The table below lists the Innovation Applications that BRE Global has approved where permission has been given to publish the information. For the BREEAM Innovation Application form please refer to BREEAM Projects here (Licensed assessors only).
In most cases the aim shown has been copied from the Innovation Application Form that was submitted by the assessor, however in some cases this has been edited for clarity or brevity. Comments in square brackets [] indicate BRE comment where necessary.
The approved innovations are listed, so that before making an innovation application, an assessor can check whether the innovation they are proposing has been previously approved. If it has been approved, an innovation application should not be submitted. An approved innovation can only be used once (to award an innovation credit) for the projects agreed through the innovation application.
Key:
NC – BREEAM New Construction (UK and International)
RFO – BREEAM Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit (UK and International)
DR – BREEAM UK Domestic Refurbishment
COM – BREEAM Communities
INF – BREEAM Infrastructure (formerly CEEQUAL)
INF-P – BREEAM Infrastructure Pilot (UK and International)
NSO – BREEAM National Scheme Operator
Advanced searching: You should be able to search within this document using Ctrl + F in your browser. For more detailed manipulation and sorting you can copy the table into Excel.
| Date of decision | Scheme | Innovation title | Summary of innovation |
| 18-Dec-23 | NC | Concrete made of 100% recycled aggregate | Concrete made of 100% recycled aggregate based on patented know-how. Full replacement of natural aggregate (NA) in concrete with recycled aggregate (RA) made of construction demolition waste (CDW). |
| 18-Dec-23 | NSO | Advanced leak detection system | The innovation aims to reduce the environmental impact and costs associated with water leakages by early and precise mitigation. The innovation is a comprehensive, integrated system for moisture monitoring in buildings. An algorithm is used to interpret input data from sensor nodes (and adjust for weather conditions, relative humidity, and residual moisture) to precisely detect leakages in the building fabric. |
| 24-Oct-23 | RFO | Using AirRated Design and Operation as a key part of building management in the project | Using AirRated D&O to inform the design, committing to using AirRated post-construction to check/validate the design, and committing to complete monthly AirScore assessments post-construction. |
| 16-Aug-23 | NSO | Dynamic Glass | Combination of electrochromism and foil insulation elements that are controlled by wireless control units, self-served from solar panels. This facade system provides heat protection in a lightweight format without reducing insulating ability. |
| 24-Feb-23 | RFO | Tuneable white lighting (dynamic lighting control based on site-specific spectral measurements) | A lighting system with the “intelligence” necessary to be able to recognise local sky/natural light conditions occurring at the project site and the ability to adjust the performance of each luminaire to address these conditions – including augmenting the impact, quality, and reach of natural light, reducing lighting energy use where possible, and producing a diverse, dynamic working environment with a strong focus on human needs and preferences. |
| 18-Jan-23 | RFO | Maximising the on-site reuse of structural steel sections | An innovative approach to maximise the amount of deconstructed steel that can be reused on-site (on a proposed building extension) by using ribbon cutting and a specifically developed computer optimisation program. |
| 18-Jan-23 | NC | Archaeological mitigation | The use of detailed three-dimensional modelling and a common BIM data environment to reduce the percentage loss of significant archaeology to less than 3% by area in a historic city centre site, including the effect of services. The outcomes were corroborated by an archaeologist through on-site inspections, a watching brief, and planned archaeological interventions. |
| 15-Aug-22 | NC | Concrete pile foundation impression tool | An innovative impression tool to create indentations within the shafts of bored concrete piles. The use of this tool significantly enhances shaft friction and loading capacity, reducing pile length and volume of concrete used, while minimising additional construction time. |
| 11-Mar-22 | RFO | Reconditioned lighting | Applying circular economy principles through the re-use of lighting from another fit-out by carefully stripping out of lighting and working with the manufacturer to renew the light fittings’ warranty. |
| 21-Sep-21 | NC | Building materials passport created via development of a parametric translation process. | To create a large scale, practical application of a whole building materials passport using existing BIM data. This data was not initially created with the end intention for use as a building materials passport, and a parametric translation script was developed to convert data into the correct format. The parametric translation script has the potential to allow building materials passports to be created for many other existing assets, and the learnings from the project can inform the future development and standardisation of materials passports. |
