Sustainable buildings

BREEAM Rated

BREEAM is the world's most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings.

The BREEAM assessment methods and tools are all designed to help understand the environmental impacts of a development's design and build. BREEAM Buildings can be used to assess the environmental performance of any type of building (new and existing).

Credits are awarded according to performance. A set of environmental weightings then enables the credits to be added together to produce a single overall score. The building is then rated on a scale of pass, good, very good or excellent and a certificate awarded to the development. The University of Reading only commits to projects which score very good, so as to maintain a high standard of building projects that are environmentally sound for the future.

BREEAM on campus

BREEAM is important to us at the University of Reading. It has helped us in minimising the impact of the buildings we have on campus to date and will help us to form a more environmentally friendly campus for the future. It helps us to consider all aspects of the construction process and looks at the broad range of environmental impacts in terms of:

• Health and Wellbeing
• Energy
• Transport
• Water
• Material and Waste
• Land use and Ecology
• Pollution

Good management

Embracing BREEAM guidelines allows the University of Reading to manage each building more effectively over its lifetime. Good management takes place from commissioning through to maintenance, monitoring and setting targets for the future. By following best practice guidelines and policies, we can maintain more effective buildings to ensure we get the best from each one.

Carbon reduction

BREEAM guidelines help us to control and cut the carbon emitted from our buildings. Using low energy light bulbs and metering our energy usage are just two ways that BREEAM helps us manage our energy more effectively.