Evaluating Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Building Design: Methods and Certifications in Europe

Organisations in the construction industry must understand evaluation methods for sustainable and energy-efficient building design, including formal assessments like BREEAM and building regulations, to improve environmental impact and obtain certification.

FREMONT, CA: As concepts like sustainability and energy efficiency become increasingly prominent in the construction industry, organisations must realise and understand different methods to evaluate the sustainability and energy efficiency in a building’s design, how to match and compare it to other same types of building designs and improve it.

There are two primary methods to conduct the measurements. Companies can use sustainability evaluations and building regulations like part L, part O, overheating risk, and CO₂ emissions. These are formal assessment methods that a building must adhere to, to obtain approval from building control for both the design and construction phases.

Assessments like the British Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) and the Code for Sustainable Homes (code/CSH) are either required as a planning condition or conducted as an optional assessment. These measures ensure that the energy consumption, sustainability, and environmental impacts of the entire building, including the site, have been carefully considered throughout the design and construction stages. Next, depending on the performance of the buildings, they are provided with a rating and are also provided with a certification concerning the rating. BREEAM is specifically for non-domestic projects including health centres, offices, and schools. It can also be applied to large-scale residential institutions, like university accommodation. Parallely, for non-domestic buildings, there exist three preliminary BREEAM standards that should be implemented.

Other countries in Europe have implemented similar sustainable building regulations. For instance, in Germany, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB) is a sustainable building certification system. It evaluates the sustainability of buildings based on criteria such as ecological quality, economic quality, socio-cultural, technical quality, and process quality. Germany also uses Passivhaus (Passive House).