| 20-May-21 | NC | Mitigation of noise from rooftop play area on the teaching areas below in a school | A school has a rooftop play area and another multi-use games area. Both areas will incorporate enhanced construction features to mitigate noise sources on the teaching areas below each space. The impact performance of the rooftop play and multi-use games area significantly exceeds the impact performance requirements of BB93. |
| 18-Feb-21 | INF | Hydrogen fuel cell for off-grid construction site power | Demonstrate use of a 250 kW hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered electrical power unit to provide heat and power to temporary construction site welfare facilities. Reduce carbon emissions and avoid local air pollution from running a diesel powered generator. |
| 01-Oct-20 | NC | Collection of urine from toilets to produce fertiliser | With an innovative recycling method, valuable nutrients recovered from urine can be made into fertiliser. As well as conserving natural resources, this reduces water pollution. Urine will be collected from toilets and treated separately from the rest of wastewater within the asset. The urine is then converted into fertiliser in three steps: 1) stabilisation of urine, 2) concentration of urine, 3) removal of micro pollutants. |
| 24-Mar-20 | NC | Single-use plastic tracker | The innovation is to eliminate single-use plastics (SUPs) in the construction industry. The innovation focuses on SUPs packaging, during manufacturing, delivery, on site storage of the materials to be used at the project, as well as at SUPs usage on site for welfare purposes. The single-use plastics tracker will be used to help monitor and report the use of SUPs in the construction project in order to ultimately eliminate these as much as possible and use appropriate alternatives. |
| 02-Mar-20 | NSO | A blue-green roof system | This proposal offered geo-technical benefits for storm water attenuation and surface water run-off management, and ecological benefits for local biodiversity while managing unique engineering and ecological challenges in widely varying extreme weather conditions. The thorough testing and accurate reporting of results demonstrated offer value to the wider industry. |
| 11-Feb-20 | NC | A mechanically bonded, fully flexible, floor plate | The application relates to the use of mechanically bonded CLT floor plates. This offered flexibility to the building occupier to adjust the floor layout to suit their needs including meeting acoustic and loading requirements. |
| 20-Jan-20 | NC | Monitoring of all water discharge points in building | A pilot programme to install and test a new water management system (WMS) with IoT (Internet of Things) integration capable of monitoring and measuring all building water discharge points, both at a building and portfolio level. This system achieves a level of monitoring granularity exceeding any previously known capabilities with a range of benefits for operational water consumption and health & safety. |
| 08-Jan-20 | NC | Material defect early warning system | A very early detection system via patented hydrosensor cables linked to BMS, capable of detecting minute water ingress (water vapour). The system aims to improve building fabric resilience and reduce material waste and labour through preventing large scale remedial works resulting from late detection of damage and defects. |
| 20-Nov-19 | NC | Reflected glare assessment study | A reflected glare assessment and mitigation study carried out to evaluate the potential risk of reflected solar glare issues from glazed façade or area of metal cladding affecting neighbouring streets. |
| 08-Nov-18 | RFO | Intelligent Building Management System (iBMS) | To create a fully integrated digital platform for the operation and maintenance of the building, integrating the 3D BIM viewer, digital O&Ms, real time data monitoring and Computer-Aided-FM systems. |
| 25-Oct-18 | NC | Commitment Agreement process | To implement a robust ‘Commitment Agreement’ process, to target, manage and deliver a building that is verified as low energy using in operation. |
| 16-Oct-18 | RFO | 3D printing | 3D-print secure chutes for confidential paper bins, to solve workplace performance gap operational issues with a minimal environmental impact. This method of construction is quicker, cheaper and more resource efficient. |
| 26-Sep-18 | NC | Waste heat from cooling system used to heat domestic hot water in Mixed Use building. | Recover of waste heat rejected by the cooling system of the non domestic part of the building to heat domestic hot water for residential part of the building. |
| 04-Sep-18 | NC | Water positive building | A project designed to provide 100% of all sanitary and drinking water use from filtered rainwater captured on site. By capturing and storing more than the projected consumption levels, it is completely self-sufficient in terms of water use even in a severe drought scenario. |
