6 Materials

01 Occupant’s life cycle cost report: crit 2 - KBCN1656

Crit 2 currently says: An Occupant's report, based on the most up-to-date LCC analysis (see crit 1), is available to potential occupants prior to a commitment to purchase. However Crit 2 should say: An Occupant's report, based on the most up-to-date LCC analysis (see crit 1), is available to potential owner prior to a commitment to purchase. This will  be corrected in the next reissue of the technical manual.

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Bamboo, cork and other non-timber forest products – Responsible sourcing - KBCN1768

Non-timber forest products, such as bamboo and cork should be responsibly sourced to minimise the environmental impacts and protect local ecosystems. However, as they are not timber or timber-based products, these fall outside the scope of the Prerequisite. Where such products are integrated into a building, they should, nonetheless, be assessed and included in the calculator under ‘Other materials’.

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HQM Life Cycle Assessment – Methodology update - KBCN1743

From 6 July 2025, all HQM assessments (beta, ONE & V6) have the option to apply the new BREEAM UK New Construction: Residential (UKNCR) V6.1, Issue 6.2 LCA methodology. UKNCR V6.1 updated issue ‘6.2 Environmental Impact of Materials’ by:

• Requiring LCA to be completed at building level
• Recognising and encouraging the completion of LCAs at early design, technical design and post-construction stages
• Providing scoring against embodied carbon benchmarks
• Rewarding projects that submit embodied carbon data to a public database

Please refer to issue 6.2 in the UKNCR V6.1 technical manual for full details of the updated methodology. Please refer to the HQM Life Cycle Assessment – methodology update for further details on how to apply the UKNCR Issue 6.2 LCA methodology, and how this applies to each of the HQM scheme versions. Please be aware that applying the UKNCR issue 6.2 LCA methodology will not change your HQM registration or certificate.  

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