Bruce Massie at our Cardiff Office has recently qualified as a BREEAM for Schools Assessor.

BREEAM is the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method designed to allow independent and credible assessment of a building’s impact on the environment. It is a holistic assessment method that scores the positive design benefits that a project can include to minimize its effect on the environment. The Scheme evaluates aspects of management, health and well being, energy, water use, ecology, materials and waste, transport and pollution, weights them as to their relative impact and provides a percentage score which is then translated into a performance rating.

The Government’s capital investment in school buildings has the potential to create a generation of advanced, sustainable primary and secondary school designs, which will allow for significant savings on running costs as well as a reduced impact on the environment.

It is now a condition of capital funding that projects over a certain size achieve a BREEAM “Very Good” rating, the criteria are:

·         All major new-build and refurbishment projects valued at over £500,000 for primary schools and £2m for secondary schools, and involving rebuilding or complete refurbishment of more than 10% of the floor area of a school, should be subject to a BREEAM assessment.

·      Smaller schemes may also be suitable for formal BREEAM assessment, and designers should, as far as practicable, apply the same standards to all projects.

B3Architects will be able to guide clients through the process, using our experience of architecture and building procurement to facilitate the BREEAM assessment.

For further details on what BREEAM is please contact Bruce Massie in our Cardiff Office on

e: brucemassie@b3.co.uk 

t: 029 2034 2688 m: 07769 704248