| 03-Sep-18 | NC | Evaporative cooling system using recycled rainwater. | The aims of this innovation are threefold:- • Reduction of carbon emissions • Reduction of energy use • Reduction of potable water usage |
| 06-Jun-18 | NC | Rainwater recovery from stormwater | A significant reduction in municipal water consumption arising from construction through the use of water from a storm-water pumping station. |
| 02-May-18 | NC | EPD development at the point of construction product procurement | To create a mechanism for EPD development where one did not exist before, i.e. at the point of construction product procurement |
| 20-Apr-18 | NC | Enhanced ventilation with no increase in the main plant size. | Aimed to provide enhanced ventilation without increasing the size of the main plant. |
| 14-Mar-18 | NC | Forest protection | To voluntarily designate a large area of land designated for development under local planning regulations as protected forest, and to voluntarily put in place legal enforcement and protection to maintain this. [This approved innovation sets an important legal precedent in the country of assessment and local context, and the credit was awarded on this basis]. |
| 09-Mar-18 | RFO | Monitoring of internal elements at a building user level | To provide insights of temperature, humidity, air pressure, light level, and air quality at a building user granularity, promoting health and wellbeing of staff, HVAC and lighting system operational performance. |
| 01-Feb-18 | RFO | Construction site operatives cycle to work | To promote operatives working on the construction site to cycle to work, by providing necessary facilities and an incentive scheme, to promote healthy commutes and reduce transportation emissions. |
| 31-Jan-18 | RFO | Automated maintenance algorithm | Automated maintenance regimes that sense, diagnose and report faults before they become failures. |
| 03-Nov-17 | RFO | Location tracking of people within the building. | Location tracking of people within the building for building operation management and wayfinding for occupants, visitors and engineers. |
| 11-Oct-17 | NC | Use of recovered rainwater during the drilling and installation of a ground source heat pump system. | To significantly reduce potable water used in the drilling and installation of the ground source heat pump system by approximately 2.6 million litres (once borehole works are completed later this year). |
| 13-Sep-17 | RFO | Early appointment of the Facilities Management team | Exceptional early appointment of the facilities team. This enables the FM team to influence design, procurement decisions and the development of practical maintenance information. |
| 31-Jul-17 | NC | AIMS system within the BIM model | To establish the use of an Asset Information Management System (AIMS) which will include specific information relating to BREEAM credits for each maintainable item. |
| 17-May-17 | COM | Methodology to reduce Transport Carbon Emissions | To significantly reduce transport carbon emissions attributable to construction workers engaged on large developments, thus lessening current and future climate change effects. |
| 11-May-17 | INF-P | Community or commercial value from felled trees | To utilise felled timber at its highest value and quality, therefore providing community, economic and environmental benefits. |
| 11-May-17 | INF-P | Supply of surplus excavated materials to manufacturers | To ensure that surplus excavated materials are provided to manufacturers as a replacement for raw materials, therefore using them at their highest value in line with circular economy principles. |
| 28-Feb-17 | NC | New living hoarding concept | A one-year trial of a new ‘living hoarding’ concept with the aim of better understanding its behaviour and usage constraints on a live, dynamic construction site. |
| 01-Feb-17 | INF-P | Materials efficiency metric | To create a metric that contractors should use to demonstrate materials efficiency and reduction in the use of non-renewable virgin materials through the design development and construction process, compared to a baseline established at an early design stage. |
| 18-Oct-16 | NC | Light weight system based on wire rope | Increase material efficiency in order to minimise material use, waste and energy and emissions associated with the production process. |
| 10-Oct-16 | NC | Virtual room | To collect and address comments from the project’s stakeholders after they are invited into a virtual room where designs can be observed in augmented reality. |
| 07-Jun-16 | NC | Electrical Energy Storage facility | To facilitate the uptake of renewable energy sources, manage the supply and demand of the building and avoid/defer future network reinforcements to meet demand by incorporating energy storage. |
| 16-Dec-15 | NC | Demand based ventilation control | To reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions and improve indoor environmental quality by highly accurate sampling and analysis of air quality, and responsive targeted ventilation. |
