03 Preparing the assessment

BREEAM AP/Sustainability Champion validity - KBCN0527

For credits to be awarded for the use of, and the BREEAM AP/Sustainability Champion to appear on the Certificate, the assessor must ensure that the BREEAM AP/Sustainability Champion qualification was valid at the time of appointment, and maintained throughout their involvement in the relevant project stages.

Qualified status is maintained through membership of the relevant schemes, for example the BREEAM AP scheme, and listing on Green Book Live. Evidence demonstrating their status must be collected by the assessor and provided for QA purposes.

Where an individual’s status has lapsed during the relevant period, or the project has continued for an extended period of time without their involvement, the credits cannot be awarded and they cannot be listed on the BREEAM Certificate.

BREEAM Recognised Software and BREEAM Projects - KBCN0514

BREEAM Recognised Software may be used to compile assessment data and evidence for submission for schemes which must be submitted via BREEAM Projects, at the current time. If you wish to use one of these, the referencing document and a zip file containing the evidence from the approved system must then be uploaded within the BREEAM Projects assessment tool.

Compiling of Site Inspection Reports at the Post Construction stage - KBCN0517

BRE requires that assessors provide a formal, written site inspection report which will act as standalone evidence (separate from the BREEAM assessment), and that this should be referenced as evidence for the applicable credits. The report should contain full details of what has been witnessed on site and which credits/criteria the particular comments relate to, and may include copies of photographs (which are required for many credits as evidence in any case). It is preferable to produce a separate record of the site visit, which can stand as evidence to back up the assessment report. Where an assessor uses their site visit as evidence of compliance they will need to record the following information outlined below as a minimum in a site inspection report:

Date of visit
Assessor name and contact details
Project details
Unique reference number
Issues/criteria inspected
Details of state of compliance (written notes and/or photographic evidence)
Recommendations made and shared with the client/relevant parties, where appropriate

The assessor may feel that it is desirable to record information above and beyond this list, and would be encouraged to do so wherever they feel it is appropriate or necessary to confirm compliance.

08 June 2023 - First paragraph amended to clarify that providing a site inspection report is mandatory.

Conflicts of Interest statements - KBCN1708

To minimize any risks associated with conflict of interests which may compromise judgment, decisions or outcomes, it is important that any conflict of interest is highlighted as early as possible in the project. The Assessor should identify any work that the assessor, assessor organization or associated companies are involved in, or any other potential conflict of interests that may arise over the course of the project. There should be a procedure in place to mitigate and manage any such potential risks. The identification of any conflicts, together with a clear plan of how they will be managed on the project, should be included within the initial submission to the BRE; or at an appropriate time thereafter when the potential conflict becomes apparent. A common non-conformance on many assessments relates to conflict of interests with statements either not being provided as part of the QA submission, or the statements not being detailed enough to identify what the conflicts were or address how they have been managed. It is not sufficient to merely state that there was no conflict of interest where a potential conflict is identified, full details as set out in the bullet points below should be included within the assessment. Where the conflict of interest statement does not satisfactorily address how any conflict has been managed, this will be raised as a non-conformance and as such will impact on the project achieving certification. Where the assessor or assessor organization has performed other roles on the project and/or provided evidence, a conflict of interest statement must always be submitted as part of the QA submission. Where the assessor or assessor organisation plays no other role on the project, no conflict of interest is required to be provided. Please note, that the role of the Technical Auditor is not to decide or judge whether all potential conflicts of interest have been managed for a specific project and whether the internal procedures of an assessor organization are sufficient. However, the Conflict of Interest statement should include a level of detail which explains that any potential Conflict of Interest has been identified and steps have been taken internally within the assessor organization to limit any bias when working on an assessment. What should be included: This should be in the form of a signed letter or statement on headed paper, from the assessor to whom the assessment is registered, and should include the following:

Details of the roles undertaken by the assessor on the project (e.g. BREEAM Assessor/BREEAM AP.
Details of any other roles performed by the assessor organization on the project, including names of those involved and what BREEAM involvement they had (e.g. building services consultant).
Details of any evidence provided for specific BREEAM issues and who that has been completed by (e.g. LZC study for Ene04).
How any of the above identified conflicts have been managed (e.g. assessor works independently or out of a different office, details of quality assurance processes in place)

