The BRE has launched a European version of its environmental assessment system BREEAM. The launch of the BREEAM Europe in August will be followed later in the year with the launch of BREEAM Gulf.

BREEAM International Manager, Anna Surgenor, said: “The enormous volume of construction work in the Gulf region inevitably has a huge environmental impact... BREEAM Gulf will assess a building's environmental impact through the standard BREEAM category areas, which include management, health and wellbeing, energy, transport, water, land use and ecology, materials, waste, and pollution.

“Unlike BREEAM in the UK, which generally looks at building uses separately, a BREEAM Gulf assessment evaluates the performance of a whole building, taking into account the different uses that are present (eg office, retail, residential). This approach reflects the construction market in the Gulf, where mixed use buildings are the norm.”

Some of the credits for BREEAM Europe will be the same as BREEAM UK, however other aspects of the assessments will be more tailored as standards and regulations vary from country to country.

Source

Building Sustainable Design