Green Guide to Specification
BREEAM is the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Environmental Assessment Method, first launched in the UK in 1990. It sets best practice standards for the environmental performance of buildings through design, specification, construction and operation.
The Green Guide to Specification, also referred to as the Green Guide, is part of BREEAM. It was first published by BRE in 1996 offering a simple guide to the environmental impacts of building materials based on numerical data and including more than 1,500 specifications for six generic types building:
- Commercial
- Educational
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Domestic
- Industrial
Environmental rankings are based on Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), using BRE's Environmental Profiles Methodology. They are arranged on an elemental basis so users can compare materials and components as they compile specifications:
- External walls
- Internal walls and partitions
- Roofs
- Ground floors
- Upper floors
- Windows
- Insulation
- Landscaping
- Floor finishes
Data is set out as an A+ to E ranking system, where A+ represents the best environmental performance and E the worst. A summary of ratings is provided by The Green Guide rating, which is a measure of overall environmental impacts covering:
- Climate change
- Water extraction
- Mineral resource extraction
- Stratospheric ozone depletion
- Human toxicity
- Ecotoxicity to freshwater
- Nuclear waste (higher level)
- Ecotoxicity to land
- Waste disposal
- Fossil fuel depletion
- Eutrophication
- Photochemical ozone creation
- Acidification
This allows specifiers to select items based on their preferences or priorities.
You can find out more about the Green Guide at: https://www.bre.co.uk/greenguide
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- BES 6001 Responsible sourcing of construction products.
- BRE articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
- BRE Buzz articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
- BREEAM.
- Building Back Better: Circularity and BREEAM.
- Building Research Establishment.
- Cradle to cradle product registry system.
- Ecopoints.
- Environmental profiles.
- Green guide to specification, certified environmental profiles and BREEAM
- Green Seal.
- Is local sourcing always the most sustainable choice?
- Is the desire to reduce the embodied carbon of new buildings damaging the UK steel industry?
- Material resource efficiency in construction: Supporting a circular economy.
- Recyclable construction materials.
- Specification.
- Sustainable materials.
Featured articles and news
Getting the most out of heat pumps and heating
How heat pumps work and how they work best.
Plumbing and heating for successful retrofit and renovation
Low temperature underfloor systems and heat pumps.
Cost-of-living crisis and home improvement plans
Starting on the right footing and top tips for projects.
Delays on construction projects
Types, mitigation and the acceleration of works.
From Chaucer to Fawlty Towers.
Electrotechnical excellence, now open for entries.
Net zero electricity grids BSRIA guide NZG 5/2024
Outlining the changes needed to transition to net zero.
CIOB Global Student Challenge 2024
Universitas Indonesia wins for second year running.
New project and cultural district described in detail.
The nature of EPCs, crticism and inaccuracies.
History, issues and redesign.
From waste recycling to energy performance the hierchy.
ECA 2024 Apprentice of the Year Award
Entries open for submission until May 31.
UK gov apprenticeship funding from April 2024
Brief summary the policy paper updated in March.