Assessor involvement on a project: Please note that if the assessor is a member of the company who are producing evidence to demonstrate compliance, there must be clear separation of the roles and the BREEAM assessor must not be personally responsible for producing such evidence. Producing evidence that the Assessor is then checking would be a clear conflict of interest and should therefore be avoided. The exception to the above is where the BREEAM Assessor also acts as the BREEAM AP for the award of credits under New Construction and Refurbishment and Fit Out projects. This is acceptable and the Assessor is trusted to work in accordance with the Assessor Code of Conduct and ensure that the additional duties do not compromise their integrity and objectivity as the Assessor. BREEAM AP reports documenting their involvement and monitoring and reporting progress are deemed to be acceptable forms of evidence for the Assessor to produce where they are also the BREEAM AP, as this is an advisory role only and they are not undertaking design work or design reports. Licensed assessors can and often will need to inform clients, project teams and asset owners/managers on whether one or more proposed solutions comply and how to interpret assessment criteria for the purpose of determining, designing or proposing compliant solutions. This type of information does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest, but assessors should be mindful in doing so that it does not lead to one.

01 Nov 2024 Minor amendments to wording including clarification on when to submit and consequences if not provided.

Design and post-construction stage evidence - KBCN00038

Both design (DS) and post-construction stage (PCS) evidence are required for a post construction review (PCR) or post construction assessment (PCA). It is, however, possible to provide only PCS evidence where the DS evidence is completely superseded and unnecessary. To comply with the principles of robustness and completeness, both DS and PCS evidence have to be submitted at PCR or PCA unless the PCS evidence makes the DS evidence obsolete.

File Formats: Assessment and Calculator tools - KBCN0513

To ensure that all assessments are received in full with no text or sections missing, all BREEAM UK New Construction 2011 and 2014 and BREEAM International New Construction 2013 and 2016 assessments, which are not being completed within BREEAM Projects, should be submitted in their original (Excel) format. Assessment/calculator tools (including those applicable to earlier version), originally provided to assessors in Microsoft Excel format, should also not be converted to PDF before issuing to BREEAM for quality assurance. BREEAM 2008 (or earlier) assessment reports may still be submitted in PDF format.

Getting the referencing right - KBCN0522

When referencing evidence it is the role of the assessor to demonstrate how the credits for each issue have been awarded. The assessor must therefore provide their thought process and clear location references (i.e. page and/or clause numbers, etc.) that give the auditor or any other reviewer of the assessment a clear auditable trail as to how each individual criterion within an issue has been addressed. A good example: "Section 3.2.5 (page 23) of Ref 46 shows compliance with Criterion 11a" A poor example: "Ref 46 shows compliance with Hea 04", or, "Ref 46 shows compliance with Criteria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" For more detailed guidance on getting reporting and referencing right, we encourage you to view this online webinar within BREEAM Projects.

Provision of Design Stage evidence for Post Construction audit - KBCN0504

Where compliance is demonstrated at post construction by confirming ‘no change’ from the design stage assessment, or where the evidence requirement states ‘as design stage’, the design stage evidence should be reviewed by the assessor as part of their post construction assessment, and therefore referenced and provided for audit within the post construction submission. This evidence may be audited if the issue is selected for QA, and non-conformances may be raised in relation to the evidence if issues are found, as final certification cannot take place when there are any outstanding non-conformances from evidence relating to either stage of the assessment process.

[KBCN withdrawn] ~ Conflict of Interest statements - KBCN0520

This KBCN has been withdrawn and replaced with the more detailed KBCN1708.

KBCN Withdrawn on 18th Oct 2024

If the assessor believes there is or may be potential for a conflict of interest then the first step to managing it is to declare it to BRE Global, along with any measures proposed or taken to manage the potential conflict. BRE Global can then confirm or advise steps that need to be taken by the relevant parties (including ourselves) to maintain the objectivity of the assessment and its outcome.

The assessor should inform BRE Global of any potential conflict at the registration stage of assessment; or at the appropriate time thereafter when the potential conflict becomes apparent and before the assessment is submitted for a certification decision

Licensed assessors can and often will need to advise clients, project teams and asset owners/managers on whether one or more proposed solutions comply and how to interpret assessment criteria for the purpose of determining, designing or proposing compliant solutions. This type of advice does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest, but assessors should be mindful in doing so that it does not lead to one.

When submitting the assessment to the BREEAM QA Team the assessor must submit a signed statement confirming the roles undertaken by the assessor/assessor organisation and how any potential conflicts of interest have been managed. A statement confirming that there was no conflict of interest is not sufficient.

In such circumstances the assessment and evidence submitted may be subject to closer scrutiny. Where BRE Global has unresolved concerns relating to the potential conflicts of interest, additional measure may be imposed to verify the integrity of the submitted assessment.

4 Operational / QA /

Addition of credits between stages - KBCN0512