About and Tips

The Knowledge Base stores current Compliance Notes (KBCNs) for issues in live BREEAM & Home Quality Mark (HQM) scheme version and selected superseded versions. CNs provide essential supplementary guidance to the scheme technical criteria and operational processes.

(New) KBCNs do not change or modify the intent of criteria and should not impose additional or more onerous requirements. These are intended to clarify the criteria or explain how to interpret them in certain situations. Where a KBCN has been applied to an Issue in a particular BREEAM Scheme (as identified above each KBCN) it is, therefore, applicable to all assessments under that Scheme, regardless of the date it was published.

Typically CNs will cover how the criteria can be interpreted and therefore applied to specific situations on a project. CNs therefore do not apply to all assessments but where they do apply they provide valuable additional guidance and should be applied.

The Knowledge Base is a centralised resource designed to be used by assessors and all BREEAM staff thus providing an increasing level of consistency in interpretation and application of BREEAM and HQM criteria. Assessors may also share KB CNs with clients.

The Knowledge Base must be used in conjunction with the scheme technical and operational manuals, as these manuals outline the formal criteria and processes against which compliance and therefore a certification decision is determined.

A key aim of this Knowledge Base is to empower assessors in making compliance decisions by providing the supporting principles behind compliance notes (these appear in italics at the end of the note where required). We hope this will also broaden the awareness of the sound basis for sustainable solutions among all stakeholders.

The Knowledge Base will continue to be populated with new CNs as a result of any technical and process query submitted to BRE. Licensed assessors should continue to submit technical queries directly to BRE for any technical question not currently addressed by the scheme manual or this Knowledge Base.

You can view/download/print all the KB Compliance Notes for a single issue by clicking the button next to the issue title.

Tips

Use the Navigation Menu to access content for a specific scheme and issue, this is the fastest route. It will also allow you to move quickly to another issue.

Click on the Compliance Note (CN) title to see the content of the CN itself.

Each CN has a unique reference eg KBCN0428 which can be quoted in reports.

The search function searches only for content in CN title, CN content and for a unique reference number (ie not scheme, category or issue).

Also try out the Beta Dashboards available to assessors via the forum here

Latest 100 Notes