BREEAM-NL English
The choice for BREEAM
After consulting the participants regarding their criteria on a practical sustainable certification DGBC concluded they were looking for a system that provides international comparability, is adaptable to the local situation and standards (climate, building regulations, etc), is open and transparent, allows for a good balance between price and quality and provides for independent assessments. Having examined various international options for benchmarking buildings, the DGBC choose to use the English BREEAM methodology as the basis for their sustainability label.
The ‘Environmental Assessment Method’ of buildings was originally developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), a British research organization, hence the name BREEAM. BRE has had more than 100,000 buildings certified and operates in 15 different countries.
From Pass to Outstanding
BREEAM has nine categories:
1. Management
2. Health and Wellbeing
3. Energy
4. Transport
5. Water
6. Materials
7. Waste
8. Land use & Ecology
9. Pollution
Scores can be obtained per category and through qualitative weighting a total score is obtained. Within bandwidths the total score of the examined building receives a qualification on the certificate: Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding.
BREEAM-NL
The DGBC translated the original English version into Dutch. In April 2008, the council worked out the first adaptation of BREEAM-NL New Buildings to the local situation in the Netherlands. Five working groups comprised of retail, residential, office, industrial and regional constituents offered their feedback in May, and this input was used to form an optimal rating scheme for each building type and region. The next step was to implement what the Dutch GBC had learned.
13 Pilot projects commenced in February 2009. In March 2009 DGBC launched the beta version of BREEAM-NL New Buildings. The addition ‘NL’ makes clear that this is the Dutch version.
The beta version was designed to be used for testing. Besides the thirteen official pilots many other organizations and individuals downloaded and tried the beta version. A dedicated Wikipedia page was opened to allow for anyone to assist in the development. Their findings, comments and questions contributed to the completion of BREEAM-NL.
In September 2009, the council formally approved BREEAM-NL 2010 Version 1.0 for new buildings. This scheme can be used for individual offices, schools, shops, industrial buildings and major renovation projects. On October first, the scheme was publicly launched.
The council will further develop the In Use- and Area Development-labels.
