can be in driving progress."
New Category for the 2008 BREEAM Awards : Code for Sustainable Homes
A new category for next year's award ceremony will recognize the highest scoring housing development under the newly launched Code for Sustainable Homes. In April 2007 the Code for Sustainable Homes (developed by Communities and Local Government (CLG), replaced EcoHomes as the assessment method for new housing in England. The Code, which was based on EcoHomes, has a rating scale of one to six stars and contains some mandatory levels in key areas like energy and water. A home scoring six stars will be carbon neutral.