| 21-Jul-15 | NC | Reduced Carbon lead source of heat power | To reduce the carbon footprint of the office building by integrating wood fuel powered syngas CHP as the lead source of heat and power in the building. |
| 14-May-15 | NC | Case study on productivity | Quantifying the gains and costs of a truly sustainable BREEAM office building on the long-term as best practice example for the client’s offices through out Europe. |
| 29-Jan-15 | NC | Occupancy Level Tracker | Track occupancy levels in the building through individual’s movements. Use this information to refine control of services, increasing building efficiency. Inform occupants through a 3D model showing patterns of use. |
| 29-Jan-15 | NC | Heat transfer experiment | Actively inform occupants and visitors about how the building works, particularly in relation to heat transfer. Compare actual performance with the dynamic simulation model and fine-tune according to the feedback. |
| 16-Sep-14 | NC | Breathing building | To provide natural (mixed mode) ventilation to increase occupancy health and wellbeing, through a ‘breathing building’ approach with increased fresh air rates and utilising adaptive comfort models. |
| 16-Sep-14 | NC | Bespoke integrated ceiling panels | To demonstrate reduction in the energy required for cooling by using a bespoke ceiling panel which includes a cooling component, lighting and acoustic absorption. |
| 19-Jun-14 | NC | Reduction of whole lifecycle impacts of air conditioning | To reduce the whole life cycle impacts of the air conditioning equipment through: – Reduced replacement of parts – Increased life expectancy – Reduced risk of refrigerant leaks – Improved energy efficiency |
| 19-Jun-14 | NC | Vacuum drainage | Development and specification of a vacuum drainage system (UK First – commercial office) in conjunction with recycled water, eliminating the need for mains water in the building for flushing purposes. |
| 19-Jun-14 | NC | Cooling tower water recycling | To demonstrate the use of recycled water for heat rejection at cooling towers to reduce the use of potable mains water. |
| 24-Apr-14 | NC | Sustainability submittals | To work with the supply chain to consider sustainability at tender stage by bringing to the attention of the contractors the minimum sustainability criteria for each individual construction package. Encourage further improvements to be offered by the contractors where possible. |
| 07-Jun-13 | NC | BIM for Performance Management | To explore the effectiveness of BIM for performance management of non-domestic buildings, using the assessed building as a case study. |
| 07-Jun-13 | NC | Impact of extreme climate change on passive design measures – thermal comfort | To assess the potential impact of extreme climate on passive design measures and how building management regimes can help adapt the building and its occupants for thermal comfort. |
| 01-May-13 | NC | Smarter Cooling | To significantly improve the robustness of engineering systems serving controlled environments such as constant temperature rooms. This has the potential to reduce material waste and energy waste. |
| 03-Apr-13 | NC | Zero Waste to Landfill | To achieve zero non-hazardous waste to landfill through careful planning and site management involving collaborative working with the entire project team, including designers, waste carrier, sub-contractors, manufacturers and supply chain engagement followed by intricate review. |
| 17-Dec-12 | NC | Building App | To educate students and visitors to the site on the performance of the building. |
| 15-Oct-12 | NC | Electric Car Scheme | To introduce an electric car scheme to the development in order to further reduce carbon emissions associated with the assessed development and the new head quarters. |
| 05-Oct-12 | NC | Climate Change Risk Analysis Tool | To provide information on the climatic risks that the building will face in the future, allow resources to be targeted most effectively to mitigate these climatic risks. |
| 20-Jul-12 | NC | Climate Change Adaptation Report | To undertake a Climate Change Adaptation report and implement its recommendations to future proof the development and its operations, as well as provide a case study for future adaptation against climate change. |
| 25-Jul-11 | NC | Recycled and secondary aggregates | To recognise and encourage the greater use of recycled and secondary aggregates in construction, thereby reducing the demand for virgin material. |
| 28-Jan-11 | NC | Control of waterborne bacteria | A water-efficient solution for the control and prevention of conditions which allow for the presence of Legionella and other waterborne bacteria. |
| 28-Jan-11 | NC | Provision of real time energy use display | To reduce energy consumption within every flat, to promote energy efficiency across the development and to educate occupants in the benefits of energy saving and renewable technology. |
| 01-Dec-09 | NC | Facilities for low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles | To reduce pollution and land development impacts from vehicle use by encouraging the use of Alternative Fuel Vehicles for short journeys. |
