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BREEAM and LEED. How do they compare?

Given the new thinking around green building, and the key role the building industry plays in global climate change, the Green Building Council movement is coming to the UK. Accreditation of new buildings is an essential part of the movement, to give new and renovated buildings a rating determined by how green they are. This system originated in the early nineties from the UK accreditation system BREEAM. But what is BREEAM, and what relation does it have to the LEED? Would we do better to adopt LEED as our standard of choice as it is becoming so popular around the globe? Or is it just the weak realtive of our own BREEAM? Over the next few months we will attempt to find answers to some of these questions but in the meantime lets just do a simple comparison.

BREEAM stands for the BRE Environmental Assessment Method, and was invented by BRE, a building research organisation funded mainly by the government. Based in the UK this organisation seeks to provide relevant research and information to the building industry, about what kind of methods would best support environmental protection and sustainable development. According to the BREEAM website (www.breeam.org), ‘BREEAM assesses the performance of buildings in the following areas:
Management: overall management policy, commissioning site management and procedural issues.
Energy use: operational energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) issues.
Health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health and well-being.
Pollution: air and water pollution issues.
Transport: transport-related CO2 and location-related factors.
Land use: greenfield and brownfield sites.
Ecology: ecological value conservation and enhancement of the site.
Materials: environmental implication of building materials, including life-cycle impacts.
Water: consumption and water efficiency.

But what is LEED and how does it relate to BREEAM?  Well LEED was set up in the US, largely inspired by and based on BREEAM. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is run by the USGBC. David Strong from BRE says the Americans jumped ahead of the green building movement by setting up the USGBC, and that LEED was set up to provide a set of services to the American building industry. LEED is a registered trade mark and a brand name. It’s part of a keen commercial mindset at USGBC, who have attracted over 6,500 paying members bringing in over $24 million a year. It is this massive success that the UKGBC is hoping to replicate.

The USGBC, says that LEED was created to;
* define "green building" by establishing a common standard of measurement.
* promote integrated, whole-building design practices.
* recognize environmental leadership in the building industry.
* stimulate green competition.
* raise consumer awareness of green building benefits.
* transform the building market.
See: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19

The accreditation process is difficult though. Only 1,500 buildings have LEED accreditation in the US, since it was formed 1995. This disappointing figure, suggests that the industry has not yet got the capacity and know-how to deliver competitive building services to clients in an environmentally sustainable context. It is still cheaper and quicker to ignore environmental concerns, and conversely going for environmental accreditation, that LEED requires, is expensive. Sourcing the right materials, using the right professionals, and securing suitable design features in your building, has an ‘environmental levy’ that businesses and residents are currently unwilling to pay. It costs more to build a green building and until that changes, accreditation will remain a conscientious decision not an economic one. It needs to be the latter to work globally, something that the Green Building Council movement is seeking to change.

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