Wintertime can be one of the best times to get busy planning for the year ahead, especially in terms of building and development work. When planning for a future development, you may wish to consider a BREEAM assessment for your design, or you may be subject to attaining a specific rating as part of a planning application. So what is a BREEAM assessment, what are the steps involved and how can an ecologist help you achieve a good rating?
BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, and has become one of the world’s most widely recognizable measures about a buildings environmental performance. Not only can a BREEAM rating be a vital aid in achieving planning permission, but also it can help your development minimise waste, be more energy efficient, as well reduce running costs. A BREEAM assessment requirements involvement from different aspects of the design team, and consists of nine different topics ranging from transport to pollution. One of these topics includes “Land use and ecology.” This section requires involvement from an ecologist in order to assess the environmental and ecological impact of the works planned, in terms of the biodiversity present on site and in the immediate surrounding area. That ecologist will then work closely alongside the team to make a number of specific suggestions for how the development may progress in an ecologically sustainable way, one that encourages a net gain in biodiversity. Once in place, these recommendations will contribute to a development with a notable environmental performance, graded on a ranking from Poor through to Outstanding. These recommendations mean that a development will provide long-lasting, sustainable biodiversity enhancements long into the future, post completion of a development.
Understanding and outlining the need for a BREEAM assessment early on in the development of a project will enable an efficient and timely result. Involving an ecologist as early on in the process as possible is key to the process.
If you are considering undertaking a BREEAM assessment of your development and require an ecologist to advise you on achieving the very best from your “Land Use and Ecology” category then please feel free to contact one of our ecologists. Our team work in Kent, Sussex, Essex, Surrey and throughout the UK, are fully trained in BREEAM assessments and can provide you with advice on all aspects of the ecology component of the assessment.