Sustainable construction is increasingly becoming important and a BREEAM assessment is recognized as the measure of best practice in environmental design and management.

The Government is keen to ensure that sustainability is at the top of the agenda for all those involved in the construction of schools. The DfES requires the following new build and refurbishment projects to achieve a Design and Procurement BREEAM rating of at least ‘very good’:

• Primary school projects costing £500k or more
• Secondary school or further education projects costing £2m or more
• All projects involving remodelling or complete refurbishment of more than 10% of the total gross internal floor area of a school.

Smaller-scale projects are also encouraged to use the BREEAM assessment methodology.  

There are two types of BREEAM assessment.

• Design & Procurement - This assessment is preferably carried out during the early stages of the design process.
• Post Construction Review - This is generally carried out a year after the completion of the project. It is used to check that the items specified within the Design & Procurement assessment were implemented during construction.

BREEAM assessments can only be carried out by trained professionals under license to the BRE. Licensed organisations operate under a strict quality assurance procedure and are audited by the BRE.