BRE and IWBI™ publish briefing paper on sustainable buildings

The BRE and IWBI™ have published a briefing paper outlining an easier route to healthy, sustainable buildings.

The Process of obtaining both a certified BREEAM and a WELL Certified™ rating has been greatly simplified, by a briefing paper that is due to be published by BRE and the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™). The paper follows last year’s announcement that the WELL Certified™ would be aligned with global sustainability standard BREEAM.

Energy expert, Darren Evans, said: “It’s important the large organisations take employee health and wellbeing seriously.  We spend a lot of time at work (90% of employees admit their work is affected by the quality of their environment) and so it’s important that we look at ways to improve this work/life balance. Creating sustainable buildings which make occupants feel better as well as happier and more productive should therefore be a given. It should become part of the culture of a business.”

The aim of the WELL being standard is to focus on the health and wellbeing of people within buildings by focusing on seven “Concepts”. The concepts include air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind, all of which show the connections between buildings and the impact they can have on individuals. By aligning WELL with BREEAM, it will allow project teams to achieve best-practice.

The new briefing paper, Assessing Health and Wellbeing in Buildings, will allow the process of assessing under BREEAM and WELL to become much more simplified and efficient by providing guidance on how the process of for pursuing dual certification may be streamlined, and offers information for architects and designers to better understand the requirements and how the two standards relate.

Alan Yates, BREEAM Technical Director, said: “The document will allow clients and design teams to use the same evidence in both schemes. When you need or want both certification schemes, this document will guide project teams on the most efficient way of going through the process. They won’t need to duplicate evidence or calculate things in different ways, as approximately 35 % of credits are equivalent or aligned in some way. This will ultimately reduce the burden of assessing both schemes.”

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