BREEAM In-Use has been developed as an environmental assessment method to assess existing assets. Typically, an asset consists of a single building or part of a single building. However, BREEAM In-Use provides an exception where certain criteria have been met, and this is set out in the relevant Technical Manual under the Eligibility Criterion 5 and reproduced below with clarifications noted in Italics.
The requirements to assess multiple buildings as a single asset
Criterion 5 states: An asset cannot normally include more than one building. The only exception is where several buildings meet the following criteria:
a) All buildings must be located on the same site. The site boundary must be drawn where responsibility for management or ownership of the site changes.
The site interior may include public roads, such as industrial or office business parks, but the properties on which the buildings sit must otherwise be contiguous.
b) All buildings must have the same building function, similar performance, and be of similar design and age.
This includes Subtype as well as Type. For example, three Industrial buildings, all of which function as warehouses, could be grouped. However, if one is a cold storage facility, another is advanced manufacturing, and the third is warehousing, this would not be acceptable.
c) Building management and maintenance policies, procedures and approach must be the same across all the buildings that make up the asset to ensure consistent implementation.
Where maintenance policies, procedures, and approaches are the tenant’s responsibility through the leasing arrangements (for example, in industrial properties), these can vary, but overall building management needs to be the same for all properties.
d) Evidence must be collated from each building that is included in the asset and where performance against the BREEAM requirements varies, the final score will be determined by the space with the lowest level of performance.
The whole data set for all buildings in the assessment must be gathered and provided to the Assessor by the Client.
Demonstrating compliance for certification
- The Client will be required to demonstrate how each criterion has been met and provide evidence to support the approach.
- The Assessor must then confirm the criteria have been met through their evidence review and on-site verification.
- Site level assessments, such as an outdoor retail asset, should use a floor-area-weighted average method can be used to confirm compliance.
- For other commercial or residential assessments involving multiple buildings, representative sampling is permitted to confirm compliance. Assessors are required to confirm that the worst-case performance was applied by the Client. Assessors are required to create and document a robust representative sampling method and demonstrate that they conducted their assessment in accordance with their methodology.
- Where the Assessor is unsure how to interpret or apply the criteria, they should contact the Technical Team for clarification using the BREEAM Projects webform before submission for certification. Where relevant, a copy of the technical clarification response should be submitted as supporting evidence.
Considerations before undertaking this approach
- The rating will reflect the worst performance of all the buildings included within the assessment. This will limit the visibility of buildings within the grouping that may have better performance and opportunities at individual assets to improve performance. Assessing the buildings separately allows for the granularity of the assessment to provide owners with more detailed information on how improvement plans can be rolled out and the value to be gained from driving performance.
- Should the buildings be sold individually, the certification status does not transfer with the individual buildings. The building(s) sold would need to undergo the full certification process, including benchmarking and the on-site visit with a licensed Assessor, to be considered certified and claimed by the new ownership.
- The certificate may be updated through a mid-cycle process to remove the assessed area of the building(s) sold. This could increase the score if the building sold represented the worst-case performance. If the building removed from the certification formed the basis of the score as the worst performer, the Assessor would need to complete another site visit for the mid-cycle to ensure that the new data representing the worst performance is accurate.
